Linking and SEO

[KevinG]

When it comes to opinions about SEO, it's almost like recipes for Chili. Everyone has a different one, some are good and some just burn your ass.

I would like to provide a little info about links based on my experiences. I'm trying to give the shortest version possible so I am leaving out the details of how I reached these conclusions and just getting to the point.

Suffice to say, I operate several sites in different niches in adult and mainstream, all of which have great rankings and sales obtained from those rankings.

The old days:

Recip linking was very common and normal. You link to my site and I'll link to yours.

A link was looked at as a "vote" for a site, the more links you had the better you did.

Let's make a little distinction that there are basically two ways links can potentially benefit your site.

1. By boosting your search engine rankings

- and -

2. By sending you direct traffic from people clicking the link.

Evolution of the old days:
(Everything turns to spam)

Like most things online, as soon as people start to figure out what works, it gets abused to the point that it doesn't work anymore. This happened with the keyword meta tag.

People figured out that words in the keyword meta tag would help their rankings and then people started doing asinine things like "keyword stuffing" - putting tons of popular keywords that had nothing to do with their site, or just repeating the same keyword over and over that may have had something to do with their site.

Anyway, in the linking realm, people went on massive link exchange campaigns to the point that this didn't work anymore.

Google figured out that people were just linking for linking sake to try to boost their rankings. So, they weren't really "voting" for a site they linked to. They were just trying to "vote" for themselves.

Recip linking seemed to die.

Recent times:

Word was getting around that recip links are dead as far as the purpose of boosting rankings. You can still get clicked traffic, of course.

1-way links are "Golden".

The new rule was forget recip linking and just try to get 1-way links to boost your rankings.

People figured out a way to do this by still making it a recip exchange, but did schemes like A links to B, B links to C and C links to A. We each have two sites. I 1-way link to one of yours and you 1-way link to one of mine, so we are reciprocating with each other, but it doesn't have the appearance of a recip.

The Real Story about Linking Today:

It's actually very simple, and this rule can be appiled to ALL aspects of SEO.

Whatever you do should be fine as long as you don't engage in low quality, spammy crap. Producing shit that doesn't do the surfer any good will also do you no good.

Engaging in activities that help create a better user experience will usually help you.

1-way links can be very hard to get naturally, without some scheme to do it, like buying them.

However, the way to naturally get 1-way links is to create unique, extraordinary, exclusive content that is so good, it compels other sites to link to it.

Here's the clincher:

RECIP LINKS ARE NOT DEAD AND NOT BAD

What is bad is to go on a massive recip link campaign with links all over that place that have nothing to do with the sites they are placed on.

Let me repeat something I said above:

Engaging in activities that help create a better user experience will usually help you.

It is NOT bad to have a links page where you link out to other sites that are similar, or complimentary to your niche ... as far as SEO goes

I emphasized that last part because some people will be of the opinion that you shouldn't have any outbound links, that they are traffic leaks.

IMO, you should not have to worry about that if you have a decent site, and more significantly ...

... contrary to popular belief ...

Outbound links actually can help your site in the rankings when they are RELEVANT to your site or topic of your page.

I have a site with it's link page ranking in the top 3, and sometimes number 1 for several important keywords for the site overall.

This is because all the outbound links are RELEVANT to the topic of the site, and therefore Google see this page as an AUTHORITY on the topic and ranks it high.

And guess what else? The traffic that arrives there, explores other parts of my site and doesn't just click out and leave.

Here's the three things to remember:

1. Do things that create a better user experience.

2. Relevancy counts big time - in all things you do and for inbound and outbound links.

3. Authority sites - strive to become an "authority site" by having great content in your area, be a destination site for you niche and also help people find other sites with similar or complimentary content.

Ok, maybe that wasn't so short after all, but it could have been a lot longer.

[willwank]

Originally Posted by KevinG

RECIP LINKS ARE NOT DEAD AND NOT BAD

Exactly! I've been trying to preach that on some other boards, mostly to no joy. As long as the big engines sees links as natural and beneficial/logical from a surfers pov you'll get credit, period.

[Top_Of_Google_Man]

yes. Link relevancy and the text used in the link is they key to success.

[EmporerEJ]

It's just too much reading......can someone give me the "optimized" version of this thread?

[Toby]

Originally Posted by EmporerEJ

It's just too much reading......can someone give me the "optimized" version of this thread?

Link farms = bad; Organic (or organic looking) links = good; quality keyword relevant content = best

[EmporerEJ]

Originally Posted by Toby

Link farms = bad; Organic (or organic looking) links = good; quality keyword relevant content = best

Thanks Toby....


Now, SEE?
You didn't have to go gettin' all "in depth" Kevin.
Yer' just showin' off.

[KevinG]

Originally Posted by EmporerEJ

Thanks Toby....


Now, SEE?
You didn't have to go gettin' all "in depth" Kevin.
Yer' just showin' off.

LOL! That was the short version Eric!

[Viper.X08]

Still believed that LEX wont end.