Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Inbound Links Part 3: Buying Links
In Part 1: The Factors I wrote about the factors behind why inbound links are so valuable to your web site. In Part 2: Reciprocal Links, I explained why reciprocal linking has pretty much gone by the wayside as an effective link building strategy. Here, in Part 3, I'll offer some considerations to maximize your return when it comes to purchasing links.
Relevancy
The site and page you're buying the link on should have relevancy to the page you're having it link to. Buying a link to your Internet Marketing site from a Real Estate site won't give you nearly as much bang for your buck as the same link purchased on a site about Internet Marketing. The site you are buying on doesn't have to be exactly the same topic as your, but it should be related.
An additional bonus of a link on a related site is not just that it can help your search engine placement, but can also result in visitors who click the link and visit your site. Why? Because it's related to why they are there in the first place.
Lastly, making sure your link is relevant lowers its profile and the chance that the search engines will think it's a paid link. A link from a home improvement blog to a power tools review site seems reasonable from e thematic point of view, while a link from that same home improvement blog to a site about skin care does not. Such a link would be more vulnerable to search engines classifying it as a paid link and degrading any positive influence it might have on your site's search engine ranking.
Anchor Text
The anchor text is the readable part of the link (<a href=http://YourSite.com/>Anchor Text</a>). When purchasing links, you should use your top keyword phrases as the anchor text for the links. However (and this is a big however) be sure to vary the anchor text.
When people naturally link to your site, they will use a wide variety of anchor text words and phrases. You want to mimic this randomness as much as possible. Pick the top ten, or twenty (or even more) keyword phrases and focus on and making those the basis for your links. Change the order and add other words to mix it up as much as possible while always keeping the focus on the main words you want to rank for. Say your site is about Blue Widgets. You might vary the anchor text as follows:
Blue Widget Reviews
Buy Blue Widgets
Blue Widgets for Sale
Blue Widget Model #44554
Blue Widget
Blue Widgets
Retailer, Blue Widgets
Blue Widget Store
Get Blue Widgets Here
Blue Widget Sale
Etc...
Occasionally using the URL of your web site as the anchor texts works too, since that's what many people use when they put a link on their site.
The last thing you want to do is buy a bunch of links all with the same anchor text! Having the appearance of a naturally occurring linking pattern will give your campaign the best chance of success.
Site-wide Links
Site-wide links are also called Run of Site (ROS) links. ROS links are a link on every page in the site. There's a general agreement among webmasters that ROS links are not as beneficial as a link from a single page.
Nothing signals a paid link so much as a link in the footer of every page on a site pointing to an off-site location. The other disadvantage? ROS links on a site with thousands of indexed pages can suddenly show up as thousands of links to your site, indicating an unnatural linking pattern. You usually can't vary the anchor text on site wide links either, so that could trip another flag.
Rather than ROS links, I recommend sticking with one link from one page.
Where the Link Leads
When buying links, not only do you want to mix up the anchor text, you also want to vary the URL the link points to. Have some links lead to the home page and others to interior pages. A good, general ratio to follow would be 60% pointed to your home page and 40% pointed to interior pages.
When you purchase a link and point it to an interior page, make sure the anchor text is relevant to the content of the page.
IP Address
Back in the day, when the Internet was young (and I was younger), one of the more common tricks was to buy a bunch of domain names and host them from the same IP address using host headers. The enterprising webmaster would then interlink those dozens (some times hundreds) of sites. The result was instant back links from a bunch of different sites.
When the search engines caught on, webmasters got smarter. They put their sites on different servers at different locations across the country. Although this method could (and still does) work, it requires dozens of sites on dozens of geographically separated servers, all with different WHOIS info (since it's suspected that search engines consider WHOIS info now). All those sites won't be of benefit if the WHOIS info shows they are all owned by the same company or individual.
Search engine algorithms are smart enough to look for relationships between IP addresses and WHOIS registration information, so when you purchase your links, make sure you purchase them from a variety of owners with a variety of IP addresses.
Link Age
For the most part, natural links don't come and go in a short span of time. Once a webmaster links to a site, that link tends to remain there a long time.
Purchased links, on the other hand, tend to come and go with more frequency, so search engines might follow a new link, but not yet count it when it comes to your ranking. If you're purchasing links for their search engine affect (and not just for pure advertising) and you're buying them on a monthly basis, I recommend a minimum of 6 months.
I've read the opinion in a few places that the suspected 'golden' age is 90 days, so I'd go twice as long to be sure. Even better are permanent links, but most sites don't sell them. Why? Because they make their advertising dollars by selling links, and if the links they sell are permanent, that limits their revenue potential.
