Do Not Ever Link to a Site Without Doing This First!

Links are a crucial part of attaining high search rankings, but you must be very careful about to whom you link. I'm going to help you develop a simple link strategy for your website that will help you decide which sites to link to so you're making your way up the search engine rankings and not accidentally hurling yourself backwards.

So the natural questions are:

Should I link to everyone I can find?

Should I allow everyone to link to me?

Should I get one of those "link to 2,000 site for $10" things?

The answer to all of the above is NO!

Develop A Link Strategy

We're going to do an easy-to-digest version of what a search engine optimizer would do if you were to hire one. There are many reasons for having your site professionally optimized which would take up articles in themselves. This is one of the attack strategies for determining optimum, quality links for your site.

Step 1 Where are your competitors linked?

Don't arbitrarily find random sites that you like and link to them. A little bit of research goes a long way. Start with your competitors. Type the keywords for your site into a search engine. You have them, right? This is the list of key word phrases that you want to score the number one position when someone types them in a search. Who appears in the top 10 positions? They're your direct competition that is doing something right or they wouldn't be coming up first. So let's look underneath and see how they got it to work and save you a year of work!

Go back to your search engine and type "link:www.competitorsite.com". Up will pop a long list of sites that have a direct link to your competitor. Do this for your top 10 competitors. Do you see any trends in those results? Do you see any similar sites, or perhaps directory listings? Take some notes. A spreadsheet or a few sheets of loose-leaf paper is helpful and analyze what you've uncovered. You should have a good solid list of links that are helping your competitors rank high!

Step 2 Search for similar themed sites.

Look at your keyword list again. Do these words appear more so on any of the pages you have listed so far? Narrow down your list to sites that have at least the same theme or related content to yours. Even your competition will have quite a few odd links.

If there are 300 links to a site that sells pumpkins, it's natural to have a car dealer or an airline in there too. Chances are they were so pleased with their pumpkin purchase that they added the site to their own web page. You can disregard these right away.

Take your list and look at the potential link site for similarities to your topic. If in the pumpkin market your competition links to a site that tells all about how to cook pumpkin seeds, see if you can find other sites that tell how to make pumpkin pie, make jack-o-lanterns AND cook pumpkin seeds. Make a list of these sites as potentially better ones.

Step 3 Look at the Google Page Rank

You can find a page's page rank by looking at your Google tool bar if you have it installed or by going to a site like http://www.top25web.com/pagerank.php. The actual importance of Google Page Rank to Google searches in particular seems to depend on whom you talk with. It shouldn't be the make or break, but it can help to choose between several similar sites if your unsure of which one to go with.

Page Rank is more of a relative scale of the number and quality of links to a site. The higher the rank, the higher the number. The lower, the worse. It's not unheard of for a link from a site with a Page Rank of 6 or 7 to boost up a low score by a couple numbers. This seems to, at least in Google's case, get a site indexed much faster. And the faster you're indexed, the faster you can start climbing.

Step 4 How many sites link to your selections so far and how good are they?

The more links a site has pointing to it, the more important it appears to be to the search engines. Say your looking at company ABC to put a link on their site to you. Let's first see how many sites link to company ABC. (Just as you looked at your competition). We know search engines place more weight on sites linked to you that have similar content. Now the big search databases seem to know what kind of content is on those linking pages.

Using the pumpkin model, if your potential target is teaming with 100 inbound links from gambling, girls, horses, moons, leprechauns and horoscopes then throw it in the trash pile fast, even if it has a Page Rank of 8 (very rare).

Find that site that has 10 links good, quality links to it. From a pumpkin farmer, a vegetable recipe blog, Halloween and Thanksgiving festivities, how the first settlers used the pumpkin to build houses, etc and has a Page Rank of 5. This is the better choice. Quality, related themes and content to your site and keywords outweighs quantity of random, useless links.

Step 5 Your final list

Don't think you can do this in an hour, or a day! It's quite a bit of work just to find good, potential targets. Here's a bonus? when you have your finished your first wave a link possibilities, here's great way to give it a solid foundation.

Find some relevant directories to list with. Directories of a given theme will have many, many similar links pointing to it. Directories are usually considered to have Authority. (It's not uncommon to have to pay a fee for the good ones anyway.) Try to find a directory of pumpkin farms and pumpkin recipes to build your other links upon.

Another bonus. Avoid this mistake at all costs! Do NOT link to Link Farms or Free for all sites or any sites that will give you 1000 links for $10. These are not directories, but collections of completely unrelated links that exist solely to try to boost search engines rankings. Search engines ban many of these sites. The consequences of being listed with a banned site could ban you, and then you're doomed. The only way to succeed is to build your links honestly and strategically with a plan and method.

