Text Link Strategies A Look Forward

W e all know that incoming                                         links are an essential        Thinking like a Search Engine      element in getting a                                             domain or webpage to rank well in     The key to predicting what search  every major search engine.            engines may want in the future is  However, there is much debate         to start thinking like one. Once   about which text link strategies      you get yourself in that mindset   a site should employ.                 it isn't that hard to understand                                         what strategies you should         • Should I buy links from           employ.                            domains with high Google Page                                            Rank?                                 Quick Facts to Remember:           • Should I use normal link                                             exchanges or 3-way link               1. Google, Yahoo, and MSN are      exchanges?                            businesses. They are designed to   • How about more aggressive         make money and have shareholders   tactics like blog spamming?           to answer to if they don't.        • Do my textlinks need to come      2. They all 3 make money off of    from unique Class C IP addresses?     advertising in their search        • How often should I vary my        results.                           anchor text?                          3. Not one of these engines is                                           happy that you and I are           These are all questions that          attempting to manipulate their     focus on the here and now. If you     algorithm.                         are marketing websites that have      4. 0 - That's the amount of money  a limited lifespan then these are     each engine makes when you decide  the kind of questions you should      to "rank yourself" instead of      be considering. However, what if      buying their advertising.          you're marketing a site that                                             needs to rank for years to come?      Armed with these simple facts we   can make a powerful inference.        business model is affected by how  Search Engines must do everything     easily manipulated their results   in their power to make it             are.                               difficult for you to manipulate                                          their algorithm if they are to be     What Can We Learn From This?       commercially successful. There                                           are actually two main reasons for     The best search engines will       this. One being the fact              always actively attempt to close   mentioned above, if it is easy to     any "loophole" that allows         manipulate their algorithm and        webmaster to manipulate their      "rank yourself", why bother to        algorithm.                         advertise with them or make high                                         bids on keyword phrases? The          Just look at past techniques that  second reason is that if an           no longer work                     engine is easily manipulated then                                        relevance suffers.                    â€¢ Meta tag stuffing                                                    â€¢ Keywords in comment tags       How relevant an engine is             â€¢ Repeating keywords in content  determines how many people will       over and over                      continue to use it over and over.     â€¢ Cloaking (to a large extent)   It is no coincidence that MSN is      â€¢ FFA Pages                      the least relevant of the 3 major                                        search engines and also has the       This list could go on and on.      least amount of traffic. Yahoo is                                        the second most relevant search       Taking A Step Back                 engine and they are also the                                             second most popular.                  Take a step back and examine one                                         of the oldest forms of backlink    By thinking like a search engine      building.                          you can see how their entire                                             The Link Exchange                     approach why use techniques that                                         you're pretty sure will be         At its core, link exchanging          eliminated in the near future?     involves you placing another          Given time the following           sites link on your domain,            practices will surely stop         usually on a links page, and the      benefiting you in every major      other site in return places a         search engine:                     link back to you. This practice                                          has been around for many years        â€¢ Mass Link Exchanges            and there are literally thousands     â€¢ Interlinked Networks           of programs you can join which        â€¢ Sitewide Links                 allow you too quickly gather          â€¢ Subdomain Networks             thousands of incoming links.          â€¢ Duplicate Content                                                    Pages/domains                      Now keeping everything I have         â€¢ Off-Topic Links                mentioned in mind, if you were a      â€¢ High PR Off-Topic Links        search engine would you be            â€¢ Directory Spam                 excited about this? The answer is     â€¢ Blog Spam                      you wouldn't. You would realize                                          that your algorithm heavily           Inferring The Future               relies on measuring backlink                                             popularity and you would see          Through understanding how a        these programs as a major             search engine operates and what    "loophole" manipulating your          its overall goals are we can       algorithm. Google has already         easily infer what backlink         taken steps to combat this issue      strategies are likely to work in   so the practice is mainly only        the future. Reading their most     effective on Yahoo and MSN.           recent patents is also a major                                           help. Backlinks will factor        If you're taking the long-term        heavily in search engine           algorithms for the foreseeable        backlinks are generated through    future. Knowing this we just have     reciprocal link exchanges what     to acquire the kind of backlinks      would that tell a search engine?   