Relevant Inbound Links
So you want more traffic to your website?
You've heard that having more links to your website will improve your search engine rankings.
But are your links relevant?
I know this might seem basic, but let's just step back a gear: what is an inbound link?
Any website that links to yours is an inbound link. A link is simply text or a button that takes you to another page or website on the Internet.
Search engines will judge your website depending on how many websites link to it. See my article on How Search Engines Work.
But, some links don't count. If a link has a "no-follow" attribute it will still function as a link to a human, but search engines will ignore it.
That's the basics of inbound links. Now let's move onto the more important bit...
Relevancy
Relevancy is the term used to describe how connected or applicable something is to a given matter. I.e. how relevant the website linking to your website is to your content.
For example: If you have a website selling football memorabilia, an inbound link from a mortgage broker website will carry no 'weight' to it.
It's this 'weight' that will affect your search engines rankings (SERPS).
A website that has only 5 relevant links will see far better SERPS than a website with 1000 unrelated links.
You may have signed up to link exchange or link farming programs? My advice; complete waste of time. Why?
The terrifying truth about link farming
Research has shown that irrelevant inbound links to a website can actually damage the websites reputation. In other words; too many irrelevant inbound links will make your website appear lower down in the search engines!
Research your links partners
It may take longer and seem like hard work but do you want better SERPS or not?
Look around, type your keywords into Google, see what other websites have similar content to you. Not necessarily competing websites. Forums or articles can be a great place to start. The days of link exchange are gone since search engines just ignore these links.
Avoid link exchange
Link exchanges are worthless. Research has shown that when two websites link to each other it cancels out. I.e. your website linking to your mate and your mate linking back to you will do nothing to your SERPS.
One-way inbound links are perfect.
This may sound impossible; how do I get a website to link to me when I offer it nothing in return?
Look outside the box a little here...
Someone has a problem on a forum and you happen to know the answer. Post your response and include a link to your website in your signature. Another great source for one-way links is article submission websites. I run feelgr8.co.uk which offers free article submissions. Write an article about your area of interest related to your website, add your keywords (very important) and submit the article. Once the search engines read the article and follow the link; they'll see its relevancy and give you decent SERPS.
Thanks for reading
See you tomorrow at 09:00
