Anybody that has read or knows anything about search engine optimization knows that links are a very, very important. In fact I think links are the MOST important part of a search marketing strategy. Sure, there are on-page factors but they only contribute 20%-30% of the total ranking for a particular page. The other 80% of rankings is off-page factors.
In order to understand what drives website rank you must first look at Google and how it views the web. You have to remember that Google is a computer algorithm, a program. It cannot read a web page like you and I and tell what the content is about and what should be ranked highest.
How can Google tell who should rank in the #1 spot?
There are many factors that effect rankings including keywords, content and site structure but to look at this a little closer we need to look at Google’s explanation of PageRankTM.
“We use more than 200 signals, including our patented PageRankTM algorithm, to examine the entire link structure of the web and determine which pages are most important. We then conduct hypertext-matching analysis to determine which pages are relevant to the specific search being conducted. By combining overall importance and query-specific relevance, we’re able to put the most relevant and reliable results first.”
“PageRankTM also considers the importance of each page that casts a vote, as votes from some pages are considered to have greater value, thus giving the linked page greater value.”
In part it can be deduced from the above explanations that Google looks at links pointing to your website and determines what the page should rank for, in part based on who is linking to you and more importantly HOW they are linking to you.
As I said earlier, in my opinion links play the largest roll in ranking. But not all links are created equal. A link from a lawyer’s site when you are a florist does little to help your rankings. The best links come from websites that have the same theme or topic as yours, uses your keywords in the anchor text of the link and has a lot of quality incoming links from the same theme/topic related sites as their website and yours.
If website rank depends on links, then keyword specific rank must be dependent on keyword specific links which means effective links are links pointing to your website using the phrase or keyword you want to rank well for in the anchor text of the link.
Assuming I wanted a website to rank for “screen capture tutorials” I would seek out other websites in my topic and format the link to my site something like this:
Five <a href=”http://www.mysite.com>PC Screen Capture Tutorials</a> by Tim
The link ends up looking like this:
Five PC Screen Capture Tutorials by Tim
Note: Your link appears more natural by using word besides your keywords. This goes along way with your link reputation.
It’s not enough anymore to just have links as Google is looking for much more:
- Link popularity
- Link age
- Link authority – links from a site that are ranking high
- Link reputation – crosses over into authority
- Link growth rate – how often are links being added – to fast will hurt you here
- Linking within a topical community – stay within your topic/market
- Link anchor text – natural keyword rich text
So to wrap it up the website with the most and “best” links pointing to it using the proper keyword anchor text will stand the best chance of ranking for that keyword.
Understanding what factors affect rankings and how to effectively include them in your search marketing strategy will help your pages rank well and get the laser targeted traffic that any red-blooded webmaster wants.
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