Link Building
Link Building is one of the best ways to increase the ranking of your website in Google. Link building services are a key part of search engine optimisation.
Most search engines use inbound links to measure the popularity of websites, and websites with greater link popularity are more likely to be given high rankings. When thinking about SEO link building should be one of your first considerations.
But link building has to be done in the right way to be effective, since Google will penalise websites that acquire links in the wrong way. It is therefore essential that you select a reputable link building service, and fully plan your link building strategy before you start.
Glasgow Web Design offer SEO link building services to clients in Scotland, and throughout the UK and Ireland. To discuss your link building campaign please call now on 0141 424 3408, or alternatively contact us through the website.
Inbound Links
Inbound links are links to your website from other websites. You can get inbound links, or backlinks, from many sources, such as suppliers and clients, partner companies, link directories, discussion forums, news websites and blogs. Inbound links are an important part of the algorithm used by search engines to provide high quality, relevant results.
However, not all inbound links are equal. Search engines decide what value to place on an inbound link by measuring several factors, including the age of the link, the relevance and popularity of the linking website, the linking text, where on your site the link points, and so on.
Irregularities in the pattern of inbound links can be a warning to search engines that a website is trying to unfairly increase its rankings. Ranking penalties may be triggered if, for example, a website acquires a huge number of inbound links overnight, or acquires many links from unrelated websites.
Link Popularity
Link popularity refers to the web page ranking system popularised by Google. Google's original ranking system – PageRank - treated inbound links like votes, and websites with more votes were ranked higher. The link counting system search engines use has undergone several important revisions in order to prevent spamming, such as the devaluation of reciprocal and three-way link exchanges. But in general, high quality relevant inbound links to your website will raise your link popularity score and boost your rankings.
Link Exchange
Link exchange systems were one of the earliest methods of link building. Link exchanges are where two non-competing businesses place links to each other on their websites. Under the original link popularity algorithms this would give each site a small boost in the search engine rankings. However due to ease with which reciprocal links can be automatically generated, the SEO value of these link exchanges is now greatly reduced.
A variation of this is a three-way link exchange, where link exchange partners attempt to get around the devaluation of reciprocal links by linking website A to website B, and website B to website C. However, Google and the other search engines have sophisticated systems to detect irregular patterns of inbound links, and so the value of even three-way links is also greatly reduced.
One Way Link Building
One way link building is the most effective way of boosting your link popularity score. One-way links to your website are far harder to acquire than reciprocal links, and so are generally more trusted by search engines. There are a number of methods to acquire one way links, including directory submission, article and press release submission, paid links and link baiting.
Link Directory Submission
Link directories are websites that simply contain hundreds of links to other websites, and often provide a simple form to submit your website. The highest profile link directories are Yahoo! and DMOZ though there are other important directories. Link Directories can be a good source of one-way links, though the quality and relevance of directories varies considerably. Link directory submission should be carried out manually, rather than using automatic directory submission services. This is because Google will not give much value to 10,000 identical links on low-quality directories, and may even penalise sites for perceived over-optimisation.
Articles and Press Releases
Article and press release websites are another useful source of one-way links. By writing and submitting an article to a website such as EzineArticles [ http://www.ezinearticles.com/ ] you can get a one-way link from the article website, as well as any other sites that are licensed to reproduce your article. Press release websites such as Sourcewire [ http://www.sourcewire.com/ ] work in much the same way.
The downside to article and press release websites is that once the content has been submitted you don't really have any control over how it is reproduced, and so the links it generates may vary in quality.
Text Links
Paid text links are a controversial way of increasing your link popularity. Google views paid links as a serious threat to the quality of their results, since websites that buy text links can theoretically pay their way to getting top rankings. Links that are bought for normal advertising purposes are allowed, but text link ads bought purely to boost your search engine rankings violate Google's terms of service.
Google tries to automatically detect paid links aimed at manipulating search results, and also encourages people to manually report sites that offer links for sale. Once detected, Google will devalue both these particular links and the general linking power of the website that sold the links accordingly.
Link Baiting
Link baiting is perhaps the most effective way of generating good one-way links. The principle behind link baiting is to create such compelling content that people will naturally want to link to your website.
Linkbait can be instructive, for example inside information or up-to-date news about your industry sector. Linkbait can be humorous, such as a witty article or funny picture or video. Linkbait can be deliberately controversial, for example adopting an unpopular opinion or attacking something or someone well-liked. Or linkbait can be useful, by providing a free tool, online service or piece of software.
Link bait is the form of link building that is most likely to yield high rankings, since it will generate a very natural-looking profile of inbound links. However creating the right sort of content takes time, effort and skill.
Link Building UK
Glasgow Web Design offer the professional link building UK companies need to boost their search engine rankings. Our linkbuilding services are available to clients throughout Scotland, the UK and Ireland. To discuss your link building strategy please call us now on 0141 424 3408.
