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Linking Campaign Increases Google PageRank© |
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by Mike Banks Valentine copyright
© 2003
A client recently contacted me pointing out that their
linking campaign was starting to pay off handsomely
by gaining links at a nearly astounding rate of about
200 a week! He asked how he could be certain that those
sites that linked to his were spidered and indexed by
the search engines, thereby increasing his PageRank
at Google. Those of you who'd like a primer on PageRank
can visit the following URL's to learn more.
http://tinyurl.com/7utb
http://www.google.com/technology/
The basic premise of PageRank has it that pages linked
to by other sites, (especially other highly ranked sites)
are more valuable than those with fewer inbound links.
Thus, those that have more inbound links from other
highly ranked sites are given higher placement in the
results pages of any search done for pages with the
same keyword phrases. Any search engine marketing specialist
worth their salt will suggest a linking campaign to
their clients as a basic element in improving their
search engine positions.
Now returning to my client's question about getting
his inbound links from those sites that had added links
to his site, he asked me if he should simply catalog
those sites that linked to him and then go submit that
long list of URL's to the search engines. I did some
research and found that there were nearly 6000 inbound
links, but that only a fragment of those were now cataloged
by Google and applied to his PageRank
With further research, I found that dozens of those
links came from his articles distributed across the
web that had links to his site within his resource box
at the end of the articles. Further, many of those sites
featured many of his articles and would have required
him to spend hours submitting each of them to every
search engine. I am opposed to the practice of submitting
other sites without permission as well, so this was
something I recommended that he NOT do. Submitting other
sites at the same time that they submit themselves could
get them penalized for spamming and that hurts, not
helps, your chances of getting that inbound link crawled
and linked back to you.
You'd simply link to those sites that link to your articles
in most cases. If your articles are in their article
directory, that directory will link to your article.
There is no need to directly link to each of your own
articles when that involves repeating the same site
over and over.
My comments to my client follow:
Here's an example of my thoughts on this when a site
carries multiple articles. http://www.webmasterzine.com/newsletters/
"This one URL links to 14 of your articles. Not
only does it link all your articles, but it ranks you
higher than if you were to link to each page individually
because your name's on the page 15 times along with
your article titles, which presumably would contain
valuable keywords surrounding your name along with the
links to the articles and their titles.
The descriptions presumably include important keywords
too. This can be done for each site that carries multiple
articles. Those are more important to link to than any
single articles listed on small sites that pick up a
single article anyway. I recommend linking instead to
the article directories which will then link to all
articles that are then published on each site, both
now and in the future -- whether or not you have multiple
articles listed at this site now."
Top Search Engine Marketers know how important a sitemap
can be for the proper indexing and ranking of all the
pages on client sites. Having a single page that links
to all others within the multiple directories comprising
each section can be critical to getting every page spidered
and included in crawler-based search engines.
So I suggested that we create a map of inbound links
to his site and that we link from his home page, to
his sitemap and from his sitemap to the map of inbound
linkers. Then submit his map of inbound links page to
the search engines. That gets each of the inbound linking
sites spidered and those inbound links will in turn
be credited to his PageRank.
Don't list dead links on this links page! Even though
many pages are listed in the search engines, it doesn't
mean that they still exist and you should either manually
check each one if there are only a few, use link checking
software to check them otherwise.
Click below and take a look at the page and note to
visitors: http://www.ecommercebase.com/printTemplate.php?aid=441
Something important to consider when someone pulls an
article and the link goes bad. Check every link you
include on your map of inbound links pages.
Another consideration is your resource box when distributing
articles for publication online, it should include a
full link, including the http:// so that it automatically
hyperlinks in many content management programs without
having to encode URL's in the HTML by hand. It's done
for editors by the software when it sees the http://
where as if you type www.yoursite.com, your www won't
get hyperlinked automatically by the software.
It behooves you to point out to editors and publishers
that you require your URL to be hyperlinked when articles
are used online. Failure to insist on this practice
reduces your PageRank An alternative practice would
be simply to include the HTML in the text of your resource
box and note that it is included when sending out your
article.
Many sites don't distribute articles for use online,
so the way to gain inbound links is simply to provide
great content which encourages linking just because
your site offers such valuable information. This in
itself is not enough though, you will gain many more
links if you make it simple for others to link to you.
Create a specific page on your site with HTML code for
linking and suggested site description including relevant
keywords that can be cut-and-paste simple for the less
technically savvy.
