|
|
Do Not Ever Link to a Site Without Doing This First!
Links are a crucial part of attaining high search rankings, but you must be very careful about to whom you link. I'm going to help you develop a simple link strategy for your website that will help you decide which sites to link to so you're making your way up the search engine rankings and not accidentally hurling yourself backwards.
So the natural questions are:
Should I link to everyone I can find?
Should I allow everyone to link to me?
Should I get one of those "link to 2,000 site for $10" things?
The answer to all of the above is NO!
Develop A Link Strategy
We're going to do an easy-to-digest version of what a search engine optimizer would do if you were to hire one. There are many reasons for having your site professionally optimized which would take up articles in themselves. This is one of the attack strategies for determining optimum, quality links for your site.
Step 1 Where are your competitors linked?
Don't arbitrarily find random sites that you like and link to them. A little bit of research goes a long way. Start with your competitors. Type the keywords for your site into a search engine. You have them, right? This is the list of key word phrases that you want to score the number one position when someone types them in a search. Who appears in the top 10 positions? They're your direct competition that is doing something right or they wouldn't be coming up first. So let's look underneath and see how they got it to work and save you a year of work!
Go back to your search engine and type "link:www.competitorsite.com". Up will pop a long list of sites that have a direct link to your competitor. Do this for your top 10 competitors. Do you see any trends in those results? Do you see any similar sites, or perhaps directory listings? Take some notes. A spreadsheet or a few sheets of loose-leaf paper is helpful and analyze what you've uncovered. You should have a good solid list of links that are helping your competitors rank high!
Step 2 Search for similar themed sites.
Look at your keyword list again. Do these words appear more so on any of the pages you have listed so far? Narrow down your list to sites that have at least the same theme or related content to yours. Even your competition will have quite a few odd links.
If there are 300 links to a site that sells pumpkins, it's natural to have a car dealer or an airline in there too. Chances are they were so pleased with their pumpkin purchase that they added the site to their own web page. You can disregard these right away.
Take your list and look at the potential link site for similarities to your topic. If in the pumpkin market your competition links to a site that tells all about how to cook pumpkin seeds, see if you can find other sites that tell how to make pumpkin pie, make jack-o-lanterns AND cook pumpkin seeds. Make a list of these sites as potentially better ones.
Step 3 Look at the Google Page Rank
You can find a page's page rank by looking at your Google tool bar if you have it installed or by going to a site like http://www.top25web.com/pagerank.php. The actual importance of Google Page Rank to Google searches in particular seems to depend on whom you talk with. It shouldn't be the make or break, but it can help to choose between several similar sites if your unsure of which one to go with.
Page Rank is more of a relative scale of the number and quality of links to a site. The higher the rank, the higher the number. The lower, the worse. It's not unheard of for a link from a site with a Page Rank of 6 or 7 to boost up a low score by a couple numbers. This seems to, at least in Google's case, get a site indexed much faster. And the faster you're indexed, the faster you can start climbing.
Step 4 How many sites link to your selections so far and how good are they?
The more links a site has pointing to it, the more important it appears to be to the search engines. Say your looking at company ABC to put a link on their site to you. Let's first see how many sites link to company ABC. (Just as you looked at your competition). We know search engines place more weight on sites linked to you that have similar content. Now the big search databases seem to know what kind of content is on those linking pages.
Using the pumpkin model, if your potential target is teaming with 100 inbound links from gambling, girls, horses, moons, leprechauns and horoscopes then throw it in the trash pile fast, even if it has a Page Rank of 8 (very rare).
Find that site that has 10 links good, quality links to it. From a pumpkin farmer, a vegetable recipe blog, Halloween and Thanksgiving festivities, how the first settlers used the pumpkin to build houses, etc and has a Page Rank of 5. This is the better choice. Quality, related themes and content to your site and keywords outweighs quantity of random, useless links.
Step 5 Your final list
Don't think you can do this in an hour, or a day! It's quite a bit of work just to find good, potential targets. Here's a bonus? when you have your finished your first wave a link possibilities, here's great way to give it a solid foundation.
Find some relevant directories to list with. Directories of a given theme will have many, many similar links pointing to it. Directories are usually considered to have Authority. (It's not uncommon to have to pay a fee for the good ones anyway.) Try to find a directory of pumpkin farms and pumpkin recipes to build your other links upon.
Another bonus. Avoid this mistake at all costs! Do NOT link to Link Farms or Free for all sites or any sites that will give you 1000 links for $10. These are not directories, but collections of completely unrelated links that exist solely to try to boost search engines rankings. Search engines ban many of these sites. The consequences of being listed with a banned site could ban you, and then you're doomed. The only way to succeed is to build your links honestly and strategically with a plan and method.
Note: Search engines give more weight to one-way links rather than reciprocal links. i.e. links that link to your site without asking for one in return. The easiest way to get these is to buy them. This plan will work on all the different kinds of links you can get.
