Since it is easy for webmasters to manipulate the
information on their websites, search engines do not
rely solely on what they find on a webpage. Instead,
they also look at incoming links as a way to determine
the relevancy and popularity of a webpage/ website.
Incoming Links as Indicators of Relevancy
This is a “check and balance” mechanism used by search
engines to verify the accuracy of whatever webmasters
claim the content of their websites to be. For instance,
if a website is about “art,” yet the anchor of incoming
links refers to “football” or incoming links come from
websites on “football,” there is an inconsistency.
Incoming Links as Indicators of Popularity
The number of incoming links to a website is an
indicator of how popular that site is. Popularity is a
measure of credibility.
Incoming Links as Indicators of Credibility
The quality of incoming links will indicate to search
engines how credible a site is. All links do not have
the same weight. A link coming from The New York Times
is more powerful than a link from an unknown site.
Positioning of Incoming Links as Indicator of Support
Lent to the Links
Search engines will look at the positioning of links
leading to a site to determine how much weight to give
to that link. For instance, a link at the bottom of a
secondary page might not be worth as much as a link at
the top of a website’s home page.
Phrasing URLs Carefully
Keywords that
are found in URLs are strong indicators of the content
of the Web page. A major element of off-page SEO
is to review the various Web pages of a site to make
sure they have unique URLs that are descriptive of the
content of the page and that contain targeted keywords.
If possible, avoid dynamically generated Web pages.
Instead, stick to static URLs.
* * *
Overall, and to recapitulate, search engines rely on the
democratic nature of the Web to rank websites, except
for one thing. In a democracy, voters carry the same
weight; not on the Internet.
As discussed,
search engines rely heavily on incoming links to
determine the positioning of a website in their search
results. There are many ways to obtain incoming
links. You can:
buy links
(expensive);
do a
promotional stunt to get attention (hard to
accomplish and need creativity); or
exchange
links.
Link exchange
is one of the most important, if not the most important,
thing you can do to improve the ranking of your website
in search engines. Link exchange is also the great
equalizer online. Why? Because you don't
need to be rich or to have technical expertise to do it.
Link exchange
is first and foremost about networking online.
Anybody can do it, but as in the real world, you need to
manage relationships and be courteous. For
instance, if you approach a webmaster online, it counts
to be professional and responsive. For instance,
if you ask for a link exchange and the other person
agrees and adds your link on his/ her site, it is simple
courtesy for you to reciprocate within a short
timeframe. There is nothing more frustrating than
to be solicited for a link exchange, to add the link,
and then to have to go after the person who actually
initiated the exchange to press him/ her to add your
link.
A trick to
avoid the above and to show good faith is to add the
link of the person with whom you want to exchange links
first. When you send an email to that person, you
can let him/ her know of that fact. That is often
greatly appreciated and is an incentive for that person
to follow suit.
As you exchange
links, you will notice that not all links have the same
value. A link on a home page or a link on a page
with high Page Rank (PR) is worth more than a link on a
new page with zero PR. If you decide to ask where
you would like your link to be added on the other
person's site, try at least to offer an equivalent
exchange.
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