Link Building Course - Part Two, Factors to Consider

Linkbuilding can be done in many different ways. Some are more effective than others. The different types of backlinks a linkbuilder can get can be good and bad. I will explain later how to identify a good link from a bad link. As I will also lay out tips and tricks for efficient link building.

Backlink Factors to Consider:

There are many factors to look at when attaining links pointing to a site. Truth be told, not all links are created equally.

-Relevancy Probably one of the most important factors is site relevancy. A link from a site that is related to the site you are promoting is better then a site that is unrelated. Also, a link from a site with a similar theme is also better then a completely unrelated site. So if you want to prioritize link building, try to get links on sites with themes related to the site you are promoting. So for instance, if your site is on "air purifiers", a link from another air purifier site would be much better then a link from a site on "car parts".

-Authority Sites Every site on the internet has what I call an "authority score". This is simply the amount of weight the site has within the search engines. An authority score is based on the number of links pointing to a particular site, and the weight of each of those links. There is no real way to determine an authority score, and only Google provides something of the sort. You may be familiar with Googles Pagerank (at least I hope so), if not, no worries. Pagerank is a number derived by Googles algorithms which represents there opinion on how much "authority" that particular site has. Generally, the higher the PR (pagerank) is, the higher the "authority score", and the better rankings the site will achieve. However, PR or an "authority score" is only used as one factor when considering where to rank a web page in the SERPS (search engine result pages). There are 100's of factors that search engines to take in place, so the PR or authority score is not a direct measure of a sites importance or rankings.

Some sites are also considered "authority sites" by the search engines. These are generally monsterous sites like Amazon.com, Dmoz.org, About.com, CNN.com etc. Most big newspapers are also considered "authority sites". All this means, is that content and links within these sites are given more importance then usual. So, getting a link on one or more "authority sites" is benifical to you as it is generally worth the most link points. Sites that end in .edu are also generally given more importance in the search engines.

To get an idea of how much "authority" a site has in the search engines, you can check their backlinks. If the site has thousands upon thousands of backlinks from related sites, that have accrued over time, it will probably have a high "authority score". On the other hand, if a site has only a few backlinks, it may be new, and not have much weight at all in the search engines. With that said, even sites with little authority can be beneficial.

-Link Farms It is a good idea to avoid sites with hundreds of outbound links. These sites may be seen as link farms by the search engines, and your site could be penalized, or the link just not considered. Either way, it is a waste of time. Generally the rule of thumb is you don't want more then 50 outbound links on one page, though some say even lower, around 25.

-Banned Sites You should try to avoid sites that have been banned, or are unindexed in one or more of the search engines. To check, use a site saturation checker. If there are 0 pages indexed in one or more of the search engines, the site is unlikely to be beneficial to you.

-Link Placement Links placed within content are generally given more importance then links in menu's, or at the bottom of the page. For instance, it is more natural to the search engines to see a phrase within a paragraph that is linked to a related site, then a link that appears after all the content at the bottom of a page. Linking within the content of a page is called "linking within context", and is considered the most natural form of linking.

-Anchor Text The anchor text of your link pointing to your site is an important factor search engines use when determining the rank of a site. An anchor text is simply the text that is highlighted in the link to your site. For example My Site, in this case, "My Site" is the anchor text for the link. The anchor text's you use when linking to your site should contain terms directly related to your site. If your site is based on "air purifiers", you might use "air purifiers", "quality air purifiers", "air purification", "clean air","air filters", etc. as anchor texts when linking to it. It is a good idea to vary your anchor text while still focusing on the main theme of the site you are promoting. If a search engine encounters hundreds of links pointing to your site all with the same anchor text, it is likely to raise a red flag.

Not only is it important to vary your anchor texts, it's also important to vary the pages you are linking too. Afterall, you have more then one page on the site you are promoting, so why shouldn't you link to more then one page. The basic idea is to mix up your links between the homepage, sitemap (if there is one), and the actual content pages. Linking to pages other then the index page is known as deep linking. By varying the pages you link to, you also avoid "red flags" by the search engines, which could result in being penalized. Therefore, remember, vary your anchors, and vary the pages you link in order to be efficient.