\u201cLink building\u201d then, is the process of developing \u201cinbound\u201d links to your web pages in order to drive traffic to your site and improve your search engine ranking<\/strong>. Sounds simple, but there are so many different complex Link Building Techniques In SEO<\/strong><\/a> and strategies it\u2019s mind boggling! And, some techniques, even legitimate techniques implemented incorrectly, may actually render inbound links completely useless.<\/span><\/p>\n I started this article intending to cover the 5 W\u2019s \u2013 who, what, when, where and why. But, at the risk of detracting from the clever title, I felt the need to add \u201cHow?\u201d in order to make it more useful. So this article is designed to provide insight into the following questions:<\/span><\/p>\n 1. Who should link to my web pages?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 2. What should the link entail?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 3. When should I add a link to my site?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 4. Where should a link appear?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 5. Why should you care?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 6. How can businesses develop their own inbound links?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n No doubt, reasonable minds can disagree with some of the opinions and strategies contained in this article. I direct your attention to footnote references to several online articles that I found helpful. I encourage you to review these articles so you can draw your own conclusions. I do hope you conclude that there are a number of legitimate SEO Link Building Techniques<\/strong><\/a> that you can tackle!<\/span><\/p>\n Why Should You Care?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Sorry, I have skipped over who, what, when and where to begin instead with \u201cWhy?\u201d After all, if I cannot make the case that link building is important, you certainly will not read the rest of this article!<\/span><\/p>\n It is believed that, in the eyes of the major search engines, the number and quality of the incoming links that point to your site are indicative of the worthiness of your site. I know, it sounds like a popularity contest \u2013 perhaps this stirs up memories of the disdain you had for your high school prom king\/queen election process. Popularity and Page Rank aside, you are interested in driving qualified traffic to your <\/span>web site and developing relationships with businesses that offer complementary products and services.\u00a0SEO Link Building Methods<\/strong><\/a> are designed to accomplish this.<\/span><\/p>\n Who Should Link to My Web Pages?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n It is believed that links from \u201cauthoritative\u201d websites and \u201crelated\u201d industry sites carry the most weight. An \u201cauthoritative\u201d site might be an educational organization (.edu), a publication, a government agency (.gov), a known subject matter expert or an organization\/association in yours or a related industry.<\/span><\/p>\n As for \u201crelated\u201d sites, partners, vendors, but not competitors are good \u201creciprocal linking\u201d (discussed later) opportunities. Their sites should be related to the products and\/or services you provide.<\/span><\/p>\n Make sure to set your standards high! Analyze the inbound links to the page where you would like to see your link. Are they, in fact, authoritative and relevant sites? How do you research inbound links to your potential linking partner?<\/span><\/p>\n There are some excellent SEO link building tools<\/strong> out there! Netconcepts provides a free \u201cLink Popularity Checker<\/span>\u201d . Another site is LinkPopularity.com. Use these tools to assess the quality of the links to the page before you ask for a link! While you\u2019re there, check out the link popularity of your web pages and those of your competitors.<\/span><\/p>\n Note that many SEO experts believe that you should stay away from a web page that already has too many links. How many are too many? According to an article in Website Magazine, \u201c\u2026 it is best to shy away from any pages with more than 20 outbound links.3\u2033<\/span><\/p>\n You\u2019ll recall that we mentioned the term \u201cPageRank<\/strong>\u201d earlier in this article. The Google PageRank scoring system is used to quantify the relative importance of a web page. You can determine PageRank by downloading and using the free Google ToolBar<\/span><\/p>\n Should you consider PageRank while determining whether to ask for a link on a page? One contributor to the online article \u201cOver 125 (Legitimate) Link Building Strategies\u201d, Dixon Jones, suggests that the PageRank of the webpage where you would like your link to reside should be between 3 and 10.4 In his article \u201cThe Nitty Gritty of Link Requests\u201d, Chris Boggs suggests that PageRank is not as useful as it used to be but \u201cPageRank is still a good guide.5\u2033<\/span><\/p>\n Many Internet marketing professionals continue to suggest that you submit your site to the appropriate category within the major directories as well as to vertical engines and industry 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.