SEO Recap – Backlinks

The various aspects of SEO pertaining to on-page optimization cannot be denied, but you must also pay close attention to various forms of off-page optimization; the two sides are co-dependent, and focusing on one tot the detriment of the other will only hamper your overall SEO efforts. For the best results,  on-page optimization and off-page optimization should work closely together, since compromising one for the other will mean compromising your search engine ranking and page rank.

One of the first and most important areas of off-page optimization you should concentrate on is  back links. The reason for this is that Google places heavy when they formulate their algorithm to rank websites. It is not just Google that takes back links into consideration of how good your website is; all the other major search engines including Yahoo and MSN also consider links greatly important when assigning rank and value to your site.

A few years ago, all people who wanted to secure back links had to do was start engaging in reciprocal link campaigns. In this process, webmasters from all kinds of sites contacted other website owners in their industry and requested a link exchange. If the other website owner showed interest, there would be a successful link exchange – in other words, they would each provide a backlink to the other.

However, this was a very tedious process and it used lot of resources in the way of time and human efforts, and the links were often considered low quality as Google looked down on such exchanges and preferred ‘organic’ links, or links that came with nothing given in return.

Eventually sites began getting wise to Google’s disapproval, and link farms were born, then three way link exchanges where site A linked to site B which linked to site C which linked back to site A. Google quickly realized what was going on and also discounted these links, as well as links going to sites where hundreds of websites would link back to yours only to be discovered not to be relevant links.

Now reciprocal link exchanges to increase one’s back links is a method of the past. There are a number of other ways of getting one-way links free of cost. This is called ‘organic linking’, and you can hire a linking professional to build you a linking network or wheel that will provide quality one way links from other relevant sites with no backlink need in return.

If you want to build valuable links for your website, you must have a clear plan with defined deadlines and targets. Link building is an unending process, and requires more constant attention that your on-page SEO. You can choose to do it yourself if you have the time, knowledge and skills, but it often works out to be much cost effective to hire a professional SEO company to do the link building for your website because they will be consistent with their efforts and have all the necessary tools that will increase the pace of link building for your website.

However, the goals you set should be in line with their efforts and you should constantly be on contact with your SEO to ensure that there is no black-hate link building. You only want good solid links obtained through the correct channels that will give your website a good reputation.

admin