While all three of these are important and impact search engine rankings in some way, the last type has the largest by far…which coincidentally, is the hardest links to control.

Basically speaking, the search engines’ concept is as follows: if high-quality sites are linking to yours, then your site must be pretty important and therefore, will be more inclined to show it higher in their results…you in effect receive “link juice” from other sites that link to you.

But it’s not enough to just get a couple of links and then sit still. Search engines like Google look at link patterns to your site as they build over time, not just a one-time snapshot.

So, building the right links in a consistent fashion can payoff tremendously – that much is clear. But how do I go about building strong inbound links without getting myself in trouble? Getting on Google’s blacklist isn’t much fun and hard to recover from.

Continue reading for one of the ways you can build high-quality links to your site naturally and check back again in a week for part II of our quick little link building how-to.

Variety is the spice of life – and links too!

There are all sorts of link farming schemes out there you can buy into – which is probably the first reason you should run away. This practice is known as reciprocal linking – you exchange links with other sites who will turn around and link to you on a mass scale…Google and others are on to this!

The key to successful link building is to cultivate a good mix of links over time.

Having 100 links with the same anchor-text doesn’t look natural to anyone, including search engines. When links come naturally, some may use your business name while others may use some kind of descriptive phrase for the anchor-text…they vary.

If anchor-text is the same for all links pointing to your site, it will be signal to the search engines that your links are being generated artificially, not naturally.

And consider the pages people are linking to and try to mix that up too…don’t have them all going to your homepage. Try to drive links to specific product pages, your blog, your press room, your articles and more. This will help get them ranking as well.

Also, you will want to try and influence the title tag for incoming links if any have one. If you can, you will want variety in the link text and title for links pointing to your site…again, it’s about growing your links in a natural way, not simply slapping a bunch of homogenous links up there and walking away.

Variety in your links is perhaps the most critical component of successful link building. Don’t have them all coming from the same place to the same place and so on.

Check back with us next Monday for part II of our quick little link building guide and even learn how you can easily find out which sites are linking to you.

In the mean time, take the above steps to ensure what links you do acquire don’t get you in any trouble and give you the most bang for your buck.

We spend a lot of time here at the search engine optimization e-blog exploring the best and most legit ways of doing this.

One strategy of building links budding web entrepreneurs can consider is buying an abandoned website that has an existing cache of inbound links already. This can be a quick way to jumpstart your link-building efforts.

It’s been estimated that nearly half of businesses started in the U.S. fail within four years. In the old days, this exclusively meant a brick-and-mortar storefront was abandoned, leaving the real estate for someone else to pick up and use for productive purposes. In the online world, the site owner may keep his “online real estate” around in hopes of making it work one day.

These kinds of businesses or their website more specifically, are ripe for the picking at rock bottom prices. As far as cash outlay, this option may be more expensive than other link building strategies but the time you will save will make up for it. As the old saying goes – “time is money.”

One of the easiest ways to find these link jewels is to do a search on Google for outdated copyrights. For example: “copyright 2003” + your keywords

One of the easiest ways to spot an abandoned website is to find one whose copyright date is several years old. Sites that are consistently maintained will change that date each year but if it’s abandoned, the copyright year may be from 5+ years ago. Nothing says a site has given up like an old copyright date.

Another way to find abandoned or underperforming websites you can pick up for cheap is to type in “temporarily down for maintenance” or “under construction” plus your keywords. This is another indication that a site could be abandoned.

Once you locate a potential site, make sure its domain hasn’t expired. If a domain expires, Google wipes their entire history and infrastructure clean. Meaning, the value of any links and PageRank is reduced to zero so it would be a waste of time to purchase it for link building purchases.

We’ll have more on how to effectively build links through purchasing abandoned domains. Check back with the search engine optimization e-blog for more on this and other tips on building search engine rankings and effectively marketing your small business online.

There are many ways you can obtain links – you can purchase them (be very careful doing this), someone who finds your site can link to it from theirs or you can request a link from a site you visit…the third option is where we’re focusing today. How you request a link from someone is every bit as important as obtaining them in the first place

Consider the following:

Dear site owner,

I was looking at your web site and think we should link to each other. If you are interested, please add the following code to your HTML:

[Insert code here.]

