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This article is in response to the highly controversial article Top 3 Link Building Myths Regarding Google.
I’ve received phone calls and emails regarding this subject, so I thought I’d follow up with some proof.
Once of the main sites I promote is a website called Out Gay Life. It’s the perfect example to demonstrate some of the claims I make.
The first point I made was regarding Google counting links from non themed pages. As you can probably tell from the title of the site (Out Gay Life) the site is a portal for the gay community. With conventional wisdom, you’d expect that gay themed sites linking to the site would count, while non “gay” sites linking would not count.
A quick couple of screen shots from my Google Webmaster Tools account should prove the point:
This shows several sites linking to the Out Gay Life site. If you were to visit them, you’d find that virtually none of those sites contain a single word about the gay community. I did an experiement in using “Anchor Text” as a linking method and it worked pretty well. With just a few minutes work, I managed to achieve a third place listing on Google for the term “Sarah Palin Blog”. With all the media surrounding Sarah at the time, it’s pretty good.
What’s important to Google are the words used to link to a given site. I could post other examples of this as well (in fact, just look at some of the other terms there). I’m also post the terms I’m listed highly on this week below.
Now, on to the last point. (I’m skipping the second point because a quick google search on the sites mentioned above that are linking to the Out Gay Life site will reveal their individual page rank. Google counting links from duplicate content pages. For this, I’ll refer to this very site (the MoonViper Web Services site).
I was hired by a company to build 50 “different” sites. They had different contact forms, but for the most part every bit of content on each of the sites was the same. (note: this company has since taken over the management of these sites, and we no longer administrate them)
Try a Google search for “Green Carpet Cleaning Policy” and you’ll see 4960 results. The vast majority of them (about 99%) are these site we built for this company. A quick search of their statistics will show that all of their sites are getting traffic from Google.
I’ll even link to the statistics of the Out Gay Life site to demonstrate this same point. This site is actually 21 different sites, all working off the same MoonViper CMS database. The only real difference between the sites is the front page, which features different content based on the URL being typed into the address box.
Of course, in these few words, I can’t explain everything (and I have to leave a few trade secrets secret. Long story short, the methods we use work. I’ll post one last screenshot below to show a Google search that shows we can even get Google listings in less than 10 minutes!
You might have heard about it this June, but I thought it bore repeating. The secret is out on much of what Google uses to rank your website on their search engine. To read the actual patent information released to the public, see Google’s patent for their search engine ranking technique from 2005 on evaluating historical documents and the latest patent release from 2007 which includes the new TrustRank.
Links have always played an important role in determining citation value. Incoming links help judge the value of a document. The more citations, or links, the more important and valuable it must be. But Google adds some criteria to those citations.
In the past, the number of incoming links scored high, but a judgment on quality of the incoming link source was added to the mix. If the linking page and site had a high page rank value itself, then clearly, it knew a good thing when it linked to it. Still, this link quality aspect became harder to define as so many sites were joining the web and the quality became diluted.
Historical factors now play an important roll in addition to the number and quality of the incoming links. It seems Google’s method includes counting the moment a new site is discovered and applying an “aging process” to the site. Google monitors the link as it changes over time, the speed at which the site adds incoming links, and the life span of the link. It isn’t about having thousands of sites that link to yours, but about building those thousands of links over time.
The “aging process” that monitors the history of the links and site helps to combat spam sites. Spam sites tend to come and go very quickly, building links fast through their spamming techniques, then closing down and moving on. Thus, the older the site and the links coming into it, the more “points” the site may get. The shorter the life of the site domain, no matter how many millions of links are coming in, the less Google is interested.
Google monitors the historical value and the slow building of value of incoming links, and they also monitor the changes in the link anchor text over time and throughout the site.
Consistent link anchor text scores low. This is considered “Anchor Spam”. What this means is that if you use the same text in a link, such as <a href="link.php">perfume sales</a> consistently through your site, then it won’t score very high. If you vary the link anchor text, especially over time not just within the same page, your odds will increase as Google monitors the changes in links over time. Generally, it is recommended to change the keywords in your anchor text around the top 5-10 keywords, to maintain consistency with keyword rankings and link rankings.
So the perfume sales might include link text such as:
This changes the whole landscape. The idea of link exchanges and link spam as a method to attract Google’s search engine bots just doesn’t work. Age before linkage.
