How to write link texts that will increase your Google rankings

Good link texts can give your website a boost in Google's search results. Unfortunately, many webmasters still don't take advantage of the full potential of optimized link texts. This article explains how you can make the most out of your links.

What is a link text?

The link text is the link that is used to link to another web page. It is the text between the anchor tags. That's why some people call link texts anchor texts.

Why are link texts important?

Google and other major search engines heavily rely on link texts to specify the position of web pages in the search results. If many websites link to a web page with the link text "mp3" then Google thinks that the web page must be relevant to the keyword "mp3". For that reason, the web page will get a ranking boost for that search term.

The more often a keyword appears in links to your website, the better your rankings for that keyword will be.

How to write good links

There are a few easy tips that will make your links more useful for both web surfers and search engines:

1. Write your texts as if there were no links. Search engines like links that are in the normal text of your web page. Example:
   
   
   
   Gettings link from another web page is a great way to improve your rankings on Google and other search engines.
   
   
   
2. Do not describe the mechanism behind the link but the purpose of the link:
   
   
   
   Bad: Click here for more information.
   
   Good: Further information about link building can be found in the free SEO eBook.
   
   
   
3. Use clear and descriptive text for your links. The link text should be meaningful enough to make sense when read out of context.
   
   
   
   Bad: The software can be downloaded for free on the iBusinessPromoter website.
   
   Good: The software can be downloaded for free on the iBusinessPromoter website.
   
   
   
4. Avoid unpleasant surprises. If the link goes to a web page that starts a movie or downloads a file then you should mention this in the link:
   
   
   
   You can download IBP now for free.

Many website visitors do not read the text on a web page but scan the highlighted keywords. For that reason, your link texts should be easy to understand even if people haven't read the surrounding text.
Use keywords in your link texts whenever possible. The more often a keyword appears in a link to a special web page, the better are the chances that this web page will get high rankings on Google for that keyword.

Original article at Axandra.com

How to write link texts that will increase your Google rankings

Inbound links, link exchanges
and link acquisition

Link text (the text that is clicked on when clicking on a link) is singly the most important factor when Google determines the rankings for any given searchterm. This article isn't about that aspect of inbound links, although it is briefly touched on. This article discusses inbound links for their link popularity/PageRank value, and provides ideas on how to acquire them.

Why do we need inbound links?

Even before Google came on the scene, link popularity (linkpop) was being used by one or two search engines as part of their algorithm when determining the rankings for any given searchterm. Then when Google arrived with their link-based PageRank, link popularity took off and became an absolute essential ingredient in achieving top rankings.
The idea behind linkpop is that the more pages that link to a page, the more important the page is and it, therefore, deserves a higher ranking than it would otherwise have.

Some engines simply counted the number of links coming into a page (inbound links), but Google took the idea a step further. Each inbound link comes comes from a page which itself has inbound links. The more inbound links on the linking page, the more important that page is and, therefore, the more important the link to our page is. So Google gives more weight to inbound links from important pages that it does to inbound links from lesser pages. They call the idea "PageRank", and you can learn all about in this PageRank article.

Google is the world's number one search engine, and currently provides the results for around 80% of all the searches done in the world. Because of that, it is vitally important for any website that relies on search engine traffic to do well in Google. Doing well in Google means making the site 'important' in Google's eyes and, to do that, the site must have good inbound links - as many of them as possible, and preferably from important pages (pages with medium to high PageRank values).

Inbound links, link exchanges and link acquisition

Link Building 101

Great article by Jason on Link Building, which keeps the language simple and the truth obvious. i.e. Link Building takes a lot of time and there is no AUTO program to do it for you!

Stuart

==========================================
by Jason Storm

Two of the three big search engines (Google and Yahoo) place a large importance on one way links to determine rankings. Each link to your site is like a vote and the more votes you have, the higher you will rank.

In this article I will be sharing with you some important info on link building and some strategies to help your one way link building.

Before we get started, it's important to understand the fundamentals...

Beginning with the very basics, a link is a way of navigating from one webpage to another. To have a link within the same website is called an 'internal link'. An 'external link' takes you from a webpage in one website to a webpage in another website. The meaning of 'backlink' is that your site is being linked to from another website.

What Are the 4 Types of Links?

There are 4 different types of links:

* URL Link - This is simply a website url that is a link.

* Text Links (aka static links) - This is the most common type of link (when you click on a word or phrase and it is a link)

* Image Links - An image link is simply an image that you click on to navigate to another webpage.

* Dynamic Links - These types of links are in another programming language called Javascript and while they also take you from one webpage to another, they have 'extra codes' to perform special functions.

(these types of links can appear in many different forms)

Link Building 101

Great article by Jason on Link Building, which keeps the language simple and the truth obvious. i.e. Link Building takes a lot of time and there is no AUTO program to do it for you!

Stuart

==========================================
by Jason Storm

Two of the three big search engines (Google and Yahoo) place a large importance on one way links to determine rankings. Each link to your site is like a vote and the more votes you have, the higher you will rank.

