Link Responsibly!

[caption id="attachment_3030" align="aligncenter" width="300"] When it comes to links, quality is a must.[/caption] So you had a little success in your last frenzied link building marathon. That doesn’t mean that more is better. Responsible link building is good link building. You don’t want to create something that will have to be disassembled with the next Google algorithm update.

Think Quality, Not Quantity

Great content will attract good links. Quality over quantity is the absolute truth when it comes to link building success. Those who are not educated in the risks involved in haphazardly building links sometimes insist that you create 25, or 50, or 100 links per month, or some other arbitrary number based on something they heard from a ‘link farm’ promo. Inbound links do contribute to improved ranking and lead to more traffic. That said, adding more inbound links can put you at risk if your link building effort is not properly carried out and monitored. Google frequently changes their ‘Webmaster Guidelines’ to reflect their ideas of how traffic should be improved by adjusting their algorithms to penalize webmasters for tactics that were acceptable just last week – specific keyword phrase anchor links are a good example of that.

How Can I Tell if My Link Building Efforts are Successful?

If you want to determine whether or not your link building efforts are working, start by taking the following steps:

• Study the actual ‘referral traffic’ coming from your current links. Quality referral traffic comes from industry leaders in your niche and sites that are relevant to yours. On the other hand if your referral traffic is coming from random link farms and directories, your site may be penalized.
• Study the link building tactics of your ‘real’ competitors (compare yourself to competitors that ‘swim in the same pond’ as you do in terms of size, region, products, etc).
• Look at your bounce rates. Are they low? Right on! Are they high? If they are high, you need to determine why visitors are leaving your pages(s) immediately upon landing – what is missing from the page?
• Require the visitor to take action, give them a clear, concise ‘call-to-action’ and track it in Google Analytics. For example, prompt your visitors to “request a quote” and use Google Analytics to see how many requests you have.
• A link that is producing conversions is a rare and wonderful thing. Monitor its contribution and nurture it, keep it healthy.

Generate Different Link Types

If you're not the only one in your company assigned to implement SEO tactics, you need to know what other people are doing. You don’t want to be in the dark about other methods of creating links that others might be using such as social media or networked links. Your efforts should complement those of others, not overlap or run contrary to them.

Know the Difference between ‘Dofollow’ and ‘Nofollow’

Knowing what ‘dofollow’ and ‘nofollow’ links are and when to use them is essential for successful link building. ‘Dofollow’ (<a href="linkname.php" rel="dofollow">link name</a>) links (are exactly that, ‘follow me’ is the message given to the search engines. ‘Nofollow’ links (<a href="linkname.php" rel="nofollow">link name</a>) can be used to keep questionable links safely employed without running the risk of being hurt by search engines at a later date due to an algorithm update.

How Can I Stay Ahead of Google’s Changes?

Because Google’s algorithm is ever-changing, it’s not easy to predict what tomorrow’s link building best practices will be. However, one thing you can do to keep your site healthy as you go forward is to always – always—focus on quality. Make sure your content is solid and up-to-date. Make effective use of images and videos. Leverage your social media presence. Another good bet is to ensure that your link building efforts focus on sites that are in your industry and relevant to your own – Google’s recommendations will come and go, but quality links will always be in style.