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