For the past couple of posts, we have been taking a look at some factors that may be hindering your SEO efforts from bearing fruit. Just to recap, we discussed the use of appropriate keywords and the frequency of your updates. These apply to both blogs and web sites in general. Today, let us take a look at inbound links.
We have had several discussions on this topics, especially when we had that series on increasing one’s Google PageRank. More than just simply focusing on what Google thinks, though, why don’t you think about the core idea of having other sites link to your own site or blog. What is the implication of having people link to your site? I would say that this is a measure of your blog’s relevance to those people. They link to your site because they think your site holds information that can be useful to them and their readers as well.
Going back to search engines – which is the focus of SEO – you really need inbound links to increase your visibility online. The idea is, again, simple. The more external sites that you have linking to your site, the higher your chances of getting up in the SERPs. That translates to better chances of being discovered by people who conduct searches.
The bottom line is that you have to continue building links that point to your site. This is part and parcel of SEO and if you have overlooked this point, then it may be the reason your SEO campaign is not working as you would like it to be.
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Yes but it is so darn hard to build incoming links. I try to contact people and get bloggroll exchanges, but few want to! I think of joing article marketer or something, any ideas?
Thank you so much for de-mystifying linking strategies for increasing page rank. I have been working on adding content to my new business website. My frustration comes with the realization that back links are hard to get from relevant, reputable websites. I have a lot of work to do, but this posts really helps me devise a good strategy.
For the Google algorithm to really work I think they need to separate inbound links where the author of an article has chosen to include the link, and a comment where it is the comment writer who has included the link. Granted, that was part of the idea of nofollow, but I think it needs to extend to allow blog owners to offer nofollow free links in comments, but to also offer more weight in links they choose to imbed themselves.
It might seem like it hinders, but for most it’s a matter of getting the word out there, so any link is a good link, it’s like a terrible press story, its good press, if you can handle it right.