The Maine SEO Blog

You do!  Do you need to use all of them?  My guess is no, especially if you’re a small business.  But if you have a website, and expect to get half way decent search results, you had best start a good link building campaign.

There are quite a few different strategies you could use.  Rich and I have both talked about some of these strategies before.  But here’s a comprehensive smattering of all of them.

Backlinks or Backward Links

Directory Links

Directory submissions can be found in a wide variety of sites: from paid (like Yahoo!) to free (like DMOZ, JoeAnt, and Gimpsy).  While I’m not sure if paying for a directory link is entirely worth it, you might as well submit to free directories, especially those specializing in your niche.

Affiliate or Client Links

Linking to your clients or to companies affiliated with yours is a great way to share the PageRank wealth.  By linking to them, you’ll very nearly guarantee a reciprocal link in return.

Buying links

While personally, I don’t see the point in buying links or even “renting” them, there are ways to purchase them without looking like a spammer.

Resource Links

I read an example a while back that stated it’s a good idea for a website that sells shoes to link to a site that sells shoe laces or shoe cleaner, because their customers are most likely also going to be interested in those products.  However, it would be unwise to also link to weight loss formula or male enhancement supplements – while their customers might also be interested in these products, it simply comes off as looking spammy.  Above all, you want to provide added benefits for your customers, right?  So why not become a resource and anticipate their needs?

Intrasite Links

Above all else, I think the goal of linking is to make the web user’s experience that much better.  So, if you can create links within your copy to other places in your site, then you should!

Links for calls-to-action (the cliché “buy now” or “click here” links) are especially important.  Links show the web user where you want them to click, therefore making the whole experience easier and better.

When possible, you want to use text-based links – with keyword rich anchor text.  This is simply because search engines like text-based links more than image links – they can essentially “see” them better.  However, if you have to use an image (say your logo for a home link), be sure to include descriptive alt tags.  It is thought that keyword rich alt tags do have search engine clout.

Can I have too many links?

Yes.  Think about it.  When a site’s content looks like this, it becomes distracting, unnecessary, and ultimately unhelpful.  As I said, the point of links is to help direct your user – you don’t want them to become overwhlemed in the process!

Nicki Hicks
Maine SEO

The short answer: no one really knows.
Sorry, I don’t have a copy of Google’s algorithms…do you?

Let’s think about it…

How about a “for instance”?  Let’s suppose that I link to a really interesting and relevant blogpost or article.  The author sees that I’ve linked to them, decides to read my blog, happens to be writing about a related topic as one of my posts, and links to it.  While this is not a reciprocal link, it is a mutual link.  In other words, these links provide benefits for both bloggers’ readers.

The issue is that we don’t know whether Google can tell the difference between mutual and reciprocal linking.  And how would they?  There are no “code footprints” to say whether two people got together and decided to give each other links or whether it happened naturally.

Google can, however, tell if you bought a link or through a link farm.  There are often bits of code associated with these exchanges that will serve as a tell tale sign to search engines that you purchased the link.

What’s important to remember

At the end of the day, links are meant to be helpful for your viewers.  I’ve talked about the importance of anchor text and how it should be keyword rich.  Equally as important is the site that you’re linking to and how relevant it is to the topic at hand.

While there are ways to buy links without looking spammy, I think your best bet is to simply link naturally.  You could also ask for links; both would result in more organic backlinks.

Yet, the question remains: what weight (or PageRank) does Google give mutual links vs. reciprocal links vs. paid links?

Nicki Hicks
Linker Au Natural

In a word, yes. Allow me to clarify by saying that anchor text is the actual word or words you use to link to other web pages (whether your own or external ones).  That means anchor text can only be a text link (so images don’t count); text links are found primarily in the navigation and copy of a web page.  Although image links do not have anchor text, they can have alt tags which, arguably, hold some search engine clout.  But that’s a topic for another time.

How do web users read web sites?

You might ask yourself – what does this have to do with anchor text?  Well, a lot actually.  You’ll see below that users look for links to click on when scanning pages.  This is important to note because adding descriptive, keyword rich links will help your users in their decision to click or not!

