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Links with relevant "Keywords" in the Anchor Text.

Google/Yahoo bombing is the practice of placing terms you want a given page to rank for in anchor text that links to that page. The ability to manipulate search results using specified keyword anchor text indicates the weight that the two most searched engines give to the text WebPages use to link to other web pages. The anchor text because it, "is very important to the user; it should describe the content of the target page and the subject matter. By identifying your pages through relevant keyword links you are "telling" the search engine which keywords the linked pages represent. Proper use of anchor text, can help you show the relevancy of your web pages to key search engines to help rank for desired keywords. 

Links from Sites that have PR Specified links page.

PR of the webpage that eventually carries your link is a very important factor for link building. PR of the linking page determines how much value of importance in terms of PR is passed on to your page. Higher the PR of the linking page, higher is the PR value you get. The home page PR is not as important, but it is an indicator of how much PR a linking page may jump to, in due course of time.

For instance, if the PR of the site's link page is 0, but the home page PR is 6, then, there is a bright possibility that in the next PR update, the link page PR may also jump to a PR of 4 or even 5 due to the internal linking structure of the partner site. While sites would be happy to give out links from a PR 0 pages, you can estimate that in two months time, this link page can jump to a high PR, giving you great value in the future.  

Links from industry-relevant pages.

Search engines give high importance to links pointing to your site from your own industry segment as opposed to those from an un-related industry. For instance, a hotels and reservations webpage is likely to benefit more from links pointing from a related industry site like travel, vacation packages or cruises, than those from an unrelated industry like a drug site. Industry relevance also needs to be given a high weight while creating resource directories. For example, if you have a site related to hotels, then you can create a resource directory related to your business that could be pertaining to travel, tourism, cruises, vacation rentals, vacation packages, car rentals, food and beverages etc.

Most sites offering links have several categories listed on their sites. Try and get a link from a category that closely matches your own industry. An algorithm called “Applied Semantics” determines the industry relevance of a page within a site. Applied Semantics algorithm studies various keywords on a “web page” and tries to determine the industry or business segment of “each page”. Applied Semantics estimates the industry segments that are relevant to a particular page. If the link to your page is coming from your business specific segment, then you are likely to draw more benefit.

Link to your site should not be through a redirect script

A link that is first re-directed to another page within your partner site before pointing to your site is a re-directed link. Watch out for such links, as search engines do not give weight to re-directed links. It is very unlikely that your site would draw any benefit from a re-directed link.

No JavaScript links

It is also important to identify pages that are generated through a Java Script, as Search Engines cannot read these pages or the links embedded within them. These are some of the tricks unethical webmasters use. While a site can claim to have placed a link to your web page, in effect they are not giving you any benefit.

No framed sites

Avoid getting links from framed sites, as search engines cannot read texts within frames. A link placed on a frame site would not get your site any benefit, as search engines would not be able to recognize such a link.

No flash site links

Although the Search Engines are increasing their capabilities to read flash, but we are still a long way before Flash links can be considered at par with a pure “text” based link. The biggest disadvantage of flash links is that your link cannot derive the benefit of the “anchor text” used to point to your website, even if the search engine might read that link. Do not link from flash sites, as flash pages or the links embedded within flash are difficult to index by Search Engines as of now. These are some of the tricks unethical webmasters use. While a site can claim to have placed a link to your web page, in effect they are not giving you any benefit.

No robots.txt excluded link pages.

Robots.txt is an exclusion file that contains specific instructions for search engine robots regarding the content they are not allowed to index. Links placed on a page that the search engines robots are not allowed to index, would not benefit your site. Considering the importance of robots.txt file, it is a good idea to study a site's robots.txt file to identify the excluded pages before approaching a site for establishing links with your site.

No Robots Tag excluded link pages.

The Robots meta tag allows you to tell the Search Engine Crawlers whether you want them to index that page and follow all the links on that page or now. In order to ensure that the link you are getting from a webpage is giving you the benefit, please check the Robots tag in the source code of that page. The following value of the Robots tag would mean that you are getting no benefit from the link on that page

No more than 60 links per page where your link appears

The PR value your web page gets from a linking page is equal to the total PR value of that page divided by the total number of outgoing links on that page. Getting a link from a PR4 page that has only 20 outgoing links is much better than getting a link from a PR4 page that has 60 outgoing links. With the same philosophy, it is better to get a link from a PR2 link page that has only 10 outgoing links than getting a link from a PR4 page that has over 100 outgoing links. It is therefore as important to evaluate the total number of outgoing links on a links page, as it is, to evaluate the PR of the linking page. This is where many people often falter, as they usually insist on getting a link from a high PR page, but if that page has 100 outgoing links, your page would only get 1/100th of that value. Also Search Engine algorithms are paying more importance to the “relevance” of a link – i.e. a link from a relevant “webpage” and having the relevant anchor text in the hyperlink that point to your site.

Links from Pre-indexed Pages only

Try and find link partners in Search Engines like Google and Yahoo, and check if the links page is already indexed in the search engines. Search Engines frequently re-index the pages already in its database. They are likely to detect your link faster on a page already existing in their database as compared to a ‘yet-to-be indexed' page. The safest way to check is to copy the prospective link page URL and paste it into Google Search. If the page is indexed, Google would show a result in response to your search, otherwise it would respond with a ‘no result found'. You can also check the “cache” of the webpage on Google to see if your link has been read by Google at that point of time or not.

Spread your site link across different domains

It is advisable to limit the number of links from a same domain for a campaign scope. If you are hiring the services of a link building company, ensure that each link is coming from a different domain this assures non-repetition of links to your site from a same site.  

No links from Link Farms

Avoid getting links from link farms, as; a link farm is a group of separate, highly interlinked websites for the purposes of inflating link popularity (or PR). Engaging in a link farm is a violation of the Terms Of Service of most search engines and could be grounds for banning.

No FFA networks

We guarantee not to link from any FFA (Free For All) networks for your site because FFA sites post large lists of unrelated links to anyone and everyone. FFA sites and the links they provide are basically devoid of value. Humans do not use them and search engines minimize their importance in ranking algorithms. The relevance of a link is lost totally in a FFA website.

No Links links from Blogs

Blog is a Web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for an individual. Blogs often reflect the personality of the author and have nothing specific to the site.

About the Author: Anjila Parker is a Copywriter at Clayarc Technologies, a leading Internet Marketing company. She has a Masters Degree in Mass Communications and Copywriting.

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