Hilda Mateiu
When a search engine establishes the ranking of a specific website the incoming links are one of the criteria they use. Links coming from other sites are interpreted as votes. So the web’s opinion regarding the importance of a page plays a role in establishing the ranking, the higher listing among search results and subsequently the traffic of a web page.
Link building is a method used by webmasters to increase the visibility of their sites. From the point of view of a webpage links can be of two types: incoming and outgoing links. Incoming links are votes from other sites which trust the original site as being a reliable source of information. Outgoing links designate web pages the original site trusts. Search engines use incoming links to analyze the popularity of a particular web page but the method is also efficient in establishing the authority of a page or to know whether it is spammy or not. That is possible due to the fact that trustworthy sites link to other trusted sites, but spammy sites rarely receive such links.
A webpage often cannot control incoming links, meaning the webmaster cannot determine which sites link to his own. But outgoing links are relevant in establishing the Page Ranking and leading to a higher listing among Google search results. So creating powerful links is one of the methods used by SEO specialist in optimizing web pages. Outgoing links are often created in form of anchor text, in which case the used keywords are extremely important. Social bookmarks, as they have anchor texts and are publically shared are also analyzed by search engines as incoming links, so they have SEO value and can be used by SEO specialists to increase the ranking of a particular page.
Considering that the internet contains massive amount of spam, but the goal of search engines is to provide users helpful and relevant results about their specific quire, irrelevant content has to be avoided. In order to do so, search engines use systems to measure the trust of a site often based on a link graph. However links should be carefully used as they easily harm web pages. For example if two websites mutually link to each other, to ensure mutual traffic, it will not be interpreted by Google as genuine traffic, so it will not increase the Page Rank. Even more worrying is the fact that Google can penalize websites based on outgoing links. A web page that links to spam is often spam itself and has many spam linking back to it. So before linking to a particular page webmasters should check the Page Rank of that site to make sure they will avoid being penalized.
As link building can affect your site it can also considerably help it. Earning links from highly trusted pages will increase your ranking. The more popular and important a site is, the higher value it has a link coming from it. Government websites, university web pages or simply sites like Wikipedia are highly trusted domains which should be linked to. It is also important for web pages to receive links from sites within the same area of interest. For example if you have a webpage for selling construction materials, potential links coming from the site of a construction company will have higher value compared to links coming from off-topic sites. If your site receives dozens of links using as anchor text the same keywords your site has, it is a good chance you will have a high ranking among search results.
As traffic is essential for all online businesses and because traffic is influenced by links, it is essential to have them working in your favor and not against your site. To make sure your links will not generate penalization by Google, contact Hilda Mateiu for link audit and further SEO advice.
