SEO & Link Popularity

By now, you've heard of it - link popularity, reciprocal linking, inbound links, linking! Another major criteria that some search engines use to determine your site's relevance (the most notable of which is Google) - is whether or not other web sites that contain similar content link to your site. At the present moment, for your SEO campaign to be effective your web site must have other websites with relevant content linking to it. Google, MSN, Yahoo! and others currently employ the use of various link popularity analyses as a ranking critera, based on the premise that a web site that is linked to by other sites of similar interest is a web site that is considered relevant.. and that it is one that will be a valid search result to provide to a search engine user. Remember, the search engines are in the business of providing relevant search results - and the more relevant those results are, the better the user experience will be.

There are a lot of ways to earn link popularity for your website - however, some of these can actually harm your rankings. You would do well to avoid participating in link farms (FFA, or free-for-all link lists that you can add your site to), as these have become recognized by the engines, and by Google's anti-spam algorithm specifically, as red flags for spam - and can often get your site banned from their index. And it makes sense - if you have thousands of non-relevant links pointing to your site, that does not say much about the legitimacy of your content - you essentially have no "votes of confidence" from content peers. In fact, the major search engines have begun to aggressively penalize web sites that are deemed to be engaged in such linking strategies, so be on the lookout for such schemes.

The best way to get other sites to link to you is to provide a wealth of original, useful content, and start requesting links now. Begin researching and seeking links from related sites that might have an interest in giving their visitors access to your site's content. You can offer to provide a link in return if your site supports it, however "reciprocal" linking strategies have recently come under fire as potential spam - while the verdict is certainly still out, it is safe to say that you should restrict your reciprocal linking to those sites to which you have an absolutely valid reason to link (for example, if your site sells dog collars and you have a links page for additional pet supplies, it might look conspicuous if your third link down points to a computer rental company!).

A "links" page on your site will accommodate these links appropriately. If your web site has local appeal, most likely you would like to achieve rankings for some regional keywords ("personal trainers in Boston" for example). If this is the case, you can begin by creating a page for "Local Resources" so that you can link to other local web sites that might be of interest to your visitors. ... and You can also begin researching who's linking to your competitors' web sites-visit the sites that link to your competitors and see if there is a compelling reason for them to include a link to your site as well. Very often, webmasters are thankful when you help them to build a comprehensive resource site. For more information about our link building and development services, please contact us.