First, a bit of a disclaimer. This article is a generalization of how links relate to search engine optimization or web rankings. It is meant to provide a 10,000 foot view, not a detailed analysis of link building tactics. However, it’s my opinion that the information about the web ranking and link management software is 100 percent accurate.
There is a lot of truth to the statement, “You are what your links say you are.” In order to determine the quality of a link several things are taken into account.
1.) Origin – Where is the link coming from? Is it coming from a well-established Web site like the Better Business Bureau, or is it coming from your nephews Web site he made so he could share the family tree with relatives on the other side of the country? A link that comes from an aged Web site that is perceived as being of high quality and credibility will provide much more value than a link from a brand new Web site that has done little to establish itself as trustworthy. The topicality of the link’s origin is also important. For example, a link from a Web site about cars to a car dealership’s Web site is going to be considered relevant. However, a link from a Web site about telephones to a Web site about lava lamps isn’t going to be perceived by the search engines as being relevant. The reason why relevance is important is that the more relevant a link is, the more weight it will be given by the search engines.
2.) Quantity – As you may or may not have heard, one of the easiest ways to understand the importance of links is to envision the Internet as one big election, with the top of the search engine result pages being the proverbial office. How does someone (or their Web site) win the election? Just like any other election, they get votes. Except in this instance the votes are casts not with ballots but with links. Just as any election, you want as many votes (or in this case, links) as you can possibly get. As we mentioned above, the origin of that link also plays into the equation. However, for the sake of simplicity it’s safe to say that generally speaking the more links a website has the better it will rank.
3.) Anchor Text – Anchor text is basically a fancy way of saying the name of your link. It’s really best explained by example.
a.) www.mermetusa.com
b.) The sun is really killing me. I wish we had some of those sun shades.
c.) Mermet is a company that offers solar fabrics.
In these three examples, any text that is underlined in blue and links to a website is considered anchor text. As you may notice, all three of these links send you to the same Web site.
The question then becomes, So What?
Remember how I said, “You are what your links say you are?” This is where this really becomes the case. In example b.) you see that I used a specific phrase to link to a website. This is practice is one of the most important in terms of targeting specific keywords. If you had a website that was selling pink umbrellas and you wanted to be the first organic result in the search engine result pages for the phrase “pink umbrellas” then you would want you anchor text to be “pink umbrellas,” as well as any derivation on that phrase.
In my opinion this is by far the most important part of the link the building process. While may seem ancillary, it’s actually often times more important than the quality of the link its self.
One of the more difficult parts of link building is monitoring your progress. The best way to do this is with Advanced Link Manager. This program allows you to track your links, determine link quality, find new links, and so much more. It is without a doubt the most advanced link management and link building software available on the market today.
Web Rankings
So what’s the point of all of these links? Why are we creating them? As I previously mentioned, links are one of the main tools used for achieved strong web rankings, or high rankings on the search engine result pages.
Anyone who has tried to increase their web rankings before will tell you that the process of tracking how your Web site is ranking can be a time consuming process. The same person will also tell you that time becomes a very valuable thing when trying to climb of the search engine result pages.
Enter Advanced Web Ranking .
Advanced Web Ranking
Advanced Web Ranking is a tool that allows you to completely automate the process of tracking your Web site rankings for as many keywords as you’d like and as many websites as you like. Advanced Web Ranking is not only a time saving tool. It also allows you to produce extremely detailed reports that are great for understanding and explaining all of the data collected by the software.
The most important feature of the SERP tracking software is that it provides you with detailed feedback over a period of time. Why is this important? By looking at a Web site’s web rankings over an extended period of time, you are able to determine what efforts are working and what efforts are not in terms of search engine optimization. This allows you to fine tune the process, focusing on the effective measure and eliminating the useless ones. As a result, this piece of software saves you time on two fronts. First, it saves you time by automating the tracking process. Second, it saves you time by showing you what efforts are working, thereby allowing you to quit waiting time on whatever it was that was not having any positive effects.
