I’m consistently asked about linking strategies by existing clients as well as website owners calling me up to ‘kick the tires’.
It is very true that the number and quality of IBLs (inbound links), that is links on other websites that link to pages within your domain, are a very important factor used by most Search Engine Algorithms to base your site’s ranking on. That is not at all in dispute.
Most people that call me up ask the question, “Do you handle linking campaigns?”. Well “Ya!”, but I also ask.. “What do you mean?”. Fact is I’ve seen so many so called ‘link campaigns’ and still to receive a handful of emails every day offering to get links for myself and my clients.
So what is a link campaign? What do they do? Why?
Here’s some of my thoughts on the number one and two linking concepts that people ask me about:
- Link Exchanges
- In general forget it. Am I saying you shouldn’t exchanges links with other websites? No, not at all. What I do stress to point out is that the majority of people that approach you to exchange links are doing it for the purpose of increasing their website’s rank and position in the search engines. If someone approaches you and their site contains content (be it information and / or products) of real value to your website’s visitors then by all means place a link to that site on your site. Do not have a links page!!! Likewise don’t allow just anyone to post a link to your site on their website. Make sure that your website is related to their information or product. Face it in the real world would you advertise Nike shoes in a magazine for prosthesis, that’s about the intelligence of some ‘exchanges’ I’ve come across.
- Buying Links
- A far more recent fad in the world of SEO and linking is the practice of purchasing links. Since 2005 Google has been saying that they frown on this practice. Check out some of Matt Cutts comments at the recent SMX (Search Marketing Expo) in Seattle. Again I’m not saying DON’T buy links. What I am saying is don’t hire a company to go buy links for you. If you see a great site out there and they are well placed and pertain to your market, I would never dissuade a client from purchasing quality advertising which will give their site, product or service exposure and bring visitors to their website.
In a nutshell: If you’re pursuing links with the purpose of increasing your rankings in the search engines you’re going at it all wrong, stop what you’re doing, you’re looking for the ‘quick fix’, the ‘get rich quick scheme’, and long term they don’t work!
Search engines have a goal or a mission (if you will) to provide good quality relevant search results to their visitors. One of the ways that they can help to determine if a website is ‘good’ or ‘relevant’ to a search is by the inbound links. But what the search engines are looking for are websites out there that are saying .. hey check this out this is a good product. So here’s where the relevancy comes in.. Here’s a bit of an example: We have a website and we sell car polish. Search engine find out that there are many of our clients (car dealers, body shops, and general public) who liked our product so much that they post on their site(s) about how much they like it and link to our site.
That is the idea behind link popularity. It’s a bit warped in todays convoluted world of information but always try to remember the bases, the reason behind why links are important to your site.
Note: A well deserved link will usually provide more direct traffic to your site then the boost it will give your SERP’s anyway!
[poll=2]