that won't loose their power when     A search engine would have to      search engines adjust their           assume that your content was not   algorithms.                           valuable enough for other                                                webmasters to link to it           Long-term Recommendations:            naturally or that your content                                           was not as valuable as other       The web is becoming more              sites with one-way links. Would    compartmentalized every day. You      you want to rank a website highly  will need to acquire backlinks        if most of their backlinks were    from related sites only. It is        given because of an exchange or    illogical for a search engine to      affiliate link? Of course not,     give your website a rankings          that would leave your search       boost from unrelated links so         engine wide open for               don't waist your time gathering       manipulation.                      them. Ask yourself; is it harder                                         to get 500 links from sites           Place your links in high value     highly relevant to your domain or     areas. It is fairly easy for a     5000 links from unrelated sites?      search engine to determine the     Anyone who as every ever entered      different zones of your website.   a link exchange program knows the     Most sites have a header section,  answer to that question, and so       navigation section (usually on     do the search engines. Google is      the top or left side), a main      already acting on this, the rest      content section and a footer       will follow.                          section. Where do you think most                                         link spam appears? You guessed     Gather as many one-way links as       it, the footer section and just    you can. If a majority of your        after the navigation. You will     start to see links in low value       networks. Buying and acquiring     areas being diminished and links      links from the same inventory      in high value areas such as the       pool that everyone else is using   main content section of a site        only makes your efforts that much  receive a boost. There are            more obvious. Spammers in your     already several search engine         websites category will display     patents that touch on this            very similar backlink patterns so  subject the main one being MSN's      make sure your backlinks don't     http://research.microsoft.com/res     get flagged along with theirs.     earch/pubs/view.aspx?tr_id=754                                           Block Level Analysis.                 Be wary of most link broker                                              sites. Many brokers actually       Don't give yourself away. Its         display the url of the sites they  very surprising to me how many        sell links on. If you can see the  people will buy a textlink in a       url so can a search engine. Many   Sponsor or Advertisers section on     times, even if a broker does not   a site. Unless you're buying the      display the exact url they will    link just for traffic, this is a      give out data such as the Alexa    horrible idea. Doing this is just     rank of the website. How hard is   begs the search engines to            it for a search engine to do a     discount the links in that            reverse search based on the Alexa  section. Why would they want to       rank of a site? Brokers are also   give you credit for a link you        in the habit of placing textlinks  are telling them you paid for?        in a link box with many other      Pages with names like                 links. This screams out            "links.html" or "sponsors.html"       "Unnatural" to a search engine,    are also obvious targets.             especially if many of these links                                        are not closely themed.            Blaze your own backlink trail.                                           Stay away from large link             Summary:                                                                 and make sure your links do not    Quality over Quantity will            appear in low value sections like  eventually win out. Over the next     the footer, and that your links    few years all search engines will     are not labeled as                 tighten the noose on backlinks.       advertisements.                    It is simply bad for business for                                        them to allow the obvious             Instead, focus on gathering links  manipulation that massive             that you would value if you were   backlinks gathering is                a search engine. Think about ways  generating. Google is already         to get links from sites ranking    leading the way and MSN and Yahoo     in the top few hundred spots for   are sure to catch up soon.            your keyword phrases. These and                                          other categorical links will show  You need to start positioning         search engines that your site is   your site for these inevitable        respected within your own          changes. Skip the link exchanges,     community. If you follow these     mass directory submissions,           simple tips now you will be        sitewide links, link networks and     positioned for long-term ranking   off topic links altogether. It's      success, while others are left     only a matter of time until these     scrambling to PPC when their       techniques will no longer help        50,000 non relevant backlinks are  your site. Place your links in        no longer effective.               the main content area for a site                                      About the Author: Diane Newsom writes for http://www.authoritydomains.com - An internet marketing company that specializes in http://www.authoritydomains.com text link advertising used to boost a website's search engine rankings. For more information or to http://www.authoritydomains.com buy text links please visit the website. Read more articles by: Diane Newsom Article Source: www.iSnare.com