Posts Tagged ‘external links’

When it comes to creating a backlink strategy, there is a popular myth out there – a pervasive urban legend. That legend is that “it’s all numbers game”. Many “SEO experts” have become rich from selling virtually worthless backlinks.

These guys argue that Google loves external links to a website. The more backlinks it finds, the higher it will regard that website and the more often it will appear on top of search results.

Right and wrong. Google is not quite that stupid to only take a look at the number of incoming links to a website to decide whether it will be ranked on the first page of search results or the last. If that were true anyone could quickly set up ten thousand pages with links back to his own website and get listed in the number one spot for whatever he wants.

The important issue for Google is not quantity but quality. They have never published the exact algorithm they use to rank the listing of web pages, but it’s fairly certain that they don’t simply look at the number of incoming links to a site, but to the quality of those links as well.

But what is a quality backlink then? Why would one link be given a higher value than another link? The answer is simple: relevance. It’s not really such a difficult concept to explain. Let’s say you have a website about building model aeroplanes and down the road is another guys with the same type of website. Now you get the local butcher to link to your website from his, while the other guy manages to get a link from a well-known, highly regarded website about hobbies. Who do you think Google should list at the top?

Should you become clever now and get the local vet, as well as ten small shops to link to you and you also buy 5 000 links on the Internet, Google should surely wake up and rank you first, shouldn’t they?

What do you think will happen? The correct answer is: nothing. Google will still rank the other guy on top, because the one link to his website is a) from an authoritative website that may have thousands of other websites linking to them and b) the content of his website is related to the content on that other website.

Getting links back to your website from highly regarded websites is not easy though. If you know what you are talking about, one possible solution is to start writing articles and submit them to article directories. Mostly you won’t get paid for them, but you will be able to include a backlink to your website.

Writing articles for top quality article directories, a strategy known as article marketing, will also get you some worthwhile backlinks, since they allow you to link back to your site from the article. And if your articles are as good as you think, they will eventually be syndicated – other websites will publish them as well and also link to your site. As a backlink strategy this will be much more effective than buying low-quality links.

So What Are External Links?

posted by TheMarbellaSEO 5:24 AM
Tuesday, May 18, 2010

When you own a website regardless of whether or not you are making a living from it you want people to see it. When people view your website they are known as visitors and there are various means of attracting traffic. External links are one such way to increase traffic and boost a website’s search engine ranking. Having a good search engine ranking means that more people will have the opportunity to see your site and visit it. So this is essential if you want your site to have plenty of visitors.

In short external links are links from other websites that link back to your original website. Links to a website are constantly checked by Google and other such search engines. These are then used to determine (amongst other things) where a website will be placed on search engine results pages.

Websites which have a large number of sites linking to it are seen in a more favourable light by search engines. In turn this will improve your websites ranking, particularly if the links are from trusted websites. These are sites that have good content and receive high levels of traffic.

Obviously linking from such sites does not happen overnight and it can be a long process building links. However it is well worth the effort as good link building can increase a websites ranking very quickly.

Probably the most well known way to create these links to your website is to deal with website owners. Here you can show them your site and request that they place a link to it on their site. Many will want a reciprocal link (a link on your site back to theirs) in exchange, which is perfectly normal.

Another method of obtaining external links is through article marketing. If you use this approach, write informative articles that contain links back to your site.  These articles can be distributed on various article directories or on niche specific websites addressing topics similar to your own.

Because of the time consuming nature of obtaining external links by any methods, some website owners choose to outsource external linking needs to professional services. Using specialists for developing a backlinking strategy can often make good economic sense.

When these links are in place they will act as a way of drawing traffic via search engine results and through the linked sites. So not only does this method increase your traffic, it does not cost anything, other than your time.

So if your website is in need of a boost you need to think about external links. Such links are cost free and can improve and increase unique visitors to a website in next to no time. Try it out yourself and you will soon see the benefits that can be achieved through this form of linking.

Why It Is Important To Get Backlinks To Your Blog

posted by TheMarbellaSEO 7:48 AM
Friday, April 30, 2010

As a webmaster, you have probably heard about search engine optimization. Probably you have already applied several SEO techniques to promote your website. Backlinks are incoming links to your website received from another web node. As more backlinks a website has, as more its popularity and authority grows in comparison to other similar web pages or sites. Backlinks are also known as inbound links, incoming links (IBL), inlinks and inward links.

