adI think we can all safely assume when it comes to SEO and search marketing, that the name of the game today is: linking.
Link backs and reciprocal linking is a strategy that more and more websites are coming up short on.
Too many unsuspecting (or uneducated) marketers are finding themselves ranked no better in the search engines today than they were months ago, because they haven’t generated good enough links. In comparison, their counterpart is smoothly striding their way up the search listing ladder for their own successful link building strategies.
Strong, relevant websites that link back to your site is a major plus point for you. However, having too many shady or unknown sites that point back to you can have your search ranking hopes spiraling out of control.
How do you know if you have good link backs, or bad?
Below is a link a sample comparison chart that can help you better understand if your links and link backs are worth the effort.
Considered Spam Links:
- Link Farms (’For only $9.95 we’ll get you 1,000 links pointing to your site’. Yeah, junk links that will have your search ranking dipping further down with each new crap link.
- Guestbook Entries (’Hi, sign my book’, doesn’t fly anymore).
- Comment Spam (if your utilizing a program to submit comments automatically, you are only doing yourself an injustice).
Low-Quality Links:
- Your other sites that point to each other. If you have multiple sites and you link them all around to one another, the search engines are a little more craft than you are and will recognize what you are up to.
- Reciprocal Links. Someone links to you and then you link back to them. This used to be a good strategy until everyone started doing it with everyone. The relevance was eliminated so was the quality of the link.
- Social Media Profiles. This is a low linking strategy only for those who just run out and set up all the social profiles they can and then just let them sit there, collecting dust. These sites are only beneficial if you work at contributing good, relevant content and a somewhat regular basis.
- Forum Signatures. Some people have the mistaken idea that the more they contribute their opinion in forums, that other people will pick up the conversation and push it forward, thus providing you with limitless links. it doesn’t work like that. These type of links are as good as the content that came before it.
- Do not follow blogs. If you use the Firefox browser, you can easily tell which blogs have no-follow links. Firefox has a plugin called SEO for Firefox that every online marketer should be utilizing. Comment as much as you like, but don’t count on gathering any strong links from blogs with no-follow links.
Good Links:
- Blogrolls. If you can get your link placed on a goos, relevant third party blog… this is a good link. Search engines figure that the owner must know you and trust you to be placing you on their blog roll.
- Strong Directories. DMOZ & Yahoo!. Enough said.
- Partner Sites. If you know and understand anything about joint venture partnerships, then you know what an added value they can be for your business. Building strong, lasting relationships with others in your particular niche, or field and linking up with them is beneficial for your search relevance.
Strong Links:
- Badges and Widgets. Have you noticed that every single social site that you belong to wants you to place one of their badges or widgets on your site. They know that this is a strong indication to search engines that you know their site and trust them enough to put their badge on your web page.
- News Blogs & Media Sites. Getting linked on known news blogs either from your editorial content (or from a press releases).
These are just a few examples of good links and bad links. Study further and examine which type of links you have either coming in, or going out.
Contrary to what you might think, it’s not about the number of total links you have pointing back to your site… it’s about the quality of the ones that do. Good quality, good for you. Bad quality, bad for you. Plain and simple.
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