SEO Tip: Link building Mix up

Link Deep

One of the first things people want to go is get some good links to their home page. It is important to mix up the link locations a bit as well. You want to make sure that pages in your site have links coming in to them just like your main page. One easy way to do this is to build more pages and have your pages linking out to each other. This will get you started, but for real search engine power you need to get links going to all of your most important pages. The exact number varies, but while you concentrate on link building I would say it's worth pointing every other link to a page under your home page. The exact ratio depends on your web site, but having more of your pages linked is a good thing. Organizing our links is one of the goals we try to accomplish with our human readable sitemap. Keeping a human readable sitemap can help you focus deep on your most important links, and remind you of where to link to.

Vary Your Sources

It's nice when you can get 100's of links in from a site, but really it's almost always better to get one link from a hundred sites than 100 links from one site. Try not to build too many links from one location. That includes servers. Try to make sure that most of your links are coming in from different domains, and if you can different IP addresses. While it's not thought to be a problem if links are coming from the same IP, it is a potential problem for the future. One of the best places to get links (and often the hardest) is from old established domains. Finding web sites that have been active for ten years or more that are willing to link to you is a treasure.

Mix It Up

"Anchor text" is the texts used in links to your web site. If you web site is linked via a graphic (such as a banner ad) the graphic can have it's own text called "alt text" or alternative text. While it's great when links going to your site are your main keywords, you must be careful not to have too many of your links using the same phrase. People don't always use the same phrases in linking, so if you have the opportunity to select the text for your links try to vary them a bit. For example, come up with a list of your most important key words. Then try to mix them up in every two-word, three-word, four-word, five-word, and six-word combination. Eliminate any that don't sound right and you have a nice list of links to use. Try to mix these terms throughout your links. While you're mixing text, also remember to mix in deep links.

Location and Context

Link locations matter as well when it comes to potency. Links that are near the top of the page count for more than links at the bottom. Search engines can see where text is located on a page and pays more attention to text at the top. This is after all where people pay the most attention as well. Make sure your most important links are at the top of the page, and try to get your links above others, such as being the first to comment on a blog post. This is a good way to gain attention. The text surrounding your links is thought to ad value to your link as well. If your link is used in a sentence for example, you might get some credits for the words near your link. This is why we try to promote linking your pages together in your site's text.

For more information, thoughts, or comments just fill out the form below. We're always happy to discuss these and other issues with our visitors. As always our services are available for those who contact us and remember that we're running some great specials for January. Until next time, pura vida!