Successful Link Development Tips And Guidelines

Reader Question: I often get emails from search engine marketing companies who claim that they can get high-quality links pointing to my Web site. They usually mention a PageRank (PR) of 7 to 9. Since my site needs more link popularity, I am tempted to give it a try. Will subscribing to this program help my site's link popularity?

Answer: Believe it or not, I get the same emails. These companies promise me that my site will get top search engine positions if I subscribe to their services. And you know where these email are promptly placed? That's right - filtered out and into the trash bin.

I know it is tempting to believe that a site can get instant link popularity. But the fact is that high-quality link development takes time and patience. However, with planning and implementation, quality link development can help a site get and maintain targeted search engine traffic.

Link development and search engine spam

Link popularity is the quantity and quality of links pointing to a URL (Web address). Many search engine marketers mistakenly believe that the quantity of links is more important than the quality of links. I have seen many sites get long-term, qualified search engine traffic with less than 50 links pointing to the home page. Therefore, quality is certainly more important than quantity.

In comes PageRank, more commonly referred to as PR. Search engine marketers like to prove that they have high-quality links by throwing out a PR of 7 to 10 (with 10 being the highest) as part of the sales pitch.

Let me put it to you this way. I do not care what a page's PR score is when I do link development. In fact, whenever I receive an email from a link development (or SEO) firm that mentions PageRank in it, I forward the email to the "spam cops" at Google to let them know about the free-for-all link farm. And guess what? Almost all of these emails contained sites that are part of spam link farms.

Here are some ways that I can tell when I'm receiving a legitimate link request vs. a spam link request:

• The site requesting a link is off topic. Do you ever receive link requests from a site whose content has absolutely nothing to do with the content on your site? For example, I wrote a book about search-engine friendly Web site design. On my book site, I get many requests to ecommerce sites, software sites, etc. Basically, I get link requests from sites that have nothing to do with search-engine friendly Web site design. I guess people see the PR score and send out a link request template email. I don't answer template emails, and I don't grant links to sites that do not provide useful, unique content to my target audience. Neither should you.
  
  
• Reciprocation is required. I always felt that the whole reciprocal linking and Web ring strategy was fundamentally flawed. If I find another Web site's content to be useful, I will link to that Web site. No reciprocation is required. However, if a Web site owner will not link to my content without reciprocation, that person must not have found my content to be THAT useful, did he?
  
  
• Link request is from a competitor. Sometimes, common sense does not appear to be a part of the link development process among search engine marketers. Why would anyone link to competitor Web sites? Some of my colleagues have very informative newsletters, and I certainly link to that section of their sites because their newsletters contain credible, unique information about a specific topic. But I will not link to any colleague who spams the search engines, which brings me to my next point.
  
  
• Email request demonstrates that a person has not read your site's content. I am always amazed when I receive link requests from Web positioning software companies. Especially when it clearly states on my site that I do not use it nor endorse it. When requesting a link, you should prove to the site owner that you have read his/her site.
  
  
• Email request mentions PR. I understand that a high PageRank might be a tempting offer. Who doesn't want high-quality links? But PageRank is not flawless. Sometimes a high PageRank is the result of a large FFA link farm, which is spam. Look at the Web site with the high PR. Do some digging. If the site is poorly designed and has a wide variety of unrelated topics and links, that high PageRank site is probably a link farm.

These rules are certainly not applicable 100% of the time. However, these guidelines have helped me save hours of time filtering out bogus link requests.

Link development tips

High-quality link development takes time. Link development is a process that should be done by human beings, not spidering software. Here is a list of guidelines I use for our link development process:

• Search for useful content on all of the major search engines. This process is probably the most time-consuming part of link development. Google ranks content different from Yahoo. And MSN Search ranks content different from Teoma. What you are looking for are sites that appear on all of the search engines results pages consistently over time. These are often Web sites with credible information.
  
  
• Read the content and see if the site allows external linking. What you are looking for is a content "hole." You might have content available on your site that is not available on the other site. If the site allows external linking, then there is an opportunity for link development.
  
  

Another tip: make sure the site isn't your competitor's site. Only in rare instances should your site link to a competitor.

• Send a personalized message via a form or email. Once you have determined some link development possibilities, find the form or email for requesting the link. I like to keep a database (or an Excel spreadsheet) of URLs, email addresses and/or form URLs, and submission dates. If the email has a person's name in it, then address the person by name. Be polite.
  
  
• Show the Web site owner that you have content that will benefit their target audience. This is the area where you can show Web site owners that you have read their Web sites. If you found their sites' content particularly helpful, let them know. Mention the URL or headline of the content that you found helpful. Don't lie or stroke an ego just for the link. People can detect insincere flattery. Then let them know about your supplemental content and how it might help their audience.
  
  
• Give the site owner all useful information for linking back to your site. Make it easy for people to link back to your site. Give them a suggested title, description, and URL. These don't have to be a page's HTML title tag or meta-tag description. We recommend following the writing style of the Web site owner.
  
  
• Follow-up. If a Web site owner links to your site, thank them. If the Web site owner does not link to your site right away, I might follow up with a second or third submission. If I send multiple submissions, then I make sure the email's content changes a little. Don't be a pest. If a site owner is interested in linking to your site, they usually will link after a third request.
  

Conclusion

Link development is one of the building blocks of a successful search engine optimization campaign. Without high-quality link development, sites usually cannot maintain long-term search engine traffic. By doing a little research and making polite, genuine link requests, the link development process might not be such a daunting task. And you might make some friends along the way.