Links
Link building
How Do Text Links Help My Site Rank Higher in The Search Engines?
Link popularity is the most significant factor the search engines use for determining how well a site should rank for its keywords. Link popularity is the measure of the quantity and the quality of the sites that link to yours. Getting text links from popular sites will increase your link popularity and boost your sites rankings.
Not all links are the same, over the past couple of years, the search engines have started placing additional value on links coming from relevant sites. It is important to obtain links from sites that are in a related category. For example, a mortgage site should try and get links from other mortgage brokers, or any type of site that would normally link to a mortgage site.
It can take several weeks for the search engines to spider the pages where your links are placed. It can then take several months before they recalculate your link popularity in order to affect your rankings. It is possible to see some minor changes within a couple weeks but for the most part, you should not expect any major shifts in rankings for at least 90 days.
One of the biggest changes the search engines have made recently is to introduce “Age” as a factor when determining how much value a link has. Links that go up and then go down quickly are a sign of unnatural link practices. Natural links tend to stay up permanently.
Whaet makes a link good for SEO?
#1 Relevancy of the Site the Link is on
Google loves links on relevant sites. It is possible to outrank someone who has many more links then you by purchasing just a few very powerful relevant ones.
It is not necessary that all of your backlinks come from relevant sites, but the general rule is “the more the better”.
#2 Link Popularity and Pagerank of the Site
Obtaining links on sites that are popular is very important. When important, or popular, sites link to yours, it tells the search engines that you worthy of ranking well for your keywords. Link Popularity is the #1 ranking factor in Google and is a major ranking factor in both Yahoo and MSN.
#3 Number of Outbound Links on the Page
The total number of outbound links on a page is an important factor to consider when purchasing a link. A site that has too many outbound links is not going to pass much link popularity. They are also at risk of being penalized in the search engines if the outbound links are thought to be “paid links” or are all pointing to “un-relevant” sites. On the other hand, if a site is authoritative in a particular field and naturally links to other sites in its industry, that is much different. Authoritative sites that link out to other sites are considered hubs and will provide a lot of benefit. This includes sites such as Wikipedia.org, Directory.Yahoo.com, DMOZ.com, and others.
#4 Age of the Site the Link is On
Older sites are trusted more in the search engines and have more power for ranking other sites. Google places a lot of weight on links from older sites. This is the reason that we have the “Whois creation date” listed for all the sites in our inventory. If a site is older then 2 years, it’s value goes way up. If it is greater then 5 years it is even more powerful.
#5 Placement of Link on the Page (Zone)
Where the link is located on a page is also very important. The search engines have developed block level analysis techniques that basically allow them to break down a webpage into blocks. Certain blocks, or sections of the site carry more weight since they are more likely to be seen by visitors. Links that are hidden at the very bottom of a site carry less value then links embedded in text at the top of the site.
There is also the additional value of traffic. Links placed at the top of a site will get more clicks.
Disclaimer: The owner of this web site makes no warranties or guarantees of service from the companies listed above and is in no way affiliated with them.
