Search Engine Optimization

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Links From Good Sites

If search engine optimization is like working out, getting links is the heavy lifting. It's also the most important factor in getting good rankings for keywords. Note that we're talking about links from other web sites. Any link that you can click on to get to your site is a link to your site. But not all links are created equal.

So what is a "Good Link"? It's a link from a site that has good content and that links to your site on a page that doesn't have too many links on it. Something less than 50 links on the page is probably fine. Avoid those pages with hundreds of links on them — they can actually hurt your rankings. The best page will have some regular text on it (like this) using some of your keywords and of course, the link to your site. The closer the keywords to your link, the better. For example, let's say your keyword is "denver pottery". A good link would look like this:

Remember that this text is on someone else's web site. Usually you won't be able to tell other people how to link to your site. They'll just do it however they want. That's Ok. If it's a link from a good site, it will help.

How do you tell if it's a good site? The quickest way to check out a site is to check it's PageRank. You'll need the Google Toolbar or a plug-in for Mozilla to get the PageRank (we'll call it PR). Google's toolbar only works with Internet Explorer on a PC. For Mac's, try the Mozilla version. Once you've installed the Google toolbar, click the Google button on the bar and choose Options. Then check the Page Rank option to turn on Page Rank display. On Internet Explorer, you should see a bar link this:

If you hover the mouse over the bar it will give you a number, like 6/10, which we say is a Page Rank of 6. It's Google's measure of the popularity of the page.

And you thought cliques ended in school? Nope, Google has given a whole new meaning to the popularity contest. A high page rank is based, in part, on how many good sites link to your site. So popular sites, meaning sites that a lot of other sites link to, tend to get high PR scores (you could call it a Popularity Ranking). You want to get sites with a high PR to link to you.

Avoid the baddies. If you see a PageRank like this on a page, a PR of 0, do not get a link from that page. Either Google has not indexed the page, or the website has been banned from Google. Either way, you don't want that link. To use a famous saying, "These aren't the droids you're searching for. Move on."

In addition to the Page Rank, sites that have good content and that are related to your business area are better than well ranked but unrelated sites. This is because they will tend to use some of the same keywords you're looking to get ranked for and that link will be more relevant.

I'm sure you're asking now, "Ok. How do I get links?" Glad you asked. It's a lot of work but basically, you ask. Send an email to the website contact and ask politely if they would like to your site. Explain how much it will help their site if they provide a link to your site. Their visitors can find that exciting blogwidget they're looking for. Or maybe their visitors can find more information on using the blogwidget on their computer. Or maybe you provide a service that their visitors would use. I think you get the idea - tell the site owner how it would benefit their site to link to you. If you can't think of anything, well, ask politely anyway.

I'm working on an upcoming article on how to get links and some suggestions that should help. Of course, getting these links is only part of the solution. What about your web site itself?