It’s no secret that link building is critical to any SEO campaign. This has been the trend ever since search engines started using link structures to determine the usefulness of web pages across the internet. With the introduction of Google’s PageRank; a complex algorithmic technique used in prioritizing results for different keyword searches, link building activities have literally started moving northwards.

Link Building Scenario in 2009

There are many webmasters who are still unsure about the effectiveness of PageRank for link building activities. Even after 10 years of its introduction from Google, the ambiguity remains. There were many link building tips going around in 2002. A few of these tips included: Always make use of correct link text, make sure you have a links page and ensure that you have a link already in place before asking for other links in return. However, these tips are widely considered to be redundant these days. ( aka reciprocal linking )

How to identify and get effective links?

Link building procedures have changed drastically over the years. The older techniques are no longer affective to succeed in getting your sites highlighted in major search engines. An excellent presentation was recently given by Christoph Cemper at a conference held at Amsterdam. He was able to put forward his thoughts in this matter very clearly. Below are a few of the abstracts from his presentation.

Things that mattered in link building

According to Christoph, few things that really mattered in a link building campaign included Google PageRank, Precise anchor text, Alexa Rank, Google cache date and Google backlink data. In the days gone by, Google PageRank did matter a lot in achieving higher search engine rankings through link building activities. However their effectiveness has got a beating in the past few years. You wouldn’t be surprised to see websites having low PageRank making it big in search engine rankings. The effectiveness of Precise anchor text is no different. Accuracy of Alexa rank has always been a hot point of discussion. Nonetheless, its rankings have never been trustworthy to gauge the importance of a web page.

Google cache date is generally used to determine when was the last time your web page was indexed by Googlebot. However, you need to be extra cautious in drawing conclusions on them as indexing and caching are not the same. Like in the case of Alexa Rank, Google backlink data cannot be fully trusted.

What is important in link building?

There are two important elements to be considered in a link building campein. They are: trust and relevance. Christoph further goes on to explain his 7 golden rules for link building. These golden rules are from white hat perspective and contain: Relevant page and in-content links, Natural anchor text distribution, Domain trust, Nofollow, Don’t spam, Juicy page, and don’t buy links for PageRank.

1. Relevant page and in-content links: -These days it is important to have relevant links directed towards relevant content. This would mean placing correct links on correct pages and within the content. In handling these links you need to think like a user rather than a SEO expert.

2. Natural anchor text: – You need to realize that distributing natural anchor text is very important to get noticed by search engines and get your site valuated. It also means that not all links at your disposal can have a correct anchor text. You can go about natural anchor text distribution by varying anchor text, adding nofollow to few links, and also by adding useless anchor texts in between.

3. Domain trust: – This is very important in link building campaigns. To have your website trusted you need links from trusted sites. What’s more, this trust is important to both the websites. The term “co-citations” comes into picture in this context. It was coined by Cemper and refers to a collection of unlinked pages that contain same inbound links and hence are co-citated.

4. Nofollow: – According to Cemper, Nofollow links are very important for you to realize your goals in link building activities.

5. Don’t spam: – Spamming links are never a good option, especially when looked at white hat perspective. Those practices that don’t look real would be termed as a spam.

6. Juicy page: – These are the pages that give a value to you. It is the one that defines ranking for you. There are different ways to check if your page is juicy or not. They are: select a unique phrase from the given page, search Google for that phrase, and check if the page’s rank is number 1. Or you can always use your Site: command.

7. Don’t buy links for PageRank: – This is particularly important, because Google has come down heavily on websites that buy or sell different links to gain better rankings.

Conclusion

To succeed in link building these days, you need to obey 7 golden rules, think like a user, and stop looking at Alexa Rank or Google PageRank.

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