The importance of the link popularity
In the middle of the 90-s the first search robots (so-called "spiders") started to furrow the web searching the information for their visitors, and almost at the same time with the occurrence of the search engines the web designers began to think how to make their sites more attractive for them, how to receive more traffic and to take leading positions in their (and not only in their) niche.
The principle of the search engines operating as a whole has remained constant till now: the "spider" creeps links from a site to a site, gives the information "in the center" where it is saved in the base and then by means of corresponding procedures the results delivered in order of the reduction of the user’s request match (in order of relevance reduction) are sorted out.
The first search engines and their algorithms (let's take the forgotten www.aliweb.com, launched in the far 1994) trusted unreservedly the information entered by web designers in specially set for these purposes W3C code parts standards (first of all meta-tags) and text component of the pages; this soon led to the total blocking up of meta-tags and web-pages with the information unrelated to the subject of a site and, as a consequence, to absolutely irrelevant delivery.
The search engines’ answer didn’t take long to appear. More difficult algorithms were implemented that considered not only the factors which are influenced by a web designer, but also other factors, in particular, hyperlinks (links).
Let's consider the following analogy to understand the sense of a link.
Let's assume there are two scientific articles mentioning questions of sea bears population preservation written by Misters Pupkin and Vasechkin. Mister Pupkin decided to make some money on the side and instead of serious research of the most important problem created the document that doesn’t have real value for the society, while his colleague Mr. Vasechkin has written the research with tremendous scale. From the point of view of the search engine the texts of both articles mention sea bears, and it won’t be so easy for the program to place them according to their importance.
And now let's imagine the reaction among the experts of these sea bears after the publication of the articles of our men of science. Obviously, Pupkin's article won't be paid much attention, and the serious Vasechkin’s research will receive good press and will be mentioned in the works about the sea bears of other scientists for a long time. The numerous mentions in other works also determine higher probability of the scientific article’s usefulness.
Links play the same role for the search engines.
A link is in some sense "a voice for" specifying that the author of the referred document considers a site, which he refers to, worthy of attention. We can say without exaggeration that this idea has made revolution in the sphere of search technologies and since then the influence of external links is only increasing, and according to the majority of the experts, this tendency will be kept in the foreseeable future.
Let's return, however, to links and our example with the Vasechkin and Pupkin’s articles.
I’ll remind that the diligent Vasechkin has excellent press to his article, and hackworker Pupkin has nothing. Pupkin doesn't agree with such state of affairs and he naturally undertakes a sly step: he asks his friends who are also hackworkers (we will not name them) to mention his slipshod article about sufferings of sea bears in their slipshod works. Just a simple calculation of “links” will not allow us to determine now what article of our men of science is better. What should we do now?
The following idea can help: let's set different value to the links from various sources. The link from the work of the respectable professor will naturally give more authority to the scientific article which they refer to than the link from the student's project of the second year of studying.
With regard to the algorithms of the search engines this idea means that all the sites (and their pages) have various internal forces. The link from the site having more weight is more valuable than the link from just created resource which nobody referred to. The weight of a site is determined by the quantity and quality of links on it and nothing else.
We can estimate the weight of the sites and pages in the Western segment of the Net ("bourgeois-net") approximately by means of Google toolbar or other utilities which allow finding out the Page Rank of a site.
What is Page Rank? Page Rank is a special Google method which allows the search engine to estimate the degree of importance of various pages. The text of the link (we will mention it below) is not used when calculating the Page Rank. Everyone who is interested in details should read the Chris Ridings' article "Explained Page Rank".
In this case we are interested in the following questions:
- The weight from the page is transferred to other pages through the links. The more links are on the page, the less weight each page which is separately referred to will receive.
- The Page Rank values given by the toolbar are approximate and give only an idea of the real Page Rank. The easiest way to understand this fact is to have a look at the table from Chris Ridings' article which was mentioned above.
- Page Rank is recalculated constantly. The value in the toolbar changes several times a year, about once in 2-3 months.
Let's return again to our example with Pupkin and Vasechkin. Let’s compare two links on the profound work by Vasechkin from the dissertations of his two colleagues:
- You can read about the given problem in Vasechkin's work in detail: "Sea bears population preservation in conditions of wild capitalism" which you can find here and there.
- We ask people interested in this question to read the magazine "Sea bears" №5 2006.
According to what link can we draw a conclusion what topic this Vasechkin's article is devoted to? Naturally, the first variant gives us an excellent idea what Vasechkin’s work is about..
The text of the link plays precisely the same role for the search engines (what is located between the tags <a> </a>). In other words, from the point of view of the search engine, both links mentioned above look like this.
