Key Ingredients of a Good Link
- SEO |
Hi all,
I see a lot of confusion around 'how many links should I build,' 'what's a good linking strategy,' etc. Most of the answers I see are total nonsense.
Start looking at link building through an 80/20 principle frame. The reality is that for most websites, 20% of links produce 80% of results in terms of ranking (in fact, I'd say it's more like 90/10).
Your job is to focus on ONLY creating the kinds of links that will have an effect. Everything else is a waste of time and money.
So what are the criteria to look for? This is not comprehensive but three key ingredients are:
1. Anchor text. Obviously, this still matters. You want links the say your keyword - but diversity is key nowadays. You don't want too many links with your exact keyword as the anchor, so mix it up. Use brand name keywords, random phrases like 'click here' and 'visit website' as well. Keyword anchor texts shouldn't make up more than 20% of your link profile tops.
2. Pagerank of the linking page. Get links from pages that have PR on the page itself. The linking site's home page PR is pretty much irrelevant if there's no PR on the page linking to you, so don't fall for link building services that say they'll get you 'PR8 links' - they're usually talking about the home page and you won't get anywhere near that kind of value.
3. Number of other links on the linking page. The 'link power' that a page can give out gets divided up amongst the links that come out from it, so naturally the fewer links, the more concentrated 'link power' will come through to your site. This is why a PR1 page linking to only your site will have more impact than a PR4 page that links to your site plus 200 others.
Use this as a guideline when you're looking at building links and it will save you a lot of time and money. (Now maybe you see why those "PR5" link building services on here that post 2000 spam comments on the same page don't work). If you follow these guidelines you'll also find it takes a lot fewer links to rank, often only 5-6 good ones depending on the competition level of what you're targeting.
I see a lot of confusion around 'how many links should I build,' 'what's a good linking strategy,' etc. Most of the answers I see are total nonsense.
Start looking at link building through an 80/20 principle frame. The reality is that for most websites, 20% of links produce 80% of results in terms of ranking (in fact, I'd say it's more like 90/10).
Your job is to focus on ONLY creating the kinds of links that will have an effect. Everything else is a waste of time and money.
So what are the criteria to look for? This is not comprehensive but three key ingredients are:
1. Anchor text. Obviously, this still matters. You want links the say your keyword - but diversity is key nowadays. You don't want too many links with your exact keyword as the anchor, so mix it up. Use brand name keywords, random phrases like 'click here' and 'visit website' as well. Keyword anchor texts shouldn't make up more than 20% of your link profile tops.
2. Pagerank of the linking page. Get links from pages that have PR on the page itself. The linking site's home page PR is pretty much irrelevant if there's no PR on the page linking to you, so don't fall for link building services that say they'll get you 'PR8 links' - they're usually talking about the home page and you won't get anywhere near that kind of value.
3. Number of other links on the linking page. The 'link power' that a page can give out gets divided up amongst the links that come out from it, so naturally the fewer links, the more concentrated 'link power' will come through to your site. This is why a PR1 page linking to only your site will have more impact than a PR4 page that links to your site plus 200 others.
Use this as a guideline when you're looking at building links and it will save you a lot of time and money. (Now maybe you see why those "PR5" link building services on here that post 2000 spam comments on the same page don't work). If you follow these guidelines you'll also find it takes a lot fewer links to rank, often only 5-6 good ones depending on the competition level of what you're targeting.
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