Link Development
Link development is one of the most important and challenging aspects of search engine optimisation (SEO).
With the dominance of Google and its PageRank algorithm link development has gained in importance over the years. In Google's own words:
“PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages ‘important’.”
Quality is more important than quantity. PageRank considers the text in the link, the text around links, the value of sites linking in, the relevance of sites linking in and many more aspects. Some of the factors that increase the ‘value’ of a website are: a plethora of useful and fresh content, high Google PageRank, a significant amount of inbound links and useful outbound links. Relevancy means that a website for a hotel would benefit more from a link from a tourism website than it would for a link from a furniture removalist.
Quality is more important than quantity
Active Link Development
As part of our link development program we would approach:
- Authority Websites: High ranking websites for a particular industry, typically organisational or informational resource websites.
- Directories: Websites listing and categorising other websites.
- Educational and Government Websites: A higher weighting is often given to links from these websites.
- Media Websites: News sites, useful for articles and press releases linking back to the target website.
- Social websites: A Web 2.0 site dependent on user generated content. Forums and comments with signature lines can be an effective tool to gain exposure.
Link Bait
Apart from actively developing inbound links another way to build links it to make the website so interesting and useful that people want to link to it. It falls back to the maxim: ‘Content is king’.
Types of content that naturally promote links include:
- Whitepapers: Informative, essay-style papers about a particular topic. When the subject matter is relevant and interesting they can generate links. Interested parties may link to them, bloggers and forums may discuss them and link to them and news sites can note and comment on them.
- Articles: Short news or editorial articles Again, these are often picked and discussed by interested parties, blogs, forums and news sites.
- Controversial Topics: Controversial items can attract a lot of attention and links. Not suitable for every site they can be effective.
- Creative Content: Catchy, creative content can lead to natural links. i.e. contests, games, top ten lists, stories, image galleries, slideshows.
- Tools: Website tools can make a the site useful and can be a good source of links. They can require a greater investment of resources but they can have significant long-term benefits.
- Vanity Content: People like to see themselves and hear about themselves and then share it with others. For example a visitor sees their photo on a website, links to it, then emails friends and families.
What Next?
To learn more about how our search engine optimisation service can help you please contact us.