Debra Mastaler is president of Alliance-Link, an interactive link marketing agency that has been in business since 2000. Debra will be speaking at Search Engines Strategies Toronto on June 18th as part of the "Link Building: The Basics & Beyond" panel on Day 2.
One Degree:What type of businesses benefit most from link building? Is it small businesses only or can big brands benefit as well?
Both large and small businesses interested in high search engine rankings, building brand and driving targeted traffic will benefit from a well designed link building campaign. Search engines use complex algorithms to determine where a site is displayed in their results, one component of those algorithms is link popularity which is driven by the number and type of links pointing to a webpage. No matter what size the business, you need inbound links in order to succeed both algorithmically and promotionally.
One Degree: What are some considerations for anchor text when you’re working on link building programs? Should you ask for links to be labelled with your business name or product keywords? Or a mix?
Definitely a mix and there are several reasons why. First, the majority of your webpages have been optimized for certain terms, it’s best to use all of your keywords as anchor text so you achieve maximum reach and return on those phrases. Anchor text is a component of link popularity and is used as a query indicator, meaning, both humans and the search engines use it to help determine which page is relevant to the query.
It’s a good idea to build links using your company name especially if you have a well known brand. People tend to type in a company name when they equate the name to the product. When they can’t they’ll search by keyword.
Another reason to mix up your links is related to indexing. Inbound links play a big part in the number of pages from your site to be indexed. Without links, pages drop from the index and can’t be return through a search query. Invisible pages means invisible income – neither is a good thing!
Probably the most important point here is one of algorithmic link diversity. Search engines like to see a wide variety of inbound links from many relevant sources; if they see the same link text over and over they can assume the link has been negotiated and manipulation is underway. Search engines consider this a form of spam and often discount the links, rendering them useless as a source of link popularity. It’s best to avoid using the same anchor text over and over.
So bottom line regarding anchor text:
- Mix up your anchors and use all of the keywords you’ve optimized your pages for when you’re building links.
- Develop your links so they point to your internal pages and not always your main dot com.
- Use your company name when you build links especially if you’re well known. These links can point to the home page but can also point to internal pages.
One Degree: So many directories seem to be equivalent to ad farms – is there really value in having a link in directories?
Yes sadly, some of the directories are a step away from ad farms but there are a good number of established directories worth submitting to.
The concept of merit based inclusion is what makes securing links in the better directories desirable. It’s reasoned search engines bestow hub authority on directories because of the human review element. Since this review process is part of the co-citation process search engines are programmed to reward, it stands to reason these types of sites pass link popularity.
I use about 20-25 general directories in my link building programs and make directory submissions a part of each linking campaign I take on. Directories are a great way to jump start your linking, they are relatively inexpensive, most are life-time links and allow you to use keyword anchors in your links.
It would be naive to say everyone in the directory business is in it to make the world a better place, clearly a number of directories are less than reputable. Here’s my submission criteria list:
- Is the page my link will sit on in the index of Yahoo and Google? If no, why? Is it something simple like it’s a new page or is something blocking that spider?
- Do the directory pages host an inordinate amount of Adsense? If they do, I pass. Same applies for site wide links.
- I am not paying to submit to a directory where Adsense overpowers the submissions.
- If it’s a paid directory, is it a lifetime or annual submission fee? I go for lifetime with the exception of the Yahoo! Directory which I advocate using if you’re a new business.
- Are you allowed to use keyword rich anchors or do you have to use the name of your business in the anchor text? If they allow keyword anchors I mix up using the name of the business and my keyword phrases to help with anchor text distribution.
- How long has the directory been online? My threshold is two years.
- And lastly – does the directory allow you to edit submissions? It’s helpful to be able to change your descriptions/anchors to reflect the changes on your pages and within your business.
Don’t overlook all the niche directories available, if you have a blog there’s a large number of blog directories available and most of them offer free submission. There are directories for RSS feeds, podcasts, videos, niche topics and those based geographically. A very good listing of directories can be found at ISEDB or by doing a bit of utility linking such as:
- directory + "your keyword"
- niche directory + "your keyword"
- resource center + "your keyword"
