SEO Consult Blog

Why Link?

SEO is 95% linking, so if you want success with your SEO you need to focus on linking, especially incoming ones.  Linking means you will be indexed quicker.

Links Explained

Google, for example, have robots which jump from page to page via links, or hyperlinks, so the more links you have from other pages on other sites, the easier it will be to find your site.

A word of warning though, don’t participate in link schemes which are designed to increase your rankings.  Links like web spammers or those that come from bad neighbourhoods may have an adverse affect on your rankings.

Which Link?

There are no shortcuts to finding incoming links, your success boils down to work, work and more work.  Keep researching to find sites with relevant content which will be a good resource for your visitors, but don’t just take, be polite and send the site owner a personalised email asking them for a link, explaining the mutual benefits.

Linking will affect the success of your SEO, so a little research can go a long way, and if you are not sure about which type of linking is most effective for your requirements, where to get them or how to set them up, then it might be best to get advice from someone who knows more about it than you.

There are so many types of Links available; these are just scratching the surface.

• Authority Links are considered a must if you want to build a websites trust rank.
• Directory Links.  Keep these to a minimum and stay with relevant one way links as directory links are not as strong as some SEO’s think they are.
• One Way Links.  Look for sites that have decent rankings with few outbound links.  Beware of areas that tell you they have sponsored links, friends or advertisements.
• Reciprocal or 2-way Links.  These links are considered out of date, but still serve a purpose especially if you need a few links to start getting your website crawled.  Not the most effective link, but the easiest to get.  The majority of link exchanges are pretty equal to what you are offering.
• 3-way Links.  Considered a little ‘gray hat’, so be careful.  Example, site 1 links to site 2 which links to site 3.
• 4-way Links.  Same as 3-way, but two out of the four sites are getting a one way link while the others are giving a link.  This can replace Reciprocal Linking if a webmaster has more than one site as they can start building one way links more effectively.
• Site Wide Links.  You need to find sites that have a large number of indexed pages with good content and PR, but too many of these will raise a red flag as Google don’t like you to have too many incoming links from one IP address, but as long as you don’t go overboard, a few sites out of a hundres or so will suffice.