Note: Search engines give more weight to one-way links rather than reciprocal links. i.e. links that link to your site without asking for one in return. The easiest way to get these is to buy them. This plan will work on all the different kinds of links you can get.

So now you have some potential sites to link to. In the next article learn how to phrase your link for maximum effectiveness. The sites to link with is only the first half? the quality of the words you use that make up the link's content called anchor text are just as crucial! Hint: using the same link in every web site is a very bad idea. See you soon!

John Krycek is the owner and creative director of theMouseworks.ca. Read more articles on the insights and secrets of web design and development and search engine marketing in easy, non-technical, up front English!

---

SEO Expert Guide - Keyword Analysis (part 3/10)

If you imagine that building an optimized site is like... Read More

Web Site Copy is about More Than Keywords

Let's say you are writing a web site to sell... Read More

7 Simple Steps to Spy on Your Online Competition and Acheive a High Page Rank

My Grandfather ran a small Grocery Store and when you... Read More

Ten Critical Website and Search Engine Promotion Mistakes

When it comes to promoting your website, you might think... Read More

How Do I Improve My Web Site Conversion Rate? Part 1

Question 1.What do you mean by conversion? Do you mean... Read More

The Reality of Search Engine Submissions

Over the last few months, search engine submissions have changed... Read More

Part I : Getting Free Hits Using These Simple Tips & Tricks

Search Engine OptimizationSearch engines still remain the #1 tool to... Read More

The Easiest Way to Your Google Sitemap

Google Sitemaps is a new tool for website owners and... Read More

SEO Help: Dont Try to Fool the Search Engines

Writing articles is all the rage these days on the... Read More

Put the Full Power of Google to Work with 11 Google Power Search Tips

Google has many ways to help you find want you... Read More

An SEO Checklist

Search engine optimization is on every webmaster's mind these days.... Read More

What are My Chances to Get the First Place in Search Engine Listings?

You must have heard the stories how people became rich... Read More

Website Submission - What You May Not Know About Search Engine Indexing

Getting your website listed in the search engines is relatively... Read More

The Role of the Robots.txt File to Improve Site Ranking!

Not many web master take the time to use a... Read More

Twelve Steps to Higher Search Engine Placement

Recent studies suggest that more than 80% of new visitors... Read More

Keyword Research And Overture

Many of us who build websites get in the habit... Read More

Google vs. Yahoo -- How To Rank High On Each One

Google likes incoming links, especially links from high-ranking, on-topic pages... Read More

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Fix Your OnPage!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is something you should be aware... Read More

Goofy Mistakes that Hurt Your Search Engine Rankings

One thing is for sure, you don't want to spend... Read More

Dont Focus Too Much on Your Internet Business Website Ranking

No doubt, having a high search engine ranking is very... Read More

SEO #5: Analyzing the Top Ranked Website on Google

Yesterday you should have read the forth course out of... Read More

The 3 Essential Components of a Search Engine Optimization Campaign

Everyday, the Search Engines average 300 MILLION searches. In a... Read More

Why Fear? Now Change Your Filenames Without Disturbing Search Engines/Visitors And Rank Well

By now, you know that to rank well in the... Read More

Rock Your Rank With a Dynamite Text Link - Yahoo Directory Explodes Rankings

Last week a client called me excitedly exclaiming that their... Read More

Google Sitemaps Explained - How To Use Google Sitemaps

Three Ways To Index Your Site With Google Sitemaps [Difficult,... Read More

Why You Need a SEO Maintenance Plan

A search engine optimization maintenance service plan will ensure that... Read More

Optimizing Online Catalog Copy for the Search Engines

It only makes sense. You have an e-commerce catalog site.... Read More

How Ive Maintained 7 Top Ten Google Rankings For Nine Months

Back in November 2004 I discovered a way to get... Read More

Search Engine Optimization - A Beginners Guide

Getting your site listed in the top search engines, such... Read More

The Life Blood of Internet-Based Home Businesses...Search Engines

Anyone involved in an Internet-based home business will soon come... Read More

Search Engine Optimization for Dummies

Lets face it. Search Engines rule the World Wide Web... Read More

How To Select The Right Keywords

Keyword SelectionThe most important component of search engine optimization is... Read More

The Top 3 Mistakes That Can Ruin Your Websites Search Engine Rankings- and How to Fix Them!

Getting your website up and running is hard enough. After... Read More