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Computer Help
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Lets talk specifically about link building, and how this
tactic is a critical component to successful search engine optimization. For
those unfamiliar with this tactic, link building is the process by which you get
incoming links to a website. Link Building is initiated to get incoming links to
a website from other websites. The whole purpose behind link building is to
improve the link popularity of a website, or to improve the number of incoming
links to a website.
The reason link building is so important to high organic positioning is that all
the major search engines use link related variables in their ranking algorithms,
the complex equations that evaluate a site on a myriad of factors and then use
this data to determine which sites appear where on the results pages.
So what incoming link related variables do the search engine algorithms
consider?
- Number of Links
- Quality/Origin of Links
- Relevance of Links
- Anchor Text Within Links
- Links Must Present Value to Users
Confused? Let me explain. Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask all consider the number,
quality, and relevance of incoming links to your site when determining its rank
,Incoming links are those links that point to your web site. Google has a system
called Page Rank, and the other engines operate within similar frameworks.
Google has stated, "Page Rank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the
web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's
value." In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by
page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or
links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast
by pages that are themselves 'important' weigh more heavily and help to make
other pages 'important.'"
Thus, the sites with the most links, or votes, must naturally be the best pages
for the information being searched for. Think of it as a digital form of
never-ending natural selection; the sites with the best content are linked to
more often, boosting their search engine positioning, which in turn, makes them
more visible to searchers who will continue linking to them more often.
So, two sites that are both about web design are differentiated by the
number of incoming links they've obtained. If site A has 135 incoming links, and
site B only has three, site A will dominate site B in the search engine results.
Yet not every link helps.
your links need to be from quality sites that share some degree of relevancy
with yours. The major engines are all conscious of the origin of these links,
and lately, they've been known to penalize sites that build massive networks of
irrelevant links. This penalization stems from something known as link farms,
which were created in the late 1990s for SEO purposes. Link farms would sell
links to sites, but none of these links presented any real value to users. Now
the major engines evaluate a site not only on the number of links, but the
quality, relevance and origin of these links. For example, a site supporting
content about garages would be a great linking opportunity for a auto parts
site, while a cat food site would most likely incur a penalty.
Lastly, the anchor text of your incoming links needs to be optimized in order
for the search engines to know what kind of site this link directs a user to.
Anchor text is the colored or underlined text that indicates the existence of a
link.
For example, if you own a Japanese sushi restaurant in Denver, you don't want
links that point to your site to say something vague like "Denver restaurant."
While this is true, it won't help you get ranked for the key phrase you want to
be ranked for.
Instead, have your links' anchor text say "Japanese Cuisine and Sushi Restaurant
in Denver." Not only is this more specific and better for users, it allows the
search engines to better determine the relationship between the content of your
site and the links that point to it.
In order for marketers to take advantage of Web 2.0 technologies, we need
to focus on CONTENT. Through content we engage the market, and create
opportunities to build trusting, valued relationships with customers while
maintaining a branded message. Remember that your content must be aligned online
and offline to maintain a similar user experience, look, and feel. Many
companies have incorporated content management systems into their web presence
to allow for instantaneous content generation and modification.
There is no debate that Web 2.0 has brought with it a fundamental shift in user
expectations. Traditional marketing messages don't matter anymore. Marketing 2.0
is more about encouraging purchase decisions through content than forcing them
through traditional media.
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Computer Help
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