- You can read about this problem in Vasechkin's work in detail : <a href = “location of the article"> Sea bears population preservation in the conditions of wild capitalism </a>.
- We ask people interested in this question to read the magazine Sea bears <a href = "location of the article"> №5 </a> for 2006..
Using the first variant the search engines will give the article an additional impulse on the requests "Sea bears population preservation in the conditions of wild capitalism", "Sea bears population preservation" etc. as opposed to the second variant.
This effect is called "link ranging" and currently the text of links is the major factor when sorting out the search results in all leading search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, ASK)
1.
1 See http://www.seomoz.org/articles/search-ranking-factors.php
Strong and weak links
So, how can we distinguish a strong link from a weak one?
First, let’s understand what links are considered by the search engines in general.
Everything is rather simple here: the links <a href = "http: // www.yoursite.com"> link text </a> - so-called "direct" links are considered. JavaScript and the redirector links <a href = "http: // www.partner.com/goto? =123"> link text </a> do not help in the promotion of the link. It is also necessary to pay attention to the nofollow attribute. Links <a href = "http: // www.yoursite.com" rel = "nofollow"> link text </a> do not give weight to our site, so, they are also not useful2.
2 See http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/006926.html
Besides, we mustn’t forget: for the link to give something to us, the search engine should see it, i.e. the page where our link is should be accessible to the search engine indexation, and it is even better if it is already in the index. The easiest way to check indexation of the page in Google is with the help of the command “cache:url-of-the-page” in the search line.
Let's assume, during the exchange we were offered to place our direct link on one of two recently indexed Google3 pages. There are 50 external links on page A, and 20 on page B. What page will we prefer? In the help for Google web designers it is specified that it is recommended to place no more than 100 outgoing links on a page, however, when it is possible, it is necessary to choose pages with the least quantity of outgoing links. The weight is given to the outgoing links almost equally; therefore, if our link is the only one on the page, it is obviously more favorable rather than there is one hundred other links except our link on page.
3 See http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/
It’s easy to imagine this situation as a system of communicating vessels where the weight from one page flows like water to other resources. The less "strangers" are near our link, the more weight it will receive.
We can draw an important conclusion from this comparison with the communicating vessels. In 99 cases from 100 the main page (in slang "muzzle") has the biggest weight among other pages on a site. Consequently, the further the page with the link is from the "muzzle" of a site, the less weight it has and, accordingly, it can transfer external links and our link, too. It is desirable, that our link is not further than 2 clicks from the main page. If the page with our link "is deeply closed", in most cases, it won’t have any sense.
Let's try to imagine the ideal link to our site at the same time considering the factors which are important (according to the decrease of their importance).
- The Page with our link should be indexed
Using the command “cache:” in Google we should first of all pay attention to the date of indexation. The "fresher" a cash is, the better, because it considerably increases the probability that the spider will come back to the given page soon. The links from the pages which were indexed half a year ago are practically useless from the point of view of promotion, because we don't know how many years will pass when the spider gets to it and if it gets to it at all.
- The Page with our link should have Google Page Rank
There is one principle - the more, the better. It is possible to find out the PR value either having installed Google Toolbar, or using online-services to check it, for example http://www.seopen.com/seopen-tools/pagerank.php. While everything is clear with indexation of the page, the situation with Page Rank is not so unequivocal. We have already mentioned above that the toolbar indicator gives only an idea about the real Page Rank value and the most important thing is that the Page Rank is recalculated constantly, and the toolbar is updated only several times a year. Therefore, you shouldn’t ignore the variants of our link's placement on the page which shows PR0, but has been recently indexed and is in one click from page with PR6, for example. It is a very good variant.
- The number of links on the page
We have already discussed this question before. The ideal variant is that our link is alone, in principle 25-30 external links are considered normal.
- Subject
The link located on thematically close page is more useful; therefore, try to get links from the sites of your subjects. Yes, it is possible to object that Google, Yahoo and MSN recognize the subject of the pages with different accuracy4 and sometimes it is possible to achieve excellent results with not subject links. However, we shouldn’t forget, that the algorithms are constantly improved and, having built the strategy on incorrect base, one day your online-business can be no better off than before. In general, try to obtain subject links.
4 The question of subject has been investigated by our Western colleagues for a long time, and it was rather interesting. They have noticed that on many sites for adults there are inscriptions like “If you’re under 18, please exit”, and the word “exit” in most cases was a hyperlink and led on www.disney.com. So, on “Exit” request the site mentioned above was confidently in the top of main search engines. We’ll notice that it is in Google top until now.
