Everything (Almost) That You Need To Know About Linking

There is enough information about linking on the Internet to fill up a library.

What I've read makes me dizzy. Today I'll try to save you the vertigo, here's what you need to know:

Linking is smart online marketing and you should be actively seeking linking opportunities at all times.

But like most things on the Internet, if you don't know what you're doing you'll probably see little, if any, valuable results.

Ask friends, associates, others you have met and networked with in the industry to link to your website.

Putting links on your home page is probably a pretty silly idea - unless - you're home page copy is very strong and you give absolutely NO reason for a bride to leave your website.

Even if it is, I recommend you put links on a sub-page off your home page.

Inbound links are links that point TO your website FROM others.

Outbound links are links that point AWAY from your website.

Google, and other search engines, see both types of links at your website.

Google likes to see a lot of QUALITY inbound links to your website. Think of it as dozens, or hundreds, of "votes of confidence" for your website.

Page Rank is one way to guage what Google thinks about your website. "Google Love" is an even better way. Use both to gain an understanding of what Google thinks about your website.

It is not about the quantity of websites linking to you that matters most. It's the quality of those websites that has the most value.

Link "farms" are huge websites of links created just to manipulate search engine rankings.

Google knows this, has probably identified most of them, and may actually penalized your website for participating in such a scheme.

Yes, penalize - as in get blacklisted.

Link exchanges have some value too, but not as much as a link to your website from another - without an exchange. Google can tell the difference between an inbound (only) link, outbound (only) link, and link exchange.

When you get link exchange offers in the email throw them away. I haven't come across one in ten years that was a fair exchange of value.

Links are not only an important piece of your overall search engine optimization strategy, but they're also part of your overall traffic building strategy.

You'll find it difficult to achieve any valuable top search engine ranking without a carefully crafted link building strategy for your website.

If one of your competitors develops more inbound links than your website has, and you currently have better search engine positioning, it is likely they will be able to "bump you out" of your top ranking.

Chris Jaeger
Book More Weddings
http://www.bookmoreweddings.com

Get the ADVANTAGE for your website. More traffic, more brides, more inquiries, more sales.

Backward Links

The Importance of Backward Links

Everyone wants to be top ranked at Google, Yahoo!, and MSN and developing links TO your website from other websites, known as backward links, or inbound links, is one of the most important factors related to your search engine optimization strategy.

Backward links are VERY valuable and have a double punch.

Not only do they deliver traffic but, more importantly, they will have a positive impact on your search engine ranking. Actually, I’m confident saying that without backward links you’ll (1) have a hard time getting good search engine positioning or (2) keeping it if you have it.

How does it work?

Search engines track who is linking to your website. Let’s use Google as an example. When search engines like Google see a lot of other websites linking to your website they say “hey, there must be something there worth looking at, if all these webmasters are linking to that page).

When they see that those websites are quality websites, not just websites just made for linking purposes (sometimes called link-farms) and that those sites have a relevant content and a matching theme, your website is gets a few extra points compared to your competition who doesn’t have backward links.

Backward linking is one way to improve what I call “Google Love.”

Put another way, without a solid number of quality websites linking to your website it’s highly unlikely you’ll achieve top ranking – particularly with Google.

So, how do you get backward links?

It’s difficult, time consuming, and a slow process.

You can (1) ask for them from people you network with, (2) write articles or tips for other websites and make sure they link back to your website, and of course (3) buy them.

One think you MUST know. In order to get backward link “value” from another website a search engine must be able to crawl or see that link and it must be a link that has your website address – NOT A SCRIPT OR COUNTER.

If you go to my popular Wedding Planning Links website (http://www.weddingplanninglinks.com) and look at the top of the page, “Some of Our Favorite Links”, you’ll see an example of directly passed backward links.

If your link is at a website that requires brides to register to use it, or see a listing of advertisers where your website link appears - you’re not getting any backward link value with your advertisement.

If the link is not a DIRECT link to your website or if it is passed through a counter script or uses a session ID variable, you’re also not getting any backward link value.

Anything that keeps a search engine from seeing your “pure” link is an obstacle to receiving backward link value.