Readers and e-mailers ask me pretty frequently what makes a link a good link.
I am talking here about external links (back-links), not internal ones. This does not mean in any way that internal link building is unimportant or easy. Au contraire. But the hectic yet hazy world of back-link building has always been the subject of much more scrutiny and bigger hype than the one of internal links (Most likely because successful external link building is so much more dependent on other parties, i.e. on potential link partners).
Whenever the topic of external link building comes up, I sometimes pull an old analogy of mine out of the sock drawer. (Those of you who know it, please stop yawning and scroll down until you see uncharted territory).
All others might be interested to hear that I like to compare external link building to social interactions which happen in real life.
How so? Well, simply imagine 2 people, well call them Jamie and Terry (both unisex names ). They live on the same block but thats all they have in common. Lets compare:
Jamie: relaxed and quiet, has one email account, seldom goes to party and not sociable;
Terry: hectic and hyper, has tons of email accounts, has tons of party invitations.
Which of the two is more popular? A no-brainer, isnt it?
I am not suggesting that a quiet life is inferior to an active one, or that a phone that rings off the hook is a good thing. Also, being hyper isnt necessarily being happy, and a low e-mail count doesnt mean Jamie is a nerd. We are not labeling, just recording facts.
And the fact is that Terry is more popular, in the sense of getting much more attention by friends and other humans than Jamie does. If you were to assign a value to Terrys level of popularity, you would say, for example, Level 5, while Jamies might be Level 1.
The practical consequence is that to be at Level 5, Terry doesnt have to actively search for friends and to reach out to a great extent (some effort is of course needed to actually keep all those friends), while Jamie would need to work very hard to reach it. The corollary is of course that to reach, say, Level 7 (even more contacts), Terry would need to put in some work - but Jamie would have to make superhuman efforts to ever get there - if he ever gets there.
A similar situation applies to websites. Here, your friends are your inbound links, and popularity is measured in Google Page Rankings. The difference between people and businesses is that while in social life some people like it less hectic, I have yet to see a business website thats satisfied with getting just the occasional visit.
We all know that inbound links to your site are an expression of recognition, of wanting to be connected to you. But what are the most important characteristics of a good link?
Lets first use common sense. Would Jamie or Terry like to receive unimportant mail, or befriend unwanted, unpopular people? I dont think so. How about getting sorry, wrong number phone calls, mistaken invitations, or other irrelevant contacts? No. Finally, would they like to be called names or titles which make it impossible to identify them? No way.
Our analogy is back again:
Importance of friends / contacts= Quality / importance (=PR) of linking site; Relevance of mail or calls= Topical relevance of links; Correct Name = Keyword-rich text links (anchors);
These 3 factors are generally considered to be the most important components of any good inbound link.
Some seo colleagues and link building specialists advocated other factors in recent interviews. Link expert Eric Ward attaches importance to the identity of the linking site, the intent of the link, and the linking sites own back-link pedigree. Another link expert, Debra Mastaler, says the age of the page which hosts the link is significant.
In my own humble opinion, Erics and Debras points are, while well-taken, essentially variations on the main theme: the quality of the site from which a link points to you.
So, get to work. Build link relationships that will give you relevant, quality links, tagged on your link partners sites with keyword-rich text. Google will reward you.
Any questions? You are welcome to contact me via my seo Consultant site for free tips.
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