So now you have some potential sites to link to. In the next article learn how to phrase your link for maximum effectiveness. The sites to link with is only the first half? the quality of the words you use that make up the link's content called anchor text are just as crucial! Hint: using the same link in every web site is a very bad idea. See you soon!
John Krycek is the owner and creative director of theMouseworks.ca. Read more articles on the insights and secrets of web design and development and search engine marketing in easy, non-technical, up front English!
?Web Content Management System fr Window?: Search Engine Typos
Oops! I meant "web content management system for windows." Do search engines understand consumer search engine typos? Typing something so close to what you are looking for, like typing "web content management system fr window" instead of "web content management system for windows" may not seem like a big deal, but search engine bloopers alter consumer searches more than we know.
New Free Online Tool for Keyword Research
I came across a new website the other day and was quite pleasantly surprised.
Easy Web Tips
How can you be found on the web?
How To Get Listed in Yahoo!
Getting listed in Yahoo! (The Very Top Search Engine/Index) is a lot like getting a date with the most beautiful girl in high school - often all you have to do is ask PROPERLY. I can make that statement because I have NEVER submitted a site to Yahoo! that wasn't listed. I've read a lot about how difficult it is getting listed, and how frustrating it is - so maybe I am just very lucky. Then again, if you follow the same steps that have ALWAYS worked for me, there is no reason to believe that they won't work for you too. So I wanted to share with you in four short steps how to get listed.
Easy Steps to Get Onto Google Top Search Pages
To get on Google's top pages can be accomplished by following a few simple steps. The following procedure works well for companies working within a local region i.e. Lowell Pizza, or business with unique keyword phrases, i.e. Kraton thermoplastic rubber. The steps below outline a simple method to do content optimization. By following the procedure on your home page, you can achieve a high Google ranking. I will be assuming you have a basic understanding of html code.
10 Steps To Higher Search Engine Positioning
There is perhaps no more level playing field in business than the Internet. It is this fact that has created millionaires from paupers. The amount of money that can be made depends of course on your industry and your products and/or services but to be sure, if it can be sold at all, it can be sold online.
Search Engine FAQ
Why shouldn't I use a submission service that submits my site to 5000+ search engines?
Five Simple Steps to Getting Links to Your Site
Today if you want your site to survive in the search engines your going to need backlinks. Almost all the major search engines rank sites based on the number and the quality of backlinks. Besides getting a good search engine ranking with links, it also one of the most effective ways to increase a site's traffic. So, how do you build your link popularity? In this article I'll show you 5 simple steps that will help you build your site's link popularity.
Five FAQ About Google PageRank
Five FAQ about Google PageRank
How to Pick an SEO Firm
If you're looking for an SEO firm, we recommend that you weigh 10 factors that can save you trouble down the road.
The Easiest Way to Your Google Sitemap
Google Sitemaps is a new tool for website owners and publishers, released by Google themselves. It allows you to submit a sitemap (a document that contains links to every page of your site) from your own homepage in .XML or in plain .TXT format that will help Google to spider your pages. This again should result in a faster indexing process of your site and could therefore even result in better search engine placements. You can learn more about the program and sign up for a free account here.
If You Could Submit Just One Page To The Search Engines Which Should It Be?
Listen. Some make submitting pages to search engines sound like the fast track to search engine ranking nirvana. Not to mention you'll see offers to submit your site to a scadzillion sites for some low nominal fee.
Google Is Not Only A Search Engine!
When you now organize a street interview and ask people "What is Google", I assume more than 90 percent of the people answer that Google is a search engine. Indeed, Google is a search engine and it is probably its core business, but Google is much more!
Google Gunning For Directories?
Why is it that webmasters are so quick to blame Google if their website falls down the search rankings, or out of the rankings altogether? Can it never be their own fault?
Is Reciprocal Link Exchange Dead?
The sun seems to be setting on the world of reciprocal link exchange. Sites that major on that may have to switch to a new paradigm, or go down like the titanic.
SEOs Relationship With Website Architecture
SEO's Relationship With Website Architecture
Developing A List Of Keywords For Marketing
Keywords aren't just some words that allow search engines, like Google, to find your web site. They are also key elements for creating attractive language to use in your marketing or advertising material. For instance places such as: brochures, business cards, flyers, and ads. Keywords can also fit well into speaking engagements scripts or audiotapes scripts as well as audience handouts.
RSS Feeds - a Website Owners Friend in Disguise
We've all heard about it-it seems like all the buzz right now in the search engine marketing industry is RSS. If you're a website owner, than there are two ways your website can benefit from using RSS on your website-you can provide an RSS feed or, for the not-so-technically-inclined folks like me, you can use an RSS feed to keep your site's content fresh.
Simple Way to Get High Pagerank
Everyone knows that if your website has a high Google Pagerank, you have all chances to reach good search engine positions, to get serious partners, or simply get more money selling text links.
Optimze Your Web Site on a Shoe String Budget
Let me start off by saying I'm not a marketing guru or work for a fortune 500 advertising company. I don't even have a marketing background. But if you don't have money to blow on optimizing your site, then listen up.