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Guidelines For Successful Link Development

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By Shari Thurow | February 28, 2005 Link development has long been a cornerstone of a successful search engine optimization (SEO) programs, yet few search engine marketers do the process correctly. With free-for-all (FFA) link... See more » By Shari Thurow | February 28, 2005 Link development has long been a cornerstone of a successful search engine optimization (SEO) programs, yet few search engine marketers do the process correctly. With free-for-all (FFA) link farms and poor Web rings polluting search results, how do Web site owners know which SEM companies to avoid, and which are legitimate? This column addresses some basic guidelines for successful link development. It will help Web site owners avoid common sales pitches from unethical SEMs. Link Development 101 At a basic level, a link counts as a vote. If a Web site owner finds content on a site is particularly useful and informative, he'll link to that site. As both a Web developer and graphic designer, I always visit and purchase from stock photography and digital image Web sites. Therefore, I have a page on my site that links to the stock photography sites I use most. I link to these sites because I find their content to be useful. One might think if a site receives more "votes" than another site, then the site with more "votes" has higher link popularity. Unethical SEMs have promoted this myth for years, just so they can close a sale. As outlined in a previous column, Link Development: The Key to Successful SEO, the quality of a link always carries more weight than the quantity of links. It's much better for a site to have a small number of high-quality links than to have a large number of low-quality links. In an ideal situation, of course, a site should have a large number of high-quality links. Link development takes time. If a site has (a) a large number of high-quality links; (b) keyword-rich text; and (c) a site and page architecture the search engines (and end users) can follow, then qualified search engine traffic isn't an issue. It's very difficult to imitate high-quality link development. Reciprocal Linking Is It Flawed? I do not and never have believed in reciprocal linking because the fundamental concept: you link to me and I'll link to you, is flawed. If you find a site's or page's content to be particularly useful and believe its content will benefit your visitors, then link to the page. You won't link to another Web page because they wouldn't grant you a reciprocal link? Perhaps you didn't find the content as useful as you thought you did. Many Web site owners receive emails from SEMs saying they've added a link to their site, with a request the site owner read and edit the listing. The email commonly mentions PageRank, or "PR," as it's known in the SEM industry. The expectation is the site owner will return the favor. Otherwise, the link will be removed. Whenever you receive this type of email, promptly filter out the address and delete it. If the SEM company truly felt your site's content were valuable, they'd link to your site with or without that link being reciprocated. Besides, last time I checked, people who search for home refinancing don't type "search engine marketing" into a search query. A high-quality link comes from a site with content related to your site's content. Web Rings Good or Bad? Another way unethical SEMs try to score link development points is by creating artificial Web rings. Unfortunately, many Web hosting and design firms try this strategy as well. What they do is create a directory of sites that are somewhat related and encourage these companies to link to each other. Quite often, you'll see a link that says, "Site designed by XYZ Company." It in turn links to the various Web rings. First of all, no client should be obliged to link to their Web design firm's site. When people visit your site, they aren't searching for the company that designed it. They're searching for the products, services, and information offered on your site. Unless you're selling Web design or development services, or offer products related to this industry, it's not a good idea to link to your Web design or hosting company. I've seen more bad uses of Web rings than good uses, which is a shame. There are some cross-links site visitors certainly will find useful. If all See less »

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search engine optimization, seo

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Guidelines For Successful Link Development

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