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We have often been told that the key to good search engine position is to
have good depth and variety of content on your website. This is essential
as the major search engines are always scanning your content and they are
looking for the most authoritative content they can find on any given topic.
Website content certainly is King. It rules!
However, in a competitive marketplace the number, quality and keywords
associated with links from other websites back to your website is
a critical factor in search engine positioning.
Linking is Queen and she is a powerful lady.
When a website provides a link back to your website, the search engines
(Google in particular) considers this as a vote in favor of your
website. It is like the other website is referring your website. With
many links (votes) we think that you can see how powerful the Queen can
become. Many referrals mean plenty of votes in your favor. This is very
good for your search engine position.
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Use both content and linking for the most powerful approach.
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It can get even better!
What if the website casting its vote is doing so by creating a link that is based on
a keyword phrase that is important to your business? This is great! Google will not
only give you credit for the link but will also give you credit for the keyword phrase.
It is almost like this phrase is now being counted as content on your website and
Google is viewing this as a referral or a recommendation by the website.
Referrals are great for business!
Think about how it would work for you as you seek out a particular business in the
offline world. Let's say that you are in need of a plumber and do not know where to
turn. You could look in the phone book and study the ads. You could, however, also
call up friends that recently had some plumbing work done and ask them for their
opinion. If your friends make some referrals then this is far better than looking
through phone book ads. Now, what if many of your friends made the same referral
this would add more weight heavily in favor of this particular plumber and you will
most likely use their referral. It is similar to this when someone links from their
website to your website. Google views this as a referral and your website gets credit
from Google for that referral.
Can it get even better? Yes!
The last aspect of getting great in-coming links and perhaps the most difficult is to
have the link embedded in a page or a paragraph that has text that meshes with a
description of your business.
This is what Google calls relevant content.
If you have a real estate website then work to get links from pages on other websites
that have content about real estate. These links should be embedded in paragraphs with
text closely associated with your business. Google will then reward your site with a
higher position.
Think about it. If you ask for a referral from a friend but you do not think that the
friends knows much about the topic then you will appreciate the referral but still might
need to do some double checking. If, on the other hand, the referral comes from someone
with non-competing but good knowledge on the topic then you do not really need anything
else. Google looks at it this way as well.
Therefore, take care of the King and have superior content on your website. This will
attract Google and keep people on your site longer. However, to really outperform the
competition or to even have high position at all in a competitive market you will to
also need to take care of the Queen and get text-based in-coming links from multiple
websites. You will need these referrals in order to compete in position with
your competitors.
Advice:
- Define your keyword set and measure or have your website developer measure your position in Google for these keywords. If your website developer is not a specialist in search engine optimization (SEO) then find a reputable SEO company and work with them.
- Create great content on your website that meshes with your keyword set.
- Make contact with people that you collaborate with and ask them to give you links from their website to yours using your keyword set.
- Get as many of these keyword links as possible.
- Get links embedded in paragraphs that have relevant text.
- Avoid giving a link to get a link.
- Get a link from a page as high up in the referring site as possible. Very few businesses will give you a link from their home page and this is understandable. Try to get a link from a page that is one below the home page. A link from a page very low in the site may be close to getting no link at all.
- Continue to measure your position in the rankings as you acquire links.
Next Step:
If you would like Website Link Tactics to help you to get links into your website
that are keyword-based and embedded in paragraphs with text related to your
business then give us a call.
We will be happy to discuss how linking can help boost up your position in the
search engines and help to drive targeted traffic to your website.
Also, you can simply fill out the form on our Inquiry Page and we will get back to
you shortly.
Printable Version: Linking is Queen (PDF).
