Importance of Linking

[SEORoy]

Hi,

Everybody seems to have settled on the idea that Linking is one of the main method, if not THE main method, to get your site ranked higher... I have come across couple of forums where people are mentioning that if the links to your site have the same anchor text...then you may get penalized by Google... But personally I think thats ridiculous... as you cannot control who links to you...nor how they link to you...

However, looks like if links to your site are based on couple of anchor text (and more importantly if the anchor text contains Keywords you are competing for)... then you have a good probability of getting ranked higher for those keywords. While this does sounds logical... i.e If you are having links to your site based on say KEYWORD1 as anchor text from other sites.... Then that would mean your site must be quite relevant when it comes to KEYWORD1... so this should "in theory" convince Google to assign you a higher ranking.... I think the best example is the search of "Click here" in google brings up Adobe website in No 1. ...would surely be because so many sites have a link to download acrobat reader... "Download acrobat reader - click here"

However the main the problem is how to get other sites to link to you, with your chosen anchor text... as everybody has their own standard/policy when providing links to other sites... for e.g some have a resource page where they have "Company Name -- http://www.companyname.com/"
While this provide you with an additional backlink , it does not seems benificial at all when it comes to SEO of your site...

Anybody has some ideas or came across same problem... any suggestions/comments are welcomed.

[Note: This is just another thought in the diary of a SEO newbie :) ]

[Michael Martinez]

Hi,

Everybody seems to have settled on the idea that Linking is one of the main method, if not THE main method, to get your site ranked higher... I have come across couple of forums where people are mentioning that if the links to your site have the same anchor text...then you may get penalized by Google... But personally I think thats ridiculous... as you cannot control who links to you...nor how they link to you...

Well, that is "conventional, professional SEO wisdom". Why should anyone challenge it?

Of course, there ARE thousands of sites that do very well in the rankings with just those kinds of links going to them (I have some sites like that).

However, looks like if links to your site are based on couple of anchor text (and more importantly if the anchor text contains Keywords you are competing for)... then you have a good probability of getting ranked higher for those keywords. While this does sounds logical... i.e If you are having links to your site based on say KEYWORD1 as anchor text from other sites.... Then that would mean your site must be quite relevant when it comes to KEYWORD1... so this should "in theory" convince Google to assign you a higher ranking.... I think the best example is the search of "Click here" in google brings up Adobe website in No 1. ...would surely be because so many sites have a link to download acrobat reader... "Download acrobat reader - click here"....

Google's rankings are influenced by around 100 factors (http://www.google.com/webmasters/4.html). While no one outside of Google (including people in the professional SEO community) knows how those factors are handled, it is reasonable to infer that any one factor might be subject to exploitation.

For example, if you have 2900 or so links to the President's biography (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=%2B%22miserable+failure%22) with the words "miserable failure", Google will decide that the page is probably relevant for that expression.

That is called Google bombing (http://www.wordspy.com/words/Googlebombing.asp).

It is not a natural or intended effect of whatever algorithms Google is employing, since they have stated as far back as the original Anatomy of a Search Engine paper of 1997 (http://www-db.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html) that "we want our notion of 'relevant' to only include the very best documents since there may be tens of thousands of slightly relevant documents".

...However the main the problem is how to get other sites to link to you, with your chosen anchor text... as everybody has their own standard/policy when providing links to other sites... for e.g some have a resource page where they have "Company Name -- http://www.companyname.com/"
While this provide you with an additional backlink , it does not seems benificial at all when it comes to SEO of your site...

Anybody has some ideas or came across same problem... any suggestions/comments are welcomed.

[Note: This is just another thought in the diary of a SEO newbie :) ]

A standard practice on many sites is to include a "Link to us page", where suggestions for text and graphical links (including desired anchor text) are made.

Of course, some people explicitly seek out other sites and seek reciprocal links, requesting specific anchor text be used.

Anyone submitting a site to a directory has the opportunity to suggest a specific anchor text, although there is no guarantee that it will be used.

And people who build link circles (collections of Web sites on separate domains intended to boost each other's link popularity) have complete control over their own anchor text.

NOTE: I do not recommend the use or creation of link circles.

[Nacho]

I believe you are trying to be specific to using link building to benefit with higher rankings on Google. However, it could be applied to just about any search engine and this is why we assigned a special link building forum (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/forumdisplay.php?f=44) just for that. While you're there, I suggest you take a look at the Link Building 101 (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=2616) thread for many resources here in SEW or other outstanding places on the web that talk about links.

[Marcia]

However, looks like if links to your site are based on couple of anchor text (and more importantly if the anchor text contains Keywords you are competing for)... then you have a good probability of getting ranked higher for those keywords. While this does sounds logical... i.e If you are having links to your site based on say KEYWORD1 as anchor text from other sites.... Then that would mean your site must be quite relevant when it comes to KEYWORD1... so this should "in theory" convince Google to assign you a higher ranking....
Roy, the engines do look at inbound links and at the anchor text of links, including those to interior pages as well as the homepage - and linkage within the site itself as well. But that's only part of it, though admittedly (much as I dislike chasing links) - a very important part.

