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The Power of Links in SEO

Written by: James Wells

Article Overview: Links are undeniably one of the strongest factors affecting search engine results. While both on-page and off-page links are indexed, it is the quantity and quality of off-page links that will directly affect your placement.

The Power of Links in SEO

I remember my early days in Real Estate, I was a "tech head", so I was pushing hard for an online presence. The best way, other than PPC, was reciprocal linking. Reciprocal linking gave me another pathway to my website for the end user. Google wasn't even close to the powerhouse it is today and other search engine algorithms had a tough time finding sites, unless there were several other sites out there that linked to them. Today it is more important to have "back links" which are one way links instead of the old fashion "link to me and I'll link to you".

Any SEO expert should explain a few facts to you about links:
1. Anchor text is important. If you see something that is blue and underlined like this- Web Design and Online Marketing Then you know it is a link to another site, even though it doesn't say the URL. It's important that it doesn't say the URL, it should say what the website is about, because the search engine bots will relate the anchor text to the site and improve the ranking for those keywords.
2. Not all links are created equal. Page Rank (PR) is the simple term used to describe the importance of a Web site. The higher the PR, the more important a Web site is considered to be. A link coming to your site from a PR6 is significantly more powerful than link coming from a PR4 site. It must also be noted that a link from a banned site (bad neighborhood) can actually hurt you.
3. Getting Links can be very tedious. Finding the sites to submit your link to, verifying the link, finding the right category, and writing the text for the links are all time consuming and at times very dull work.
4. Not all links can be seen by the search engines. Image links, javascript links, and other types of links without the proper coding can't even be read by the search engine bots and therefore won't help you improve your sites rankings.
5. Quantity vs Quality. I stated above that all links are not created equal, but if you get enough links from sites with low PR's it may still help you improve your keyword rankings. (just may not be the smartest approach)
6. Natural Links are awesome (sometimes). Natural links are the links you don't ask for, people create them on their own, either because you have a great site or a terrible one. In most cases natural links are a wonderful way to drive traffic to your site, but you also lose control over the anchor text. For example: A high profile individual gets a bad name and everyone links to the site using the term "idiot" in the anchor text. Unfortunately, their site will likely begin to rise in the search engines for that term.
7. Not everyone wants to link to you. Do you want the front page of your business website full of links to other companies? Neither to other Web sites. Finding the right sites is one of the biggest assets an SEO company can provide when it comes to proper link building.

There are several factors about links that will improve or reduce your ranking, but the ones listed above should give you a quick and easy explanation into the inner workings of SEO link building.

Related Articles
  Link Building Methods Types of Links
  Measure inbound links
  How to Use Link Building Packages Effectively
  Advanced SEO - the characteristics of a perfect incoming link
  Key Factors In SEO

Article Tags: search engine, search engines



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