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STEP BY STEP LINK BUILDING GUIDETop of Form
Section IWhy Search Engines Measure Links
PageRank and Links as Votes:Larry Page and Sergey Brin publicly pioneered the use of link measurement as an indicator of searchrelevance when they created the Google search engine. The initial idea behind their legendaryPageRank system was that a link to a particular page is equivalent to a vote by the linking page for thelinked-to page.As the theory goes, by measuring not only the keyword relevance on a page, but also the number of "votes" it had, you could accurately determine which pages were considered by the web's users to bemost valuable. Furthermore, links from web pages with high PageRank would be more valuable(considered more authoritative and reliable) than links from low PageRank pages.This initial model, while revolutionary, didn't consider the quality of on-page content, trust metrics orsemantic relationships and was thus extremely vulnerable to manipulation. Savvy link builders quicklyrealized that they could rank highly simply by building massive numbers of pages and interlinkingthem, or acquire high-ranking links on other sites.Improvements in Link Quality Scoring:Over the last 10 years, all of the major search engines adopted the link-based ranking model with somestylistic variation from engine to engine. The technology, quality and "intelligence" of the varioussearch algorithms continually evolve in an effort to improve the quality of returned search results.Anchor text is now considered when evaluating the relevance of a given link to the given keywords. If a site about Hamburg Restaurants has lots of links pointing to it with anchor text written as 'hamburgrestaurants', those links will provide greater value to the link recipient than links with anchor text suchas 'click here' (at least for searches on "Hamburg Restaurants"). We will discuss anchor text in greaterdetail in the next section.Semantic attributes of the on-page text surrounding links is also analyzed. For instance, if a link toHamburg Restaurants is in the middle of a page about theoretical physics as it relates to the study of Scientology, that link won't be considered as valuable as the same link with adjacent content aboutfood and drink, eating out etc.Search algorithms also consider relationships between linked sites. By analyzing things like IPaddresses, reciprocal links and domain registration information, the engines try to determine if the linksare valuable organic links, or if they are manipulative, artificial links created solely for rankingpurposes.Links as Quality Control:By using the methods discussed above to measure link quantity and quality, the search engines create aranking system that is much harder to manipulate than one based solely upon on-page factors. That isnot to say, however, that page structure and actual content are not evaluated. The link-based modelsimply places more importance on links based upon the theory that only well-designed, content-richpages will get high-value links from reputable sources.
 
Trusted Domains:Link factors such as anchor text, semantic relevance and page relationship certainly matter, but perhapsno factor matters as much as the trustworthiness of the domain providing you with your link. A singlelink from CNN or The New York Times is worth more "link-juice" than dozens of similar links fromno-name blogs and MySpace pages.Trusted domains have proven over time (ironically, through the acquisition of thousands of trustedlinks) to be worthwhile and reliable sources of quality information about their given subject matter. Assuch, when the search engines see that these sites link to you when discussing your area of focus, theypay attention. This tells the engines that a reliable and trusted source thinks you are an expert and youoffer content that's extremely relevant to the topic.Think about it this way: If the Weekly World News runs the headline 'Two-headed Dragon Boy Bornin New Jersey,' would you take it seriously? No? What if the same headline was on the cover of Timemagazine? In nearly everyone's mind, the Time link to 'Two-headed Dragon Boy Born in New Jersey'is far more valuable and credible than the same story from the Weekly World News.This is why we don't go into a state of shock when we see bizarre WWN headlines every week in thegrocery checkout line: they're simply not reliable for anything other than a laugh. In the online world,the search engines use their artificial intelligence algorithms to make similar determinations. Thus, 50links from Moe-does-Mortgage.com is not nearly as valuable as one link from Bankrate.com or CNN'smoney.com.This is a self-perpetuating process on the web. The more trusted, valuable links your site receives, themore trusted and valuable your site (and the links you give) becomes.
Section IIAn Introduction to Link Building
Fundamental Properties of a Link:If you're reading this (and you are) then chances are you know what a link is. As such, we're going toskip the lecture on HTML and the structure of the Internet (it's a series of tubes). What we will discussare the important on-page and structural characteristics of links that can help make them mosteffective: anchor text, link location and link intention.Anchor Text:Anchor text is the actual text that visitors click on to follow a link. Below are three examples of anchortext for a link to the SEOmoz homepage:1. For great info about search engine optimization, check out http://www.seomoz.org/ . 2. For great info about search engine optimization click here.3. Here's a great resource for info about search engine optimization.Of these examples, both 1 and 3 have distinct advantages over number 2. Number two provides a link(which is good) but it offers absolutely no semantic value. SEOmoz isn't a respected resource on"click" or "here." These aren't keywords or search terms anyone would use to find SEOmoz, thereforethere's no keyword benefit conveyed by this anchor text.Example 1 does contain SEOmoz's name (since it's in the domain name). This helps some, but chancesare we wouldn't need much help if someone were searching for 'SEOmoz' directly. Note though thatconstructing concise, relevant URLs for the pages on your site can help, not only for links of this style,but for keyword relevance in search engine spidering. If an article page has the URLwww.seattleboatours.com/article/121.html, it conveys no value about the content of the article,
 
