Search Engine Optimization - Linking Strategy
Partnering with other websites can mean better ranking for your website, but in some cases can mean be dropped in the rankings or de-listed depending on who you want to partner with. Below are some good linking practice strategies that we hope can be helpful.
SEO - Proper Linking Strategy
Anchor text of inbound links
As discussed in the Keywords section, this is one of the most important factors for good rankings. It is best if you have a keyword in the anchor text but even if you don't, it is still OK.
SEO WEIGHT FACTOR +3
Origin of inbound links
Besides the anchor text, it is important if the site
that links to you is a reputable one or not. Generally sites with
greater Google PR are considered reputable.
SEO WEIGHT FACTOR +3
Links from similar sites
Having links from similar sites is very, very useful. It
indicates that the competition is voting for you and you are popular
within your topical community.
SEO WEIGHT FACTOR +3
Links from .edu and .gov sites
These links are precious because .edu and .gov sites are
more reputable than .com. .biz, .info, etc. domains. Additionally, such
links are hard to obtain.
SEO WEIGHT FACTOR +3
Number of backlinks
Generally the more, the better. But the reputation of
the sites that link to you is more important than their number. Also
important is their anchor text, is there a keyword in it, how old are
they, etc.
SEO WEIGHT FACTOR +3
Around-the-anchor text
The text that is immediately before and after the anchor
text also matters because it further indicates the relevance of the link
– i.e. if the link is artificial or it naturally flows in the text.
SEO WEIGHT FACTOR +2
Age of inbound links
The older, the better. Getting many new links in a short time suggests buying them.
SEO WEIGHT FACTOR +2
Links from directories
Great, though it strongly depends on which directories. Being listed in DMOZ, Yahoo Directory and similar directories is a great boost for your ranking but having tons of links from PR0 directories is useless and it can even be regarded as link spamming, if you have hundreds or thousands of such links.
SEO WEIGHT FACTOR +2
Number of outgoing links on the page that links to you
The fewer, the better for you because this way your link looks more important.
SEO WEIGHT FACTOR +1
Named anchors
Named anchors (the target place of internal links) are
useful for internal navigation but are also useful for SEO because you
stress additionally that a particular page, paragraph or text is
important. In the code, named anchors look like this: <A href=
“#dogs”>Read about dogs</A> and “#dogs” is the named anchor.
SEO WEIGHT FACTOR +1
IP address of inbound link
Google denies that they discriminate against links that come from the
same IP address or C class of addresses, so for Google the IP address
can be considered neutral to the weight of inbound links. However, Bing
and Yahoo! may discard links from the same IPs or IP classes, so it is
always better to get links from different IPs.
SEO WEIGHT FACTOR +1
Inbound links from link farms and other suspicious sites
This does not affect you in any way, provided that the
links are not reciprocal. The idea is that it is beyond your control to
define what a link farm links to, so you don't get penalized when such
sites link to you because this is not your fault but in any case you'd
better stay away from link farms and similar suspicious sites.
SEO WEIGHT FACTOR 0
Many outgoing links
Google does not like pages that consists mainly of
links, so you'd better keep them under 100 per page. Having many
outgoing links does not get you any benefits in terms of ranking and
could even make your situation worse.
SEO WEIGHT FACTOR -1
Excessive linking, link spamming
It is bad for your rankings, when you have many links
to/from the same sites (even if it is not a cross- linking scheme or
links to bad neighbors) because it suggests link buying or at least
spamming. In the best case only some of the links are taken into account
for SEO rankings.
SEO WEIGHT FACTOR -1
Outbound links to link farms and other suspicious sites
Unlike inbound links from link farms and other
suspicious sites, outbound links to bad neighbors can drown you. You
need periodically to check the status of the sites you link to because
sometimes good sites become bad neighbors and vice versa.
SEO WEIGHT FACTOR -3
Cross-linking
Cross-linking occurs when site A links to site B, site B
links to site C and site C links back to site A. This is the simplest
example but more complex schemes are possible. Cross-linking looks like
disguised reciprocal link trading and is penalized.
SEO WEIGHT FACTOR -3
Single pixel links
when you have a link that is a pixel or so wide it is
invisible for humans, so nobody will click on it and it is obvious that
this link is an attempt to manipulate search engines.
SEO WEIGHT FACTOR -3
