By Robert Pryce
Head of Online Marketing
One of the most interesting facets of the Internet is the speed at which it is evolving. While this is one of the most appealing aspects of the Internet from a user perspective, it is what makes it most difficult for online marketers. Keeping abreast of these changes is critical to ensure your site attains and maintains a good ranking in the search engines.
While there are numerous criteria that engines use in their algorithms two of the constants are relevant content and numerous links.
There have been various guises for links over the years. Constantly striving to beat the rankings spawned the emergence of Link Farms, free for all sites and the like. Thankfully these are mainly a thing of the past as search engines improved their algorithms and listings on these sites can now get you banned. Another trademark of this era is websites that claimed that they could get you listed in 10,000 directories for $99.
There is continual debate over which of the three main types of links is most effective for achieving high rankings. There are Reciprocal Links, the I'll-link-to-you-if-you-link-to-me type, Inbound Links where an external site links to you and Outgoing Links, where you link to another external site.
While these are the types of links why bother about links in the first place? There are three main reasons for bothering with links:
- Traffic comes via inbound links. This is often overlooked. If a relevant (I will come back to this again) site links to you, this should generate additional traffic to your site.
- Search engines give higher rankings to those sites that have numerous relevant inbound links. The number of inbound links is one of the key factors determining the overall ranking of a site. A large number of inbound links gives the impression that your site is an authority on a particular subject.
- Outbound links allow the user to find more relevant content. Not everyone is comfortable with outbound links as you're sending a potential customer away from your site. However, if your site offers relevant information, this should not be an issue and the user will return if they were happy with the quality of the link you provided.
It should be noted that not all links are created equal and a link from a highly trafficked relevant site is far more worthy than numerous links from small non-relevant sites. Some engines actually consider the latter SPAM and others use a "subject specific popularity" criterion when measuring the significance of inbound links.
While each engine has its own ranking system, according to Google a quality link:
- is 100% organic
- is not reciprocal
- is descriptive
- exists within the first two or three levels of a site and
- comes from a site that has a Page Rank of 5 or higher
There is no exact science about how to create an effective linking campaign, yet one thing is paramount: all linking MUST be carried out manually. No automated software should be used when requesting a link.
Linking campaigns can thus be summarised in the following:
The main reason to seek links is to drive more targeted traffic to your site. If the search engines improve your rankings, this is a bonus.
Seek inbound links based on content match and quality as opposed to traffic alone
How you approach potential linking partners is key. Conduct extensive research and have a tailored approach. Don't be afraid to use the phone as this can be more personal.
There has been a lot of recent discussion about links and the effect known as the "Google Sandbox". This is where a new site is listed on Google but does not get a ranking for some time. However this was due to new systems introduced by the engine to counteract sites that acquire thousands of new inbound links from few sources. For more information on the Google Sandbox theory click here.
While not having the space to delve into this theory in great detail here, if you were to draw one piece of information from this article it is, linking should be core component of every online marketing campaign. Ignore at your peril.
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