Link building - Quality not Quantity

 “One good quality link is worth more for your search engine ranking than hundreds of poor quality links.”

I’ve heard this phrase countless times over the last three years, but the majority of people I speak to continue to focus their efforts on generating large volumes of poor quality links.

So, I hear you ask, what defines a good quality link?  Here are a few of the main criteria to get you on the road to link building success:

1. On-Topic

In the same way that we do in everyday life, search engines trust an experts opinion.  Let’s say you wanted to know a good place to eat in Clapham - would you ask your chef friend that lives in Clapham, or your vegan dentist friend from Bristol?  Search engines work in the same way, giving greater weighting to a link from a website that covers the same topic as your own. 

2. Authority

The BBC, ebay, Expedia, Yahoo and MySpace are all ‘authority sites’.  So what do they all have in common?  They all have many millions of links pointing at them which means search engines recognise them as very important sites.   Securing a link out of any authority site will channel all of that wonderful link popularity to your site – fantastic!

3.  Inbound Only

I’ll link to you if you link to me and we’ll both get better rankings, right?  WRONG.  Reciprocal linking is risky and ineffective as a stand alone strategy.  Most online businesses will get links easily this way, but their benefit can be limited. Reciprocal links are easy for search engines to spot and say nothing about the quality of your site. Wherever possible, you want websites to link to you without you linking back.

4. Simple Direct Hyperlinks

One of our clients has an extensive affiliate and banner advertising program, which generates hundreds of links from sites that are the most on-topic and authoritative.  Unfortunately, these links are adverts that are being paid for on either a pay-per-click, or pay-per-action basis, and as such, are redirected via a 3rd party system for tracking and billing purposes.  It is better to set up your own affiliate program if possible. 

In a nutshell, you need simple direct one way inbound on-topic links from the most authoritative sites on the web.  And most importantly, you need a balance of links from different sources that look natural and reflect positively upon your business.

• Directory listings can have a very positive impact
• Reciprocal links - be careful, these can be useful but check with us to get it right
• Links from authoritative sites are fantastic
• All of the above add to the mix and require different strategies.

Check back later in the year for part 2 and I’ll share some of my secrets on how we generate high quality links at Propellernet.