<\/span><\/p>\n In his article, \u201cSEO: Weaving a Web of Links<\/strong>\u201d, Stephan Spencer cautions against seeking links from \u201cfree for all\u201d links pages that are packed full of links.6. Again, pay attention to PageRank and topic relevance. Watch out for automated submission programs that submit to irrelevant search engines and directories.<\/span><\/p>\n What Should the Link Entail? What Should You Put on Your Link Page?\u00a0Once you have targeted an inbound link opportunity, you will want to suggest the link location and the exact link language you wish to appear on their site. Make it easy to implement your link \u2013 place HTML on your site that your partner\u2019s webmaster can cut and paste onto their web page.<\/span><\/p>\n Embed your keyphrases into the link text. Although the subject of web page optimization is beyond the scope of this article, make sure the page the link points to (the \u201cTarget Page\u201d) is \u201coptimized\u201d for those keyphrases. The target page need not be your website home page. Not sure how to determine the best keywords for your business? I discuss this very issue in my article \u201cWeb Page Keywords \u2013 Do\u2019s and Don\u2019ts\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n The question \u201cWhat should you put on your link page\u201d presumes that the linking relationship is \u201creciprocal\u201d. Not all links will be reciprocal \u2013 we\u2019ll talk more about link building strategies that involve the creation of useful online content encouraging \u201cnatural\u201d link growth without reciprocal arrangements. However, your arrangements with partners, alliances and some directories may well be \u201creciprocal\u201d. In other words, \u201cI\u2019ll point to you if you point to me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Before you approach a partner for a reciprocal link, you may wish to create your link to their site in advance demonstrating the techniques described in this article. \u201cOne good turn deserves another\u201d \u2013 include one or two carefully drafted paragraphs of descriptive information for each link.<\/span><\/p>\n When Should I Add a Link to my Site?\u00a0But for my need to have a catchy title, this section is better named \u201cHow often should I add inbound links?\u201d Experts these days are writing about \u201cnatural growth of inbound links\u201d and \u201corganic link gaining\u201d and \u201cEmulating Natural Growth in Link Building<\/strong>\u201d, as search engine optimization authority Chris Boggs recently wrote in Website Magazine.7 Sounds downright \u201cearthy\u201d, doesn\u2019t it?<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s clear that link building is a slow and steady grassroots process and some experts maintain that link growth should follow a natural, free range, pesticide-free progression (OK, I added the italics for fun). Boggs writes that efforts to rapidly gain links \u201care sometimes easy for search engines to discern\u2026, especially if the links are in a known network of sites that exchange links.8 \u201d Suddenly adding 100 new links to a site that for 6 six years has had 5 inbound links may cause a search engine to penalize you for your participation in a \u201clink-farm.\u201d But, adding a few relevant links every so often does appear to be consistent with natural growth.<\/span><\/p>\n Where Should the Link Appear?\u00a0Ideally, your link should be placed within the content of a page rich with topical information relevant to the focus of the target web page. This may be asking a bit much \u2013 your link partner may already have a \u201clinks\u201d or \u201cresources\u201d page designed solely for this purpose. However, make sure your prefab HTML link includes descriptive information that goes above and beyond a simple link and makes sure you offer to reciprocate with a high-quality descriptive link.<\/span><\/p>\n Check to make sure the agreed-upon location is a page that has been indexed by the major search engines. In particular, it should not be a page that only authenticated users (login & password) can view.<\/span><\/p>\n How Can Businesses Develop Their Own Inbound Links?\u00a0The last section of my 5 W\u2019s and an H article may be the most important. There are many bytes of available online information related to link building strategies. In many respects, your success stems from the quality of the relevant content on your website. Your industry peers and topical experts will be eager to reference your website if it is a valuable source of relevant information and you have achieved an appropriate level of expertise. Your peers will assess your site in the same or similar manner as is described in this article. They will assess the quantity and quality of inbound links to your web pages.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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