We’ve previously mentioned the value of links and that having them is like having a referral: the better the source, the stronger the referral. This is a key part of search engine optimization (SEO), and it’s something that every website should constantly strive to earn. But there are no real short cuts to earning quality links. It takes work, networking, quality content that people want to link to, and an active outreach effort. This is why links are important to search engines – they signify that you have a quality website.
Let’s take a minute to discuss link history. In the past links were a golden goose of SEO, and it was quickly learned that having a lot of links could be a good thing for a website—if not a great thing. This led to the creation of link farms, meaningless websites created simply as a way to link sites together. Fortunately, search engines quickly reacted and found ways to alter their algorithm to not only discount any links from link farms, but also lower the value of websites that used this spammy technique. In some cases, search engines even remove those websites from their search results. Never sign up for a link farm offer. If it seems too good to be true, it is. Think of links as really great friends or business associates. Have you ever paid to get hundreds of those connections in your life? No. You earned their trust, their friendship and their business. This is exactly how links work.
There are some basic ways to get links in today’s web world. One of those ways is to ask. Ask other sites that you work with or are connected to if they’d link to you, and you can link to them in kind. This is a great way to create a link community. Contributing to other sites can also help increase your valid links. Joining groups, directories and signing into guest books on other websites are additional ways to garner some link juice. These are all good, solid ways to get links, but in today’s market there is a faster way—the social and viral approach.
By creating content that other people find valuable and want to share with their friends, tag on Pinterest or add to their Facebook account, you are boosting your site’s link juice. If a reliable agency (like Huffington Post) wants to connect with your site, you can instantly boost your web’s link juice as well as your authority. This is why you always want to work to give your audience great content that is appealing, interesting, useful. This is a win/win situation where your website gets good attention and the search engines can promote websites that have content people want.
Always use good and legitimate link building techniques, and you’ll see a benefit to your website. Use bad techniques and link farms, and you may see your website disappear from the search engines.
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