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Link Building - The Waiting Game

Written by: Daria Goetsch

Article Overview: Link building is a waiting game. Many clients have asked me why they do not see changes in traffic or ranking before a month goes by. It takes time for the search engine robots to find those new links and index the pages they are linked to.

Link Building - The Waiting Game

Link building is a waiting game. Many clients have asked me why they do not see changes in traffic or ranking before a month goes by. It takes time for the search engine robots to find those new links and index the pages they are linked to.

The Process Of Indexing Links

Links are what make the World Wide Web go round. Links are how we travel through the web pages of the World Wide Web. The indexing, or spidering, of links on a web page is like the indexing of pages that you submit directly to the search engines. In order for your link to provide link popularity back to your website, the page the link is on must appear in the search engine databases. The search engine robots must index the web page to be included into the search engine databases. If the web page is already in the search engine database, it is a matter of indexing the updated information on the web page and having that link show as a backlink in the search engine results.

Why Do I Have To Wait So Long For Results?

When it comes to link building, it is quite simply a slow process. Even if you pay for a link, the page the link is on still must be indexed by the search engine robots in order to be included in the database, thus showing up in the search engine results. The search engines have their own timetable as to when and how often they index new links on web pages.

What's A Backlink?

A backlink is a spiderable link (typically a text hyperlink) that points from another web page to your designated web page. The preferable type of backlink is one that is topical in nature. If your web page and keywords focus on gardening books, you would want to have backlinks from other gardening websites, especially gardening book sites.

Finding Backlink Results

The search engines vary in how they show your backlinks. Google has limitations on what links show up in their backlinks; generally you will not see all of your backlinks in the Google listing. Yahoo! generally shows most of your backlinks, it picks up most pages that link to you.

To find your backlinks in Google you would typically use a search like link colon yourdomainname dot com. Google Webmaster tools has a links section that show the true number of backlinks pointing back to each page of your website. To use this you must sign up for a Google account to access Google Webmaster and Google Analytics tools. Yahoo has Yahoo site explorer available so you can view your backlinks, you can sign up for a Yahoo account to use this tool.

This should show the links you have pointing back to your web page. If this search does not work in the search engine you are using, try using the advanced search feature of the search engine to find the correct syntax.

For an overall report view of your backlinks, visit marketleap dot com and click on the Link Popularity Check link in the Free Search Engine Marketing Tools section. Marketleap has benchmarking for industries so you can see how you compare to others in your industry. They also allow you to add in competitor website addresses so you can see how high your competitor's link popularity is compared to your website. Once you run the report you will be able to see how many backlinks show for the search engines listed. You can also enter your top competitors' websites in this query and see their backlink results along side of your own results. As with any software tool, use it as a guide, not as absolute factual information.

Is The Linked Page In The Database?

You can check to see if the page your new link is on is in the search engine database by performing a search like info colon yourdomainname dot com to see if the link page is indexed in the search engine results. To see if the the new link is showing up you need to use the tools mentioned above to know if the link is working yet.

Of course, to find out if you are listed in a directory, you must click through the categories to the category you submitted your information to. To speed up your search, look for the directory link results that usually accompany regular search results at directories by searching for your domain name or company name. If you are listed in the directory, the next step is to wait until the link is indexed by the search engine robots and shows up in the search engine results and your backlink results.

Waiting For Results

Link building is time consuming and you must wait to see the full results. Work on your content as well for natural linking from other websites. Use search engine optimization in combination with link building for optimum results. Think of link building not as an immediate payoff but as a long-term goal to better your overall ranking in the search engine results.

Related Articles
  SEO and Link Building
  Link Popularity
  Link Popularity
  Define a link building strategy
  Quality inbound links for traffic and ranking

Article Tags: backlink, backlinks, gardening books, google, link popularity, search engine database, search engine databases, search engine results, search engine robots, search engines, spidering, text hyperlink, timetable, traffic, waiting game, web page, web pages, world wide web, ya



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