Link Building for Success

Google is still the premiere search engine as its market share is still 80% after the Bing challenge. Bing only lowered Google’s market share by 1% or less.Knowing how to entice/build a natural inbound link profile is extremely important to a website’s search engine ranking. Natural backlinking profiles are grown organically by publishing content that users are interested in and share with others.What is a “natural” link profile?A good website is built to make it easy for people to find your content (by using solid principles of Search Engine Optimization) as well as making every page an action page where it is easy to share via the popular methods including Google Plus, Face Book, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. as well as using relevant Directory listings, and press releases.Good inbound links are acquired over time rather than in an unnaturally large bunch all at one time. The best backlinks come to your site from related sites indicating the value of your site’s content and business expertise.There is special value in having .edu sites that link back to a web site, but beware of offering incentives for them to do so.Purchased back links are forbidden because Google wants to encourage sites that offer valuable information to searchers.Overstock.com, Forbes, Dun & Bradstreet, are a few major sites that have been penalized for selling back links.CASE STUDY: Overstock.com offered 40% off of purchases for .edu links.
Google rightly determined that these are purchased links as they received monetary recompense for the links.How does Google decide what is a paid ad, or a sold link?An image that links back to a site is considered a banner ad and is not penalized.Over-used text links using monetizable keyword phrases from one site to many others may be penalized as purchased backlinks.Links from sites known to sell backlinking as well as overused monetizable links employing keyword phrases are also penalized. Google expects to see related keyword terms based on a website’s content. EX: Google expects a camera site to include related keywords such as lens, aperture, F-stop, etc.How can I make sure my website’s natural link profile is not over-optimized and subject to penalty?It is no longer advisable to push to the edge of the envelope. Recently, Google changed their standards and then penalized websites that did so. Now, posting backlinks in the following percentages allow for wiggle room:80% (4/5) – links with generic anchor text ie.e Buy Now, Click here & branding (url) links
20% (1/5) – monetizable keyword anchor text i.e. buy motorcycle partsIn an attempt to reframe from using the same keywords again and again, use Google Synonym Search, which will help you determine synonyms Google recognizes as acceptable.In other words, perform a Google search on “~keyword” to find Google’s preferred synonyms for popular keywords to avoid keyword spamming. Try it on different internet browsers as well.EX (Firefox): ~affordable
EX (Internet Explorer): ~affordable
How Do You Know Who Google Thinks Is Linking to You?If you are building/linking up a website, this tool is valuable. Google Webmaster Tools now sends emails when they penalize a website for bad linking practices.Sign up for the FREE Google Webmaster Tools. You will need to add a file to your website via FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to prove to Google you own the site and have authority over it. Some hosting companies will help you to do this.Step by step information on signing up and using Google Webmaster Tools is available at Google’s Webmaster Academy.How Can I Remove Links that I Didn’t Request from Bad Sites?Sometimes you may find or be informed by Google Web Master Tools about links to your site from an undesirable site such as a porn site.

If you receive an email from Google, remember to delete or fix them in chronological order.The first action is to contact the site and ask them to remove the link. Be aware that some of these sites charge you to remove the links. NOTE: If your webhost also hosts disreputable sites like porn sites, Google also penalizes your site. It is comparable to having problems when you live in a bad neighborhood.
Blogs, Search Engine Marketing, and the Quest for High Interest Shareable Content & Page Ranking
Branding, authority, and high interest content is becoming increasingly important to the recent updates of the Google algorithm. Every profession/service/product has a niche audience or the business wouldn’t be open, so creating valuable and enticing content is not an impossible feat. Case studies can also contribute to a website’s content. Video fourms like You Tube also help businesses communicate something useful to the public that helps to establish a company’s excellence, expertise, etc.