In this article I will be sharing with you some important info on link building and some strategies to help your one way link building.

Before we get started, it's important to understand the fundamentals...

Beginning with the very basics, a link is a way of navigating from one webpage to another. To have a link within the same website is called an 'internal link'. An 'external link' takes you from a webpage in one website to a webpage in another website. The meaning of 'backlink' is that your site is being linked to from another website.

What Are the 4 Types of Links?

There are 4 different types of links:

* URL Link - This is simply a website url that is a link.

* Text Links (aka static links) - This is the most common type of link (when you click on a word or phrase and it is a link)

* Image Links - An image link is simply an image that you click on to navigate to another webpage.

* Dynamic Links - These types of links are in another programming language called Javascript and while they also take you from one webpage to another, they have 'extra codes' to perform special functions.

(these types of links can appear in many different forms)
============================================

Read the full article here: Link Building 101

Forums for your Industry

You should sign up for popular forums using your business name as your username to help build links form them. BoardTracker.com can help you find the most popular forums for your industry. Just enter your top keywords and you'll see which forums are discussing them.

Your business name will then show up on the view profile section of the forum. Try to find the most popular and high-ranking forums you possibly can to do this. That way your profile page will be more likely to show up near the top of the search results.

10 Tips For Reciprocal Links

Reciprocal links are one of the most common and most effective forms of website promotion. When sites trade links, they both benefit by sharing some traffic directly and getting noticed more favourably by the search engines.

Reciprocal Links help you improve search engine ranking and generate more traffic to your web site. The quality and quantity of reciprocal links with other web sites allows you to increase your link popularity. Increasing your link popularity will drive more traffic to your web site as more visitors will click through to your web site and better search engine ranking will result bringing more targeted traffic. With the increasing competition, getting a good ranking in the search engines is important. If you really want a high rank position with the search engines and more traffic to your web site, you need to work out a focused linking strategy to establish reciprocal links with other web sites. I know that exchanging links is not simple and take time, but is the best time investment you will ever do.

The basic concept is simple - you link my site, I'll link yours and we'll both get an increase in traffic. I have exchanged many links in my web-based career. Here are 10 tips from my experience ….

1) Find the right site to do a reciprocal link exchange with. Define the kinds of sites with which you want to trade links. These sites are normally in your website's category of interest, or sites that you feel your visitors might find interesting.

2) If you are at the beginning of promoting your site and want to see results soon, exchange links with popular and quality web sites. This doesn’t mean that popular web sites will accept that, but you have to try. Don’t hesitate. Lots of popular web sites that are in another category of interest, maybe accept exchange link with you. It’s your decision …

3) When you contact the webmaster of the other site, you should be kind. Tell him that you run a site that has a similar topic and describe your site a bit. Say that you like his site and have included a link to it in your site (give him the address of the page where the link is), then ask him to return the favour by linking to your site. If you never get a reply or your proposal gets rejected, just forget it and find another site.

4) Never be disappointed! There are a lot of webmasters who will exchange links with you.

5) Be patient! With hundreds of thousands of sites out there, it takes time and efforts to find and choose web sites for reciprocal links. Keep working.

6) If another webmaster asks you to exchange link, give him an answer. If you deny, explain why. If you like the content of that web site then add the link. Every link is useful.

7) Exchange as many links as you can. Don’t be afraid to swap links with competitor websites. This is not going to hurt your business. World wide web is a huge area. Internet has space for everyone.

8) Don't remove your link without contacting the webmaster of the other site first. Some webmasters agree to exchange reciprocal links, add your link on their site and after a few days/weeks they remove it without noticing you. You should check the site of your partner every now to see if he's keeping his part of the deal. If he is not, contact the guy and kindly ask him to explain why your link has disappeared. If you don't get a satisfactory explanation, remove the link to his site from your site and find another partner.

9) Prefer text links rather than graphics as this would be more search engine friendly. If you want to make your site more impressive and satisfy your partner, add a graphic link too, but don’t overdo it.

10) Your reciprocal link request is more likely to be taken seriously if you have your own domain! Some webmasters may not even wish to trade reciprocal links with websites with URLs based on other providers' domains, fearing the sites are not high quality. If you are serious about your website, consider getting your own domain. It costs some money, but the cash spent is well worth it when you realize how much better your website will be perceived in the eyes of your visitors.

Never forget … The traffic that reciprocal links generate is FREE!!!

Reasons Why Article Marketing Helps Link Building

I might be biased, but IMO the use of article marketing for link building is a very positive in the Google algorithms.

• I conclude this because links developed through article marketing begin on pages that have a PR Zero. So, we are obviously not getting links placed on websites for the sole purpose of acquiring PageRank, not directly anyway. We are placing links for the sake of having links, but with good luck, many of those links will gain PageRank over the long haul.
• By the very nature of article marketing, we can ensure that the links we develop for our websites reside on web pages that are tightly focused and targeted to the content of our websites.
• Most websites that post articles do so through a process of moderation, meaning that all article placements have been human reviewed. That human review process at the other end of the transaction puts most article websites on par with Yahoo's human-reviewed directory.