- The Text and "link environment"
In general, the basic slogan at work with links is: let everything look naturally! The more natural the link is from the human point of view, the more chances it has that filters of the search engine will bypass it. That's why it is desirable, that there is a text and not only links on the page; let those links that already exist be close to us on their subject. An ideal variant was offered in the “smoking-room” at the Searchengines forum - links looking like this: "Our air conditioner has broken and it's hot to sit in briefs". You should amplify the story, and sell links from conditioner and briefs. Joking apart but there is something reasonable in this...
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The age of a site
Let's go further: whose opinion do you trust more if we talk about a dentist? To the doctor with the long-term experience or to the specialist who has just finished the institute and can hardly keep a drill? The answer is obvious. The situation with the search engines is the same: the age of the domains is of great importance: the older, the better. We’ll mention such a factor as the time of the link finding on the page (some kind of “credit history” for the search engine). In the Western segment the links take "force" gradually, that's why foreign sites are promoted for a long time period. The link placed on the page for three days, will not give anything to us, even if the search robot comes there and indexes it. Choosing a place for the link, guide yourself by a long-term partnership.
- The positions in the niche
If the site where you plan to place your link is well positioned in the delivery on requests of your subject, it is an unconditional plus. Obviously, the search engine trusts this site, so, there is a great probability that your site will receive an additional weight.
In general, the ideal link to our site looks like this.
Let's stop on cheating during the placement of links in particular: make sure, whether the page is accessible to indexation (robots.txt), whether the link is direct (that is not always noticeable).
Let's say that one not quite fair web designer has recently put the link to one of our sites looking like this:
<a href = "/resources-software-development.asp?id=172" target = "_ blank " onmouseover = "window.status = ' <http: // www.site.com> '; return true; " onmouseout = " window.status = ""> link anchor>/a>
Such indirect link, as we have already found out, gives nothing to us, but it was possible to find this out only having looked at the HTML code of the page.
Other widespread way of cheating is to use nofollow on the page (we have already told about this).
You should also avoid "empty sites", the sites which resemble to each other but have no useful information and often are resources of another "Net". They can have PR, be indexed more or less regularly, but the importance of the links from them will be quite doubtful. When receiving links from several resources, pay attention to their IP address. It is desirable not to have such a situation when many links on your site go from one IP.
In a word, it's difficult to give universal recommendations about this; it is only possible to give a simple advice: Be attentive!
Let's sum everything aforesaid. So, the features of the links in the Western segment of the Net are:
- The weight of links and their age - links get weight with the lapse of time; so, it is necessary to be guided by long-term partnership.
- The links from directories - work weaker in Russian segment of the Net, the explanation is simple “Google is Yandex in several years”. Much more people work here to improve the algorithms filtering garbage links from many directories.
- The anchor length of the link - The links from 10 words won’t do, the optimum length is up to 6 words; the less, the better.
- The duplication of content - watch the Supplemental Results of the pages with your links attentively, if you are interested in Google (and who isn't interested in it with 50 % of the traffic?). Currently, the problem that the pages get into supplemental index became very widespread; there is too much similar or just identical content in the Net. In order to prevent the application of filters we also spoke above about the presence of a certain unique text on the page.
So, we have described “link alphabet”; now let's go to the most burning question disturbing minds of many web designers worldwide: where can we take these links, blast them?
Subject (non-subject) links exchange
Preparation
One of the most widespread and at the same time rather effective methods of links reception was and is a banal exchange by a principle “you give me, I give you”. Therefore, we’ll stop on it in details.
Before we start searching partners, it is necessary to make some preparations on our site. First, it is necessary to decide, if we’ll have a direct or indirect exchange. In other words, we place return links on our site, or on another one. Both ways have both good and bad sides, but, if we think logically, we can draw a conclusion that, from the point of view of the search engine, the link cannot be worse without return at other equal links. Minuses of three-sided exchange are caused by more bulky system of the exchange account and conservatism of many web designers, preferring to work in the old manner and to put mutual links instead of tree-sided ones.
Then it is necessary to create the catalog for exchange (script or files with access on FTP - as you like) on the site (or on a site-satellite) and link it with the main page. In order not to spoil the appearance most web designers place it in the bottom of the page calling it “links”, “partners”, “resources”, “directory”, “sites of interest” etc.
It is necessary to create the certain number of sections on subjects of a site in the catalogue of links, so that this all does not remind of “farm of links” and does not entail sanctions from the search engines. Some unique people manage to place more than 2000 links on one page; it is not necessary to follow their example.