Thanks,

Any Company USA

Amazingly enough, a lot of website owners think this will pass muster and get them that link. Of course that’s nonsense as you will see. This type of link request message would most likely be ignored by anyone who receives it.

So what should a link request email contain so it gets opened, read and acted on by the site I’m trying to target?

Continue reading for 12 things your link request should contain. While these items may seem pretty obvious, you will be amazed at how many do not think about these.

1. In your subject line, be sure you follow any instructions given from the site you’re trying to get a link from. Many sites that have a collection of links include information on what to include in your subject line. Example – Subject: Link Submission. If you don’t take the time to find any link request instructions and/or don’t follow their directions, don’t be surprised if you don’t hear from them.
2. Include the site owner’s name in the salutation and in the first lines of your message. This indicates that you have taken the time to look through their site and truly respect what they do. Also, immediately addressing the person by name lets them know that your message isn’t some ‘spam’ they’re receiving.
3. Right after their name, include your name as well. This lets them know that it’s a real human sending the message. A first line like “Hello, Mr. Jones. My name is Adam Smith” indicates that you have taken the time to find out who runs the site and that you’re nice enough to tell them who you are. It also shows you didn’t just send the message to several thousand other people.
4. Include the site’s homepage URL in the first few lines of your message. This is an extension of steps #2 and #3. Also, maintain professionalism and don’t show fake sincerity or imply friendship when in fact, you’ve never met the person.
5. Next include your site’s URL – “I am contacting you about my site, known as ‘SiteName’, which is located at http://www.anysite.com/.”
6. State the URL on their site where you think your link would fit the best. “With regard to your links section at…[insert exact URL of their links area].”
7. A quick paragraph explaining your site and why you think it’s worthy of a link from their site. “I respectfully request you consider my site for a link as I feel my site is a nice match for your collection of links.”
8. The exact URL on your site that you want the site to link to. Your homepage for instance may have a lot of flash images so you could suggest an alternative page that will load faster if someone clicks on the link.
9. Include a valid email address for them to reply to with any questions, etc. Actually write out your email and don’t rely on them to hit ‘reply’ or see where the message came from – “If you would like to contact me or have any questions, please feel free to email me at johndoe@anysite.com.”
10. And include your phone number too so they can exercise that option if they like. “Or if you prefer, you can also call me at (352) 555-5555.”
11. Confirm that you have added a link to their site from yours.
12. And include the URL on your site where they can see the link to their site – “…that you can see at http://www.anysite.com/links.html

Including these items in your link request email goes a long way in ensuring the receiver opens the email request, reads it and acts on it. Recognizing the site owner as a real person and immediately stating your name eases their mind that they’re not being spammed. If it’s obvious your email is a bulk request, it will be immediately deleted.

And you guessed it, you can’t create one generic message and send it over and over again. You need to take the time to create and send a unique message to each site you’re requesting a link from.

No reason for despair if this happens to you. Rather, look at it as a process of discovery as to why you’re site’s dropped…you may be surprised at what you find out.

Here’s a method you can use to aid in your quest of finding the source of your problem and getting right with Google…watch the video below for more details.

Are you sure it’s a penalty?

There’s a good chance that it’s not even a penalty per se but more of a technical issue. Maybe there’s a crawl problem or you forgot to include keywords in some of your content. Check and see if Google is indexing your pages by typing a keyword phrase, a colon then your web address (keyword:http://www.yoursite.com/) and see if they’re indexing your pages.

Try and identify whether you’re experiencing a rankings drop or a traffic drop…doing that will help you determine what you can do to fix the problem.

Are any links you have causing the problem?

Links are big part of building rankings in the search engines so it stands to reason something could go wrong and cause a drop in rankings or traffic. There are a couple of possible reasons for this.

The first is a more outright penalty for having links from sites that make it look kind of obvious that you’re employing spammy/black hat type practices. They frown upon this and you can consider it to be more of a direct penalty.

On the other hand, you have many sites linking to you that were acquired legitimately through Google’s eyes that may not be valued as much or not at all for whatever reason. Maybe they’re engaging in bad linking practices or another site linking to them is. Either way, the link value you were getting isn’t there anymore so it will be prudent to get rid of that link to try and remedy the problem.

