[This is the second article in a two part series describing the two core elements needed for high search engine ranking: rich content and quality backlinks.]
A link from a website to yours (typically called an inbound link or backlink) is like that site saying “This site is really good. I personally recommend that you check it out.” The search engines place great weight on the links that point to your website.
Ready to go out and get a million links? Ready to say “yes” to every “let’s swap links” spam email you get? Hold it right there! Think quality, not quantity. Just like a real life recommendation, the link has to come from someone with respected expertise. Remember in the last article the effect the food critic’s rave had on Lori’s recommendation to Sam? It influenced her to make her recommendation even stronger than usual. To extend that example, if Lori simply heard it from a passer by that your pizzeria was good, it probably wouldn’t have affected her opinion/recommendation. That’s just how Google and the other search engines act. Links from just anyone won’t help your rankings. To boost your rankings, the backlinks need to be from websites that Google, Yahoo and the others respect and view as relevant to your website.
What’s relevant to me may not be to you.
Relevance, in the search engine marketing industry is often described as being in the same “community”. For example: the pizzeria community might contain websites of food critics, menus, city pages recommending places to eat, recipes, local things to do, Chambers of Commerce and wholesale restaurant and food suppliers. Getting backlinks from websites from within your community is probably the most important factor in linking.
How do you spell respect?
One of the easiest ways to determine the “respect” of websites is by their ranking. Search for a related product or service in your website’s community. The sites that come to the top of the search are the ones the search engine is most fond of - have the most respect. Another way to determine “respect” is by Google Page Rank. Google Page Rank is a very general, very broad measurement of the respect that Google has for any page of a website. Many SEO folks get tunnel vision with page rank. Don’t fall into that trap. It’s just another factor to consider when deciding to ask for a link from that site. You can see the page rank of any web page by using the Google Tool Bar which you can download for free.
A little dab’ll do ya!
Like those old Brylcreem commercials, often only a few links from highly respected, relevant websites is all you need to get credibility with the engines and boost your rankings. On the other hand, in highly competitive search environments you might need a couple hundred solid inbound links.
Why should I link to you?
When I link to your site, it’s like I’m making a personal recommendation to the search engines and my visitors. When I do so, I’m giving away some of my reputation, sharing some of my Google Page Rank and taking a risk that my visitors may not be happy when they get to your site (much like in real world recommendations). So, what’s in it for me and my visitors? You have to have something worth linking to. Something that’s useful to my visitors so I’m compelled to say… “Oh, by the way, take a look at Joe’s website for creative pizza recipes.” Frankly, that’s one of the purposes of our blog and these articles. We hope they are worthy of linking to (insert shameless plug for link here).
For top rankings, the first order of business is to create rich content. Once you have lots of content for engines (and your visitors) to get to know you and have a reason for someone to link to you, the second order business is to start searching for relevant, respected websites to link to you.
Upcoming articles:
How to find sites to ask for links from. What specifically to ask for, and how.
What should the link say? Where should it be?
Should I trade links?
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