Text in Incoming Links
What Link Text is Good to Use?
If you link to SeoTier.com, a link with the words Search Engine Optimization or SEO Blog are more valuable than a link that says other site. Evaluating the text in the links, along with who links where, is how the major ways search engines get feedback from external sources.
Search engines can look for noun-verb patterns in text, but machines can be taught to crank out text. There is limited cost to content creation, so search engines must look offsite to understand what a document is about.
Currently link analysis is the most effective way to determine document quality.
How Powerful is Link Text?
Many bloggers are politically outspoken and view George Bush in a less-than favorable light. Hundreds of people have linked to his biography page using the phrase miserable failure as the link text. Searching on the phrase miserable failure in Google, at the time of this writing, ranks the biography page of George W. Bush at the Whitehouse.gov web site as the #1 result in Google. It is a good example of just how powerful link text can be.
Authority VS Link Anchor Text
In the past this section talked up how important anchor text is. While anchor text is still somewhat important, it has been heavily gamed over the past couple years, and thus Google's relevancy algorithms have de-weighted anchor text while placing more weight on domain age and link authority.
A quality link from an authoritative site that does not have your desired anchor text is worth more than a link from an average or low quality site that has your keywords in the anchor text.
Even if you get a quality link that points to a different part of your site it will still raise your overall relevancy and authority for every page on your site.
Site & Article Titles as Guides for Anchor Text
Many people reference things by their official names. Thus, if you write an article that has a keyword somewhere in the title many of the people who link at your article will link with the keyword in the link.
If you are writing information with the intent to spread make sure you place being linkworthy above being keyword focused though. You can always change your title after people link to your article.
Why are Links so Powerful?
When we write stuff about ourselves, we have a tendency to lie. It is human nature to boost your own worth. This is why meta tags and page copy are nowhere near as powerful as they once were. They have been used and abused.
Links from other webmasters are viewed by search engines as unbiased, third party votes. While Yahoo! tends to put more weight on page copy than Google does, links are the #1 ranking criteria for competitive phrases in all major search engines.
Many people who look for links just think "link", but often, this is not the most effective way to do link building. If you think of the web as a huge social network and think of links as relationships, you have a huge advantage over your competition.
You can do many manipulative things to make your ideas appear better than they are, but if you can find more natural ways to embed yourself in the social structure of the web, you will likely become extremely successful.
Links from Directories
Some directories will only list your real site name. When submitting to the major directories you want to get the best listing you can, but many of those who edit directories are volunteers. To make their job easy ensure you do the following things:
- Submit your site to the right category.
- Read the directory submission tips.
- Check to see how other sites in that category are listed. If they primarily are listed by site title, make sure you submit your actual site title. If they seem to be a bit liberal (allowing keyword-stuffed listings), Many people who look for links just think "link", but often this is not the most effective way to do link building. If you think of the web as a huge social network and think of links as relationships, you have a huge advantage over your competitors. you may want to submit with a more liberal and descriptive title (i.e., try to get your keywords in some of the links).
- Use a suitable description. Make sure you mix your link anchor text and descriptions each time you get a link.
- View the other entries in the category so you can see the style of the other listings.
- Emulate the style of other listings, but provide your own original factual details in the description. Try your best to state what sets you apart or what is your unique selling proposition.
- Keyword-rich domain names lead to keyword-rich links from directories. If your site does not have a keyword-rich URL, then it is easy to change the site graphic design to make it look like the site's official name at launch is my keyword store or similar. In addition you can place your keywords inside the page title and site logo such that it looks like your site name is Paypal Payment Solutions instead of just Paypal. That move might be viewed as shady by some, and it is not something you would do with an already well-branded business, but if you are starting from scratch, try to use what advantages you can.
Links from Other Resources
Some people are rather link–liberal and will list your site as you please. Again, view how they have their other links and emulate them.
If you are trading links, and a site is requesting a super keyword-rich link, they should have no problem with giving you a keyword-rich link.
Sometimes writing articles or creating viral tools is a quick way to build links in a cheap and time effective manner.
How do You Learn Best?
Some people learn better by watching video than by reading. Dan Thies recently offered two free videos on link building. I recommend watching both of them, even if you also read the rest of this chapter. The video is web-based – http://www.seoresearchlabs.com/week2-sample.html
Vary Link Text
All the links pointing to your site should not have the same exact link text as that could be a sure sign of link spamming. You want to mix it up and use different text links from different sites. This will make it appear as natural linking to search engines.
You probably shouldn't let any more than 20-30% of your links have any specific anchor text if you can control it. There are no set rules, but mixing it up will prevent you from flagging spam filters which currently exist or may soon be added to search engines.
You want to use a few semantically similar phrases and many anchor text variations
to make your anchor text look as natural as it can.
Some people try to make anchor text like this (with the following being one big link):
SEO, search engine optimization, placement positioning services
strategy, top ranked #1 Google, Yahoo!, MSN
but that is not how people normally link. It is usually better to use many short link text groups than trying to get all of your keyword variations in every link.
Using Links to Capture the Tail End of Search
Many people optimize their sites for stuff like purple widgets and forget to optimize for more specific or related terms. You cannot always optimize your page for all the terms you like, but you can add some modifier or descriptive words in some of the inbound link text to try to rank well in a slightly broader keyword basket. Some example link text might be the following:
- Buy Purple Widgets
- Purple Widget Store
- Purple Widget Sale
Doing this may mean that it may take longer to rank well for purple widgets, but it also means you will likely rank for many more specific queries around that keyword term space in a quicker time period. It also makes your link profile look more natural and makes your site less likely to get filtered out of the search results.