Then it is desirable to wait for the indexation of the catalogue, and it is even better, if there is PR there, the majority of web designers pay the highest attention to it. Before the beginning of the campaign think over the account system of the fulfilled work - the results can be fixed for example in Excel. Now we are ready and we can pass to the following stage: to the search of potential partners to exchange links.
The search of partners
Frontal attack and its variations
If my memory doesn’t fail me, Eric Schmidt, the main executive director of Google Company, has mentioned the strategic purpose of this search engine in one of his interviews: “The answer to the request of the user should be identical to the one which the most educated expert in the given area would tell him”. And if it is so, it’s quite reasonable to use the Google help for the search of partners and strengthening of our positions in the niche.
IIn the figure the results of “frontal attack” are shown.
Search by request of the format [our subjects] + link exchange (add url, submit site, link swap, etc.)
It is possible to use cunning and to look also for the potential partners by means of special online-utilities with sorting out the delivery on Page Rank. In such a way we kill two birds with one stone: first, we know at once that a site of a partner (and most likely, the catalog with links, too) is indexed by Google and we also see its PR and can eliminate weak sites without spending additional time.
Other utilities add possible variations themselves (add link, submit site etc.) and together with Page Rank give out the ready result to us.
We study at our competitors
If your site is still far from the top of the delivery, there is much to learn at those who are already there. We can look at the links on their sites by means of Yahoo and MSN search engines (Google doesn’t show all the links). Certainly, not all these links are received by means of the exchange, but you can receive at least something for certain. There is an excellent command linkdomain: site.com for the search of links on the domain in MSN and Yahoo which returns all pages containing the link to the site.com or its internal pages.
"Peeling" of the links
It’s one of the most effective methods to search partners. Let’s assume we have found the catalogue of links on a site of related subjects. It is reasonable to assume that overwhelming majority of links in it are received by exchange; so, if to offer the web designers of the sites placed in the catalogue of the links to exchange with our site of the same subjects, the probability of success increases sharply because it is obvious that the exchange is conducted on the sites placed in the "peeled" catalogue of links.
Developing the given topic, it is possible to advise the following method: having found the excellent catalogue of links with high PR and having peeled the links from it, do not hurry to close a browser. Let’s connect our logic: if our site has placed links to the pages with high PR, it will be quite reasonable to assume that return links to this site are placed on good pages, too.
Having searched a little bit, we find out that, really, a significant part of the sites placed in the good catalogue of links, also have excellent catalogue of links. So, getting over from one catalogue in another one on this peculiar “gold vein” and peeling links from them, we facilitate our task of elimination of poor-quality sites considerably.
Specialized forums
As the importance of links is rather high, it will be reasonable to assume that a plenty of web designers is interested in the exchange. Having rummaged in popular forums for web designers, you easily will find the sections, devoted to the exchange of links, articles, press releases, etc. Here are some links:
http://www.webmaster-talk.com/relevant-link-exchange-forum/
http://www.seo-guy.com/forum/relevant-link-exchange-forum.html
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/forumdisplay.php?f=53
http://www.webworkshop.net/seoforum/viewforum.php?f=32&sid=f69da1a002af80217a75831b1e9e610d
Correspondence with webmasters
Let's stop for a while on an important point: the dialogue with web designers of sites-partners. It is obvious that for reception of necessary number of links it is necessary to conduct extensive correspondence, to send offers on exchange constantly, to receive and process counter offers, etc. What recommendations can we give here?
- Maximal personification
Certainly, I won’t offer you to write the new letter each time, it is irrational. But the certain degree of personification is necessary, and your letter should also be marked out among a heap of spam sent by the Indian colleagues (we will talk about them below). It is desirable to mention the url of the partner-site, if you know, mention the name of the web designer in the letter. Think of the topic of the letter very carefully. Here it is necessary to mention that it is a question of exchange of links; do not forget to specify subjects, too. In the letter try to avoid the worn out stamps like “Searching in the Internet I have come across your site....” such letters have to be delivered into the waste bin.
- We improve the response
Think out various cunnings and dodges to increase the probability of reading your letter, let's say, I managed to improve the response considerably, specifying the following as a topic: RE [2]: Link swap (Software) for exchange of links with the sites of software subjects. Also pay attention to the productivity of your work, and keep the most successful samples of letters for further use.
- Be benevolent
It is desirable for your correspondence to be friendly, don’t be lazy to discuss details of partnership in ICQ, MSN or other messenger. You can mark reliable partners for yourself in reports; it’s possible you will need their help.
