All links are not created equal.
| Category: Search Engines | Date: 2002-08-30 |
In the past year several search engines have announced that links are a part of the criteria they use to rank sites. This has caused a great amount of confusion.
There are two types of links. Inbound and outbound. Within your site it is important to link pages together. This creates an inbound link from page to page and an outbound link from page to page. Pages that do not have even one link to them are called orphan pages. Some search engines like Google will not index orphan pages.
When a search engine crawls through a page they look for and follow each link indexing the location and the topic or theme of the page. This explains why sometimes search engines have pages indexed that were not submitted to them. They just find them on their own.
Not all links can be followed by all of the search engines. For example, many sites use Java to create "rollovers" - images that change when a visitors mouse is placed over it to create links from page to page. Typically, search engines cannot follow these links. This is also true when an image map is used to create links or site navigation. Unless the search engines can follow the links on your pages they will never find the deep pages of your site.
When creating a linking plan for your site it is important to understand that not all pages are created equal. For example, if your site is a comparison-shopping site it will have many product lines. Each category of products is grouped together. In one section, camping for example, you may find tents, sleeping bags and coolers. Another section may be house wares. In this section you will find linens, pots and pans and knives.
It is important that each page within each section be linked together. This creates a theme within each section of the site. Each link should use a word that describes the theme of the page it is linking to. This theme allows the search engines to group sections of your site together and catalog them all together making the house wares section more relevant when a search is done for linens than the camping section. The only thing that each section has in common with one another is that they have products for sale.
Inbound links from external web sites are very important to your search engine success. Some people think that the more links they have to there site the better. They think that the more inbound links the more popular your site must be. However the search engines are smarter than this and understand that more links does not mean more popular. It just means more links. Because of this several of the top engines actually penalize sites for belonging to "link exchanges". Link exchanges are simply a place for sites to exchange links. In most cases all they have in common is that they have a link from one another.
Search engines are looking for inbound links from popular relevant sites with the same theme just like they look for relevant links with the same "theme" within the site. A perfect theme will have the main keyword or phrase on your site the same as the main keyword or phrase on the sites that link to you. You can check the theme of the sites that link to you by going to http://www.searchengineworld.com/cgi-bin/theme.cgi and running a report. This report shows what the major keywords are on the sites that link to you.
It is important to get your site listed in the proper section of Open Directory and Yahoo. Search engines know that both of these directories use human editors to approve sites and that if it is listed in the directories it contains valuable content. For this reason it is imperative to get listed in Yahoo and Open Directory before you submit your site to the major search engines.
There are only 3 reasons anyone will ever give a link to your site. They have seen it and they really liked what they saw, you agree to pay them or you agree to give a link back to them.
The more popular your site becomes the more people will link to it without any prompting from you. Buying links can be very expensive but in the case of some portals or industry trade sites it may be worth purchasing a link. The most cost effective way to get inbound links is to find sites with the same theme as yours and ask to trade links.
Many site owners are afraid that if they put a link on their home page to a page of links that includes sites with related, relevant information - even competitors - that they are inviting people to leave their site. If the people who come to your site are more compelled to click on "links" than they are to go deeper into the site to see your information the site has bigger problems than not being sound in the search engines. There are several steps that can be taken to minimize this.
· Create a page of links organized by category. If your company writes business plans have a link category for venture capital, start up consultants etc.
· Below the link categories, add copy explaining how to get their link added to your site including the description you want to appear on their site.
· Make the link to the page of links small.
· When a link is clicked on, make it open a new window so that your site remains open and they can return to your site.
It is very easy to check how many inbound links your site has. Go to www.google.com and enter link:anydomain.com and click search. You will see a list of all the pages that Google knows about that link to your site. Next go to www.altavista.com and conduct the same search. Chances are very good that the results will not be the same as the results of the Google search. Google and AltaVista are distinct individual companies and do not index the same sites. Sometimes your competitors are the best source of links. By doing the above searches using your competitors URL you will find sites that link to your competitors. This is a good pool to start asking for links from.
There is no perfect number of inbound links. Five or ten good quality links will do more for your site than hundreds of links from sites that are not same theme as your site.
Once you have a link from a site make sure you submit the page that it is on to the major search engines. This will ensure that all of the sites are able to find and give you credit for the inbound links.
There are several software packages that attempt to automate the process. In all of them you enter the keyword or phrase that defines your theme and the software finds sites that are being found under that same search term. The software gathers all of the sites and creates a page with links to all of them and in some cases a description of the site. You then write an email to the site owner (or whatever email address is listed) advising them you have placed a link from your site to theirs and that you would like a reciprocal link. For a free copy of Link Crafter, linking software go to http://www.pageviews.com Navigate to the tool section.
Finding sites with the same theme as yours, asking for links, following up the requests, verifying the links have been added and in some cases teaching others how to add a link back to your site is very time consuming. Most sites will never put the effort required into it. You can gain a huge competitive advantage in the search engines if you take the time or put in the effort to get inbound relevant links.