Google also states very clearly that exchanging and buying links won’t work. They know the tricks and techniques. Also, getting links from documents that have no content, just links, also won’t work. Links without content won’t score high.
Now, does this mean that if you link to a page and they link back to you, your scores will go down and it might be considered link spam? No. The other criteria goes into effect to help offset this normal linking techniques. But it does impact the concept of the Blogrolls, which are sometimes considered link exchange lists. So choose your link exchanges wisely and avoid hundreds of links from your site to others, or being on a list of hundreds of links.
One of the other criteria is the age of the domain. Again, driven by spam sites which pop up and die off quickly, the age of the domain is usually a clue they tend to be in for the long haul.
This causes some problems. If you change your domain name, then are you back at the bottom of the barrel? Well, maybe not. If the rest of the criteria stays the same and your content maintains consistency, as does your traffic and incoming links, then this might just be a temporary drop and the rise will happen again soon.
Many hosts offer special rates for long term hosting and domain registration. Consider registering your domain for at least two years, five is better. This means you need to make sure that the domain name you choose is one you can live with for two to five years. You can change hosts, but the domain registration needs to stay the same, and stay in your name over the long haul to score points with Google.
The click through rate (CTR) of your site may play an important roll in adding up good points on your Google Search Engine score card. The CTR is the rate that people click “through” to your site. Referrer statistics are the numbers and methods visitors use to visit your site. This information tells the site administrator, and Google, from where did you arrive from to land on this site. Did you click through from a search engine (which one), directly, from another site (which site), or, as revealed in the patent, from the cache, temporary files, bookmarks, or favorites of your Internet browser.
The click through rate is also based on the CTR of the advertising on your site. The more ads which are clicked, the higher your score.
The CTR is also monitored for fresh or stale content – in other words, are they visiting new content on your site or old posts or articles? Trends and seasons are also taken into account as certain subject matter gains precedence with the time of the year and the current fad.
Built into the Google page ranking technique is the ability to track current and historical trends, fads and seasons. If your site deals with beach wear, the odds are that it will have more traffic during the beach wear season of summer than it will into the fall and winter. This seasonal traffic is taken into account and you may not lose rank when the traffic dies down seasonally.
It also tracks whatever is hot in trends and fads. Right now, everything to do with Hurricane Katrina is hot, hot, hot, but a couple years ago, everything and anything to do with protecting you and your home from biological terrorism was top of the list. Paris Hilton was top of the charts for a long time, doing battle with Britney Spears, but now, both of them are old news.
This is an interesting aspect of page ranking. If your site continues to push keywords long past the fad’s life span, then this could be seen as keyword spamming. Yet, using trends and fads keywords as they come and go could attract attention. Luckily, the rest of the criteria in the page ranking evaluation can help to clear out abusers of keywords related to the current fad or current event.
How often you update your pages and add content is monitored over time. It isn’t just how much but when. If you update or add hundreds of articles within a very short time, this is suspicious, but if you rarely update your site or add content over time, then your ranking will probably drop. Finding a happy medium is still a hit and miss angle, but the information seems to point to consistency not just random spurts of energy.
If you consistently add content once a week, and it stays steady, then it is seen as stable. If you add content consistently every day, and then it drops to nothing, then this change indicates an instability. If you do hit and miss content updating and additions over time, and then suddenly post a ton of activity, this can also be seen as instability and suspicious. Steady and consistent, no matter how frequently, adds weight to the score.
Many researchers say that frequent new or updated content carries more weight than infrequent changes to the site. I could find nothing in the patent that lent proof to that theory, but showing consistent activity does work.
A “stale” page is one that is old and rarely attracts interest. A “fresh” page is one that is new, and will be watched to see what kind of interest it may attract. By updating a stale page on your site, you may attract new interest by rewriting or structuring the information and keywords to attract more attention, breathing life back into the page. Google monitors this “refreshing” of pages to show activity and an increase in interest, scoring high.
Not all “old” pages on your site need updating. If it is still attracting decent traffic, then leave it alone. It is working for you.
The patent also reveals that stable pages that are working which suddenly attract a “spike” in the number of incoming links or click throughs may be an indication of a change of site ownership or spamming. Google evaluates not only the content but the historical changes in the content of the page and the site and if the changes are dramatic and sudden, then the site will rank lower. Stability over time scores higher.