It's a matter of balance, with taking care to optimize the entire site, individual pages so they reflect accurate relevancy for the topical content, as well as linking. It's all part of establishing relevancy and they're not isolated, all the many factors involved work in harmony with one another.

Yep, creating pages with content relevant to the topic are what the engines want fed to them - and having enough good inbound links with the proper, relevant anchor text helps them recognize that.

It's all about the end user, and helping the engines along with putting your site in front of users who are looking for content relevant to what you've got. Having meaningful content provides that for them, and having the right link aids in putting that content where they can find it.

Conventional, professional SEO wisdom is balanced and user-oriented. The surfer-savvy SEO and surfer-oriented engines have - or should have - the same end goal in mind: meeting user needs while satisfying what the algos call for to put relevant sites in their path so they can find them. Quality, relevant links point to quality, relevant pages (or should) and serve to help the engines locate what their visitors are looking for.

[Robert_Charlton]

Roy - A couple of your questions are related....

I have come across couple of forums where people are mentioning that if the links to your site have the same anchor text...then you may get penalized by Google...

Google does not want its rankings manipulated. The theory, which I believe to some extent to be true, is that if too many of the links to your site have exactly the same anchor text, they will appear to be unnatural and Google will suspect manipulation. Therefore, it would make sense to vary your inbound anchor text, where you have control over it, so not all inbounds are the same. This also helps you rank for a greater range of phrases.

However the main the problem is how to get other sites to link to you, with your chosen anchor text...

Ah yes... ;) This is easier, of course, if you trade links or buy them... but again, Google doesn't want its rankings manipulated, so there is some paranoia about doing these things.

As Marcia also suggests, the best long term strategy to get relevant inbound links is to create on-topic content that's genuinely worth linking to. Once you have such content, it's generally easier to get requested link anchor text... and other webmasters will also naturally link using anchors that, over time, will help you rank on desired terms.

[SEORoy]

Thanks all, for your input on this


From: Nacho
I believe you are trying to be specific to using link building to benefit with higher rankings on Google.

As I am new to SEO... I figured out the best way to learn is to discuss it out... What I have posted is just my understanding of things... I have posted it here...just to get some reactions/ideas/suggestions from the other people in this forum.

But thanks for pointing me to the Link forum... And yes, I guess you are right in saying the link building strategy will work for all search engines. My other question here will be why for example..Yahoo can see that my site has say 1000 other sites linking to me.... but Google sees only say, 10 [results from running a Link:www.mydomain.com] on google.


From: Robert_charlton
The theory, which I believe to some extent to be true, is that if too many of the links to your site have exactly the same anchor text, they will appear to be unnatural and Google will suspect manipulation.

Yes... thats what some of the seo people are saying too... but however I hope this does not mean that Google penalises you in case it suspects manipulation.... because if it does that would just give your competitors a handy weapon for getting you out of their way.. OR for that matter you could do same to them..... :D


From Marcia:
It's all about the end user, and helping the engines along with putting your site in front of users who are looking for content relevant to what you've got. Having meaningful content provides that for them, and having the right link aids in putting that content where they can find it.

Yes I totally agree with you. However its frustrating to see other sites ranking above you...(especially when you are nowhere to be seen on Google) ... and those sites does not seem to be friendly enough for end-users. We have always tried to design our site so that its easy for the end-user to find their way and information they require... but I have come across sites competing for the same keyword that we are ranking higher than us...with a design not good as ours... however they seem to have a lot more links than us.. (which seems to be THE way to go...to get your site higher up) ..... Other frustrating thing..is that while we are working hard to look for sites that we can request link based on relevancy and relationship to content on our sites.... Our competitors (shoud I say..other sites competing for same keyword and having more links than us) .... seems to have backlinks to almost anything... I mean... a high % of their backlinks..are simply out of context, irrelevant... but somehow Google seems happy enough with this!!!


From: Michael
A standard practice on many sites is to include a "Link to us page", where suggestions for text and graphical links (including desired anchor text) are made.

Yes thanks...I agree, this is something I am working on already... Although this is something that will perhaps be applicable to new sites wanting to link to us...it still does not resolve my initial "issue"..i.e the anchor text which current sites linking to me have used... I guess this is more of PR job to contact these webmasters and see if these all can get changed... Keeping fingers crossed. :)

[Robert_Charlton]

My other question here will be why for example..Yahoo can see that my site has say 1000 other sites linking to me.... but Google sees only say, 10

Mainly because Google is trying to make it hard for people to research backlinks so it doesn't show them all; MSN and Yahoo haven't gone there yet.

The difference of 1000 vrs 10 is pretty extreme, though. Is there a www vrs non-www issue perhaps as well?