Getting right with Google

Once you’ve identified the problem, now you need to get back on the right side with Google’s spam team. Getting back in is usually based on three factors:

1. Severity of the penalty or mistake
2. Is this the first time or is it a repeat problem?
3. Are you a brand name or little guy?

The more severe the error the tougher it will be getting back into Google. If you’ve engaged in any spammy/black hat practices for example you will have a harder time getting back in. First timers are given a little more leniency than repeat situations. And of course, size matters in this world so if you’re a big brand name site like Sony, Walmart, etc. you will have an easier time.

But if you’re a little guy and it’s the third time on a pretty bad penalty, you’re probably toast…you’re really at the mercy of the Google gods so the best thing to do is when you contact their spam team, be completely honest about any mistakes, etc. and what you discovered as your problem.

It’s possible they may ignore you and at some point, you will need to decide what to do. If you go a couple of months and you’re not getting anywhere with Google after you’ve discovered your problem, consider redirecting your site through a 301 redirect and starting over.

As you see, there are many reasons why you could be experiencing trouble with your Google rankings…watch the video for more details and other technical reasons as to why.

Directory listings are more like catalogs that, unlike major search engines, require you to submit your site if you want to be included in their listings. They’re a great way to begin acquiring links and driving traffic to your site…whether it’s new or old.

There’s literally a plethora of directories on the Internet for you to choose from. Some allow you to submit your site for free while others charge a one-time or annual fee. Even if they charge, the investment is worth it if you’re just starting out since links from these sites will also help lift your organic search rankings off the ground.

The two largest directories online include: DMOZ and Yahoo! Search Directory

DMOZ – Also known as the Open Directory Project (ODP), it’s free to add your site to DMOZ. While it is free, it also may take up to a year for your site to get listed, which causes frustration for many webmasters. Regardless, a link from DMOZ can be quite valuable so list your site here first and then move on to other things.

Yahoo Directory – Not to be confused with the actual Yahoo! search engine which delivers actual search results, the Yahoo! Directory is perhaps the oldest directory on the Internet. Links from the Yahoo! Directory are extremely valuable in helping build your organic rankings. Commercial sites must pay $299 annually to be included but the links from the directory and other Yahoo! properties around the world make it worth the investment.

Of course, it’s likely there are other industry specific and blog directories out there for you to choose from.

For the most part, the submission process to most directories is relatively easy and since links from them validate your site in the eyes of the search engines, the time involved is well worth it. But once you get listed in a few of the major ones, the relevancy boost levels off pretty fast.

In short, it’s not important you get listed in all directories – listing in just a few directories will give you about as much rankings boost you can expect.

<a href=”http://www.domain.com/page.html#LINKANCHOR“> (Unique anchor text is underlined)

We’ll try our best to explain what’s going on here so beginners beware, this may seem a bit confusing.

Say you have a homepage and you want to link out to another page on your site that has information about cars and trucks. In the past, Google would typically only credit the first link on the page and ignore the other two. Meaning, if the first link has cars and second has trucks as its anchor text, Google would only use cars to define what the page is about and ignore the trucks (2^nd) link.

Errioxa discovered that if you have three links to your cars and trucks page like the ones shown below, Google will ignore the first and credit the other two. This observation lines up with Google’s recent interest in internal anchors, which are sometimes within the site’s URL you see displayed on a search engine results page.

1. <a href=”http://www.domain.com/carsandtrucks.html”>Cars & Trucks</a>
2. <a href=”http://www.domain.com/page.html#DOGS”>Cars</a>
3. <a href=”http://www.domain.com/page.html#CATS”>Trucks</a>

In the above example, someone searching for cars would be taken directly to your specific page on the topic…this is a big help to users but also may be a way to get more unique anchor text attributed to your page that focuses on multiple topics.

More experimentation needs to be done to measure the true effectiveness of this approach. We hope to do this when and where we can and report back any results.

We could very well find this to be a good strategy for better control of a site’s links, which is why Google started paying attention to internal anchors in the first place since they provide their users with a streamlined way of accessing information on a website.

Heat mapping is one such metric that effectively shows you how visitors interact with your landing page. Heat mapping software programs use computer algorithms to simulate where people look and click on your page.