Keywords and keyword density still play an important roll in evaluating the content and content history. Putting keywords in titles, links, headings, tags, and throughout the page is still critical to the success of your site’s page ranking and keyword ranking results.
Changes to keywords, by arrangement, closeness, and inside of links, titles and headings are also monitored, much like link anchor text. Consider reviewing and updating your keywords and checking their density and use throughout your site on a regular basis, if search engine page ranking is important to you.
In upcoming posts, we’ll discuss how to maximize your keyword density in your blog posts.
Like other comparative search engines, Google’s patent also tells of how page rankings are compared across the board and monitored over time. The traffic is recorded and monitored. How much traffic each page gets as well as the overall site.
User behavior is checked. Google keeps track of how long visitors stay on your site and from what pages they exit your site. You also get points for bookmarking or adding to favorites.
Keyword search results are constantly monitored. What keywords brought the visitor to your site and what keywords they used to search once on your site.
But “you” also play a roll in determining the page ranking with Google. The domain registration information is checked and compared to the information on the site to make sure the two match. The address of the domain owner may help localize search results to that specific geographic area.
How you have your site hosted also is among the other administrative items checked off. Shared IP host addresses run a risk since they are shared. If someone else is using that server for spamming or other evils, you could also be punished. Dedicated hosting is very expensive, so make sure you choose a reputable host who is publicly and actively stopping spamming sites if you choose shared hosting.
The validity of the site’s code and structure plays a small part, but is still part of the criteria. Make sure your site’s code is validated, checked for errors, and friendly to search engines. Any errors in your page structure or code can easily thwart a search engine’s process through your site. Table designed sites rank low while CSS based designs are much more search engine friendly.
Spelling is still important. Not that Google’s patented page ranking process includes a spell checker – words that are not recognized get dumped. If misspelled keywords are among your missed spellings, then your site will be hurt in the rankings.
I am fanatical about testing and specifically about testing my marketing and one of the tests I am currently running is on getting people from a few key, related industries, to exchange links with me.
This is basically what I am doing. I put out marketing to find people that would like to work with my clients that are not directly competing with me. An example would be a tiny ad on my homepage that says “Add Your Business, Service or Product To My Local Resource Directory”. Then, I explain that my clients would benefit from having a great list of local providers and I’d be willing to list them there if they also linked to my website from their website. It is a pretty typical link exchange request.
I was talking to a business associate of mine that was looking for ways to network and get more referral business from a certain industry. I told him about what I was doing and how he could, with some very small modifications, set up a similar program to build a referral network. They key, and what many business owners miss, is that you do need to actively market this exchange just as if you were marketing a product for sale. Fail to market it and you’ll fail to make a sale (in this case the sale is exchanging links).
In fact, I look at so similarly to how I look at making a sale, I actually track conversion rates on a squeeze page to get more information about exchanging links (and even blog about that, but that’s a topic for another day). You can, and I believe should, actively be doing something very similar in your business and to promote link building on your business website.
You know you need inbound links to your site to succeed in SEO. What you may not know is, you don’t need to spend a dime to get them. In fact, I would advise you not to purchase links.
The recent Google shakeup is all about paid links. Stop paying for links now! Google is now “punishing” websites for having paid links, because they feel it’s cheating the algorithm. You might be upset by this, but they are doing it to improve the quality of their results. Here is how you can take advantage of it.
Google is moving towards algorithms that favor sites that are “naturally” linked to. What is “natural” linking? These are links that a webmaster puts up because he or she wanted to, not because they were paid to. They saw something they liked, and put a link to it. This means all those shady SEOs who were buying links up by the hundreds can’t cheat good sites out of the rankings anymore. So how you do get natural links?
Focus on Your Subject
There is a saying in marketing, if you market to everyone, you are marketing to no one. Maintain your focus, and keep your content within your niche. Don’t try to spread yourself too thin.
I personally have been guilty of this sin in the past. At one time JeremyMorgan.com had SEO articles, PHP scripts, Ford Mustang News and photoshop tutorials, and pictures of my family and locations back home. Needless to say I didn’t really dominate any of those niches. Focus your efforts, and try to stay on topic.
Give Them Something to Link to
Once you find your focus, provide content that others in your niche want to link to. It’s really that simple. Think to yourself, “are people going to want to link to this?”. As much as I think my speculations and opinions on industry trends are great, the reality is most people link to articles I write that actually tell you how to do something. If you really want to build links, give them something helpful or really interesting to link to.