Here are instructions for those unfamiliar with how
to set up
a "link to us" page:
http://searchengineoptimism.com/link-to-us-pages.html
How do you know who links to you now? Visit Google and
type the following syntax into the search box without
the quotemarks "link:www.yoursitename.com"
and press the Google search button.
The results page will return 10 results as usual, but
look at the blue bar across the top of the page where
it says, "Searched for pages linking to yoursitename.com.
Results 1 - 10 of about 203. Search took 0.16 seconds."
Go through the results pages and you'll quickly discover
that many of those links are repeats for one reason
or other. This doesn't necessarily mean that 203 linking
results reflect that many sites, just that many links.
Google also eliminates many duplicate site listings
in the results pages, as you'll be able to see when
you've reached the last page of results when reviewing
all of your site links. Google will show only a few
of the results, then note after a few pages:
"In order to show you the most relevant results,
we have omitted some entries very similar to the 37
already displayed. If you like, you can repeat the search
with omitted results included." The results on
the above search don't mean you've found all the sites
that link to you either. If you distribute articles
for use online, post to forums using a signature line
or even take part in discussion lists archived online,
you will find many more links to your site by searching
for your own name or any "handle" or "screen
name" you regularly use.
Go to Google again and type in your screen name or any
other often-used moniker that identifies you and enclose
it within quote marks in the Google search box and click
the search button. Using your own name, this is called
an "EGO" search.
http://tinyurl.com/7vg3
As a writer that has distributed articles across the
web for over four years, I do this to find where those
pieces have been published and make certain that the
site has adhered to guide- lines I've established for
use of my articles. Searching for my own name returns
over 1000 results and, to my surprise, many of those
results also link to my site, but are not listed when
doing the previous search using "link:www.website101.com"
In order to gain additional scoring PageRank at Google,
I have set up a map page like that I've been describing
here for one of my web sites at the following address
to assure that it gets all inbound links spidered and
credited to my web site links and hopefully improves
Website101 PageRank at Google, which is currently at
7 out of a possible 10.
http://www.website101.com/website101links.html
You'll note when you visit that page that I've placed
the links in no particular order except the first one,
which I've always been very proud of - since the day
we earned that honor in 1999. Entrepreneur Magazine
linked to WebSite101 and helped raise our visibility
dramatically. Another early linker was Internet.com,
where we have gained steady streams of traffic due to
perceived importance of such a referring site.
There are dozens of additional methods of getting your
site linked by other sites which is discussed more fully
at the following URL's:
http://searchengineoptimism.com/SEO_Tutorial/link_popularity.html
Use those techniques wisely, then keep track of who
links to you and create your inbound links map to tell
search engines how popular your site is and you'll see
your PageRank increase over time. Concentrate on those
sites likely to link to you at first, but don't hesitate
to request links from the big boys either.
That highly coveted link from Entrepreneur Magazine
mentioned above came from online distribution of a press
release done in October of 1999 and got WebSite101 linked
from Entrepreneur Magazine online as well as a blurb
in the December 1999 print edition of Entrepreneur.
All of this work may seem mundane and tedious, but the
results of that tedium can mean huge boosts to visibility,
traffic to your site and profit in your bank account.
A final note of caution - Don't link to just anyone
who asks you to! Many unscrupulous webmasters will post
your link only long enough for you to see it and then
take it down or bury it in massive link farms created
solely for their own benefit. Another site that links
to WebSite101 is SiteTipsandTricks.com where Bob McElwain
has written a highly recommended article on link swapping
scams.
Take a look at Bob's article:
http://searchengineoptimism.com/SEO_Tutorial/link_swap_scam.html
Take heed of all those requests to link to unknown sites
that use software generated "Personalized"
letters to webmasters seeking links to www.some-stupid-site.com/unrelated-content/
I've seen dozens of these notes claiming that the site
owner "found you in Yahoo, my favorite search engine"
(sic) and "I'm sure you are aware of the value
of reciprocal links" and "I've already linked
to you" and when you visit, you find hundreds of
irrelevant, pointless links to unrelated content.
I'd be remiss if I didn't remind you that use of this
article requires that links in the resource box be made
live by hyperlinking. Keep on with your links campaign
and then tell them you learned best techniques at SearchEngineOptimism
by linking to us! We only link to those we find with
links to us done in searches at Google, or those who
provide articles on relevant subjects that would benefit
visitors to our site.
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Mike Banks Valentine is a Search Engine Optimization
specialist practicing ethical small business SEO Search
Engine Placement, Optimization, Marketing http://SearchEngineOptimism.com/SEO_Tutorial/
Website –http://SEOptimism.com/
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