whereas www.seattleboatours.com/articles/holiday-cruises.html provides context and relevance toanyone searching for "holiday boat cruises."Example 3 is certainly the best of the three because it not only provides the link but it also offersadditional semantic relevance. If the search engines see that a lot of links to SEOmoz use anchor textsuch as 'search engine optimization,' they will quickly recognize that other web pages think SEOmoz isa relevant source for information related to those keywords. Whenever possible, links that carrysemantic value (such as example 3) are preferable.URL Location:This refers to where in a site's page structure your link is found: shallow or deep. Shallow links arelinks to your site's homepage or top-level category pages. Deep links, on the other hand, are links tomore specific pages such as individual articles, blog posts, tools or other content.Deep links are usually the result of people finding your deep page content useful and wanting to shareit with their visitors. Search engines like these types of links; they're natural and often more valid.Shallow links, when too prevalent, tend to look spammy to the engines. If hundreds (or thousands) of sites are linking to you, and more than 80% link exclusively to your homepage, the search engines maycast suspicion on the "validity" of those links. Aggressive link builders would be wise not to abusehomepage-only linking. Keep in mind that this is much more important for larger sites since small sitesdo not have much inherent depth.You can check your deep link percentage by visiting Yahoo! and performing a link search. Type in thesearch as "linkdomain: www.yourhomepage.com" using your homepage URL.Also important is the location of the link on the linking page. Are you being linked to from someone'shomepage, an advertising page or a relevant, high-quality content page? Links from a link directory oradvertising pages are often paid, reciprocal or otherwise externally influenced and therefore lesslegitimate than deep links from within actual content or more specific, topical pages.Conversely, the more popular, specific and well-linked-to the page is that links out to you, the morevaluable that link will be.Link Intention:What you should always keep in mind when considering the relative search engine value of a givenlink is: how will the engines view this link's value to searchers? What is the linking page's intention?If it's a link indicating you as a source or a reference on a particular topic, the value is high. If it'ssending someone to you for more information or to buy something, it could be valuable depending onthe needs of the searcher. If it's one link of many in a directory, it may be helpful (depending on theexclusivity and trust of the directory). If it's a link influenced by money, relationships or other lesstrustworthy motivations, search engines will try to find algorithmic ways to prevent it from passingvalue. That's not to say it won't help your ranking now, but over time, engines have gotten better andmore efficient at measuring the quality and intention of link patterns.
Section IIIWhy Build Links?
As we've just discussed, many link building efforts in the SEO world are done to improve a site'ssearch engine rankings: Links as votes, as trust, as rank-building influencers, etc. There are, however,other reasons to build links as wellGaining Direct Traffic:Oddly enough, search engine spiders aren't the only ones that see links to your site. Web users visitingsites can and (hopefully) do click on those links, generating direct traffic to you. Once again though,it's worth your while to focus on quality links from relevant pages. How often have you actually
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Vijay Kumar Svu

great share keep posting u can find related books at www.bookadda.com

reply04 / 29 / 2012
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