Search engines use the number of backlinks received by a website to determine its reputation on the web (page rank). Not all links are equally important; some may even harm your website! For example, if a website was penalized by Google for promoting illegal or immoral content and that website links to your website or vice versa, your website will be become less popular, being ignored by search engines.

It doesn’t make sense to receive backlinks from web pages that link back to a large number of different websites. You should rather try to get backlinks from websites with PR 0 or no PR, because their popularity might increase over time. Besides this, every link directed towards your website matters, because it represents a favorable vote from Google. To evaluate the quality of a backlink, you should consider its popularity, Page Rank and authority.

How to get backlinks to your website? Well, there are several ways to do it. It’s highly recommended to opt for web pages and directories that link back to your website without asking you to do the same. When launching a new website, most webmasters join free web directories, which is good for increasing the website visibility on the Internet. Another way to promote your site consists in publishing your articles and posts in article directories. People, like search engine spiders, can read the article and then visit your website.

Getting backlinks from reputable websites with a high Page Rank is the most effective way to promote your website in search engines. However, this might be difficult at first. Try to provide something on your website that people will want to link to. This way, you’ll increase the popularity of your website.

What matters the most is to write relevant content. Nothing will work if you’re not able to provide unique information. Write about popular topics from a unique point of view. Talk about controversial topics and encourage your visitors to get involved in discussions. Post on forums and join social networks. If people find you interesting, they will visit your website to find out more.

Search relevant keywords for your website and use them in titles and URLs. For example, if your site is about dating and romance, use “dating” and “romance” as keywords. Building quality backlinks is extremely important to SEO, so make sure you’re doing everything in the right way.

When most of us hear “learn how to make money online” we’ve learned to run the other way. There are so many scams out there it’s easier to give up than get involved in yet one. But don’t give up yet! Writing is a great way to make some money online, and you don’t need to be a degreed journalist with newspaper experience, nor do you need to be an experienced reporter. You just need to be able to put a few paragraphs together on a subject that people are interested in. Nowadays, writing has become the premier marketing tool – not just an entertainment medium. Using external links and article marketing can be a boon to any business, big or small.

The internet provides a wide range of outlets for any level of writing talent. “Article” no longer means a front page news story. It can include anything from consumer product reviews, blogging, news group information, forum postings, website content, and even content for “real” web based publishing houses.

Submitting content to these sites can be simple, and rewarding. You have a couple choices when  you submit your writing. You can do one, or both.

Some will allow you to post your article for free but you get a byline, and you get to add your website link at the end. This is a great way to promote your business. They aren’t looking for lengthy sales pitches, however. You should write what is considered “expert” articles on what you do – your products or services. This is one form of article marketing.

Pretend you make gift baskets. You could write articles on how to make your own gift baskets and give readers ideas on how to decorate them and sell them. Or if you happen to be a dog trainer you could write a series of articles on tips  to train your dog. At the end of each article you should have your bio (”Alec Wensel has been a  dog trainer for twenty years in the Chicago area…” and so on). Then, add your  website. If people like what you have to say, you’ll get customers!

Some sites will pay you for your article. You may or may not be given a byline. Each paying site has different rules.

You probably aren’t going to pay off your mortgage or take a European vacation with your earnings from writing. Many famous writers over the years have died penniless. Hotmail was the first to put ads on the bottom of every email sent using their service. The idea caught on. Now, everyone who has anything to sell or promote should add links to every email he sends.

Anyone can do this. Car salesmen to hairdressers should all have links to weekly promotions or other info where readers will turn into customers.

When we dedicate resources to article marketing, we concentrate on two things: 1) Cleverly convincing the readers of our brilliant prose to go to our business’s website; 2) obtaining some “link juice” for the page of our site linked in our anchor text (i.e. SEO).  After all, we want to get “the most bang for our buck” when it comes to content syndication.  Particularly when we outsource to a betterweb writing service, we hope to recoup the expense as quickly as possible.  That makes sense, in so far as we take it.

