Link Building Services

PageRank Defined

People are often confused regarding the importance of acquiring inbound links to a website and the techniques used to acquire those links. We’ll use PageRank as a basis of outlining the importance of acquiring inbound links. PageRank is a link analysis algorithm created by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin while at Stanford University. PageRank is a measure of how popular or authoritative a given website is within the entire community of websites. The idea being that webmasters only link to other websites they consider to be of value or interest. So a website with many links pointing toward it must be of higher quality than a website with few links pointing toward it. A website’s PageRank in conjunction with a number of other factors is then used to place that particular site within the Search Engine Results Pages (SERP).

Here is Google’s definition of PageRank: “PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."” Google is the search engine that places the greatest amount of weight on IBLs for ranking pages. Yahoo comes in second and is followed by MSN.

Inequality of Inbound Links

Not all inbound links are valued the same. Because so much importance is given to inbound links in search engine algorithms, innumerable methods of “gaming” the system have been developed. Therefore the most sought after links are One Way Inbound Links. Since the search engines have sophisticated means of detecting link exchanges between sites, acquiring one-way links is the preferred standard of link development nowadays.

Methods of Acquiring IBLs
Below we’ll provide a general overview of common methods for acquiring those highly sought after links.

• Directory Submissions
  Submitting to quality directories is an excellent way to get inbound links. There are many free and paid directories out there that are worth submitting to. You should evaluate the worthiness of a directory based on its Google PageRank, the price of inclusion and the traffic that directory receives. Using the Alexa’s Traffic Rankings service is one way of analyzing the traffic a directory receives.
• Link Bait
  I wish I could cite who came up with the term link bait. Nevertheless, the term refers to means by which you can acquire IBL’s naturally. Creating useful, unique and informative content on your site is one of the best ways to get other webmasters to link to your site. This method supports the “Content is King” argument. Hooks such as writing controversial articles are another way to get people to link to you. This technique obviously needs to be used with discretion. Viral marketing campaigns often deliver exceptional results. Providing useful tools or applications on your site is another means to do this. Many SEOs use this means of link bait very effectively. Marketleap provides a good example of using tools as link bait. For some great ideas on how to go about creating link bait, read 21 keys to link bait success.
• Press Releases & Article Syndication
  Writing informative articles and submitting them to article syndication sites is one means of getting links back to your site. A link to your site should be placed in the body of the article or in the author bio usually in the footer of the article. Other webmasters looking to beef up their content will place your article on their site with your link intact. Press releases are another excellent source of inbound links.
• Blogs
  Including a blog on your site is a very good way to acquire IBLs. If you are an expert in your particular field and have the resources to devote to blogging, it can provide a great payoff. If people find your blog informative they will link to it and reference your blog on their sites or in their own blogs.
• Article Marketing
  Article marketing is a staple in the seo process. Some of the most respected article directories such as Ezinearticles.com and Goarticles.com rank very well in search. Submitting your optimized content to top article directories acquires inbound links and traffic.
  
• Social Media Optimization - Social Bookmarking
  Rohit Bhargava, Vice President of Interactive Marketing for Ogilvy Public Relations has recently published an excellent article on how to take advantage of Social Media to acquire inbound links to your site. His article is entitled “5 Rules of Social Media Optimization (SMO)”.  Mr. Bhargava’s states, “The concept behind SMO is simple: implement changes to optimize a site so that it is more easily linked to, more highly visible in social media searches on custom search engines (such as Technorati), and more frequently included in relevant posts on blogs, podcasts and vlogs.”
• Purchasing Text Links
  This is a controversial and expensive method of acquiring links. There are many Internet sites where text links can be purchased specifically to increase PageRank. One such site is TextLinkBrokers. The reason this is controversial is because it explicitly goes against Google’s guidelines. Google sees this as an attempt to increase search engine rankings by “gaming” PageRank. Google for one is very good at discounting any PR benefits from links that are bought. Link brokers are continually coming up with new ways to mask the fact that links are bought. For the most part, you will be buying the traffic from such links more than the PR benefits.
  
• Reciprocal Linking
  Reciprocal linking is the practice of webmasters agreeing to exchange links between their respective sites. The usual practice is to search for sites that have a similar theme as yours, and then contact those webmasters via phone or email to request a link exchange. There are two problems with reciprocal linking. The first is that it goes against Google’s guidelines. From Google itself, “Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.”  In an effort to avoid algorithmic detection of reciprocal link exchanges, webmasters often practice 3 way link exchanges to attempt to avoid detection. Both of these methods are proving to be ineffective based on the search engine’s ability to detect them. On occassion very targeted reciprocal links can be obtained and of value.
  

We hope this has helped to explain the value and necessity of acquiring inbound links to your site. We use a mix of all the strategies listed above and develop a link building strategy on a case-by-case basis depending on the client budget and nature of the site.

Please contact us at 970.985.5478 to discuss the best link building options for your website.