| Effective link building is a complex affair and can be an | | | | engines that there is unnatural linking activity. A high |
| extremely time consuming and laborious task. | | | | percentage of duplicated anchor text is also another |
| However quality links are extremely powerful and a | | | | trait of websites that participate in link exchange |
| constant flow of incoming links is essential for any | | | | programs. |
| website hoping to compete in the search engine | | | | Of course it would be madness not to use your |
| marketplace. | | | | keywords in the anchor text of inbound links but to |
| When building links you should always be careful not to | | | | avoid triggering filters you should use variations of your |
| represent unnatural link behaviour. Failure to do so may | | | | keywords. If your site is about Link Building then, by all |
| see you link building efforts wasted. | | | | means, build links with that phrase in the anchor text |
| So how do you avoid being flagged as a site that | | | | but also build links with the terms “Links”, |
| participates in unnatural linking behaviour? Here are a | | | | “Building Links”, “Linking Services”, |
| few key pointers you should keep at the forefront of | | | | “Linking Strategies”, “One-way links” and |
| your mind when building links: | | | | “Inbound Links” in the anchor text. |
| Deep Linking | | | | Balancing the Equation |
| Google will give more weight to a site with 500 links all | | | | There are many ways you can acquire links including |
| pointing to different pages on a site than it will a site | | | | Blogs, forum signatures, reciprocal links, articles, |
| with 750 links all pointing to the homepage. | | | | directories, press releases, link worthy content, |
| Link exchange programs can be used to acquire high | | | | site-wides, buying links and social media marketing, to |
| volumes of links in an effort to boost rankings. The | | | | name but a few. |
| traits of a website that participates in such a program | | | | It is highly likely that a website with compelling content |
| are a high percentage of inbound links all pointing to the | | | | will acquire links from a variety of these sources. It will |
| same destination URL. | | | | have press releases announcing new content, articles |
| Just like any other tactic that becomes popular it often | | | | reviewing the site, listings in trusted directories and |
| finds itself being abused by unethical SEO’s. And | | | | communities will be discussing the site in Blogs and |
| just like with previous tactics, such as stuffing the meta | | | | forums. |
| keywords tag, the major search engines adjust their | | | | A site that acquires links unnaturally may have a high |
| algorithms to filter out websites that employ these | | | | percentage of links from article resource boxes or |
| tactics from their results. | | | | reciprocating sites. To avoid being picked out as a site |
| Even if you don’t participate in such a program, you | | | | that participates in unnatural linking behaviour you |
| should be mindful that your inbound links don’t all | | | | should ensure your site has inbound links from as |
| point to the homepage if you want to avoid triggering | | | | many different types of source as possible. |
| such filters. | | | | Summary |
| Another point to consider is that, with natural links, a | | | | Always ensure you have inbound links from a wide |
| website has little control over where an external site | | | | variety of sources to avoid triggering unnatural linking |
| links to. Natural links will usually link to a page deep in | | | | filters. Constantly analyse your back links and compare |
| the websites structure. | | | | the types of links against each other. If you find you |
| Varying Anchor Text | | | | have no links from Blogs, then go off and start |
| Many webmasters believe that the more keyword rich | | | | participating in a relevant discussion. If you notice there |
| anchor text links to the target page the better. Wrong! | | | | has been no recent news about your site then write a |
| As discussed, when a site acquires links naturally they | | | | press release announcing the great new feature you |
| have little control over where the external site links to. | | | | have just added for your users. And if you notice that |
| This is the same for the anchor text of natural links i.e. | | | | all of your links are from the same source i.e. |
| the webmaster has little control of the anchor text of | | | | reciprocal, then build more links from other sources to |
| inbound links. | | | | balance the equation. In all cases vary the anchor text |
| If you build high volumes of inbound links with duplicated | | | | and the destination URL of inbound links. |
| anchor text you may be signalling to the search | | | | |