Sometimes our enthusiasm for generating external links to our website’s pages and our hopes that our readers will take the bait and click through to our site gets in the way of a rather important detail.  If our article marketing efforts are really going to give us the results that we anticipate (or at least dream of), those published articles must actually be discovered by our prospective readers and the fickle search engines must consider them important by the heartless math of their algorithms.

Face facts, our new article isn’t the only one being posted on EzineArticles or GoArticles on any given day.  Even more painful to recognize is that there are probably other new articles that address the same topic as our article and use the same keywords.  So how do we insure that our article rises to the attention of the readership above all of that clearly inferior competition?

Yeah, I know the standard writing and submission tips:

*  Make sure your title is descriptive and inventive.
*  Tag the article with keywords that are popular and that are actually used in the article.
*  On EzineArticles or other directories which offer us an opportunity to provide an abstract, make sure that is intriguing, so that the reader will want to click to the entire article.

While all of the suggestions are valid, they do not go quite far enough.  We have to take another step, add another recommendation to our standard list in order for the major search engines to provide our article with the respect that we know it deserves.  After all, most of our potential readers will find our article by means of a search engine.  Only then can they be emotionally moved by our prose.  Only then will they follow the link to our site.  Only then will they repeated buy our product and service.  Only then will we become as wealthy as King Midas as we sit around in our pajamas, working from home only fifteen minutes a day.  Oops, I think I may have read a bit too much hype from the make money from home scams.  Sorry.

How do we really earn respect from the search engines for our articles?  External links.  Lots and lots of external links.  How do we get those wonderful external links?  Well, we either sit back and wait for them to magically appear, or…

We need to dedicate a portion of our article marketing plan to creating external links to our content.  Granted that will reduce the number of links we have the time to provide for our business’s site, but the trade is that linking to our articles that do lead to our site become more powerful.

Most of us should probably assign about 20% to 35% of our article marketing content to providing external links directly to our previously published articles.  For example, every once in a while, submit content to A1Articles that has links to your two or three of your articles on EzineArticles and GoArticles.  Use an EzineArticles submission to pass a little link love to a brilliant piece you have published on ArticleVista. 

If this sounds as if it might complicate your overall strategy, your record keeping and your approach to writing, you’re right!  Consequently, many Internet marketers outsource all of this to a well trained company that really understands writing, submissions, keywords and search engine optimization.  Then we can just sit around in our pajamas and count our money.

The Necessity Of External Links

posted by TheMarbellaSEO 3:39 PM
Sunday, December 27, 2009

When you own a website regardless of whether or not you are making a living from it you want people to see it. When people view your website they are known as visitors and there are various means of attracting traffic. A very good way to encourage visitors to your website is to have a good ranking on search engines. If you are looking for a way to boost your websites ranking external links could be ideal.

Many new website owners do not know what external links are, which is bad news if you want a successful website. External links are links to your website which are on other unrelated websites. These links are scrutinised by search engines and help to rank a website in search engine results.

Websites which have a large number of sites linking to it are seen in a more favourable light by search engines. In turn this will improve your websites ranking, particularly if the links are from trusted websites. These are sites that have good content and receive high levels of traffic.

Linking from sites can take a little while, but the results are very much worth it. Once you have started to see the results you will know it is worth creating links. So don’t be put off by the work needed to establish quality links to your site.

Probably the most well known way to create these links to your website is to deal with website owners. Then you can discuss your needs for a link and offer to link back to their site from yours. When sites link to inform each other it is known as reciprocal linking, which is also a great way to improve your ranking.

Article marketing is another common way to achieve a number of inbound, external links to your website or blog. If you use this approach, write informative articles that contain links back to your site.  These articles can be distributed on various article directories or on niche specific websites addressing topics similar to your own.

Since not all webmasters are expert at developing backlinks, there are professional external linking services that can do the work for them. These services often provide highly cost effective means of meeting backlink needs.

As soon as links are on websites they will begin to attract traffic to your website. This is done in two ways. One is through traffic coming directly from the linked sites and the other is through rankings. So not only does this method increase your traffic, it does not cost anything, other than your time.

