Using Links For Search Engine Advantage
Lucas Heijn
Links to your site is one of the things that Google looks for to decide how important your site is, and therefore its ranking.
Not all links have an equal value. What determines the value of the link is its relevancy to the page it is linked to. The more relevant the page is the greater the value of the link. If not just the page, but the whole site is relevant the link is even more valuable.
Here are some ways to get quality links to your site:
Reciprocal Links.
Once upon a time they were considered very good, today they don't have the value they once did but they are still useful. It is important that the links you get in this way are very relevant to the content in your site. This way reciprocal links will still increase your ranking.
Article Writing.
This is the best way of creating links that can be viewed as very relevant. It is a long slow tedious journey as it means regularly writing articles and submitting them to article directories. These articles will link back to your site by leaving a hyperlink in the bio section. Most article sites will not allow hyperlinks in the body of the article. You can submit your articles to hundreds of article directories. Here are some you should submit to: EzineArticles.com, ArticleCity.com, and GoArticles.com.
Link Farms
A link farm is a site with scrolling pages of endless links. They allow you to place your link there no strings attached. If you come across one run the other way. They are considered part of a spammer's network. Linking to these sites can actually damage your ranking. Google will downgrade your links and your page rank.
Directories
Directories such as Yahoo, DMOZ and other reputable directories can greatly increase the value of your links. Try to get your site listed with DMOZ. It's not easy but well worthwhile. To do so you will need to find the perfect category and submit your site. Keep submitting your site every 4 - 6 months until you are listed.
Yahoo directory is a little easier to get into but not painless. There is a yearly charge of $299 to be listed in the Yahoo directory. Google sees Yahoo directory as an authority and this is very helpful in building your ranking.
Another important thing you can keep in mind with regard to linking is anchor text. Anchor text is the words that are actually linked to the hyperlink. Here's an example: To download this product click here. The click here is the anchor text. If you did a search with Google using the words click here, you will find that that keyword points to Adobe Acrobat reader. The reason is that many sites point their user to this page to download acrobat reader for free as this is needed to read PDF files.
So the key to making use of anchor text is to anchor keywords you have optimized your site for. For example; if your site was optimized for the phrase "cheap reliable hosting" you would use the phrase as the hyperlinked text. This will give the link greater relevance to the search engines.
These are just a few of the many things you can do to increase your ranking with Google.
About the Author:
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