Here is one SEO tactic that no one disputes... Link optimization or in other words, building high quality, keyword dense back links to your site from other highly ranked, related sites.
When all is said and done, link building is at this time the holy grail of SEO and perhaps the most powerful technique. Why? Links to your site, especially from other highly linked to, popular sites are taken as a vote in your favor by search engines. The theory is, at least in search engine logic, that the more links you have from popular relevant sites, the more important you are. Right or wrong, this is how it works.
And in almost all cases it is a good measure. People don't link to bad sites. And for a bit of trivia, Google is the first search engine that used links, via pagerank, named after one of its cofounders – Larry Page.
Link Optimization Factor One : Quality sites and Link Popularity
One common misconception about SEO link building is that it doesn't matter where the link comes from, so long as it is a live link that can be followed by search engines. This could not be further from the truth. Other than a clear need for the linking from page to be popular – which we will cover in more detail later, the linking page's quality and relevance also play a role. Let's dissect each of these.
- SEO Link Quality : Quality is defined by a few characteristics of the site itself. First is age. The age of the page and the site plays a somewhat significant role in the value of the link. The older the page, the more valuable the link. Second, is the number of outbound links on a page. The more outbound links, the less link juice imparted on you. Also, it has been discussed that search engines stop looking at links on a page after they reach 100. Therefore, look for quality sites with limited outbound links. Just keep in mind that the main measure of quality is the popularity of the site and page itself – which we will discuss shortly. More frequently updated pages are also viewed as higher quality.
- Relevance : Is the content or keywords on the site the same as those on the destination page? In other words, are they talking about the same thing. This is becoming a bigger and bigger factor. Where this really comes into play is paying for links. Often when you buy links from 500 sites for 24.95, the sites linking to you are not related to your topic or theme. Therefore, these links would be fairly worthless... So don't spend the money. Another important factor is ensuring that the keywords in the anchor text of the link match the keywords on the linking and linked to page.
Link Optimization Factor Two : Quantity
The more inbound links you can amass from quality, relevant, popular sites the better. There is really no more to this point. One word of caution however, avoid links from link farms, spam filled sites, “buy a link” or reciprocal link exchanges that have nothing to do with your sites topic, have low page ranks (Google's page importance measure based heavily on linking) or are relatively light on value.
Link Optimization Factor Three : Site Popularity
What's the value of the site providing you the link? Do others see it as important? Do search engines see it as important? Part of the answer to these questions comes from the sites quality – keyword usage, content, frequency of refresh, age, number of outbound links, etc. The second half comes from the sites inbound links – the measure of its popularity. Inbound links to a page can be assessed by simply typing “link:www.thesite.com” into Google's search box. It will then come back with the number and a list of the sites that link to a particular page. Here's what you want to look for in terms of inbound links.
- Total Inbound Links : How many total links exist to the page?
- Relevance of Links : Are the sites linking to the page relevant to the sites topic?
- Google Page Rank : What's Google's page rank of the site on a 1-10?
- Alexa Rank : What's the site's Alexa rank?
Link Optimization Factor Four : Link Construction
How you construct the inbound link back to your site can substantially impact its value. Therefore, to ensure you receive the maximum available link juice from an externally placed link, follow the guidelines outlined below:
- Use text links over image links when linking back to your site. While you can assign keywords to image links via alt text or attribute tags, you can include keywords directly in a text link via anchor text as well as in the URL itself.
- Always make use of anchor text or the alt text / attribute tags when using image links.
- Include keywords in the link that match those on the page where the link resides as well as your site.