So if your website is in need of a boost you need to think about external links. Such links are simple and straightforward to create and they are constantly working for your site. Do this and you will soon be reaping the rewards in the form of increased traffic and excellent search engine results.

Making money online doesn’t need to entail scams, or even starting a new business. If you can put a few sentences together about something other people might like to learn about, that’s a good start. Writing is a great way to make some money online, and you don’t need to be a degreed journalist with newspaper experience, nor do you need to be an experienced reporter. You just need to be able to put a few paragraphs together on a subject that people are interested in. Nowadays, writing has become the premier marketing tool – not just an entertainment medium. Using external links and article marketing can be a boon to any business, big or small.

There are many ways to write for the internet. “Article” no longer means a front page news story. It can include anything from consumer product reviews, blogging, news group information, forum postings, website content, and even content for “real” web based publishing houses.

You have a few options when you write for the internet. Each one has its benefits for amateurs and pros alike.

Check out some sites where you can submit content for free. These are ideal for article marketing purposes. These frequently offer more benefits, too. You usually get a byline, you can post a bio, and you can link to your website. This is a great opportunity for some self promotion – free! You do need to write about something, though. You just can’t do lengthy sales pitches. Write about topics that are germane to your business. You will be looked on as an expert on the subject.

Pretend you make gift baskets. You could write articles on how to make your own gift baskets and give readers ideas on how to decorate them and sell them. Of course, each article would have your bio talking about your company and it would have an external link to your website.

Other sites do pay you. You may be able to get a byline, and you may be able to add a link to  your site, although others will not permit that. They all differ from each other.

Not many people get rich writing. Even Edgar Allen Poe died a bitter penniless man. With article writing, it’s all about marketing yourself and your business. However, writing for the internet isn’t about getting rich writing, per se. It’s all about advertising what you have to offer. Try some viral marketing with your emails, too. Put a link at the bottom just like Hotmail has done for years, and direct readers to your site or at least your phone.

Are you a mortgage broker? Hair dresser? Computer repair tech? There’s nothing like adding a link on your emails with either special promotions or a link to your website. You will get customers!

How To Find Effective Backlinks?

posted by TheMarbellaSEO 7:36 PM
Saturday, November 14, 2009

As a webmaster, you have probably heard about search engine optimization. Probably you have already applied several SEO techniques to promote your website. Backlinks are incoming links to your website received from another web node. As more backlinks a website has, as more its popularity and authority grows in comparison to other similar web pages or sites. Backlinks are also known as inbound links, incoming links (IBL), inlinks and inward links.

Search engines use the number of backlinks received by a website to determine its reputation on the web (page rank). You shouldn’t exchange links with website that received penalties from Google for promoting illegal or plagiarized content. Backlinks from authoritative websites with a high PR are highly valuable.

Getting backlinks from a web page that links back to a significant number of websites won’t help you too much. It’s important not to underestimate the backlinks received from a website that has no Page Rank or PR 0. These websites might become more popular over time. Besides this, every link directed towards your website matters, because it represents a favorable vote from Google. To evaluate the quality of a backlink, you should consider its popularity, Page Rank and authority.

How to get backlinks to your website? Well, there are several ways to do it. It’s highly recommended to opt for web pages and directories that link back to your website without asking you to do the same. When launching a new website, most webmasters join free web directories, which is good for increasing the website visibility on the Internet. Another way to promote your site consists in publishing your articles and posts in article directories. People, like search engine spiders, can read the article and then visit your website.

It is always important to get backlinks from pages with a high Page Rank. However, try to have as many backlinks as possible because every vote matters! A high Page Rank can be achieved by increasing the number of backlinks to your page. The more backlinks your page has, the higher your PR will be.

The most important is to make sure you have high quality content. No one will visit your website if there’s nothing interesting to read about. Also, participate to online discussions and join social networks, forums and other communities. If possible, buy links on pages with a high Page Rank.

Another important aspect is anchor text and webpage content congruency, which represents the textual form seen by Internet users. It is essential to find a relevant keyword for your website and use it in the website URLs. For example, if your website is about pharmaceutical products, you should build backlinks using the word “pharmacies”. If you get enough links that you beat the competition, you’ll achieve a higher position in search engines.

