Link Building
Additional ingredients in search engine optimization, link building and link popularity are among the criteria used to determine a site’s ranking in search engine results returned from entering a keyword search phrase.
The idea behind link building is that if your site is easy to navigate and contains valuable, relevant content, other sites are going to want to link to it. The mere fact that other sites want to link to yours is a sign of credibility for your site. The more sites that link to your site, the better your chances for achieving a higher search engine ranking.
Quality Links
This doesn’t mean that any site that links to yours automatically lends credibility to your site. A site that is relevant to your site’s topic will lend more credibility than one that has an irrelevant topic.
Going back to our Pet Bakery keyword research example, let’s say that you include a section on health and nutrition for dogs, as well as a recipe section. There is another web site that has to do with animals, or better yet, dogs, and they want to link to your site because it is a great resource. This type of link, coming from other sites that have to do with animals, especially dogs, lend credibility to your site, and increase your site’s chances for a good ranking on the search engine results page.
However, if a site that has nothing to do with the content of your site, say, a site that sells music, then a link coming from them is not given the same amount of weight by the search engines.
Another criteria that search engines use to rank the importance of sites linking to your site, is the linking site’s link popularity rank. A link coming from a site like PetSmart, which is heavily marketed with a lot of traffic, would be deemed more important than one coming from Suzy’s Neighborhood Pet Shop.
Google's Page Rank and Link Building
Google attaches a lot of importance to link popularity, and uses its own set of measurements for weighing link quantity and quality. Additionally, they have created a tool that measures their criteria for link popularity called PageRank. Since Google is currently the leading search engine, it is the forerunner of search engine trends with many other search engines following its lead.
Anyone can view the PageRank of any site on the web by downloading Google’s free Toolbar. among other features, this toolbar shows a web page’s rank by giving it a rating of 1 to 10. A highly ranked page would have a rating of 7 out of 10, where one with a low rank would be 0 out of 10.
One thing to remember, as a site’s position in the search engines varies over time, so does a site’s PageRank.
The Importance of Building Links
How important is link building in search engine optimization? It depends on how competitive your keyword search terms are. The more competition you have, the harder you have to work to achieve a good rank on the search engines. Sometimes, with a less competitive keyword search phrase, a few well placed links will give you enough relevancy to get you a good ranking with the search engines in context to that particular phrase.
Reciprocal Links
This is the first thing that most people think about when is comes to link building. While it is a good idea and doesn’t hurt, it is the least effective way to go about it. First you have to accumulate relevant websites and you link them to yours. Then you send them an email, and hope that they link to your site. Many times, these emails are regarded as spam and are tossed.
If you are going to do any reciprocal linking, your best bet is to focus on companies that you already have a business relationship with.
Listing Your Site with the Directories
Another search engine submission strategy to follow for linking your site is to submit it to directories. The two biggest directories are the Open Directory Project (ODP) and the Yahoo Directory. In order to submit your site to either of these directories, you must submit according to the appropriate category for your content.
Submitting to smaller directories that have categories is also a good idea, but paying one of those mass linking sites to submit your site to ones that have topics irrelevant to yours will not get you a better rank among the search engines.
Targeted directories list sites relevant to your market niche. Locating the right directories takes some research, but they are out there.
Become a Resource
What does your site offer that would make other sites want to link to yours? Does it contain valuable information that benefits others? How about a newsletter? Does it have some sort of tool, like a calculator, or aid that your target audience will appreciate? Take a look at other sites to which you would like to link. What do those sites have to offer? Or is there an unfilled niche that you could fill with your site?
Put Yourself Out There
Another way to become a resource is to participate in discussion groups in your field, or to post articles. Include a link to your web site when you sign your name.
Put your domain name on your business cards, brochures, phone book listing, and any advertising where you would put the name of your business.
Organic Linking
Search engine optimization should realistically be viewed as a long term marketing plan. It takes months for the search engines to list your site. And, as the new kid on the block, it will take a while for a well-crafted site to be seen as one that offers value to your target audience, and is worth linking to. Real success is made one link, one contact and one connection at a time.
