Everything you need to know about Inbound Links for SEO

This article has since been incorporated into The DIY Guide to SEO, an in-depth explanation of the entire SEO process.

Most of us have some awareness of the importance of external inbound links in SEO (Search Engine Optimization). As a general rule of thumb, inbound links are good.

From the search engine's perspective, a link back to a page on your site is a vote of confidence in the content it contains. The more 'votes' you get, the better your site must be.

When a search engine is assessing the relative value of a site, it looks at the number, reciprocation, quality, speed and context of inbound links.

The Number of Inbound Links:

There are 2 factors to consider when looking at the number of inbound links...

1. Overall volume
2. Number of individual domains

A single site might generate a vast number of links back to yours. These links will all originate from the same domain (the main part of a site's URL - for example: asureimage.com). Having a large number of links from a single domain isn't going to help much. What you need is a large number of inbound links from different domains.

You can find both the number and quality of inbound links to your site with this free backlink analyser. The resulting list makes for very interesting reading.

Reciprocation:

If I link to your site and you link back to mine, it's clear that something is up. Either we've made a deal, or you're using a link exchange program. Search engines discount the value of reciprocal links.

Swapping links isn't the way to get to page one of Google. It's a much better idea to focus on securing a one-way inbound link from a quality site.

The Quality of Inbound Links:

Not all inbound links are created equal. For example, Google assigns a PageRank score to every site on the Internet. The higher the score, the more value a link conveys.

There many ways to find out what a site's PageRank score is. My favourite is via the Google Toolbar. Click the link, and install it to your browser. Then activate the PageRank score in the options...

• Click the 'Settings' menu on the far right-hand side
• Select 'Options'
• Click the 'More' tab and check (tick) the PageRank option
  

Once it's up and running in your browser, you'll see the PageRank score displayed for every individual web page you visit.

Contextual Linking:

In addition to the quality of an inbound link, search engines also assess their context. This context is taken from the link's anchor text (the clickable text in a link). For example...

• This isn't a contextual link
• This is a contextual link
  

The first example isn't contextual, because the clickable text doesn't relate to the page it links to. The second is contextual, because it relates directly to the content of the resulting page.

You can shape Google's view of what a page is about by paying attention to the anchor text in a link. If it contains an important keyword phrase, Google will start to associate that phrase with the page. Naturally, the page you're linking to must also have that keyword in the title, headline and content.

This is where focussing on a single keyword pays off. Rather than trying to get a site or page ranked highly for several keywords, pick one and use it to build inbound contextual links. It's important you include a variety of non-contextual and alternative links too. Your link building must appear natural to search engines.

The Speed of your Link Building:

If your site picks up 1,000 inbound links overnight, search engines will regard that as suspicious. This is why it's essential that your link building take place over a period of time. That way, it will look like people out in the world are linking back to your content (i.e. growth appears natural).

This is almost certainly a reaction to link farms and other such sites that promise to get you many links in a short space of time. You're better off doing this yourself, adding one new quality inbound contextual link each day for 2-3 months.

How to find sites that can give you Quality Inbound Links:

The main challenge in securing quality inbound links is finding good sites. This free backlink checker does an excellent job (they could easily charge money).

Simply enter the keyword phrase you're interested in, and click the button. It searches the web and returns a list of likely candidates (i.e. fit the keyword phrase and appear to allow you to add a link back to your site). You can then visit any site you're interested in by clicking it's link.

Not all these sites will be suitable, but a surprising number are. It's likely there will be too many to deal with all at once, so save the web page to your desktop. That way, you can work through the list over time, adding one new inbound link per day.

NEW INFO: You can take this strategy one step further by entering a targeted keyword in Google, and note down the URLs of the top 3 sites. Then visit Backlink Watch and enter these URLs. It will display a list of sites from which you can get back links, and that are already helping your leading competitors.

How to get external inbound contextual links

The holy grail for most people seeking better search engine performance is the contextual link. And in particular, the external inbound contextual link. They're not as easy to secure as some people will have you believe, especially if your site isn't currently ranked well in Google.

The ideal contextual link is one that appears on a web page with high page rank. The odds that you'll secure such a link are quite small, but there are 3 ways you can get linked from sites that have high page rank (the next best thing)...

1. Write a unique article and have it published on a self-publishing site
2. Add comments to other people's blogs
3. Help people in forums that allow you to add a contextual link back to your site from a signature

Unique Article:

A unique article is one you wrote yourself, and that doesn't appear anywhere else on the Internet. This technique won't work with duplicate content.

Write an article relevant to your site's content, and add one contextual link back to your site. Submit it to a self-publishing site such as Ezine Articles.

Commenting on Blogs:

Find blogs that are updated frequently (2 or more times a week), and that deal with a topic relevant to your site. Look for a suitable article, and add a comment. Include a contextual link back to your site.

Make sure the Blog doesn't add a nofollow tag to your comment. You can find a list of blogs that don't add the nofollow tag here.

Being Helpful:

If you know a lot about something, find a suitable discussion forum and start being helpful. Each post you make carries your signature. Most forums allow you to add a contextual link to your signature.

Be Sensible:

Take your time with these strategies. One contextual link per article, comment or post is all you need. The more you jam in, the greater the chance you'll be seen as a spammer. If that happens, all your hard work will be undone.

If you're commenting on a blog entry, it must add something to the discussion. If it doesn't, it will be seen as spam and be deleted (i.e. offer no SEO value). The same applies to forum posts. If you have nothing to say, move on and wait until you do.

If you're going to pursue this strategy, I recommend you read this short article about links and SEO. And about the concept of creating an SEO virtuous circle.

External Inbound Links (SEO)

Every body is chasing external inbound links. I regularly receive emails from the clueless begging me to exchange links. That's not going to happen.

What I am doing is building a series of sites, and generating inbound contextual links for each of them. This is a long term SEO strategy based on the principle that all ships rise on a rising tide. How do I get external inbound contextual links? I'm not willing to give away all my secrets, but I will give you a strong hint: Article marketing.

Unlock the power of lead generation

You can turn your own web site into a powerful lead generation machine. Here's how...

• Get more visitors to your site
• Turn those visitors into serious business enquiries

How to get more visitors to your site:

Here's the approach I recommend to my clients when they don't want to pay me to do it for them...

• Set aside 30 minutes every day (7 days a week), and find somewhere new to list your site (free of charge) every single day (directories, classified sites)
  
• Start a Twitter page, and update it 3 times per day (allow 3 minutes per update)
• Write one article per 3 days and publish it on a 3rd party article site
• Get a Blogger page and publish 1 new article per week
• Set aside £3 a day to advertise in Google AdWords. Limit your ads geographically, and set the maximum price per click to 20p (i.e. 15 clicks per day)
  
• All these ads and articles should like back to your site
  

This approach works to send you visitors, and improve your ranking in Google. It works even better if you invest the next 7 minutes finding out about how to use a contextual link.

Turn a visitor into a serious business enquiry

This is where lead generation experts earn they pay. It's not easy to achieve, but worth investing either your time or money (i.e. pay an expert to get it working). As soon as it is, you'll find your web site can send you as many leads as you're likely to need.

You'll find an overview of one of my favourite techniques in an article titled online marketing strategy. Don't let the name fool you. This article explains an especially powerful method of lead generation, and is well worth reading.