Using a heatmap can allow you to do several things, including:

• Determine exactly where links and ads should go
• Get more visitors to purchase a product or fill out a form
• Predict how site visitors will interact with your page in the future
• Make Web usability testing easy to implement

Heat mapping shows the density of user clicks using a red to green color-coded system. Red indicates a large number of clicks while green indicate fewer clicks.

Here’s a sample heatmap from a U.S. government website.

Not all heat mapping programs are considered the same and while we may recommend one here, we do not guarantee individual results.

Google Analytics offers a tool that shows general web site usage statistics. However, it does not track click ratios for individual links. For instance, if you have two links on the page that go to the same place, Google’s tool will combine the results.

CrazyEgg is another utility that’s much better than Google since it is a visually-based program that allows you to see your page’s effectiveness at a glance. It gives you an idea of how your site is performing from your audience’s perspective, the only perspective that really matters in the end.

Whatever you do, heat mapping is definitely a great tool for helping you increase conversions.

But too many sites out there still rely on “click-here” or “more…” or other simple phrases centered on the same thing. How many times have you seen the phrase “Click here for more information” on a website – not very inviting is it?

For many companies, “click-here” or “more information” is perhaps the most widely used text on their site. Besides the uninviting tone of those phrases, companies who use them are missing out on a lot of ranking opportunities.

This New Jersey Transit Authority site is a perfect example – at the end of each paragraph seen below, they have a “more info” link directing potential passengers to the service’s transit schedule. Instead, it would be better if they drop the “more info” altogether and integrate the link into the copy – such as:

Memorial Day Schedule Information

Memorial Day Weekend bus and rail schedule information is now available!

Not only does this link take advantage of internal link structure to increase keyword exposure, it gives the reader a better idea of where they’re going.

So be aware of how you’re linking out to other sites and to other pages within your site. Avoid common phrases like “click here,” etc. Continuing to use those phrases means you will be missing out on great ranking opportunities – not to mention, the confusion your visitors are likely to experience.

Search engine marketers now have a handy resource they can use to maximize search engine rankings and online conversions. These easy and fun charts from ProspectMX provide an easy-to-use reference for creating great websites.

Their original chart, “Link Building 101,” has some great insights into how you can get other sites to link to you. Examples of link bait, how to find good sites to link to and the most beneficial social media/news sites are just a few of the things you will find here – all presented in a fun environment that’s sure to pique your interest.

Prospect’s newest chart, “Universal Search Optimization,” gives some great tips on mastering the web’s newest way of ranking web sites, etc. Learn about ‘local search’, image/video optimization, press releases and more. Going forward, search results will increasingly include photos, videos and news, not just individual websites.

Take a look at Prospect’s charts today…print one out and post it on your wall!

Quick and easy reference materials like these are great to have when you’re stuck trying to get your website to the top.

But it depends on the type of links too – simply having a bunch of links pointing to your site isn’t going to pass muster.

It’s possible to go out and pay lots of money and do other nefarious things to get links to your site. Search engines like Google and Bing can see this, as they can differentiate between sites that have natural links to it versus ones that have artificial links.

So what’s the difference between the two?

First, the anchor-text, or the keywords that contain a link, is very diverse with natural links. One link to a site may contain “search engine optimization firm” and another may be “online marketing experts” for example. Artificial links though will have more uniform anchor-text…all of the links pointing to a site will only have one or two terms for its anchor-text.

This is one red flag to the search engines that you have an artificial link structure which in turn, causes your site to lose the rankings battle.

Another difference between natural and artificial links is the rate at which links appear. Sites with a natural link structure will see consistent increases in their link count while sites with an artificial link structure will see sudden and dramatic increases then a lull in activity.

Sites designed around a natural link structure do not have reciprocal links. Meaning, the site linking to them did it voluntarily and does not expect a link back in return. Almost all links in an artificial environment are reciprocal.

And finally, natural links point to resources that can be of further use to the reader. Artificial links mainly point to link farms and other places that serve no purpose in making the site more useful for its visitors.

Remember these differences when thinking about your site’s link structure. You should strive to create the most natural looking link structure as possible. From a search engine’s point of view, the best links are those that are unrequested…search engines reward those pages and sites that get voluntarily links for great content.