PageRank Considerations
Webmasters have a tendency to go for sites with a high page rank, but picture this: After a few months, your new site has six inbound links, all from PageRank 6 sites or higher. Does that sound natural to you? Me either.
So when buying your links, my suggestion is to not even consider PageRank other than to make sure it's not a 0 or grayed out. There are a lot more PageRank 3 and 4 sites out there than 6, 7, or 8, so it would make sense that the majority of inbound links to your site come from sites with a lower PageRank.
What about Directories?
If the directory isn't a PageRank 0 or grayed out, I say it's OK to submit to. It might not help, but it won't hurt.
Topical directories are your best bet. Don't pay for a directory link unless the site is several years old, has a Page Rank of 5 or higher, and is very well indexed. If you know which page your link will be on, check to see if that page is indexed in the search engines and if it has a PageRank.
Some directories are so big and have their sub-sub-sub pages buried so deep in the site structure that your link might not even be discovered by the search engines. Check the listings already there too: make sure they are good, clean listings. Human edited directories are the best.
Number of Links on the Page
Google comes right out and says in their guidelines to limit the number of links on a page to 100 or less. There's a lot of discussion in the marketing community about just what they mean. But it's not too hard to find well ranked pages with more than 100 links.
What you want to check for is the number of links on a page that lead off site. If a page has more than 10 or 15 links leading off site, I'd be reluctant about putting my link there as well. Not because I think it would hurt, but because I'm not sure it would help; the links on such a page might be devalued because the search engines would suspect the links of not being natural.
Is Your Link Campaign Working?
Before you begin your link purchasing, go here:
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/keywords/
Once you register, this tool lets you enter your keyword phrases and monitor their position in the top three search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN). Add your site and then add your top keyword phrases. Run a report BEFORE you start your link building campaign. As you execute your campaign, run the report on a regular basis to see if it's having any effect on your positioning.
Another thing you want to do is track the traffic coming to your site. There are thousands of traffic tracking sites and software packages out there, but here's a free one I use:
http://www.statcounter.com/
Register for your free account, add your site and add the code to your site. Now you can see the traffic coming to your site and where it's coming from. You can see what search terms people are using to get to your site. All this will be useful in helping you fine tune your keywords, content, and future marketing efforts.
If done right, link purchasing can significantly enhance your search engine position, resulting in a significant boost in traffic to your site.
Keep at it, keep optimizing and one day it will be YOU who's selling the links and making the advertising dollars!
Relevancy
The site and page you're buying the link on should have relevancy to the page you're having it link to. Buying a link to your Internet Marketing site from a Real Estate site won't give you nearly as much bang for your buck as the same link purchased on a site about Internet Marketing. The site you are buying on doesn't have to be exactly the same topic as your, but it should be related.
An additional bonus of a link on a related site is not just that it can help your search engine placement, but can also result in visitors who click the link and visit your site. Why? Because it's related to why they are there in the first place.
Lastly, making sure your link is relevant lowers its profile and the chance that the search engines will think it's a paid link. A link from a home improvement blog to a power tools review site seems reasonable from e thematic point of view, while a link from that same home improvement blog to a site about skin care does not. Such a link would be more vulnerable to search engines classifying it as a paid link and degrading any positive influence it might have on your site's search engine ranking.
Anchor Text
The anchor text is the readable part of the link (<a href=http://YourSite.com/>Anchor Text</a>). When purchasing links, you should use your top keyword phrases as the anchor text for the links. However (and this is a big however) be sure to vary the anchor text.
When people naturally link to your site, they will use a wide variety of anchor text words and phrases. You want to mimic this randomness as much as possible. Pick the top ten, or twenty (or even more) keyword phrases and focus on and making those the basis for your links. Change the order and add other words to mix it up as much as possible while always keeping the focus on the main words you want to rank for. Say your site is about Blue Widgets. You might vary the anchor text as follows:
Blue Widget Reviews
Buy Blue Widgets
Blue Widgets for Sale
Blue Widget Model #44554
Blue Widget
Blue Widgets
Retailer, Blue Widgets
Blue Widget Store
Get Blue Widgets Here
Blue Widget Sale
Etc...
Occasionally using the URL of your web site as the anchor texts works too, since that's what many people use when they put a link on their site.
The last thing you want to do is buy a bunch of links all with the same anchor text! Having the appearance of a naturally occurring linking pattern will give your campaign the best chance of success.
Site-wide Links
Site-wide links are also called Run of Site (ROS) links. ROS links are a link on every page in the site. There's a general agreement among webmasters that ROS links are not as beneficial as a link from a single page.
