Internet Marketing: More On Links (And Moron Links)

One of the biggest Google ranking factors is incoming links to a website, also called backlinks. More specifically, Google considers the number, the quality, the content relevance, the trust factor, and the "weight" of the links coming to your website, as well as what are likely less important aspects like recency.

Many people trying to improve their rank on Google for their search terms get involved with trying to increase the links to their website. This is generally seen as a difficult and time-consuming task. Before you start it is important to have a general appreciation of each of these aspects:

Number of Links: Having a lot of links to your site is good, but not necessarily great. Historically (in ancient optimization history, like 10 years ago) people would request links from other webmasters. This is no longer done except with partner sites since no one really cooperates any more. Here is what is done now to increase (or decrease) links.

Directories: Adding your website listing to directory websites has been a popular SEO tactic over in the last 10 years although it has waned a bit. Google has waffled on the value of this: At one point they said they discounted all directories as having no value, but they have backtracked a bit since there were obviously a few directories providing good value – some of which were owned or supported by Google. Currently they say that directory listings can have some value if the directory site also provides free listings. That brings us to the next item: Buying links. In general, getting links from directory listings where you only get your name and contact information along with a hundred other companies on the same page qualifies as a "moron link".

Buying links: Presumably it is strictly verboten to sell/buy links in order to build ranking on Google. In fact, they encourage people to rat out other companies who they suspect of buying/selling links! This is likely because they have a hard time detecting it in some circumstances. The fact is that it goes on all the time, either explicitly or implicitly. Google has allowed some form of payment for directories. Obviously Google discounts links that come in from advertising, although they probably use it somehow in rankings.

Media sites: Media websites are a top target of link development today. Press releases, articles, etc. are all good sources of links. This might be considered the current target of choice for link development instead of directories. For more information, see Alan Gladish's article in this same issue.

Viral content: This is deemed content on your website that is so inspiring or interesting that people share it and want to create links to your website. In the B2B world this can be hard to do, but there are some types of content that are more viral in nature, and hence more likely to foster link development. Blogs and forums are useful. Technical content of general interest is usually good – like industry standards, regulations, industry news, etc.

Link farms: Some webmasters create networks of websites that link to one another. This can be tricky for Google to detect in some circumstances since it can also be a valid thing to do. General Motors, for instance, has a lot of websites for its brands and they link together. Other companies have taken it a lot farther and it is possible to join link farms. But like Groucho Marx not being willing to join any club that would accept him as a member, you should be wary about joining any link farm that would solicit you by promising dozens of instant links (automatic "Moron Link").

Nofollow, noindex, robots.txt, bounced links, etc: There are a lot of ways to provide a link that has no search ranking value (another "Moron Link" category). This will be the topic for a future posting – or you can call me if you need to know right away.

Photos, videos, and the like: This is a burgeoning source of links that holds promise for many companies and merits further research.

Quality of Links

Content relevance: If a linking web page is thematically related to your website, or otherwise uses the exact terms being used in your website, the value to your ranking for that content or search terms is elevated.

Trust factor: If links come from web sites/pages with high trust factors (universities, government, and to a lesser extent websites not involved in any search engine hanky panky) the link is likely worth more.

Weight (or PageRank): If the link comes from a page with a high PageRank (named after Larry Page, one of the founders of Google), it can provide more value. This is the measure of how much of a node the page is within the Internet (see Wikipedia for a definition). PageRank can be identified by installing the Google toolbar on your website using the PageRank option. Oftentimes, it is more useful to see pages without any PageRank, since that is where your link opportunities usually come from. If there is zero PageRank, there is not likely to be a lot of value from that webpage, but sometimes that's the only target you get.

Well, if that was more than you wanted to know about links, give Praxis a call so we can handle the endless details involved with the optimization of your website. Got a question? Email me at jblair@praxisagency.com.