Basics of Link Building
When considering the process of getting your site ranking highly on web search engines, the first thing most people will tell you is to develop your incoming links. To that end, there are a few things you should know first:
- What is link building?
- Why is link building important?
- Where can I build my links?
- Can I buy links?
What is link building?
Link building is, in short, the process of building links to your site in order to increase traffic and rankings in search engines. There are a number of ways to do this, including getting your site listed in directories, developing a network of similar niche sites, promoting your site commercially through some well-known media sources, or even simply having your friends and family link back to your site from their own. The key to this is developing quality, natural links (i.e. not listing your site on rubbish link farms that search engines tend to overlook or using other dubious link building methods such as spam to promote your site on the web).
Why is link building important?
In today’s fast-paced, niche-centered web, ranking high on a search engine for specific keywords or phrases is important to attract the hundreds of millions of people around the world who use the internet daily to come to your website. To do this your site needs to be seen by search engines as having relevance to a particular searcher’s needs when they look for specific words or phrases. Making these search engines see your site as being relevant will help boost your ranking in search engine results and increase your traffic. The most effective way to boost your ranking is for other websites to link back to yours. When this occurs it is essentially a vote by Site A (the site linking in) to Site B (your site). The more votes a site has, the more relevant it is seen by search engines to suit their particular customer’s needs. The more powerful the site is casting the vote (such as .gov, .edu, or other well established sites) the more powerful the incoming link is.
Where can I build my links?
There are a number of different ways that you can build your links. As mentioned earlier, some of these can even be your close friends and family that may have their own websites that may be similar to your own. The key here is those last four words: similar to your own. Many times people ignore this part and develop links from rubbish link farms that are ignored by most SERPs and contribute no value to your site. Make sure that any links that you generate are also followed. If a link has the “nofollow” attribute attached to it then it does not contribute to your site’s rankings. SEO Book has some useful tools for Firefox users that can allow you to check these and other website information such as Page Rank (again, still a bit important, but not the end-all, be-all in today’s SEO world) as you browse. Simply sign up for free and you can gain access to them.
Submit your sites to specialized directories as well. Many new directories open each day and offer site submission for free to get their directory off the ground. These can be found in many forums around the internet, so keep your eyes peeled. You can also try submitting your site to DMOZ, a very large user-run directory that many other directories draw off of.
Just remember, try and keep your backlinks focused and quality. Quantity may be good, but not if they’re not contributing at all to your website.
Can I buy links?
The simple answer is “Yes, you can, though it’s not encouraged.” You can search the web and find many individuals or companies out there that are willing to sell links from their sites back to yours. Sometimes this can possibly help give your site a large boost to its rank. It’s encouraged not to do this, however, as many search engines tend to see this as an attempt to boost your ranking via money rather than actual relevance to users. Currently many search engines such as Google and Yahoo! have advanced search algorithms in place and are constantly updating them to find and discount paid links to sites in order to create a more balanced, fair experience for their users.
