Links - Entry Point to the Search Engines
Copyright 2006 Jeanette Cates
Picture a spider web with lines connecting and crossing one
another. That's the metaphor for the World Wide Web on the
Internet.
The key ingredient to the Web are the lines - the links between
sites. The search engines send out their spiders to crawl these
lines. Spiders are actually computer programs that follow the
links from one page to another, from one site to another. But
like a live spider, they cannot go if there is not a connection.
That's why the links are so important.
In recent years, Google invented the concept of Page Rank.
Although more than 100 factors enter into PR ratings, links
account for a percentage of a site's ratings. And its not just
*any* link. The more links you have from "quality" sites with
higher PR, the "better" your site is considered to be.
High PR sites are visited more often by the search engine
spiders. That means that all of their links are visited more
often and therefore appear quickly, with higher ranking in the
search engines. The quest for links from high PR sites spawned a
new industry of paid link providers to ensure your site was
being "crawled" more frequently by the spiders.
But what if you don't want to pay for a link? There are three
major ways you can build links: - Link Exchanges - Articles -
Link Directories
Link Exchanges
Traditionally we have relied upon "link exchanges" where another
web owner offers to give you a link to your site in exchange for
your giving him a link from your site.
There are two problems with this approach. First it's very
time-consuming. You have to find the sites you want to link to,
send an email, and hope that the other website owner
reciprocates. Only 10-40% of them even respond! Then you must
track whether or not the links are still in place - and adjust
your links accordingly.
The second problem with link exchanges is that many site owners
only want to exchange links with established sites. That puts
newbies at a distinct disadvantage. It's the Catch-22 - we'll
exchange links with you when you have enough incoming links that
you no longer need more links! It takes links to get links.
While link exchanges still work and are appropriate,
particularly with sites that are closely related to yours, they
have been modified along the way.
Articles
The second approach to getting links is articles. Site owners
are more likely to publish good content with your link in the
Resource Box than to just put up a link. It is the same amount
of work for them - but provides more value to their visitors.
In recent months we've seen a merging of articles with link
exchanges. Article exchanges are website owners sending each
other articles, instead of just links. A more powerful form of
this direct exchange is an article "ring" where 5-10 site owners
exchange articles on a round robin basis, rather than just
one-to-one. That way you're getting links from 10 different
sites, rather than just one other one. This tactic is getting
good rankings with the search engines.
Link Directories
In the history of links, we've seen several techniques come and
go. FFA (Free For All) pages were very popular a few years ago.
Essentially a FFA page is just a long list of links, so you can
see why the search engines don't find them useful and neither do
most people. They are now considered worthless for most purposes.
The latest variation are link directories. They offer several
advantages. Instead of just providing a link, they include a
description and the ability to specify which words are to be
hyperlinked. The hyperlinked keyword phrase tells the search
engine spiders where to categorize your page, so it's an
important distinction to make in your directory entries.
Link Directories are categorized links and descriptions, so it
makes it easier for someone to find an appropriate link.
One of the most important aspect of link directories is that
they provide a new website an opportunity to get incoming links
rapidly. By registering with 50 link directories you can have 50
incoming links to your site in a week! That makes you much more
attractive to potential link exchange partners - from whom
you'll receive even more links from your efforts.
Summary
Which tactic is most likely to get you into the search engines
and build your rankings in the results? A combination of all of
these techniques. New sites will start with Link Directories,
then offer articles and finally ask for direct links from
related sites. You'll soon open your web stats and say "Along
came a spider - or two or three!"