Why do we need links you may ask? It is because search engines track them when ranking your pages of your website. There are many types of links reciprocal, one-way, link baiting, three way link exchange, paid links, spamming and link request. Below you find some details are what these link types are, how valuable they may be and ideas on how to get them. While some techniques are arguably considered "White Hat SEO" and others are "Black Hat SEO", you should be ok if you have a broad backlink profile that never focuses on one thing excessively.
Linking to someone is like a vote and this gives them some of the ranking value (pagerank) your page has. Sometimes a page or a link doesn't have any value, so the link doesn't help in any way. The search engines are always creating more complex ways to determine the value of a link and a page for any given keyword.
Link Building Methods
Reciprocal Links
A reciprocal link is when the site links to you in exchange for a link back to them. These are somewhat easy to get, but many people are critical of how this is done. We recommend you email other sites that have similar topics compared to your site's content. Ask them in a very personal way if they would link to you in exchange for a link back. You may want to complement them on their web design or give them a reason why the link will help both parties. Many webmasters have specific criteria they look for when doing a link exchange. Such as the pagerank of the link page, the quality of the web site and whether they feel it is relevant. If your web site is very new and not ranking well, many webmasters will ignore or deny your link request. You may continue trying reciprocal links or consider a different strategy to more established. We've notived in the past year, Google has really cut down on the effectiveness of certain kinds of links such as reciprocal links. Some of the best links are when the link is not too deep on the site or when it comes from a page that actually ranks well. These links are rare when you do reciprocal links, so be careful not to waste too much time on links that won't help you.
One way links
A one way links is the most natural and effective link. On the Internet, there are a group of core web sites that feed most of the pagerank to other web sites. If you are able to get any trusted one way links from these authority web sites, then you should do very well. However, most companies end up getting links from less trusted web sites with less rankings. This means more links are required to have the same level of success as a few authority links. In general, the best links are usually hard to get or very expensive. Partnering with another established company could be a fast paced way for you to boost your online marketing if you can negotiate some great links from the deal.
Blog/forum signature links
blogs and forums let the general public leave comments on various topics. You can usually put a signature that includes your web site's URL on each comment you leave on that web site. You should be aware that many web sites add rel="nofollow" to links in the source code in order to prevent search engines from giving page rank to your web site. You can often find that a certain type of software or a specific web site doesn't have nofollow on their links. Posts you leave on these web sites should help you rank better for your targeted keywords. We've noticed signature links have a more direct impact on Yahoo and MSN rankings. Google tends to prefer other types of links.
Link baiting
This technique requires some creative ideas & writing that targets what people are most passionate about. If you can get someone emotionally engaged with your topic, they are much more likely to start a debate and link to your article or web site. You can sometimes get hundreds or thousands of links and visitors with clever link bait. You must be careful not to be too obvious about your intent to get free links and traffic. Since this is a deceptive practice, it would often be considered "Black Hat SEO", but you won't really getting penalized for doing it by the search engines.
Three-way link exchanges
We've always been concerned with more complicated linking schemes such as three way links. Being able to trust that you'll receive page rank when multiple domains are involved is usually confusing. If Google determines a pattern in any linking relationship, you will usually find it to not work anymore. Networks of domains practicing excessive three-way links could easily by detected by search engines and devalued. However this type of link done as a small part of your linking efforts should remain helpful.
Paid links
Buying links is the fast and easy way to get links but are against search engine guidelines since they are usually used to manipulate search engine rankings in an unfair way. Google tries to figure out links that are paid for and will automatically reduce their value. Users are able to report paid links and abuse to Google, so paid links are likely to decrease in their value in the future as more data is collected. However, if you can manage to get a paid link "under the radar", it may be one of your most effective link strategies both in the time it saves and the amount of traffic it will generate. Make sure it is not obvious that it is a paid link and you should still receive page rank from it.
Spamming links
Automatically spamming forums, blogs and other web sites is perhaps the worst to try to get a link and is definitely "Black Hat SEO". We don't recommend you try to spam other web sites. It may even be illegal or cause your ISP to terminate your services. Spam has been effective for some companies in the past and that's why people still do it. However, any reputable company will say no to spam now.
Article submissions
You can submit your content to other web sites who will post it for free or for a small fee. This is a very popular trend lately and with the huge amount of Blogs out there, there are huge communities of users who offer ways to advertise on their web sites. If you can find a web site with good page rank that will allow you to post an article linking back to your web site, you can get page rank like this. It definitely helps if your article is popular with their readers so that more people link to it naturally as well. Also, popular articles are usually put on a more prominent page of the web site, which will bring you much greater page rank. However, be careful about distributing the content on your web site. You don't want other higher ranking web sites to take credit for all the content on your site. Articles posted on other web sites will help you rank better for those topics especially if that web site has relevance for your subject area.
Become the authority
You may earn distinction as an authority in many ways both online and offline. Perhaps you rank the highest for your topic already. You may have won an award or perhaps you are well known offline and your direct traffic is high. Whatever you can do to make your web site the ultimate resource in your subject area is great. Also consider that people will link to web sites that are very well done technically or aesthetically. Paying a little more for the unique design can make the difference in the user's perception of your business. Receiving good press from the mainstream media will improve the perception of your company as an authority in your area. An authority will usually survive algorithm changes by the search engines since they are truly popular and have a variety of natural links to their web site.
Directory submissions
Once they were considered the holy grail. But a lot of the directories out there are barely used. So a link from a directory can often be considered very unimportant by the search engines. You can submit your web site to other free or paid directory services such as Yahoo.com and Dmoz.org, but don't expect them to hold the weight they once did. Not all directories are worth it and most of the time it is only SEO companies submitting to them, so they may not have much authority for your topic. A good test is to see if they rank well on Google for the same keywords you want to rank for. Always try to link with web sites closer to home if you are a local business.
Other Considerations for Link Building
Search engines may be on the lookout for too many links from the same IP address or computer network. It is often recommended to get more links from different IPs or C-class IPs. C-class IP refers to the third set of numbers in an IP address. For example, 75.23.5.3 and 75.23.100.3 are in different C blocks. It can be assumed that these IPs are often not the same company. The search engines may increase the weight of links from other networks. However you shouldn't be afraid to link your own web sites together. Just don't expect it to work when done excessively. Excessive cross-linking of multiple domains can be considered "Black Hat SEO". Your goal should be to create natural linking profile and share links where it is relevant and helpful to your users.
Historical Age of Links and Domains
Search engines also monitor your changes over time. If you add or delete too many links at once, they may be more critical of those links. Generally, you want links that are permanent so that they gain the full weight of potential pagerank. Techniques that bring you quick temporary links may boost your traffic rather drastically, but the traffic will usually disappear as quickly as the links do. Links from older more established pages will generally give you more pagerank. If you are constantly changing the URL or Title, you may be destroying the rankings for your page. Try to decide on permanent names for your URLs, titles and links. You can always go back and change a page, but avoid switch to a totally irrelevant topic.
Internal Linking Strategies
Managing your internal link structure is a very important step as well. The links you make within your site determine how pagerank flows to those pages. You can alter your rankings for these pages by changing the link structure to point to the preferred page from other high ranking pages such as your home page.
Affordable and Effective Link Building
Linking techniques are always changing. What worked last year is often irrelevant today. Outsourcing this time intensive work can help you redirect your attention to your core personal and business goals instead of your web site. Save yourself time and money by working with us for your link building services.
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