In the first part of my series of discussions about the Search Engine Strategies Conference in NYC I went over some new PPC features in Google AdWords. To read that post please visit my Search Marketing in 2007: Part 1 Post. Part 2 will have an SEO focus and in this post I would like to proper link building techniques.
Links, Links, Links
Most of you already know how important links are in your SEO efforts so I want to go a bit deeper and get into proper link building, improper link building, and touch on Social Media link building efforts. Google and the other search engines use links as a vote for a site. This means that when the see a link to your site they count it as a vote for your site and use their algorithm to tally up those votes. Votes for your site along with a multitude of other factors are thrown into the algorithm, which decides where your site will be ranked in the SERPS. There are many different factors that go into how a link passes value to your site and through which search terms your site will be ranked.
Proper Link Building Techniques
All of the search engines are looking for links as part of their scoring algorithm. Each engines scores links differently but all include some sort of link popularity into how they rank a site. The main thing they are looking for is links that appear to be natural. What this means is they are looking for links that appear to be given because the site owner finds your site to be a valuable resource on a specific topic. The reps from the major engines all emphasized the need to offer unique content that others find useful for their users. Your main link building strategy should be to build content that is link worthy and build up those natural links.
Getting Indexed
Of course, when your site is not indexed it is difficult for others to find all that great content and engines rely on links to find your site to index it. All the engines offer a submission feature but in reality they really do not work well. You need to get some links for the engine to follow and find your site. Once your site is indexed other can find it and start linking to all of your wonderful content. The best way to get your first links is to find relevant directories and submit to them. Find directories that are human reviewed and well categorized. Make sure they are indexed in Google and the other engines by conducting a site:domain.com search and verifying that pages are indexed. Some good directories include DMOZ, Yahoo Directory, and the Real Estate Directories. Avoid directories that mention Page Rank or SEO benefits as many of these sites are being targeted by Google and their links are being discounted or not counted at all.
Anchor Text
When you start getting links it is important to make sure you use proper anchor text. Anchor text is the text on the page that holds the link. You should try to use this instead of just listing the URL. You want to try to use relevant keywords as anchor text as it will help the engines understand what your page is about and what you should be ranked on. It is also important to note that you should not use the same exact anchor text every single time. You want it to appear natural and you want to cover multiple variations of your keywords.
Deep Linking
Getting links to your home page is great but it is also important to get links to interior pages of your site. The engines will find the most relevant page for certain keywords and while your home page may be the most relevant for some terms there may be interior pages on your site that make more sense for others. That means there is a need to get links to those deep pages so the engines recognize them as being important and rank them accordingly. Many directories only allow home page linking so the idea of deep linking flows into the natural link discussion.
Natural Links
Once you are indexed it is important to start getting natural links. It would seem that there is little you can do to get natural links but that is where the Content is King theory comes into play. Like I said before it is important to have good deep content that benefits users and other site owners find useful for their visitors. You don't want your home page to be loaded with all of your content so it is important to make interior pages that are easy to find through links on your home page. This will allow users (and spiders) to find them. Interior pages can include articles, discussions about the area you represent, or anything related to your services. Just make sure the content is useful and UNIQUE. The theory is that when visitors find these pages they will find them important enough to link to from their sites.
Internal Links
This is something most people overlook. Internal linking is very important in a couple of different ways. First of all using proper internal linking strategies allows search engines to properly crawl your site and find all of your pages. It also helps users easily navigate your site and find your important pages. Another important aspect of internal linking is the ability to control your anchor text. By using relevant anchor text you can dictate to the engines what the page is about and what keywords it should rank for. An internal link is another vote for your site and using them properly is an easy way to let engines know about your site and the individual pages within it.
The ideas I presented here provide a high level road map on how to properly develop a link strategy and start on your link building campaign. It is important to note that there are many ways to go about building links (and many methods to avoid). In upcoming posts I will try to provide some specific link building techniques (like linkbaiting) and things to avoid when running tour link building campaign. Please check back for these discussion.
Comments(4)