Links are the soul of Online Marketing. The more number of incoming the better your position over SERPs. Though the fact is promulgated with respect to Google, it holds true to other search engines as well.
Generally, being human, we tend to choose the easiest and fastest way rather than the right way. This can be applied to link building campaigns.
Marketers and webmasters in an attempt to gain temporary rank in SERPs resort to every sort of link building process.
Understanding the inherent function of link building and its importance will help in planning and executing the perfect link building strategy.
Why are links so vital?
Links can be compared with votes. An individual provides his/her vote by linking to your content or page. Every link is counted as a vote by search engine.
Obviously, the content with higher number of links gains predominant position.
Is that it?
No. Link building might have been easy in the past decade. At present, it is more sophisticated and requires profound understanding.
Many marketers started to tweak the SERPs through manual link building. Therefore, search engines’ algorithms were further updated to ensure the elimination of affect through such manually generated links.
So what is the best way to build links?
The question cannot be answered in a sentence. Several factors should be understood while planning a link building campaign:
1) The incoming link should be from high authority sites
2) Link should be attributed as dofollow
3) Anchor text should be integrated within backlinks to increase the effectiveness.
Image credit : Marlith
High Authority Sites
No value at present can determine a high authority site. Marketers have vague calculations but they are theirs and not the ones used in search algorithms.
The best way to define high authority site will be to consider factors like Domain Authority, Page Rank, Incoming links, Alexa Rank etc. Ensure that all values of the above factors are at least above median.
However, if you are concerned and would require further shorter method of determining high authority sites then consider incoming links.
Consider site A with 100 links from other sites. On the other hand, consider site B that has 50 links. If you were to get links from both sites, the link gained through A will have higher potential than B. This is because A has been voted by 100 sites whereas B has only 50 votes making A better than B. However, the links mentioned in the above example are all considered as dofollow and accumulated from sites of similar standard. The result may vary depending from where site A and B gets incoming links.
Obtaining Dofollow Links
Dofollow links are the ones that pass on the link juice. Therefore, it is reasonable only to obtain dofollow links for higher SERPs. Some are of the opinion that nofollow and dofollow should be balanced.
This is unnecessary and proves the misinterpretation of nofollow attribute. The reason nofollow attributed came into use was to combat spam. When nofollow attribute is provided, it is like saying ‘I do not trust this source’. In other terms, it is like down voting of your site, though not exactly.
For conclusion, gaining only dofollow links will do you more good rather than any harm.
Integeration of Anchor texts within Backlinks
If anchor text is not used in your backlinks then half of its value remains unused. An anchor text provides detail to the search engines regarding the content of the page.
Furthermore, the search engines classify the page depending upon the anchor texts. The page starts showing up when related terms are searched. This helps in generation of organic traffic.
To conclude, the above facts can be used to come up with a perfect link building campaign. There is no necessity for surreptitiously building links as long as you are doing it right. Just remember that most facts are dissolved in myths as long as SEO is concerned. The distillation of facts is only possible through practical execution.
About the Author
Richie Richardson is passionate about Internet Marketing and SEO. He also writes about outsourcing web development and the need to hire expert wordpress developers.
About Richie Richardson
I have come to know recently that Google Penguin update is all about Anchor text in the backlinks. Backlinks from high-authority sites are very helpful to be on the top of search-engine.
Hi Divyanshu,
The info you have got is 100% true. However let me elaborate it.
Although it is about anchor text, it is also about the URL of the post/page. Let me show a practical example of what I am talking about.
Consider two pages of my forex site
a) /best-forex-signals-provider/ and
b) /forex-trading-software-system/
Both the above posts were promoted equally and in the same manner (guest posting). They have equal backlinks too.
For (a) I used the anchor text ‘best forex signals provider’ and for (b) I used the anchor text ‘forex trading system’.Both were ranking on the first page for respective keywords. Unfortunately, the post which was promoted by ‘forex trading system’ started to drop and eventually, it is nowhere to be found.
What I am trying to say is that if your post/page URL does not exactly match the keyword and you keep building with the anchor text then Google’s suspicion is roused.
On the other hand if the post/page URL matches with the Keyword/ Anchor text then you can focus to some extent.
Richie Richardson recently posted..Don’t Run for PR, Go for Authority Links and Never use the F Word
Hi Richie,
It is great article on back linking i have read so far.So many informative knowledge i have got from your article.For promoting the E- Business one has to adopt so many tactics and back linking is one of them.If penguin updates is being followed by google’s then anchor text will be taken in account .Thanks for the new information through your nice article I have got.
Hi Raj,
Thanks. Hope the above information helps in better running of your business.
Richie Richardson recently posted..Don’t Run for PR, Go for Authority Links and Never use the F Word
Hi Richie, I quite agree that you need high authority and DoFollow sites for your backlinks. I’ve found the SEOquake toolbar, which is free, invaluable for that. One question: why are the links placed on comments to your posts all NoFollow, including those placed by KeywordLuv? It kind of goes against your advice.
Leo recently posted..Additional Accountant Jobs
Hi Leo
My site is brand new. I had deliberately made those comment links Nofollow so that the page juice does not passes until the site attains a decent PR. The home page has just gained PR1 last week.
Richie Richardson recently posted..Don’t Run for PR, Go for Authority Links and Never use the F Word
Congrats on the PR1!
Leo recently posted..Accountant Salary by Industry
I agree, more do-follow links can’t harm and a balance of no-follow with do-follow is a myth. However, a no-follow link is better than no-link
) I’ve also read that it’s recommended to use different keywords in a do-follow link building campaign. I wonder if this is a myth as well.
Cristian Stan recently posted..Best Range Hoods Reviews 2012
Hi Cristian,
The use of different anchor text in link building is true. Then again it totally depends upon the title and the URL which is explained in detail in the above comment. I have also seen that EMD (Exact Match Domain) are an exception to this rule.
Richie Richardson recently posted..Can Bad Links Hurt You? Yes and No- Looking at the possibility of Negative SEO
Thanks for explaining this to me, Richie! Have a nice day!
Cristian Stan recently posted..Best Convertible Car Seats 2012
Hi Richie,
This is a very good explanation on links that is both easy to understand and follow. In fact, the layout is very well presented for beginners. When I was new to blogging (and eventually, SEO), I had a difficult time understanding about them probably because my resource often used jargons which for newbies were hard to understand.