We recently experienced a great illustration of the ever-increasing desire for, and nuances involved in, securing inbound links as a strategy to improve page rank in web search results. More about our example in a bit, but first, a little explanation.
“Link popularity” is a measure of the quantity (and quality) of other web sites that link to a specific site on the World Wide Web. It’s one prominent way that Google and other search engines determine your “page rank” or the position your website appears on search results. As you know, it is the mission of all websites within their respective business categories to come up on that coveted first page of search results- the closer to the top, the better. After providing quality content and utilizing proper engineering including the development of optimized title tags and meta-descriptions, this is considered one of the more reliable ways to the top.
The philosophy behind link popularity is that important sites will attract many links. When search engines see a site with multiple links into it, they assume that the site must be an important, trusted source of relevant content and thus, rank it higher, as those are the kinds of sites they want their users to find when they conduct searches through their portals (so their users will be happy and conduct even more searches- Cha-ching!).
By contrast, content-poor sites will have difficulty attracting any links. So naturally, people hoping to improve their page rank in search results typically want to have as many incoming links to their sites as possible.
But be careful: not all links are considered equal!
While sheer numbers may help, inbound links from reputable directories and other relevant www. sites are weighted more heavily than an inbound link from say, a friend’s personal webpage, or two websites that you own whose content has nothing to do with each other. Obvious attempts to manipulate search results through any variety of questionable link tactics may be considered “BlackHatSEO” and using them can backfire, as search engines will penalize you if they discover you’re using them.
When you create your company’s website, you should indeed encourage as many relevant people as you can to link into your site. This can include strategic “partners” or affilliates; satellite offices or business divisions; customers; chamber-of-commerces; subs/vendors, etc. One-way links are considered to be the most natural, credible and thus, desirable to have. But, if you don’t have these, you may consider utilizing “reciprocal links” or “link exchanges”.
Link exchanges are a strategy wherein you offer to link your website to another, in return for them linking theirs back to yours. There are reciprocal link exchange directories that you can submit your website to, to help facilitate potential connections. You may even consider paying people for links. But in ALL cases, be discerning and make sure incoming links are from quality sites, that are also relevant to the content of your site. You may say, “You already said that”. We’ll, you’re right and I’m doing it again (purposefully), because it cannot be overstated! And remember, the latest search algorithms for Google and Yahoo have evolved to maintain higher favor towards one-way (non-reciprocated) links.
Beware of tactics like “link farming”. This is the practice of trying to create excessive reciprocal link exchanges for a site. A “link farm” is a page set up to do nothing more than to secure outside links into your website. This is definitely a “no-no”, and search engines see right through it.
An effective way to build good one-way linking is by distributing articles through content sites or article directories. These types of articles usually contain one-way links back to the author’s website. Every time a new person uses one of the articles for content in their own site, they are providing the author a new incoming link and subsequently, increased page rank.
Link campaigns, in all of their forms (and there are many different strategies, limited almost only by creativity), require careful consideration. Professional guidance as part of a comprehensive SEO strategy is recommended, but if you don’t have the budget for professional help or are a committed “do-it-yourselfer”, then try to reflect upon whether the tactic you are utilizing “feels right” ethically, and in consideration of the ultimate “real value” such a strategy will provide the end users of your website; for this is what search engines care about and focus on.
As I noted earlier, we recently had an experience that illustrated the increasing popularity of using link campaigns as an SEO strategy and the types of issues that can arise and need to be considered before implementing them.
Our agency is a partner in another outside venture: Americas Education Guides (www.americaseducationguide.com), founded by Jacksonville publisher, Michael Clements. These comprehensive specialty publications cover accredited public and private schools; colleges and universities; and other educational facilities for several major metropolitan areas in the United States, including Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, Palm Beach, Miami and the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. Our guides and AEG website provide valuable information to families inquiring about local educational options including test scores; school ratings; private school data; demographics; state requirements and more. They are also endorsed by the district superintendents and state Governors in their respective markets. (Shameless plug: We’ve recently begun selling marketing licenses for nationwide territories, partnering with both independent publishers and major newspapers in a business model where we provide the content/production; our partners provide ad sales and we share revenue. It’s a terriffic opportunity in a “recession-proof” field- education. One sales pro can make significant income very easily in the first year, so if you or someone you know might be interested, just e-mail us. We are already talking to potential partners in Charlotte, Baltimore, Boston and Dallas. But, back to the point…)
To generate income from our AEG website, we are currently utilizing a combination of Ad-sense, a Google program that allows Google to place contextual ads on our site in exchange for a (small) share of the profits; along with banner/text ads that we are selling, ourselves.
A couple of weeks ago, we received and inquiry from a digital ad agency based in the United Kingdom seeking to place advertising on the AEG website. The agency specializes in instigating “bespoke campaigns” for their clients. That is, they actively seek out high-quality specialized, informational websites and place targeted, “well-optimized text links” for their customers on websites that fit the desired targeted demographics of their clients. The agency claims that their research shows that these types of ads have a 17% higher CTR (Click Through Rate) than graphical banners. They also indicated that they had two clients who wanted to place ads on our website, including a telecommunications company and a financial institution.
When I responded to the inquiry to provide rates/terms and get more information about exactly what kind of ads they were looking to place, they explained that they were not seeking to place “text ads” per se, but to imbed text links within articles that are posted on our site dealing with educational issues. (i.e. inserting one- or two-word text-based “adverts”, using words such as “loans”, “savings”, etc., into our existing articles, perhaps adding a short sentence or two of related copy to make it blend well with the nature of the article and theme of our site.
While if not overused or misused, this kind of tactic can potentially be a sound strategy for an advertiser looking to increase their website’s link popularity, as owners of the site they were looking to imbed within, we had to ask ourselves if this was good for our own business and users.
Providing hyperlinks from certain words/phrases within your content to allow users to explore certain subjects further; gain clarification on issues; etc., is not a bad thing. But, to do it gratuitously or alter content to force in language that makes the link seem more “natural” for the sake of paid advertising- well, that begins to negatively impact the quality and integrity of your site.
Finally, the fact that the agency indicated a desire to use words like “loans” and “savings” instead of the advertisers name in the imbedded link was a red flag and a nail in the coffin on our end. Those are what are called “blind links”, which are links created to intentionally hide the ultimate destination of a link until the user has clicked on it.
Blind links are usually used for deceptive or advertising reasons. People assume they’re going to click to find more information on a subject, when instead they are led to an advertiser. Search engines frown on them and more importantly, as owner of a website, I’m really not inclined to use them (even when offered payment), because I know that in the end if I mislead my users and betray their trust, well that will ultimately end up costing me much more than I ever could have hope to make by allowing them in the first place.
In conclusion, to improve your SEO and page rank via link popularity, by all means– get out there and start looking for meaningful inbound links from quality sites. Remember that one-way links are better than reciprocal links. But know that link exchanges and even paid links are fine, as long as they are relevant and you are not engaging in practices that could be considered deceptive, manipulative or otherwise of disservice to your users. If you’re unsure about whether what you’re doing is right or wrong– as with all things in life, always take the high road and you’ll never go wrong.