Search Engine Optimization - Links That Matter By Sean Burns
Author of Rankings Revealed
Most people now know that getting links to a site is a very
important part of the search engine optimization process. The
search engines will view a page as being important if it has
lots of links to it. More importantly, if a page is considered
important, it's link to your page is of more value.
However, not all links are taken into account by the search
engines.
The most important thing that you need to be aware of is that if
the actual address of your site is not in the link, the search
engines won't count it. So, if you are listed in a directory
that uses a script that counts clicks and then redirects to your
site, this is valueless.
This is also the case if you use a third party affiliate program
to promote your site. Companies like Commission Junction and
ClickBank redirect the links via their site. Therefore, these
links don't help.
For a link to count, it must include the standard "a href" in
the HTML and it must point directly to your page. Even if you
use an in house affiliate program it won't help with Google
because they pass PageRank (their version of link popularity)
straight to the URL, not where it may direct.
Another major issue is the use of JavaScript. At this time
search engines can't follow links that are written in JavaScript
(unless the "a href" tag is included). This can be a big problem
if you exchange links with someone and they link back using
JavaScript - you are helping to make their site more popular but
they aren't returning the favour.
One great way of getting links to your site is to provide
testimonials for people's products and services. This will often
get you a link to your site without you having to reciprocate.
However, I've noticed a lot lately that many sites aren't
actually linking back to sites - they are including the URL but
they aren't making it a clickable link.
Again, without the "a href" tag, the search engines won't follow
a link. This means that if someone includes your URL on a page
but doesn't make it clickable, you get no benefit from it.
Another great way to get links to your site is to write articles
and submit them to the various article directories. This allows
other website owners to use your articles on their site with a
link back. The best article directories to get listed in are the
ones that actually include the articles on their site. If they
just link to the article on your site, chances are that they
will use a script and, again, the link won't help.
Another thing that you should make sure of, if possible, is that
the article directory that actually puts your article on their
site provides a directory structure that allows you to "drill
down" (click through a linked directory structure) to find your
article. If this is the case, it means that the search engines
will find your article.
If the article directory only allows people to find an article
by using a search function, the search engine won't find your
article and won't find the link. This is because a crawler is
just a robot. It can't fill in a form and click on the search
button. It can only find pages via links.
If the site in question has a very simple directory structure,
you should try to make sure that your article is listed in one
of the categories that they link to. Some site will link to
"popular searches". If you can get listed on the pages that come
up from these popular search links, the search engines will
probably find you.
It will often be worth adding a word or two to an article just
to make sure that it does come up when people click on these
links.
Another popular way of getting links is to submit a site to a
free for all links page. Links from these pages are worth
absolutely nothing and there is a chance that your site will be
penalised for using them (only a small chance). Being listed on
a page that has 100 other links on it will do no good but there
is also this fact to consider. Links on those pages will only
last a matter of hours. If your link is not there when the
search engine crawler comes by, you've missed out completely.
The link popularity and PageRank side of search engine
optimization is extremely important so it's best that you focus
your energies on getting links that will actually help. I hope
that this article has helped to explain the different forms of
links and which ones will actually benefit your site.
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Sean Burns is the author of Search Engine Rankings Revealed. This eBook
provides a step by step guide to helping the search engines send
you traffic. His sites received almost 1 million highly targeted
visitors from search engines last year. Rankings Revealed will
show you how to do it
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