Little Known Secrets Of A Good Strategy For Backlinking

posted by TheMarbellaSEO 1:55 AM
Saturday, November 14, 2009

When it comes to creating a backlink strategy, there is a popular myth out there – a pervasive urban legend. That legend is that “it’s all numbers game”. Many “SEO experts” have become rich from selling virtually worthless backlinks.

No doubt you have also heard that Google is crazy about links. Google was built on the premise that a website with more links to it must be an important site, it must be an authority otherwise all those other websites would not be linking to it. So getting more and more links is good, right?

Yes and no. Yes, Google likes links. The more indeed the merrier. But Google is a little bit more clever than this. Setting up 10 000 pages with nothing else than links back to your website will most likely not get you anywhere with Google.

The important issue for Google is not quantity but quality. They have never published the exact algorithm they use to rank the listing of web pages, but it’s fairly certain that they don’t simply look at the number of incoming links to a site, but to the quality of those links as well.

But what is a quality backlink then? Why would one link be given a higher value than another link? The answer is simple: relevance. It’s not really such a difficult concept to explain. Let’s say you have a website about building model aeroplanes and down the road is another guys with the same type of website. Now you get the local butcher to link to your website from his, while the other guy manages to get a link from a well-known, highly regarded website about hobbies. Who do you think Google should list at the top?

Suppose further that you pick up that Google is listing his website above yours in search results, so you make a deal with all the other butchers in town, as well as the supermarkets and the furniture removal guys to create special pages with no other content but the link to your website.

What do you expect will happen? The answer is simple: nothing. Google will still rank the website with the link from the American Dog Owner’s Association above yours. The reason: That one link is from a website visited by thousands of people every day and they have numerous other well-known websites linking to them. Furthermore the content on his website is relevant and in the same category as the content on the website linking to him.

How do you get backlinks from such important, relevant websites though? If your website content is really of a high standard, you could contact well know websites in that category and ask them for backlinks. This is hard work, but can be very effective.

Another option is to write articles about the subject and submit them to high quality article directories using what is called, article marketing. They will allow you to put a link in the article back to your website. If your articles are really good they will also be syndicated – picked up by other websites, which in turn will have backlinks to your site. This is a much more logical and effective backlink strategy than buying worthless links.

When most of us hear “learn how to make money online” we’ve learned to run the other way. There are so many scams out there it’s easier to give up than get involved in yet one. But don’t give up yet! Writing articles is no longer about getting the latest stories into the latest editions of the local newspapers, all written by well paid reporters. Things have really changed now with the internet. You don’t need to be a big name pro to get your writings accepted and recognized. Writing is a now a marketing tool. Learning about external links and article marketing can help grow your business.

The internet provides a wide range of outlets for any level of writing talent. An “article” can mean anything from a blog, home pages for websites, entire website content, sales letters, and even real stories and articles for online publishers.

Essentially there are two ways to get noticed online writing articles. You can get paid, or you can do it for free. Each has pros and cons.

Check out some sites where you can submit content for free. These frequently offer more benefits, too. At the end of your article you should place a link to your own website for the  readers to either get more information or turn into paying customers. You will be looked on as an expert on the subject. That is, after all, a main benefit of article marketing.

Pretend you make gift baskets. You could write articles on how to make your own gift baskets and give readers ideas on how to decorate them and sell them. Or if you happen to be a dog trainer you could write a series of articles on tips  to train your dog. At the end of each article you should have your bio (”Alec Wensel has been a  dog trainer for twenty years in the Chicago area…” and so on). Then, add your  website. If people like what you have to say, you’ll get customers!

Also check out sites that do pay. They are usually a little less generous when it comes to giving you a byline or a link.

Not many people get rich writing. Even Edgar Allen Poe died a bitter penniless man. With article writing, it’s all about marketing yourself and your business. However, writing for the internet isn’t about getting rich writing, per se. It’s all about advertising what you have to offer. Try some viral marketing with your emails, too. Put a link at the bottom just like Hotmail has done for years, and direct readers to your site or at least your phone.

Are you a mortgage broker? Hair dresser? Computer repair tech? There’s nothing like adding a link on your emails with either special promotions or a link to your website. You will get customers!

 
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