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Link building best practice for SEO

Google view the number of third-party sites wishing to link to your website as a mark of your relevancy, standing and value to Google customers.

This makes in-bound links about as important to your SEO as the previous section on page content optimisation.

Although link building may have historically been a natural process in your site’s development, a much more proactive approach to link building will deliver you a better ranking on SERPs.

See some of the factors believed to be used by Search Engines to assess the value of links.

 

Key facts about PageRank and Links:

  1. The more in-bound links a page has, the higher its potential PageRank.
  2. Sites that achieve a sudden increase in in-bound links are viewed suspiciously, so a natural growth of links is recommended.

    Some sites break the natural pattern by being viral instant-successes. Although these are hard to differentiate from link-spammed sites, there are still tell-tale signs.

    Sites that go viral achieve coverage from blogs, forums, newsgroups, as well as the normal run-of-the-mill websites. So when you are conducting a link-building campaign it is highly beneficial to implement activities that will generate this sort of interest.

  3. Consider the distribution of in-bound links on your site

    Search engines expect the majority of links to be on the homepage.

    Special-interest linking can build anomalies with large volumes being found on interior pages. Therefore if a disproportionate volume are on interior pages, and for no good reason, then search engines will see these negatively. Keeping a balance is therefore crucial.

  4. Avoid linking to pages with a large number of outbound links (such as directories) as Google sees these as having less perceived value. (So avoid agreeing to backlinks if your are signing up to a directory).
  5. Quality is also key (in context and content)

    • The best links are those that are clearly in the right context. Google no longer simply looks at the link text and the PageRank of the linking site.
    • The text surrounding the link should be relevant to the link text and the page content. A link in an isolated box of links will be seen as a low value link and may indeed be discounted.

    So always avoid in-bound links from sites that may be viewed as undesirable by Google.

    Link quality is more important than link quantity, so check the PageRank of your intended link site before progressing.

    10 links from sites with high PageRanks will be more valuable to your SEO than a 100 links from general directories.

  6. The age of the link is also relevant
    • Long-standing links aren’t usually easy to buy, so they are more valued.
    • Try to establish a good long-term relationships with relevant online businesses. This will ensure that your links mature over time and continue to deliver incremental value.
  7. Consider creating hub pages within your site, as they may also help to deliver a higher PageRank for the site.
  8. When agreeing an in-bound link, ask to link to their homepage (which will usually have the highest PageRank).
  9. The relevance of the link to your primary keywords/phrases is also important.
  10. Language should be considered
    • The language used in a link’s text is believed to be factored into search engines’ ranking of sites.

      Most search engines understand the natural split of language usage (for example plurals and other stemmed variants). This knowledge is built up from their analysis of the searches performed in their engines as well as the massive data mine that they have.

    • If a link-building campaign focuses on a plural to the exclusion of a singular phrase, then this automatically appears suspicious to the search engines.
  11. Try to encourage the sort of interest in your site that encourages other site owners to discuss and review the site (and therefore link to it).

Your link-building strategy

  1. Create great content, link to great content, and great content will link to you. This is the ‘natural’, and certainly the best approach – if it works for your business sector.

    Great content for B2B might include best practice, guides, industry opinion, news/up-to-date information, tools, etc.

    For B2C you might be thinking about clubs, communities and forums and other good reasons (e.g. promotional offers) to encourage people to visit your site regularly.

    Getting visitors to bookmark your site is a productive strategy.

  2. Ask other site owners to link to your site.

    This is similar to the previous section except that you proactively go out and request a link.

    Look for high ranking sites whose visitors will benefit from your content.

    See who is linking to your competitors.

    Try to link with content that is relevant to your primary key phrases.

  3. Reciprocal links were once more advantageous than they are now. Now they probably cancel each other out, giving minimum value to both parties
  4. And beware of buying links, which can potentially have a negative influence on your ranking.

For much more detail on this subject, see E-Consultancy's 270pp Search Engine Optimization guide. Use the free sample to confirm the relevance/value to you of the fee charged.

See also Wikipedia's guide to methods of website linking.

Check your internal links for best practice.

  1. Start by checking your existing internal links.

    Produce a customised 'error page' if there are invalid links, or a permanent redirect is you wish to retain link equity.

  2. Consider including a 'site footer' that appears across the whole site (on every page), that links to popular parts of the site (and includes popular keywords/phrases).

    This helps with customer usability and navigation - and helps improve your position within SERPs.

  3. Decide if you can build links from document listings.

    The more internal backlinks you can generate the more your ranking should improve.

  4. Has your sitemap been designed to deliver greater optimisation?
    • Always use text links (not images)
    • Include keywords/phrases - but only if appropriate (don't confuse the user/visitor)
  5. Build links throughout the body copy. This helps your optimisation and improves the usefulness of the content to the reader.
  6. Link back to your content within newsletters, blogs, white papers, etc.
  7. Link to your other brands' sites.

Tips on seeking out natural linking opportunities

  1. Digital PR

    Online/digital PR can be very successful if sites carrying your news/information send visitors to your site (via your supplied link) for more information.

  2. Viral online campaigns

    This can both generate attention and produce links back to your site.

    Integrating the campaign with a social network may increase awareness further (be sure to optimise linking content for search).

  3. Telemarketing

    Contacting appropriate partner organisations, related companies or relevant online resources can also increase your link network. Make sure it’s relevant and gives them added value.