About the Author
Terry Mickelson Is the President of PageViews, Inc. a Search Engine Marketing company located in Scottsdale Arizona. Terry can be reached at 480-556-9752
terry@pageviews.com
http://www.pageviews.com
There are two types of links. Inbound and outbound. Within your site it is important to link pages together. This creates an inbound link from page to page and an outbound link from page to page. Pages that do not have even one link to them are called orphan pages. Some search engines like Google will not index orphan pages.
When a search engine crawls through a page they look for and follow each link indexing the location and the topic or theme of the page. This explains why sometimes search engines have pages indexed that were not submitted to them. They just find them on their own.
Not all links can be followed by all of the search engines. For example, many sites use Java to create "rollovers" - images that change when a visitors mouse is placed over it to create links from page to page. Typically, search engines cannot follow these links. This is also true when an image map is used to create links or site navigation. Unless the search engines can follow the links on your pages they will never find the deep pages of your site.
When creating a linking plan for your site it is important to understand that not all pages are created equal. For example, if your site is a comparison-shopping site it will have many product lines. Each category of products is grouped together. In one section, camping for example, you may find tents, sleeping bags and coolers. Another section may be house wares. In this section you will find linens, pots and pans and knives.
It is important that each page within each section be linked together. This creates a theme within each section of the site. Each link should use a word that describes the theme of the page it is linking to. This theme allows the search engines to group sections of your site together and catalog them all together making the house wares section more relevant when a search is done for linens than the camping section. The only thing that each section has in common with one another is that they have products for sale.
Inbound links from external web sites are very important to your search engine success. Some people think that the more links they have to there site the better. They think that the more inbound links the more popular your site must be. However the search engines are smarter than this and understand that more links does not mean more popular. It just means more links. Because of this several of the top engines actually penalize sites for belonging to "link exchanges". Link exchanges are simply a place for sites to exchange links. In most cases all they have in common is that they have a link from one another.
Search engines are looking for inbound links from popular relevant sites with the same theme just like they look for relevant links with the same "theme" within the site. A perfect theme will have the main keyword or phrase on your site the same as the main keyword or phrase on the sites that link to you. You can check the theme of the sites that link to you by going to http://www.searchengineworld.com/cgi-bin/theme.cgi and running a report. This report shows what the major keywords are on the sites that link to you.
It is important to get your site listed in the proper section of Open Directory and Yahoo. Search engines know that both of these directories use human editors to approve sites and that if it is listed in the directories it contains valuable content. For this reason it is imperative to get listed in Yahoo and Open Directory before you submit your site to the major search engines.
There are only 3 reasons anyone will ever give a link to your site. They have seen it and they really liked what they saw, you agree to pay them or you agree to give a link back to them.
The more popular your site becomes the more people will link to it without any prompting from you. Buying links can be very expensive but in the case of some portals or industry trade sites it may be worth purchasing a link. The most cost effective way to get inbound links is to find sites with the same theme as yours and ask to trade links.
Many site owners are afraid that if they put a link on their home page to a page of links that includes sites with related, relevant information - even competitors - that they are inviting people to leave their site. If the people who come to your site are more compelled to click on "links" than they are to go deeper into the site to see your information the site has bigger problems than not being sound in the search engines. There are several steps that can be taken to minimize this.
· Create a page of links organized by category. If your company writes business plans have a link category for venture capital, start up consultants etc.
· Below the link categories, add copy explaining how to get their link added to your site including the description you want to appear on their site.
· Make the link to the page of links small.
· When a link is clicked on, make it open a new window so that your site remains open and they can return to your site.
It is very easy to check how many inbound links your site has. Go to www.google.com and enter link:anydomain.com and click search. You will see a list of all the pages that Google knows about that link to your site. Next go to www.altavista.com and conduct the same search. Chances are very good that the results will not be the same as the results of the Google search. Google and AltaVista are distinct individual companies and do not index the same sites. Sometimes your competitors are the best source of links. By doing the above searches using your competitors URL you will find sites that link to your competitors. This is a good pool to start asking for links from.
There is no perfect number of inbound links. Five or ten good quality links will do more for your site than hundreds of links from sites that are not same theme as your site.
Once you have a link from a site make sure you submit the page that it is on to the major search engines. This will ensure that all of the sites are able to find and give you credit for the inbound links.
There are several software packages that attempt to automate the process. In all of them you enter the keyword or phrase that defines your theme and the software finds sites that are being found under that same search term. The software gathers all of the sites and creates a page with links to all of them and in some cases a description of the site. You then write an email to the site owner (or whatever email address is listed) advising them you have placed a link from your site to theirs and that you would like a reciprocal link. For a free copy of Link Crafter, linking software go to http://www.pageviews.com Navigate to the tool section.
Finding sites with the same theme as yours, asking for links, following up the requests, verifying the links have been added and in some cases teaching others how to add a link back to your site is very time consuming. Most sites will never put the effort required into it. You can gain a huge competitive advantage in the search engines if you take the time or put in the effort to get inbound relevant links.
About the Author
Terry Mickelson Is the President of PageViews, Inc. a Search Engine Marketing company located in Scottsdale Arizona. Terry can be reached at 480-556-9752
terry@pageviews.com
http://www.pageviews.com
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