Why link build?
Imagine a link as a referral or vote from another website. It says, “hey, check out these guys, they are the experts on such and such”. You can understand why Google and the other search engines place such a high value on these links. They are a measure of the validity and reliability of your website. The more you have, the more the search engines feel you deserve to rank for your keyword phrase. It’s the internet’s version of kudos.
Why do Search Engines like them so much?
Inbound links are important to search engines as they are difficult to manipulate and are an effective measure of the value of your website. Search engines only want to show the most reliable and valid websites in their results to ensure that their users find what they are looking for and continue to use their service.
Not all links are born equal.
A link from a poor-quality website does not have the same value as a link from a government site. Search engines hate spam. It ruins the user experience. So they assign more value to links from websites with a proven kudos rating. It’s like hearing a radio advertisement versus a close friend giving you a tip.
It takes all sorts of links.
Links can come from a variety of places; blogs, forum posts, directory listings, social bookmarking, press releases, web 2.0 sites and link exchanges. For the purposes of this article, let’s stick with the standard inbound link that only points in one direction (in other words, a direct one-way referral from another website, not an exchange of links or petting each other on the back).
How to build links via content.
Nice and straightforward. You create content that people are happy to place on their site. This content will have links placed throughout it that point back to our own site. If the content is not good enough or interesting enough, no-one is going to want it on their site and you won’t get any links.
Just slap those links in?
Not quite. Links have anchor text and this needs to be chosen selectively to create the right effect. The anchor text of a link is used by search engines to help them determinate the value and relevancy of a link. It depends on what you’re trying to achieve, but generally the anchor text should be the keyword phrase you would like to rank for. Don’t go crazy though. Putting more than 3 links in a piece of content can dilute their value and you will have achieved nothing.
That all sounds easy.
Hah! You haven’t tried generating some content yet, have you? It can be quite difficult. We have some suggestions though:
- Interview with an industry leader.
- Press release of an industry innovation.
- Announcement of a new product or line.
- How-To guides, e.g. how to change a tap washer.
- Top 5 Lists, e.g. top five things to do in Brisbane.
Done. Let’s post it!
Wait a minute. We need to check a couple of things first. A lot of the best spots to post articles are human-moderate and can spot poor or duplicate content from a mile away. You did not just copy and paste, did you? Also, you should have around 500 words. A lot of sites will reject shorter articles. We hope you did not use heavy sales copy and the piece you wrote is informative and useful. Lastly, when choosing a site to submit your content to, make sure it doesn’t have no-follow tags for outbound links. These tags tell search engines not to give any value to the links.
Quick guide to writing content
- Think about who you are writing for. Make it interesting.
- Ensure that anchor text is keyword phrases you want to rank for.
- Don’t go overboard with the links. Less is most definitely best.
- Try to limit duplicate content. Search engines know when you’re naughty.
- Choose the best site to submit your content. High Page Rank and valid.
- Don’t stop writing content. Don’t ever stop.