Proper
Link Strategy:
Seven Red Hot Tips for Linking!
Also
see: Why
a Good Link Strategy Makes a BIG Difference!
1.
Vary the keywords in your link 'anchor' text
Unless
you provide only one product or service the chances are you
will want to rank for many key phrases. One way to help achieve
this objective is to change the link text you want all new sites
to use periodically. Vary the anchor text slightly each time
and by doing so you can cover more of your targeted key phrases.
This approach can help your site rank for many keywords rather
than just one or two.
If
you do only provide one product or service on your web site
it is still important to vary anchor text. If you sell 'blue
widgets' then you could also use link text like 'cheap blue
widgets' or 'blue widget store'. This means your links take
on a more natural feel and are much less likely to be penalised
or filtered out by search engines for being 'fake links'.
2.
Set up your link information differently - create a link in
context
Typically
people set up their link information in a very similar way,
however you could offer your link information with the hyperlink
inside the description instead of at the beginning.
Imagine
this is a description about your web site on a partner's link
page. Instead of a typical hyperlink followed by a description
you could write a sentence describing your web site and then
place "your descriptive hyperlink" inside it.
One
reason for doing this is that it reads more naturally and search
engines may value the link higher as it reads more like a narrative.
Many webmasters will be happy to accept this style even if some
do not. To cover yourself offer the link in context as a second
option along with your regular link information, that way if
some sites can't support the layout you still get your link.
3.
Vary where your links point
Try
to vary where link partners point to on your site. It's fine
to have the majority of links pointing into your home page,
however it can be beneficial to have some links pointing to
other key pages on your web site as well. Taking this approach
balances out your linking and can help raise the profile of
more pages on your web site.
4.
How to find potential link partners from your competitors
If
a web site links to your competitors it may also link to yours,
and in order to find these potential link partners you can use
search engines. Not so long ago Google was useful for getting
a lot of back link information about a site. Recently Google's
back link data is a lot less forthcoming and it now tends to
show only a tiny percentage of the sites that are linking combined
with a lot of internal link data. Whether the few web sites
Google shows us are the ones it finds important or whether they
are in fact red herrings we cannot say for certain. I would
assume the latter.
Currently
Yahoo is a better portal to check for backlinks. To generate
a list of linking web sites on Yahoo simply go to http://www.yahoo.com
and type the following into the Yahoo search bar.
linkdomain:www.mycompetitorwebsite.com
This
will deliver up to date link information as read by Yahoo. The
only downside with the information is that one site may appear
many times if it is giving multiple links.
5.
Alternate your description text
This
is often overlooked, but there is no real advantage to be had
if the description text supporting your inbound links is always
identical. To avoid the possibility of a description ever being
seen as 'duplicate content' alternate it when you can. If you
combine it with varied anchor text [as in tip 1] you're heading
in the right direction.
6.
Link to good related content from your web site
It
seems like an obvious thing to say, but with so many people
caught up in link exchanging you sometimes wonder if we're losing
site of the basics. If you have something useful to say on your
site and can back it up with a useful link to another web site
then do so. Not every link has to be reciprocated. This resourceful
linking will allow your visitors to read around the subject.
Linking to informative related content is useful for visitors
and search engines quite like it too.
7.
Seek out directory links
Links
from good web directories can be some of the best links you
can get for your web site. Aaron Wall has a -directory of directories-
at http://www.directoryarchives.com where you will find a great
selection of search engine friendly directories. Some of the
directories are free to get listed in whilst others may charge
a fee.
See: Web
Directories for an extensive list of free directories
SEO
Elite™ 3.2
literally reveals the winning linking structures of
any of your competitor's websites. So you can copy
how they're doing it and improve on it to grab a coveted top-10
search engine spot. Read
More...
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About
the Author: Gareth Davies is a web design consultant based in
London, UK. For information on web design services please visit
http://www.garethsketty.com
or if you have any questions about this article or its contents
please email Gareth at garethsketty at yahoo.co.uk.