Nothing signals a paid link so much as a link in the footer of every page on a site pointing to an off-site location. The other disadvantage? ROS links on a site with thousands of indexed pages can suddenly show up as thousands of links to your site, indicating an unnatural linking pattern. You usually can't vary the anchor text on site wide links either, so that could trip another flag.
Rather than ROS links, I recommend sticking with one link from one page.
Where the Link Leads
When buying links, not only do you want to mix up the anchor text, you also want to vary the URL the link points to. Have some links lead to the home page and others to interior pages. A good, general ratio to follow would be 60% pointed to your home page and 40% pointed to interior pages.
When you purchase a link and point it to an interior page, make sure the anchor text is relevant to the content of the page.
IP Address
Back in the day, when the Internet was young (and I was younger), one of the more common tricks was to buy a bunch of domain names and host them from the same IP address using host headers. The enterprising webmaster would then interlink those dozens (some times hundreds) of sites. The result was instant back links from a bunch of different sites.
When the search engines caught on, webmasters got smarter. They put their sites on different servers at different locations across the country. Although this method could (and still does) work, it requires dozens of sites on dozens of geographically separated servers, all with different WHOIS info (since it's suspected that search engines consider WHOIS info now). All those sites won't be of benefit if the WHOIS info shows they are all owned by the same company or individual.
Search engine algorithms are smart enough to look for relationships between IP addresses and WHOIS registration information, so when you purchase your links, make sure you purchase them from a variety of owners with a variety of IP addresses.
Link Age
For the most part, natural links don't come and go in a short span of time. Once a webmaster links to a site, that link tends to remain there a long time.
Purchased links, on the other hand, tend to come and go with more frequency, so search engines might follow a new link, but not yet count it when it comes to your ranking. If you're purchasing links for their search engine affect (and not just for pure advertising) and you're buying them on a monthly basis, I recommend a minimum of 6 months.
I've read the opinion in a few places that the suspected 'golden' age is 90 days, so I'd go twice as long to be sure. Even better are permanent links, but most sites don't sell them. Why? Because they make their advertising dollars by selling links, and if the links they sell are permanent, that limits their revenue potential.
PageRank Considerations
Webmasters have a tendency to go for sites with a high page rank, but picture this: After a few months, your new site has six inbound links, all from PageRank 6 sites or higher. Does that sound natural to you? Me either.
So when buying your links, my suggestion is to not even consider PageRank other than to make sure it's not a 0 or grayed out. There are a lot more PageRank 3 and 4 sites out there than 6, 7, or 8, so it would make sense that the majority of inbound links to your site come from sites with a lower PageRank.
What about Directories?
If the directory isn't a PageRank 0 or grayed out, I say it's OK to submit to. It might not help, but it won't hurt.
Topical directories are your best bet. Don't pay for a directory link unless the site is several years old, has a Page Rank of 5 or higher, and is very well indexed. If you know which page your link will be on, check to see if that page is indexed in the search engines and if it has a PageRank.
Some directories are so big and have their sub-sub-sub pages buried so deep in the site structure that your link might not even be discovered by the search engines. Check the listings already there too: make sure they are good, clean listings. Human edited directories are the best.
Number of Links on the Page
Google comes right out and says in their guidelines to limit the number of links on a page to 100 or less. There's a lot of discussion in the marketing community about just what they mean. But it's not too hard to find well ranked pages with more than 100 links.
What you want to check for is the number of links on a page that lead off site. If a page has more than 10 or 15 links leading off site, I'd be reluctant about putting my link there as well. Not because I think it would hurt, but because I'm not sure it would help; the links on such a page might be devalued because the search engines would suspect the links of not being natural.
Is Your Link Campaign Working?
Before you begin your link purchasing, go here:
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/keywords/
Once you register, this tool lets you enter your keyword phrases and monitor their position in the top three search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN). Add your site and then add your top keyword phrases. Run a report BEFORE you start your link building campaign. As you execute your campaign, run the report on a regular basis to see if it's having any effect on your positioning.
Another thing you want to do is track the traffic coming to your site. There are thousands of traffic tracking sites and software packages out there, but here's a free one I use:
http://www.statcounter.com/
Register for your free account, add your site and add the code to your site. Now you can see the traffic coming to your site and where it's coming from. You can see what search terms people are using to get to your site. All this will be useful in helping you fine tune your keywords, content, and future marketing efforts.
If done right, link purchasing can significantly enhance your search engine position, resulting in a significant boost in traffic to your site.
Keep at it, keep optimizing and one day it will be YOU who's selling the links and making the advertising dollars!
Labels: Link Building
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