Link Building, or inbound links from other sites, can be important to the competitive success of your business blog. You may have a great blog solution, with all the features search engines love. You may have terrific outbound & deep internal linking, placed perfectly throughout your blog in the most relevant anchor text. You may be the most consistent and on topic blogger there is, but for the most sought after topics [i.e. New York City Real Estate] inbound link recognition is a key element

Now, we want to be on record: by no means are we saying the entire emphasis of your business blogging effort has to be links and search engine results. We have so many clients that succeed in the search engines without strong inbound links, but in these cases [for the most sought after key phrases] it’s likely that a lot of the competition hasn’t established them either. What’s more, the development of trust, a more human approach to an online presence, an authoritative online brand or multiple direct subscriptions are of immense importance. Per Valencia CA Realtor Connor MacIVOR, "The visibility in search engines is only part of the equation. People want flesh and blood." Depending on your individual goals, all of the above can bring success and they are attainable without links and competitive search engine results

The way search engines evaluate a link is proprietary, but the consensus is the best inbound links have three attributes including 1) they come from highly ranked sites, 2) the site’s focus should be related to the topic you blog about and 3) they should link to your pages from relevant keywords or anchor text. So, for example, if you are in residential Real Estate try and 1) establish links from sites that have a high Page Rank. Seek 2) important industry, social networks and/ or directory sites. And, do your best to have 3) links come from text that accurately describe your site’s page

Link building is tough! Naturally generated Links or Link Bait is always the best way. Simply put, great content attracts interest and eventually inbound links. You can also create some of your own inbound linking from various social media & directory sites, but it’s at times difficult to know where your hard work will bear fruit. For instance, some may place Robots Exclusion Standard on user created links or there could be a sudden de- emphasis by the search engines. Because the success of Google’s [Yahoo’s, MSN’s, etc.] business depends on their ability to satisfy searchers with the best user experience possible, they have to constantly change their rules. It’s only logical change affects the emphasis of various inbound links: what is a great link one day, may not be tomorrow. The Google algorithm is known to have over 200 individually weighted criteria, all levered to accurately evaluate and rank a site’s content. Says Google, "We’re constantly experimenting with our algorithm, tuning and tweaking on a weekly basis to come up with more relevant and useful results for our users." In effect, Google truly wants to level the playing field for good content [on every specific subject] so they can successfully return the best, most relevant search results possible

So before you jump in, know that good content is no. 1; know what a good link is; know that pursuing them is time consuming & difficult; know that what works today, may not the next day…  but also know [the good news is!] that it is as tough for your competitors as it is for you

To become more aware of link building strategies, techniques and general search engine optimization here are some great resources:

1. SEO Book Blog
2. Search Engine Land
3. Search Engine Watch
4. Audette Media
5. SEMOZ
6. Matt Cutts

Deep Internal Linking is a simple and very manageable SEO strategy that can help you achieve better organic Search Engine Result Page [SERP] visibility. Keep in mind, an older Website or Blog that has been building links for awhile has a slight advantage as it relates to competitively targeted keywords and key phrases. If you’re new to the game the good news is there are many ways to compete for results [Google Algorithm known to have over 200 signals or criteria] and there probably aren’t too many mature link- strategic sites competing in your particular area of knowledge- base. If armed with the proper features your blog platform can be a difference maker; however, well executed content creation is ultimately the most important weapon in your battle for eyeballs & trust. Rather than try to define good content for highly subjective humans here, let’s look at one way you can more effectively leverage your content to attract some love from the machines!

According to Wikipedia, deep linking on the World Wide Web is creating a hyperlink that points to a page [other than that site’s home page] on another site. Deep linking is an important competitive criteria but if you want to improve your search engine ranking or SEO, deep internal linking amongst your own relevant pages & content topics will also help! Why is this? The Googlebot follows all links and while good search engine optimization strategy includes inbound links from other relevant sites, you can’t completely control the process for acquiring them. You can, however, control your internal links and very much like inbound they will help search engine bots find & index the important content on your Blog.

With an internal linking strategy and the creation of a collection of text links to other pages within your site, you make it likely the Googlebot will become more and more interested in your Blog. The text you bury a hyperlink in, which points to other pages you’ve written, is very important. Often referred to as ‘anchor text’ it tells Search Engines what you are linking too, so avoid burying links in generic copy and instead use highly relevant keywords & key phrases.

Very much like with traditional journalism, where an effort is made to introduce a reader to good sources of information, search engines are crawling for newer and better sources of information. So, you should link to them… including your own! 

Again Googlebots are disciplined to follow all links, so deep internal linking helps a search engine to find, to index and to appreciate your content quicker. By leveraging deep internal links, you are pointing at or emphasizing your important content. This is especially so if you’re beginning to develop a large blog with a lot of pages and great content. Keep up the great work 

There’s a string over at Real Town on the home page in RealTown’s Real Estate Community titled RE: reciprocal links with other agents …. banned i about whether or not Real Estate Agents should be linking to each other.

Some folks there have advocated it’s fine to do it, but if you watch Part II of the two interviews here [at approx. the midway point] with Google’s own Matt Cutts, Chief Page Rank Engineer, he suggests they don’t like, for instance, for a Realtor in Maine to link to Realtors in CA. He suggests, rewarding this kind of linking doesn’t lend itself to a good Google search experience….

