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Explaining Backlinks

iCraft Admin


Administrator
Posts: 1699


« on: November 01, 2009, 01:29:59 am »

Link popularity (aka Backlinks or Inbound Links) is determined by the number and the quality of the websites that have linked to your website (or your webpage).

Generally speaking, backlinks are the votes on your site. This means that the more backlinks from quality sites you have, the higher your page rank will be. Page rank is Google's method for measuring how important and authoritative your site actually is.

Backlinks also help users that visit other sites to find you. And they give replacement engine spiders (robots) trails to follow and index your pages.

So the goal here is to get as many quality backlinks to your Creator Exhibit and to your product pages as possible.

The key here is quality links, as not all links are equal.

So which links are considered quality links?
  • Links from high traffic, authoritative sites.
  • Links from related,  “like-minded” sites. (Links from totally unrelated sites can actually hurt your rankings.)
  • Links with descriptive link anchors, like "See more of silver necklaces with pink stones" vs. "Click here to see more of my jewelry". However, with recent Google updates, these links considered natural now and the recommended approach is to mix up anchor text for backlinks as much as possible.
  • Links from social media site.

When two sites are equally well optimized for replacement engine performance on any given keyword phrase, the replacement engine will generally rank the one with more backlinks above the other.
In this situation, to move up in rankings, you need to get a  few more backlinks to your website to bit the competition.

The challenge is, of course, to get all those quality backlinks from high traffic sites, and that’s whole other discussion. So stay tuned!  Tongue
« Last Edit: September 02, 2013, 12:53:24 pm by iCraft Admin »
PillowThrowDecor


Posts: 1096


« Reply #1 on: October 30, 2010, 09:28:00 am »

Getting backlinks is tough with the "no follow" in the code for that page. Not sure I totally understand all of that. Can you shed some light on it?

Cheers
Christine
iCraft Admin


Administrator
Posts: 1699


« Reply #2 on: October 31, 2010, 03:25:14 am »

Hi Christine,

I’ll try to offer some ideas on how you can acquire backlinks in my future posts.
As for the “Nofolow”, I wouldn’t be too worried, if some of your backlinks have a “nofollow” attribute.

Main reasons:
  • Those links still send traffic to your pages.
  • It looks more natural to replacement engines when some of your backlinks have “nofollow” attribute. Otherwise it might look to them that all of your links are purchased and therefore less valueable in determining your page ranking.
  • “Nofolow” links are not treated the same way by all replacement engines. Yahoo was known for counting "Nofollow" links, as backlinks, and Google can’t make their mind on how they are going to treat this tag in the future. Some say, based on their own experiments, that nofollow links are worth more than Google says.


Here is additional reading on “Nofolow” issue:  http://www.seoverflow.com/link-building/why-you-should-build-nofollow-links/  http://www.replacementenginejournal.com/how-google-yahoo-askcom-treat-the-no-follow-link-attribute/4801/, http://www.seo-writer.com/blog/2009/08/31/look-who-follows-nofollow-links/  
« Last Edit: October 31, 2010, 03:28:05 am by iCraft Admin »
iCraft Admin


Administrator
Posts: 1699


« Reply #3 on: October 31, 2010, 04:01:03 pm »

I thought I'd mention one more thing about link quality from popular sites.

Site authority is overrated when it comes to placing links. Placing a link on a popular site doesn't always mean you've got a lot of "link juice" flowing to your pages.

What matters more is the Page Rank (PR) of the page, where your link is placed.
Sometimes it's better to have a link posted on a blogger's website, if it's on their homepage with PR 3, than buried 5 levels down within the site’s hierarchy on the article page with PR 0 on Martha's Stewart website. The blogger's site in this case will do you more good. Hope this makes sense.  Cheesy
« Last Edit: October 09, 2012, 02:39:35 am by iCraft Admin »
iCraft Admin


Administrator
Posts: 1699


« Reply #4 on: October 09, 2012, 03:40:31 am »

I wanted to update this post in light of the recent Google's algorithmic updates.

Google looks at a link profile as a whole and prefers natural looking links. It actually improved its filters to determine if link is ”manufactured” or not. So it's important to have diverse links pointing to your pages.

Here are some general guidelines:
  • Use variation of Keywords in your anchor text when linking to your pages.
  • Use synonyms - Silver Hoop Earrings & Necklace, Silver Jewelry Set
  • Use your store name as an anchor text
  • Use full URL as an anchor text
  • Combine keywords, switch keywords in a phrase, use plurals or link a sentence
  • Add branding, like iCraft or the name of your store in the anchor text
  • Include anchor text in your page Title
  • Link to one URL with different anchor texts each time
  • Add contextual text, containing your important keywords, around your link
  • It's ok to have a few nofollow links
  • It's good to get links from a variety of sources, including social media sites
  • It's very good to acquire links from related sites or blogs
  • Build links slowly and continually
« Last Edit: September 02, 2013, 12:55:09 pm by iCraft Admin »
Fairy Cardmaker


Posts: 1115


« Reply #5 on: October 09, 2012, 08:33:53 pm »

Quote
Use variation of Keywords in your anchor text when linking to your pages.

This is one thing I have not been doing.  I've alwasy buried my links in the "click here".  I will be more diligent in the future!
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