- Ahtung! Indian SEOs
Let's particularly stop on a topic of “Indian SEO experts”. Not being the racist, nevertheless, I recommend you to be careful as much as possible exchanging links with our colleagues from solar India. It's easy to recognize the Hindu; it is enough to receive a pair of muffled letters on strange English Hindu dialect with the persistent demand to put the link on your site as soon as possible and with oath assurances to place return links on the best site in the Internet www.megaindianlinks.com in 2 hours. In 95 % of cases your link will be placed on not indexed page with tons of the strange non subject links, i.e. it will be absolutely useless.
Special methods of links reception
Link Baiting
Initially, as I have already told, idea of the link was a "voice" in favor of the certain page which content represents interest for its visitors from the point of view of the web designer. So, reviving the ancient idea of the link, such method of link popularity improvement as Link Baiting became widespread (it is possible to interpret as “catching of links at bait”).
The idea is simple: if there is no such content on a site which web designers would like to refer to, then it is necessary to create it!
In brief, link baiting can be divided into two stages:
- Creation of an interesting, useful and unique content.
- “Throwing of the hook” - mentioning of created article (photo gallery, page, etc.) in popular blogs, sites, forums, in subject communities, etc.
If all done correctly, the given way can give tremendous result: if the content that is worth the link appears avalanchely. Besides, your content, together with the link implanted into the body of the document, can be borrowed by other web designers for publications that give excellent links, too.
It is possible to consider the links as a by-product of virus marketing as a version of link baiting.
From the sites which have received excellent links in a similar way, it is possible to remember the “Last page of the Internet” (http: // www.shibumi.org/eoti.htm, PR6), successfully sold in pixels for one million dollars http: // www.milliondollarhomepage.com page, PR7 and other examples.
Articles exchange and their submit in banks of articles
One of the popular and effective methods of links popularity increase is the exchange of articles and their submitting on special sites. When exchanging articles, pay attention to the uniqueness of the content, indexation of the page. The link (links) should be made as naturally as possible, try to fancy yourself being a search boat and try to determine, whether the given link is natural or it is created for the search engines in particular.
The advantages of unique articles exchange are obvious: we receive practically ideal link from the point of view of the search engine. The lack of this method is that you should write under an article for the sake of one link, and it takes much time; and if you place the same article on different sites, the search engines will probably filter the doubles. The list of places where you can add your articles, you can find under the link
http://www.articlepostrobot.com/SiteLists.htm.
WikiPedia as a source of links
Let's stop on this most popular resource. If there is already an article on our subjects in Wikipedia, it is useful to add your site into the list of “links on the subject”. At lucky coincidence of circumstances and if the site is really interesting, the link can be there for several months. It is also useful to think about writing article in Wiki especially for the placement of your subject links.
The placement of links in Wikipedia on one of our tourist sites has given excellent target traffic. Unfortunately, all external links from Wikipedia have recently received NoFollow attribute and have lost their weight in the opinion of the search engines.
Press releases
Press releases can be good source of links. Look for the sites in Google which distribute press releases. The small list we can start with:
http://www.prleap.com/
http://www.prweb.com/
http://i-newswire.com/
http://www.webwire.com/
http://www.pressbox.co.uk/
http://www.przoom.com/
http://www.prnewswire.com/
Participation in subject community
If our site contains unique and really interesting information, it is useful “to become friend” among the people interested in your subjects. For example, our task is to receive qualitative links to the site of a travel company. It is possible to find one-two popular tourist forums in the Net, and from time to time to leave substantial posts there, if possible, mentioning your site. Except the traffic, there is a probability to receive qualitative and natural links. And also look through the blogs sometimes; it is possible to get into the discussion successfully also receiving links and the traffic.
You have probably paid attention that I did not mention the set everybody’s teeth on edge subject “registration in catalogs”. Unlike the Russian segment, such method of promotion can be considered not topical in the Western segment. Debra Mastaler from the Alliance Link company, speaking on the conferences about Search Engines Strategies, that took place last summer in San Jose, noted that there are about 30 worthy catalogs now and it's a waste of time to place them in the other catalogs.
Let's summarize everything aforesaid:
- Not all links are equally useful, first of all pay attention to the quality of pages where your link is placed, using the criteria stated above.
- Use short anchors, do not try to mention all the keywords in one link; it is incorrect.
- Do not wait for the instant effect; links get weight with the lapse of time, remember this and be patient.
- Be polite and benevolent?communicating with the web designers; there are the same people on that side of the monitor. But do not forget about vigilance, especially communicating with the representatives from India.
- Attack from different sides, vary your strategy of the links reception, alternate various methods, and create the new ones, in a word: think with links!
