 Summary:
Brief look at link building from several
years ago. Check our
Link Building
Page for more up to date
information.
Website
owners: do you know how many links are
out there on the Internet, pointing back
to your site? If you’re interested in
getting free search engine placement for
your site, you ought to know. An easy
way to find out is to download the Alexa
toolbar from http://www.alexa.com. One
of its many useful features is that it
shows you how many links are pointing to
the site. High quality links are one of
the most crucial aspects of good search
engine optimization. When you think
about it, this makes sense. After all,
this is the Internet, the World Wide
Web, we’re talking about. And in a web,
everything is... right, everything is
LINKED.
Links have always been a priority in
search engine optimization. Search
engines have long used link popularity
as an indicator of a site’s
“importance,” and this in turn affects
the site’s performance in the search
engines. Until recently, many different
schemes existed that allowed a website
owner to garner dozens, or even hundreds
of links, simply by using specialized
tools, reciprocal programs, and the
like. Then came the Google “update” of
November, 2003.
In that now legendary update, Google
penalized tens of thousands of websites
by dropping their placement in the index
or eliminating them entirely. While
Google isn’t talking about what
happened, it is very likely that
“undeserved” links, or links that do not
have anything to do with quality
content, played a role in this episode.
Most website owners now seem to agree
that while links are as important as
ever, they have to be added the
old-fashioned way – they have to be
earned.
What does this mean? Simply put, it
means that a link between two pages on
the Internet should have some valid
reason for its existence besides the
desire of the website owners to hit page
1 on Google. So if Joe’s Auto Shop and
Cindy’s Interior Design trade links, in
order to boost their rankings, the link
only exists for that reason, and it may
well lead to lower search engine
rankings for both Joe and Cindy. On the
other hand, if Bud’s Cabinetry Shop, on
its page describing different types of
woods, is linked to the National
Association of Wood Products, this is
very likely to be viewed as a “quality”
link by the search engine, and may help
rankings.
How does one build these kind of quality
links? There are at least four
well-known methods, and creative website
owners can come up with more. First, you
can ask for them. At conventions,
conferences, meetings, anyplace where
the business of your website may be
discussed, ask for quality links. If
someone has a site you respect, and it
relates to your product, simply ask them
to link to your site. It’s good old
networking at its finest. Second, you
can write articles that promote your
website, or your product or service,
include a link back to your home page,
and offer it for publication on the
Internet. There are numerous forums for
doing just this – try Googling some
search terms to come up with them.
Third, get on the Internet and find
directories that relate to your product
or service, and ask for a link to be
placed. This is an easy step that most
website owners can take themselves.
Finally, and perhaps the best way –
build a great site! Put up great
content, and other sites will link to
you. Because, in the end, that is what
the Internet is all about –
disseminating information. Add valuable
content, in terms of information, to
your site, keep adding it over time, and
gradually, people will link to you. If
you build it, they will come.
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