In this article, we discuss search engine optimization link building strategies that you can implement.
You may have read an article or two by search engine optimization (“SEO”) experts that emphasize the importance of link building to your website’s visibility in the major search engines. For example, if you navigate to “Webmaster Help Center” in Google’s online Seo Krefeld documentation, you will see Google’s answer to the question “How can I improve my website’s ranking?”. Google’s response includes the statement “In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their websites by increasing the number of quality websites linking to their pages.”2
The process of developing “inbound” links
So, “link building” is the process of developing “inbound” links to your web pages to drive traffic to your site and improve your search engine rankings. Sounds simple, but there are so many different complex online link building programs and strategies out there that it’s mind boggling! And some techniques, even legitimate techniques implemented incorrectly, can actually render inbound links completely useless.
I started this article with the intention of covering the 5 W’s – who, what, when, where and why. But at the risk of detracting from the clever title, I felt the need to add “How?” to make it more useful. So this article is designed for that
Provide insight into the following questions:
- Who should link to my website?
- What should the link contain?
- When should I add a link to my website?
- Where should a link appear?
- Why should you care?
- How can companies develop their own inbound links?
Undoubtedly, reasonable minds may disagree with some of the opinions and strategies contained in this article. I draw your attention to footnote references to several online articles that I have found helpful. I encourage you to read these articles so you can draw your own conclusions. I hope you come to the conclusion that there are a number of legitimate link building strategies you can tackle!
Why should you care?
Sorry I skipped who, what, when and where instead of “why?” Finally, if I can’t say that link building is important, then you certainly aren’t reading the rest of this article!
It is believed that in the eyes of the major search engines, the number and quality of inbound links pointing to your site are an indication of your site’s worthiness. I know it sounds like a popularity contest — maybe that brings back memories of the contempt you had for your high school prom king/queen picking process.
Who should link to my websites?
Links from “authoritative” sites and “related” industry sites are considered to carry the most weight. An “authoritative” website can be an educational organization (.edu), a publication, a government agency (.gov), a well-known subject matter expert, or an organization/association in your or a related industry.
As for “related” sites, partners, vendors, but not competitors, are good opportunities for “reciprocal linking” (discussed later). Your websites should be related to the products and/or services you offer.
Make sure you set your standards high! Analyze the incoming links to the page where you want your link to appear. Are they actually authoritative and relevant sites? How do you research inbound links to your potential linking partner?
SEO link building tools
There are some excellent SEO link building tools out there! Netconcepts offers a free “Link Popularity Checker”. Another site is LinkPopularity.com. Use these tools to assess the quality of links to the site before asking for a link! While you’re there, check the link popularity of your websites and those of your competitors.
Note that many SEO experts agree that you should stay away from a webpage that already has too many links. How many is too many? According to an article in Website Magazine, “…it’s best to avoid sites with more than 20 outbound links.3”
The Google PageRank
You will recall that we mentioned the term “PageRank” earlier in this article. The Google PageRank rating system is used to quantify the relative Seo Krefeld importance of a website. You can find PageRank by downloading and using the free Google ToolBar.
Link Building Strategies
Should you consider PageRank when deciding whether to ask for a link on a page? An author of the online article “Over 125 (Legitimate) Link Building Strategies”, Dixon Jones, suggests that the PageRank of the web page you want to place your link on should be between 3 and 10.4 “Link Requests”, Chris Boggs points out that PageRank isn’t as useful as it used to be, but “PageRank is still a good guide.5”
Many internet marketing professionals also suggest that you submit your website to the appropriate category within major directories, as well as vertical search engines and business directories. Examples of popular general directories include Yahoo!, Open Directory (dmoz.org), GoGuides, Gigablast, JoeAnt, Gimpsy, and BlueFind. Many allow you to submit your website URL for free. Some may require you to add a reciprocal link to their directory.