Giving away Tools or Knowledge for Linkage Data
Many sites build free linkage data by creating industry standard tools. If you have great free tools on your site, you may garner many natural, editorial, quality links from them. If you place tools on other sites, make sure you also put a few links on them to drive traffic and link authority at your most important sites.
Articles can act just like tools as link magnets. Paul Graham is a great example of a writer who gains a ton of free linkage data by giving away knowledge. His How to Start a Startup article is a classic example of an article that built him significant linkage data.
In a large social network, as long as you think about the scalability of your business model, it is hard to give away too much software or information. The more you give away, the more you get back.
Framing, Controversy & Story Telling
Framing is a concept well known in politics. The thesis behind the idea of framing is that if you control the language of a debate, you win. Frank Luntz is brilliant at framing issues for the Republican Party.
U.S. politicians have used Support Our Troops as a phrase to gain blind support for the war in Iraq. At the same time, the same government cut hazardous duty pay, cut veteran's benefits, and called back reservists using a back door draft.
There is a yellow Support Our Troops ribbon from China on many SUVs. Anyone who dare criticize the ribbons would be called unpatriotic.
Back door draft would be an example of an anti-war frame. Extension of honorable service would be considered a pro-war frame.
If you create an idea or campaign that is hard to dislike, or one where a mention causes controversy, you will likely gain many links. Don't Think of an Elephant is a short book about framing from a liberal political perspective.
Framing, Search & SEO
For the past few years Google has had the largest search index. They boasted about how important index size was. Yahoo! announced an index twice the size as Google's. Sergey Brin was quick to discredit Yahoo! stating their index had many duplicate documents in it. Google then stopped showing their number of indexed pages on their home page and stated that they thought relevancy was more important.
Many SEOs say they are ethical which by default frames their competitors as unethical.
If you read conversations in your marketplace, the market will likely grant you many useful frames to position your business.
Getting Sued
If you ever get sued, reflect upon how you can spin the story and market it. The marketing value of a well-played lawsuit can be immeasurable.
A friend of mine was sued by a large corporation, and it got his site links from many newspapers, Wired, Slashdot, and the Wall Street Journal. He never really wanted to follow through with fighting the lawsuit, but my I talked him into it. After all those links started to pour in, he knew why.
The nice things about getting links from high-profile, well-trusted sites are: they are hard to duplicate, they drive significant direct traffic, and often lead to many secondary links.
Story Telling
Seth Godin's All Marketers are Liars is a book about how consumers lie to themselves to justify their actions. Good marketers tell stories to match the bias and world views of their customers.
When people are new, they tend to be hungry and are willing to work hard to earn a living.
Being Remarkable
Another one of Seth's books is called Purple Cow. The thesis of the book is that things that are remarkable are worthy of being remarked upon.
A link is nothing but a citation or a remark, so if you figure out how to create ideas or products which are remarkable, people will talk about you and the links will follow.
Semi-Official Article Names
Many people link to things using their official names. When you write an article, you can create an article name which is somewhat keyword rich to help pick up links with those words in the link text. After time passes and you have a few links, you can change the title to pick up slightly different terms in the link text, or to create an article title that is more descriptive and compelling.
Keep in mind that if you are too overt with how you mix things up, someone might call you out on the technique.
Creating Tools & Content Based on Linking Opportunities
Sometimes when doing link analysis, you come across pages that would be appealing to get links from, but the owner may not be readily willing to link to your current site. So create something that they would link to.
Of all the pages on the web, most of them are not overtly amazingly thoughtful or original. With that being said, it costs next to nothing to write an article or hire an article writer to write about a topic which could likely gain links from various trusted or authoritative resources.
For most people, it is easier to create something worth promoting than to promote something not worth promoting. Along those lines, it is easier to create something people care about if you use their interests as the source of the content or idea.
If the thought or reasoning behind the article does not totally agree with you, then it might be a good occasion to hire a guest writer.
A good example of this idea is Myriad Search, an ad-free meta search engine. Within a month of launch, the site had over natural and organic 1,000 links. People linked to it because it is easy to link to.
Self Reinforcing Market Positions
Once a site already ranks at the top of the search results it is more likely to be found and read and linked at. If you are trying to catch up and beat a site which is enjoying many self reinforcing links you need to try to create self reinforcing positions in smaller markets, go after different keywords or market segments, or add something remarkable to your site that will make powerful webmasters want to link at your site.
Mike Grehan explains the self reinforcing market position link conundrum in his Filthy Linking Rich.
Tag, You're It!
Currently, most search algorithms are driven by link reputation. Eventually search engines will have enough user feedback data to where they will be able to augment the links with how users tag web pages and their usage data.
If a site with exceptionally high link popularity scores rarely gets tagged, search engines may discount the relevancy for that site or flag that site for human review.
If you are big into web marketing, I recommend creating a user account with each of the major engines unless you are using shady search marketing techniques.
I also would recommend looking at some of the other social software tagging web sites like del.icio.us. Pages which are heavily tagged today stand a good chance of being pages which are frequently cited on web sites tomorrow.
If you track what types of information people are tagging, then that may help you sculpt a few good ideas you could launch which may provide you with free, virallink popularity.
Also note that things people tag or mention on their sites:
- are typically hard links for competitors to obtain or compete with;
- may lead to secondary links and media coverage;
- and are links that will likely provide much more pull than links from fairly static directory type sites. Tracking how ideas spread can also help you see market opportunities and find the people most likely to help you spread your idea.
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