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Link Quality vs Link Quantity

Written by: Sarah Chantigian

Article Overview: Many web site owners have heard the terms link popularity, back links, reciprocal linking, needing links for rankings, and so on. What exactly does all this mean and what do you really need in terms of links for your web site's success?

Link Quality vs Link Quantity

Since my first web design in 1998, I've always added a "links page" on my client's sites. Many of them didn't bother to ask what that was, and I used this page as a place to house links from other sites that were linking back to mine. At that time, reciprocal linking was the way to go as a form of friendly networking and at the same time helped improve a web sites exposure on the internet.

A few years later, link popularity was the buzzword used in search engine marketing. The big 3 (Google, Yahoo and MSN) began to include link popularity into their algorithms as a way to determine what web site ranked better than another. Companies "specializing" in link popularity sprang up overnight, and banner ads strewed the web with offers of "submitting your site to 1,000s of links for free". It was link 'hysteria'.

So what do you really need in terms of links for your web site? Nowadays you have to be very careful in selecting where you submit your links. Search engines have become even wiser to determine what a good link is and what is not and too many bad links can cause your web site to drop, even disappear in its rankings.

Some will argue that only one-way links are the true method. This involves only a link coming in from a web site to yours and you not returning the link back. 3 way linking is another, newer method where a webmaster owns multiple sites and tries to build up traffic to one of their specific sites by offering link exchanges from their other sites back to the main site they are promoting. Sounds confusing? It can be, and is something I don't suggest you do. I believe 3 way linking is on its way to the 'black hat' trick list that so many of us SEO pros steer clear of.

A combination of both one-way and reciprocal linking is the best way to start. Stay away from sites that offer to submit you to 1,000s of links (often this is referred to as link farms or FFAs). Submit your site to both general and industry-related directories. If they require a reciprocal link, check them out a bit before doing so; do they rank well? Do they link to a lot of irrelevant sites or seem to just link to anything (Viagra, casinos, free posters?). Utilize a links page on your site. Call it links, useful resources, recommended sites, whatever.

Keep in mind, link popularity is a continuous process. You should be submitting to a handful of sites weekly or every 2-3 weeks. Some sites may not link back right away and it can take several weeks, even months for a search engine to crawl a website and recognize the link coming to your site. Submitting too many at once can also trigger a red flag to a search engine.

There are many methods and tools that can be used to successfully manage a website's link popularity.

Good luck and happy linking!

Related Articles
  Link Exchange Tips
  SEO Quality Vs SEO Quantity
  Carefully Choose to Whom You Link To
  Quality inbound links for traffic and ranking
  Automate your link building process for successful SEO

Article Tags: Google, link popularity, link popularity, reciprocal linking, search engine, web design, Yahoo



Related Forum Posts
Re: Using Craigslist SEO to Promote Your Website - [quote:372g7ueu]2) Trent: could you explain more about building solid backlinks? What constitutes as solid? Do you go to relevant articles and try to set up a link to your content that relates to that topic?[/quote:372g7ueu] Article marketing Guest blogging Blog commenting Link exchanges Directories Forums Link wheels Social bookmarking Link bait Quality content Also, you want your links to be keyword anchored if at all possible. Links from sites relevant to yours are better too.
Re: Search Engine Optimization - simply trying your hand at doing it yourself :- Directory Submissions - targeted links at high PR directories Blog and Forum Postings - to high PR and frequently crawled sites Social Bookmarking Classified Ads Article Marketing - submit to high PR directories, could also serve as link baits Link Exchange - with relevant sites authority sites Link Baits - for organic linking
Re: How to Promote a MLM Business? - Absolutely David. I have not read this book, but I familiar enough with Seth's work to know what you mean. This method does work, and quite well. The best part is, it lets you focus on Quality versus Quantity. You could follow some systems and have to weed through 20, 30 or more leads a day to find the 1 or two a week that are serious. Or, you can have that same 1 or 2 a week coming to you. Eventually it will be far more than that every week too.
Re: Upcoming inventors exhibition - Thanks Ringo, That was a great Link. Great information and contacts Regards
Re: Traffic! How do you get it? - Hi Robert, Yes you are right, the full name is Link Directory Submitter, I'm not sure when it happened but the site is owned by Tom Dahne and Paul Martin. regards, Mal.


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