We don’t ever claim to know exactly what Google can, cannot or will do because that would be irresponsible, but when the message comes direct from the source, we take notice. If there’s any chance at all that something like this can get you in trouble… why play Roulette? Just look at the Google Webmaster Guidelines where it says, "Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you’d feel comfortable explaining what you’ve done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, "Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn’t exist?"

Still skeptical? Read this gentleman’s story, "My website was recently penalized in Google for what I believe to be excessive cross linking…"

It’s good to keep in mind that Google’s techniques for ranking content are ever- changing. It’s only logical they must constantly tweak & tinker because they have a significant business at stake and it depends on giving all searchers the best search experience they can. In summary, use your Blog and your website to give the Search Engines consistently good on- topic information with relevant links that would help your audience and you should fare well 

Let’s face it folks, the search engines stand between you and your new business. While content and a great blogging technology should be a priority, links will help your competitive rank because Search Engines use them to evaluate your website’s popularity and it’s content. The belief being that sites with related sites linking to them must be incrementally more important and therefore, deserving of higher placement in search results.

Many people place emphasis on their Google Page Rank, which is a scale of 1- 10 determined by proprietary algorithms that examine all sites. It’s known that sites are compared to others with a similar purpose so a 6 in one group may be high, whereas in another 9 may be required to have superior competitive rank. An example might be a business, which is strictly competing locally, versus the national brand, which is competing everywhere. For perspective, it’s worth mentioning that Page Rank is only 1 of over 200 signals a Search Engine like Google uses to measure a websites overall right to higher placement.

As for what are good links, it is first and foremost a matter of quality and NOT quantity. Many believe that inbound links from older sites have more value to offer. Logically, they’ve had more time to gain rank or relevance with more people than, for instance, a newer property. Search Engine’s recognize this, so an older site may not require as many of its’ own inbound links in order to be considered competitively relevant in a respective area & industry. Many have also said that a link from inside the actual content of a page or post, rather than a side bar, footer or blog roll, has greater value. It is believed that traffic is more likely to arise from this scenario and with more traffic comes more and more potential natural links.

Links can be developed in many ways and some are good, some bad and some irrelevant. Let’s take a closer look at how we’d classify the more typical linking strategies:

I. Naturally generated Links [or Link Bait] can occur when good content motivates people to link to it. It’s often referred to as ‘link bait’ because, if lots of folks approve and link it can spread virally via other site owners who are then also inspired to link. This isn’t easy as it requires the genuine article. Its’ publisher must be capable of valuable, novel and/ or thought provoking content, but these are believed to be the most beneficial links so far as Search Engines are concerned 

II. Buying Links from site owners that are willing to sell a link from theirs to your site is a common strategy. There are even link brokers, who can help. Typically, people will gauge value and negotiate price based upon a site’s Page Rank, which is a Google scale of 1 - 10; however, that can be a flawed measure of value seeing as how it is only 1 of over 200 signals used to measure a websites relevance. Important: Google has declared the purchase of links to be cheating. Regardless of whether or not their algorithms are truly capable of detecting a purchased link, any chance that you can be caught is probably enough to conclude that this is a bad strategy 

III. Free Directory Links, which are typically dedicated to a particular industry, are websites that offer you free links. These sites often request a reciprocal link from your site back to theirs, which in theory reciprocates link strength or juice. Free Directories can offer a fix; however, it’s important to identify whether or not these sites offer quality links. Check to see if they’re trusted by the search engines and that you’re not affiliating yourself with a site perceived as a link farm. While you can’t be penalized for who links to you because it’s out of your control, voluntarily linking to a bad site can hurt you. Remember, not all sites offer value and "free" is rarely valuable  

IV. Reciprocal Links are links exchanged between two sites. You can ask other site owners to exchange a link, but this strategy requires some effort and a little know how. Be sure to exchange with sites dedicated to related industries or geographic areas. Hate to put water on this fire, but there has been a lot written lately about a total de- emphasis of reciprocal links. Search Engines are pretty smart and they know it’s become a common gaming tactic so, it is believed, they have compensated for reciprocal linking in their algorithms. While it doesn’t appear reciprocal links can hurt you [unless you’re completely reckless], it’s likely they no longer offer value

In all, we believe that pursuing a linking strategy is something that you should be careful with. Relevant links can be very advantageous to the development of a visible presence in the search engines, but it it’s not the easy process it once was. It’s much easier to write consistent on- topic content and to find good blog technology, developed to generate greater index penetration.

In our view 1) consistent on- topic content, 2) sound blog technology developed to generate more search engine index penetration and the 3) development of relevant links should all be considered important to the development of a visible presence in the search engines; however, good content should be priority number one! In fact good content, which is often referred to as link- bait, will often attract (no. 3) linking naturally.

Beware: linking is dangerous sport these days, requiring knowledge of what is & what is not a quality link… and a healthy recognition for the risk of creating a bad link. Linking requires time, effort and, if solely pursued for the purpose of SEO, it should be approached with an understanding of a Search Engines interest in ranking content for its’ actual consumer value. In fact, Search Engines don’t like cheating or gaming- see this Matt Cutts interview discussing Google’s recognition of common linking tactics they don’t necesarily see as useful to consumers.

Additionally, this piece in Search Engine Watch on the value of links is very informative: What’s a link worth? "The answer often seems riddled with secrets that aren’t secret and lies that are. Don’t listen to the false promises of secrets. Don’t get taken in by the lies. "