Saturday, June 23, 2007

The Value of Backlinks and Backlinking

The world of Internet marketing can seem mysterious at best and downright frightening at worst. Web sites need sustainable traffic, but how exactly can one route attention to one site out of the billions? One answer is backlinks. The value of backlinking as a marketing tool simply cannot be ignored.

You may be wondering exactly what the value of backlinking is for your site. In essence, backlinks are references to your website sitting on someone else's website. The value of this backlinking lies in the fact that search engines use the number - and quality - of backlinks to your site to effectively rank your website's importance.

But that's not the end of the story. The true value of backlinking comes when search engines determine that, due in large part to the backlinks associated with your site, your web site address merits a good placement in their search engine - often near the very top of that search engine's results - all because of these same backlinks.

Anyone who has ever used a search engine knows that if eighty-two million sites match the search, it is quite likely that the one(s) chosen will be listed in the first page or two. This makes sense, since most users assume that the top results are better sources of information and/or products. Therefore, the greatest value of backlinking is that you will be establishing your site as highly important, and even as a leader, if not an authority.

As backlinks are created - again all pointing to you - it is wise to keep an eye on the type and quality of these links. Therefore, monitoring can be of great use to the website owner in determining who is linking to them. Quality backlinking, in a natural style, works best when creating your website as an authority site.

The best way to look at backlinking is often from the reverse. For example, if a site that sees very little traffic, and is usually dismissed by the major search engines, is connected to your site, it will not help you at all. However, the value of backlinking to well-established and highly authoritative sites is immeasurable; they will have a much better effect on your return in search engines.

To the online marketer, the value of backlinking cannot be dismissed. Establishment of high quality backlinks is an integral part of internet marketing success. This simple measure can increase web site traffic significantly, which is the single most crucial element necessary for success on the web.

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Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Link Directories SEO Power

Link directories have much to do with the way that a search engine helps people find a particular web site, and ultimately, with online marketing. There are a number of reasons why link directories are important, and they should be a part of any webmaster's site marketing strategy. Link directories are popular because they allow you find websites on niche topics. Having your site added in the top directories will allow you gain a great deal of visibility.

Search engines rely on directories as a source of links. Specifically, they rely on link popularity how popular a web site is, based on the quality of both its inbound and outbound links when pointing Internet users to a web site. This is what determines your site's ranking in a search engine when people use certain keywords to get search results. To say that search engines don't need web directories is a fallacy. They both work together seamlessly, and the overall goal is the same: To help people find what they are looking for.

The formula for achieving a high rank may thus seem as simple as using as finding as many keywords as you can in describing or tagging your web site. However, that is not all there is to it. Since search engines rank a web site according to how many other sites link to it, then it would make sense to have your web site added in as many web directories as possible. Having your site add in a large number of web directories does not guarantee success. To succeed with getting your site listed, you will want to focus on the web directories that have the most traffic and popularity.

At the same time, it is important to remember that search engines also look at the quality of a web site's links. Some web directories aim only to build link popularity and will list outbound links without verifying its quality. Such directories are often called link farms, and search engines give low value to sites listed there, if not ban them entirely. This means that a web site added in just one or two directories known to be good, reliable sources of links would get an even better ranking than a site added in several less-known web directories, or link farms. This is how Google ranks its search results, and other search engines have followed suit.

It would also make sense to monitor other sites that link to your site. After all, the quality of the sites that link to yours speaks of the quality of yours as well. You would not want your site to be identified with a low-quality site, and give Internet users the impression that your site is cheap. As a webmaster, your goal should be to make sure your website is only associated with link directories that are high in quality. Avoid getting your site added in just any web directory. It could have an effect on your ranking.

The bottom line is that having your link added in a high-quality web directory is one of the ways by which you can ensure a good ranking in search engine results.

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