The use of paid links in a search engine optimisation campaign is always the subject of much debate. On the one side of the coin it is believed that search engines devalue the weight given to paid links when determining the ranking of a web page. On the other hand it is difficult for search engines to determine whether a link is paid for, or not, if it is acquired using the appropriate means. One fact that remains constant though, is that a good link is a good link regardless of its value in search engine optimisation.

Search Engine Optimisation Goal

The ultimate goal of a search engine optimisation campaign is to drive targeted traffic to your web pages. Building links helps by improving your ranking in the search engine result pages for specific search words or terms. As such, building links is treated as a vital facet of an SEO campaign and marketers are constantly looking for cost effective methods of building high powered links to web pages with minimal effort for hopefully massive return. One method is through paid linking.

Paid Link Services

There are a number of services on the web that offer paid linking. Either they offer it through their own network of websites, or they broker deals between advertisers and publishers. Payment is usually determined by the PageRank of a web page and paid on a per term basis (monthly or annually, for example).

Search Engine Devalued Links

Search engines are known to devalue links when they are aware that they have been paid for. This could mean that a paid link is worth nothing more than the traffic it directs to a web page, and this is likely to be the best way to judge whether a paid link is really worth it or not. However, some point out that by using certain services it is almost impossible to be found out by the search engines for using paid links. Certain brokers give information about a potential link location but do not give specific details. In these cases, the link may have benefit to search engine optimisation.

A Good Link Is A Good Link

Whatever your views on the matter of paid linking, one thing is for certain – it is a genuine and viable form of online marketing. A link from a prominent position on a prominent website geared towards a related demographic of visitors as your own site can drive a lot of highly targeted and very active traffic to your web pages. In this respect, paid linking is greatly beneficial.

Paid Linking For More Than SEO

When looking at paid linking, it is best not to consider it a form of search engine optimisation. Judge each paid link on its own merit. If the search engines do determine it is a paid link then they won’t give you the benefit of that link when determining your search engine ranking. However, if the link is a good link from a relevant page that naturally attracts a lot of visitors in its own right then it is a viable form of advertising that should be considered. After all this is the goal of your search engine optimisation anyway.

Link building is not only an important part of search engine optimization, but can drive traffic directly your web pages. Every link should be judged by its own merits – for example, if a link uses a nofollow tag then it will not benefit SEO, but if it drives large amounts of traffic then it is still a beneficial link. Conversely, a search engine friendly link from a relevant and highly ranked page that drives no traffic to your site is still of benefit to your SEO efforts.

Search Engine Friendly Links

A search engine friendly link is one that will gain you the most benefit in search engine optimisation. If you rely on natural linking, without undertaking any specific link building projects then you will have no control over whether a link carries any advantage in your search engine optimization.

Enabling Spiders To Follow Links

Always ensure that spiders are able to crawl, or follow a link. A robots text file can be added to a domain that is used to prevent spiders from following links to specific domains, from certain pages, or over the entire site. The link code itself can also contain a nofollow or noindex tag that prevents search engines from following or indexing a link respectively. In SEO terms, this makes the link useless. Check that none of these exist on a site or page that you are trying to gain a link from.

A Varied SEO Link Profile

The best link profile is one that contains a wide range of sites and uses a range of your primary keywords. Recent indications have shown that some search engines also place weight on semantically related keywords in a bid to try and promote organic search engine optimisation so include these keywords in your SEO efforts.

Anchor Text And Keywords

The anchor text of a link is the section that visitors can see when looking at a page. This is also the search term that search engine spiders will rank the resulting page for. As such, while it does pay to have a handful of links using your domain as the visible section of a link, it is better practice to use keywords as anchor text. The more links you receive, and the higher those links are valued, the better you will perform for the keywords that are used.

Offering Link Code On Your Website

If you do rely solely on organic link building through posting high quality content, known as linkbait, you can still make some efforts to ensure that the links you receive are of higher value. Offer HTML code on each page that you would like others to use when linking to you. Also give the page a title that includes one or more of your primary keywords but still makes sense. And, of course, if your homepage is being used for this purpose then a keyword rich domain name and website title will go a long way.

SEO And Link Building

Links are the currency of the Internet, although their resale cash value has been diminished in some respects. Building links using keywords as anchor text and getting those links on highly regarded websites that do not employ noindex or nofollow tags is a major part of any effective search engine optimisation campaign. Building links will be one part of your SEO campaign that needs to be continually performed in order to keep making the most of your search engine traffic