Navigation Anchor Text

Navigation and copy anchor text, while both anchor text, must be treated differently.  First of all, many SEOs believe that anchor text in the navigation holds more weight than that in the copy.  Therefore, you want to place your richest keywords there.

That being said, links still need to be user-friendly before search engine friendly and therefore be titled intuitively.  In other words, you want the links in your navigation to make sense – many are standard (like About Us and Contact).  Finally, there is an issue of space – so be sure the links in your navigation are short and sweet – you do not have the ability to even think about keyword stuffing here!

Copy Anchor Text

The fact of the matter is that while you do not want too many links within your copy, a good smattering is nice.  Even more importantly are the keywords you use for the links – they should be natural.  When writing, I tend to write everything first, noting where I want to place links.  Afterward, I’ll go through and choose the best set of words to use as links.  That way, I’m not consciously choosing which words to use for links.  At the same time, if no good words present themselves, I’ll add in good keyword rich anchor text.

Like navigation anchor text, those in the copy must still be titled intuitively.  However, let’s get away from the “click here” or “contact us” links, shall we?  When indexed by search engines, those don’t help anyone!  Take the opportunity to increase your visibility with a link like “Find out how to increase your Search Engine Visibility” or “Contact flyte for a free Search Engine Optimization consultation”.

Please don’t misunderstand me.  Entire sentences should typically NOT be anchor text.  However, the important words should be!

So…how do we know anchor text is important?

Well, for one thing, Google has even been reporting the matter for over a year now in their Webmaster Tools.  Plus, since Google holds their PageRank algorithm in such high esteem, we’ve learned that anchor text that is also important.  When asking for links, it is always good to suggest which keywords and phrases to use.

For help with deciding which anchor text you should use, contact flyte.

Nicki Hicks
Link Master

There are two major parts to SEO: on-page optimization (your copy, title, headers, descriptions, etc.) and incoming links.  Google measures incoming links with PageRank – essentially an algorithm that assigns a value to a web page from 0-10 most importantly noting how many incoming links that page has (0 being very few links and 10 being very many links).  PageRank is a contributing factor to Google’s overall ranking algorithm – however, the weight to which PageRank is held, no one knows.

What we do know is that incoming links are important.  So for a site that is new or maybe just doesn’t have many incoming links, how do you get more?!  Well, there are many things you can do…

First and foremost, identify which site(s) you want a link from.  It should go without saying that it/they should be related to your site or article – that way, you have related viewers who are interested in the topic(s).

After identifying links you want to pursue, contact the blogger or webmaster somehow.  Truth be told, it’s probably easier to engage a blogger rather than a webmaster; reason being you can comment on blogposts in a much more casual setting.  Just a few things to keep in mind when commenting:

• Get to know the blogger.
• Bring something to the table.  Don’t leave a quick “This was really intriguing” with a link to your site/blog.  (By the way, you get no link juice that way – links in comments are almost always nofollow-ed).
• Start a conversation.  Make the blogger think about what you have to say and possibly respond (that’s what your site’s link is for!)
• Don’t sell yourself…too much.  Sure, include a link back to your site in case they want to visit.  But leaving a comment that is 100% a marketing ploy reads as spam.

After leaving a few (intelligent) comments, contact the blogger directly and ask for a link.  Then, the same rules apply as directly contacting a webmaster.  When contacting a webmaster or blogger directly, then an email or a phone call (maybe both!) is in order.  There are many examples of link building letters out there.  Many of the rules of thumb are the same as leaving blogpost comments, with a few additions:

• If the person blogs or writes articles, and depending on the industry you’re in, you could suggest a review of your site/service/product.
• Spell check.  This is perhaps the easiest rule to overlook.  It’s easy to hit the wrong key, but be sure to read through your email before sending.  What looks more spammy than misspellings?
• Add a little something special, if you can.  If you’re a hotel and contacting a hotel critic, send along a coupon for a stay at your hotel.  If you’re an author looking for a book review, send a copy of your book.  Just like many things in life, you’re more apt to get what you want if you stand apart from the crowd.

Last but not least, return the favor.  Again, always be willing to offer a link in return.  As they say, sometimes it is better to give than to recieve.  Simply by giving links, you’re more likely to recieve them!

Nicki Hicks
Link Builder