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Thursday 1 September 2011

In search for quality links

As a marketer you probably know by now that obtaining links is one of the most important methods in order to get proper rankings in some of the major search engines. Is that right?

Well, obtaining links is may help your website promotion but it does not necessarily means that all links are equal or that all links actually provide useful value.

Not all links are created equal. A lot of mythology and misinformation exists on the World Wide Web about obtaining the right kind of links. Our intentions are not about revealing the truth as some things are not clear and simple but to set the main points on which one should base his decisions.

Many professionals would suggest that in order to know what a good link is one must follow Google and try to discover every daily algorithm change and that failing to do so can be a real obstacle in the way to the number one spot.

Guess what? Some of these people are actually after your money. Sure they know a bit about Google and search engine placements but the truth is plain simple. Search engines provide site owners with the best practices. There is no need to be an expert to follow it. The basic guidelines stand the test of time and seem to hold the real value.

Since Google's business model relies upon filling the surfers intentions it also needs to ensure that website owners know how they will deserve the top spots so that competition will lead to better websites. Trying to understand the basic search engine intentions in relationship with the algorithm task, the two step process is all about deciding:

  • What is the web page really about?
  • Is the page worthwhile in this topic?

Using basic methods one can tell the visitor about the web page content and what keyword or key phrase is in focus. Being worthwhile, on the other hand is about getting the right recommendations which are the right links.

It is not hard to find out which are better links, links that are bought from a non-relevant old established site or some that are diverse and originate from established and known sites in the industry.


The value of links is measured by three simple indicators

  1. Relevancy- the link should be from a relevant page. Better be a relevant page within a relevant site
  2. More trust for old and established sites- links for older sites tend to have a greater value than those from newer sites
  3. Placements within the page- Links that are part of the page's unique content are more likely to be clicked and thus hold greater value from those who are laid in the footer of the page or below the fold.

If you get links from well established, old and relevant pages rules you will find out that fewer of these quality links will more than outweigh dozens of others' originated in non-relevant sites. This, works for site owners for years, regardless of the minor or major amends to Google's algorithm.

Getting good links is a different story. It does take a lot of effort and earned knowledge on how to promote a web site.


Where can we find great links?

The most common and easiest way of finding good links is to use the basic tools the web provides for inspecting who links to your competitors.

One simple way is using the Yahoo Link domain query. In Yahoo site explorer just use the following search query:
linkdomain:domainname.com -inurl:domainname.com
Were domainname.com is the name of your competitor domain; the domain that you would like to check for its backlinks.


About the source:
WAO internet marketing provides SEO and web-marketing releated guides for website owners who would like to gain the basic knowledge on promoting their websites in global and local search engines.