Backlinks from Amazon.com

Thinking of outsourcing your reciprocal linking? Don't bother. There are many more benefits to linking than just getting links. Consider doing at least some work yourself.

One of the simplest I have come across is writing reviews for products on Amazon.com for example. People click over to Amazon with their credit cards ready to spend money. They are discerning shoppers and they are often repeat customers; they read reviews, they follow links to "what else purchasers of [a particular product] bought".

So write reviews of products that relate to your tourism product. Book reviews are the easiest; follow your nose to the bestsellers or new books in your category at the library.

e.g. for dive centres, write reviews for underwater digital photo books...

Of course you will have to make sure that your website link is embedded into your signature as in one of my earlier posts on this blog!

Link Exchanges

Make it as easy for people to link to you as possible. Here are a few tips:

1. Create a page where people can get the information about linking to you. In other words, make a "Link to Us" page. Make it easy by providing with them the HTML that they can easily pasted into their web page editor.

2. Make sure your link partner's link page is on their own domain. There are free links managers (ex. Bravenet) that create links pages for users, but they are not on the users' domains. By exchanging with these people, you are actually exchanging links with Bravenet (for example), rather than your link partner. This is not the link you are looking for!

3. When you find suitable link partners, put their link up on your site before contacting them. Write a personal email requesting an exchange. Let them know why you think your exchange is a good one and provide them with the HTML code to put up your link. Don't send a mass email to everyone...it's too impersonal and your message is likely to be ignored.

Links take time to build. THERE IS NO SHORT CUT! I don;t know how many times I have had to tell people this, yet everyone seems to think there is some 'secret method' to get links.

Google Toolbar : PageRank, Linking Strategies & More

So, you've gone and downloaded the toolbar at toolbar.google.com, but now what? This free toolbar that allows you gather useful information about yours and other websites. You just need to know how to use it.

Google Toolbar Basics

1. PageRank: The green bar you see as you visit different web pages shows a website's Google PageRank. To put it simply, PageRank is a bit like link popularity, but there are many factors involved in its calculation ~ which Google won't entirely reveal. You can look at the "official" Google information on PageRank at google.com/technology/ if you are inclined.

2. Page Info: You'll see the letter "i" in a blue circle with the words "Page Info" beside it. There's actually a lot of useful information to be found here.

3. Cached Snapshot of Page: This will show you what the particular page you are looking at looked like when Google last indexed it. * Note - When you do a search on Google, you can always choose to see the cached version of the page. This highlights the keywords you typed in right on the web page. It's a very useful search tool.

4. Similar Pages: I don't quite get this option, but Google says it shows "pages that are related to a particular result" ~ I guess they are sites related to yours. For myself, I find they are usually sites I've exchanged links with, but it's a smaller list than "Backward Links".

5. Backward Links: You may have exchanged links with a zillion sites, but by checking the "Backward Links", you'll see how many and which links Google actually considers to be important. These links help make up your PageRank.

6. Translate into English: If you're visiting a website in another language, you can have Google translate it into English. Of course, you'll have to take any translation with a grain of salt. So What Do You Do with This Google Toolbar Information? Find Link Partners As you can already see, Google does not consider all your backward links to be important. It is generally thought that Google indexes links from pages with a PageRank of 4 or higher ~ but this is not the sole determining factor. This means the precise page you are receiving the link from should have a PageRank of 4 or higher to be counted. If the home page has a PageRank of 4, but the links page only has a rank of 2, it might not be counted.

This does not mean your links will not be considered important by other search engines. We are just talking about Google here. If you want to increase your PageRank, you want links from pages with a PageRank of 4 or higher.

You might want to avoid exchanging links with a site not listed on Google (do a search for the site or put your mouse of the PageRank bar to see if it has been ranked). If they are not listed, they may very well be a new site, but it is possible they are a banned site. You do not want to exchange links with a banned site. You could be guilty by association!

You should also make efforts to exchange links with sites that are targeting similar keywords as you. Do a search for sites using your keywords. Analyze Your Google PageRank Your PageRank can certainly help you with your rankings for certain keywords. Your goal is to increase your PageRank to receive more FREE traffic from Google. Use your toolbar to find out the various PageRanks of the various pages within your site.

You can help increase your PageRank on your own by creating numerous internal links to your various pages. When exchanging links, don't just have links to your home page. Choose a few other important pages to which you would like to generate links. Make Sure Your Pages Are Being Indexed by Google You can check if all your pages are being indexed by Google. Go to the particular page and choosing "Cached Snapshot of Page" ~ if there is no cache, your page is not indexed. If the page is new, then perhaps its a matter of time. If the page is important has not been indexed for a couple of months, analyze your navigation structure. Consider linking to this page from your other important (and high PageRanking) pages and see what happens