Inbound links; Related vs. Unrelated

[JimmySG]

I am getting ready to launch a new site. I have about 200 clients in the same industry as the site I am about to launch. Because I am not in direct competition with them (geographically) they have agreed to link into my new site to boost my popularity in the SE's. Is it of any significance that these clients' sites and my new site are related by industry (however not geographically)?
What about unrelated links I can generate? Better/worse?
Thanks for your experienced suggestions.

[mcanerin]

The best possible links to have are ones that have a good chance of referring qualified human visitors to your site, which means related links.

Yes, it's great to get a high PR link, regardless of the source, and I think it would be difficult for the SE's to police it too carefully. CNN is about news, but if the story with your link on it is about Widgets and your site sells Widgets then the link is a good one from everyone's perspective, including the search engines. So there has to be some leeway.

That said, there is such a thing as a bad neighbourhood and you don't want to join one. One of the fastest ways to join a bad neighourhood is to indiscriminantly link. You'll join one or more eventually.

Will a few links from unrelated sites hurt you? No. Will a lot? Very possibly, especially if you reciprocate. If my SEO site links to your cigar site once, don't worry, you won't get banned (otherwise I could ban my clients competitors all day...).

The best advice I can give you is to figure out related and complementary areas to your site, then get as many great links you can in the area. If offered a link from an unrelated area, take it if it's a nice one, turn it down if it's spammy.

That's a pretty basic approach, and there are some things to watch out for, but it's probably a good start.

One thing to ask yourself - If ALL I knew about your site was the links to it and had not visited it yet - would I know what your site was about? What if I didn't know what your link text was? Could I figure out the theme easily?

If yes, you are probably safe, if no, you may wish to re-think your linking strategy.

Ian

[JimmySG]

"One thing to ask yourself - If ALL I knew about your site was the links to it and had not visited it yet - would I know what your site was about? What if I didn't know what your link text was? Could I figure out the theme easily?"

My site's domain name is very descriptive. The link text I plan to have my clients use for me is also very descriptive, however pithy. They will also have a description about my site and services dropping key phrases.

So - should I have them all say the exact same thing (text and description)? Or should I mix it up here and there?

And, how long should I expect to wait before I see results in the SE's?
My competition has no more than 10-12 inbound links to their sites - I am looking at at least 100-200.

[mcanerin]

I was thinking more along the lines of: if you looked at all your backlinks and the majority were about fishing and boating, and you owned a tackleshop - that's great. If you own a gambling casino - not so great....

But to answer your question, if your site has more than one major keyword, you should have more than one incoming link text phrase.

For example, if (to continue with fishing just as an example) your main keyword was "online tackle shop" but you also wanted to promote "cyber-bait", "fishing line" and so on, then you would usually make about 70% of your incoming links with "Online tackle shop" and mix and match the remainder in the 30%.

Remember, that's just a quick guideline - you may want to really push the main one to 90%+ or try to even things out at 33% each, or whatever - it depends of the competitiveness and profitablility of the term, which is your call.

Ian

[AussieWebmaster]

Originally Posted by mcanerin

I was thinking more along the lines of: if you looked at all your backlinks and the majority were about fishing and boating, and you owned a tackleshop - that's great. If you own a gambling casino - not so great....

But to answer your question, if your site has more than one major keyword, you should have more than one incoming link text phrase.

For example, if (to continue with fishing just as an example) your main keyword was "online tackle shop" but you also wanted to promote "cyber-bait", "fishing line" and so on, then you would usually make about 70% of your incoming links with "Online tackle shop" and mix and match the remainder in the 30%.

Remember, that's just a quick guideline - you may want to really push the main one to 90%+ or try to even things out at 33% each, or whatever - it depends of the competitiveness and profitablility of the term, which is your call.

Ian

I agree... but would suggest you find out which of your keywords get the most impressions and make the first choice - go where the traffic is.