Incoming links with relevant text gets high Google search engine pagerankings

Incoming links are one of the very most important factors for high search engine rankings, especially with the giant Google. If your website doesn't have enough quality incoming links then it's very difficult to get high page-rankings for competitive search terms.

It's very, very important that you get the right kind of links. If you have 20 (twenty) good incoming links then you'll get better rankings than with 100 (one-hundred) bad incoming links.

So what makes a good incoming link? There are several points following that can make one link better than other links:

1. The link should use the relevant keywords in the anchor text

If you want to get high rankings for a search term like "buy black shoes" then the links to your website should use exactly that text. The text that is used to link to your site (the "anchor text") influences the words for which your website will get high rankings.

Make sure that the texts that are used to link to your website contain words for which you want to get high rankings on search engines. In the above example, a very 'concentrated' anchor text would be the words "buy", "black", and "shoes").

2. The link should be from a high-ranking, relevant page

Links from related web pages usually work better than links from unrelated pages. Links from unrelated pages won't hurt your rankings but Google likes links from websites that are related to yours better. It's like getting a recommendation from someone who knows the same business. Google loves this kind of relevant linking.

3. Best if the link goes to a relevant page on your site

While it's okay to get links to your home page it is better to get links to the page that is most relevant to the chosen anchor text. If the link text is "buy black shoes" then you should make sure that the link goes to a page that deals with black shoes, and has the word buy on it too!

If the link text matches the content of the linked pages then it's more likely that your web page is really relevant to that term and it's more likely that you'll get high rankings for that search term.

In addition, you increase the user experience. If a surfer clicks on a "buy brown shoes" link it's much more likely that he'll buy on your site if he gets the correct page that enables him to carry through the action. Sort of like a slam-dunk!

We have also found that the most effective linking strategies involve doing this many times, using different keywords.

4. It's good if the link is from an authority site

Links from web pages with high authority will help to increase the TrustRank (it's just what it sounds like) of your website. Links from websites with high PageRank have a positive effect on the rankings of your own site.

A Note on Google's PageRank Bar: Unfortunately, the Google PageRank that is displayed in the green bar in Google's toolbar is not the PageRank that Google uses for its current ranking algorithm. The PageRank that is displayed in the toolbar is almost always outdated, often wrong and more a gimmick than a real help (details can be found). You'll often find websites with low PageRank that rank higher than pages with high PageRank in the search results.

Don't trust the green pixels in the square boxes (the PageRank bar) and use your common sense. If a website is well known and if the site has good search engine rankings then it's highly likely that it is also an authority website.

5. The link must not have a "nofollow" attribute

The "nofollow" attribute tells search engines such a Google that they should not follow a link. Links with that attribute don't help one bit your search engine rankings.

Unfortunately, you have to check the HTML code of your link partners to find out if they use a "nofollow" attribute to link to your site.

If you don't want to check the HTML code of each website manually, you can use the link check command in the IBP & ARELIS programs to quickly check if your link partners use a "nofollow" attribute to link to your site. This will save you lots of time.

Further information on how to get high quality links can be found in our free link building eBook. If you build links to your website as explained in the eBook, your website will get the best possible rankings on Google and other search engines.

Links rankings on website pages using high search engine incoming text Google pageranking and attributes and relevant terms.

Reproduced with permission 10-07 of Website Optimizer