Even pages that you cannot easily monetize. The more links you get, the better.
Join the Community
In 2008, they have a community for almost anything. Get involved in those communities, sign up for forums and comment on posts. Become an authority. Just by being helpful to others and bringing information to a community, people will link to your site out of respect, knowing that their audience will appreciate the link. Be honest, helpful, and maintain your integrity on the boards. Instead of making fun of that newbie, help them out.
Look for Places with High Quality Links
Don’t be afraid to ask to exchange links with others who might benefit from your service. Links from sites like your local library or community-centric pages go a long ways. Even your employer may put up a link (be careful not to mess that one up!).
Get Deep Links
Deep links are very important. Try to get links pointing towards inner pages of your site rather than the front page. With enough of these types of links, you can dominate some of the serps related to that topic, as well as build your overall quality.
Write Articles
Chances are, you’re reading this article on somewhere other than JeremyMorgan.com or Webfoot Central. That’s because I submit articles all over the internet. Not only do you help build backlinks, but you contribute to your community, and make a name for yourself. Don’t write spammy articles, or try to advertise too hard. Make something useful that others will want as content on their own site.
Issue Press Releases
I can’t really comment on this one too much, because I’ve never done it, but for some sites it’s a very useful tool for getting inbound links, and good publicity. Make sure you have something going on that’s worth talking about!
Blog, Blog, Blog
Every site needs a blog. Even if your site is primarily about selling widgets, have a widget news related blog. Individual articles will get people linking to them, and will keep your site fresh and add content, which google and other search engines love.
If You Must, Sponsor Some Links.
There are a few sponsored links worth getting. Yahoo Search Inclusion is one example. If you are in a highly competitive industry, such as adult, SEO, mortgage, finance, or gambling you will need to purchase links to get an edge. There are a lot of people competing for your terms.
Conclusion
Use common sense. The best way to get ahead is by being honest, and providing a decent service. Stop trying gimmicks or tricks to cheat your way into good rankings. The best long term SEO plan involves taking the high road and doing things honestly. Check out the SEO book to see what I learned about ethical SEO. Now I don’t have any problems getting people to my website. You can too, all it takes is a little effort!
Reciprocal linking is one of the accepted methods adopted by webmasters to build traffic, increase link popularity and improve page rank. It is a known fact that in recent times search engines have begun to place more importance to one-way inbound link and consider it to be superior to a reciprocal link. It is also known that search engines do appreciate reciprocal links if the links are from quality theme related websites.
Webmasters receive regular requests for reciprocal link exchange either by e-mail or through their websites where provision is made for the submission of requests for reciprocal link exchange. Why are most requests rejected to the utter disappointment and dismay of webmasters of new websites anxious to increase their link popularity and page rank?
Some of the major reasons for the refusal to reciprocate a link exchange request can be attributed to:
1. When a reciprocal link exchange request is received, the obvious thing the webmaster will do is to visit the website making a request and try to identify what this website is all about. If the request is from a website with an irrelevant theme, the chances are the request will be turned down. The reason is that search engines will not give him any credit for linking with an irrelevant site and he cannot expect any targeted traffic from such a website either.
2. Poor content of your website is another major reason for the rejection of your reciprocal link exchange request. Websites with good quality theme related content are seldom rejected. In fact webmasters appreciate reciprocal link exchange requests from non competitive theme related websites since these sites will provide their own visitors with useful website experience and also receive targeted traffic.
3. If your website is with a PR zero or with a low Page Rank and if you request a link exchange with a high PR site, unfortunately your request will most probably be turned down. The reason being that the high PR site will not benefit by linking with your site. One saving grace here is that if you have excellent theme related content and indicate that you are growing fast some websites will link to you hoping that you will achieve high PR rank soon.
4. Most webmasters want to know whether your link directory is easily accessible to your website visitors. Hiding it in a maze of other information will not help. Your link page should be only two clicks away from your home page. A webmaster with a good link directory set-up will not be interested in complying with your request if your link directory is not easily accessible.
5. Having several dozens of links in each page is another reason for the rejection of a link request. If you wish to succeed in your request then you should ensure that you categorize the link directory and have not more than twenty five links to a page.
It should now be obvious why most requests for reciprocal link exchange are turned down. Having good quality unique content is the best way to start your reciprocal link campaign and succeed in your efforts.
