Within the past few years, Google has become the far most utilized search engine worldwide. A decisive factor therefore was, besides high performance and ease of use, the superior quality of search results compared to other search engines. This quality of search results is substantially based on PageRank, a sophisticated method to rank web documents.

The aim of these pages is to provide a broad survey of all aspects of PageRank. The contents of these pages primarily rest upon papers by Google founders Lawrence Page and Sergey Brin from their time as graduate students at Stanford University.

It is often argued that, especially considering the dynamic of the internet, too much time has passed since the scientific work on PageRank, as that it still could be the basis for the ranking methods of the Google search engine. There is no doubt that within the past years most likely many changes, adjustments and modifications regarding the ranking methods of Google have taken place, but PageRank was absolutely crucial for Google's success, so that at least the fundamental concept behind PageRank should still be constitutive.
 

When you're effectively implementing a linking strategy for your website, essentially what you're doing is creating link relationships between your content and your keyword search terms.

An important aspect of a linking strategy is being able to check for back links and to know how well your site is performing in the search indexes.

Below, I've outlined how you can effectively search for back links using your article titles and keyword phrases.

Effectively Searching for Backlinks

The only software that I ever recommend using in your link building campaigns is SEO Elite and/or Keyword Elite. While they are a bit pricey, if you're going to engage in a long-term linking campaign, these tools are priceless. They allow you to search out effective keyword phrases, research competition, and help you define your linking strategies.

However, don't worry if you don't have these two pieces of software. I want to first note, that the "link:" command in Google doesn't work. Google has even said that it doesn't work correctly. Why? Because they don't want anyone to crack their search algo. So, you can certainly use the link: command, but it's not accurate and it changes constantly. You'll be frustrated if you rely on this only.

The easiest way to check for backlinks is to search on the titles of any articles you've submitted. If you've submitted your articles to high PageRank sites, your articles should get indexed fairly quickly. Once they're indexed, you will be able to search on the article title and see where you've been picked up. Believe it or not, there are many people who constantly grab new content that shows up in article directories.

Another technique for finding back links is to do a search on your website name. So, you would search "www.yourdomain.com" or whatever page you're linking to in your articles and links submissions.

The last technique you can use to search for back links is a combination of your keyword phrases and domain name. Keep in mind that if you want a keyword phrase to actually show up as the phrase, you'll have to put quotes ("keyword") around it. Otherwise, you get too many results and it will confuse or make you think you have more links and you really do.

One thing to keep in mind is that there's a difference between getting indexed and getting credit for a link in the search engines. You may find that after a few days your articles are starting to get indexed. This is a good thing but it also can be misleading.

It may take up to 30 days for your website to get credit for the link. A lot of people get excited when they see that they're starting to get some traffic from the articles they placed or links they submitted. Then they panic when the traffic drops off or ebbs from an influx of traffic. At this point, most website owners think these techniques simply don't work and quit.

However, if you understand that linking is an ongoing process, you'll understand that that a loss of traffic is part of the process. You'll understand that it's the cumulative effect of your efforts that will continue to drive your search results higher, thus increasing your traffic.

While I highly recommend using the "Elite" software products to find backlinks for your website, you can still use the techniques I've outlined above to search for your links and to ensure that your linking strategy is working like it should be.


It's just as important to know what not to do when executing a website linking strategy as it is to know what to do. With inexpensive linking software and services so readily available, there's a strong temptation to take shortcuts when it comes to getting quality links.

Avoiding these traps will help your search engine placements rise naturally and stay that way for a long time. In this article, I describe two ways that you can help yourself avoid being labeled a link spammer.

Link Farms

What is a link farm? A link farm is any website designed and set up for the sole purpose of getting search engine spiders to crawl and index web pages. These websites provide absolutely no end user utility or benefit.

So how do you recognize a link farm? First, you need to ask yourself, is this site heavy laden with links? Most link farms will have a "farm" of links with little to no content. As for an explanation of the site's existence, it's usually missing too. The next question you need to ask is, what does the URL of the site itself look like? Most of the time, link farms will have long, hyphenated URLs (i.e. our-great-linking-directory.com). This is a generalization so not all link farms will have these types of URLs. Many of these link farms are generated using software. The software will go out and find a domain name that contains specific keywords even if it settles on something with several hyphens and numbers. You may still consider a long, hyphenated site for linking purposes but make certain you conduct more research before you submit a link.

Next, look at the domain name extension and note if it's .info or .biz. In order to sell these extensions, many domain name registrars offer a one-time, deep discount. I know of several registrars that sell .info domains for 89 cents per year. These cheap domain names allow spammers to generate thousands of sites at a huge discount.

The next criteria I use to help identify a link farm is what I call the "cheese factor". Although some link farms will look professionally designed, most are either 1) generated with software or 2) are designed with the same cookie-cutter, non-altered templates that fill search engine results. This is especially true with blogs. Spammers and Internet newbies will not take the time to brand their websites or blogs. These are commonly referred to as "pump and dump" websites.

Another question you should ask is, does it look human? That is, does it look like someone hangs around and takes care of things? You should also be able to contact the webmaster either via web form or e-mail. If there's no contact information available anywhere on the website, be very afraid.

If it's a directory site, check out the links in a few of the main directory headings. Are the URLs hyphenated just like the main URL? If you visit one of these sites, does it look the same as the site you just came from? Are there more URLs crammed onto one page than anyone could possibly visit in a lifetime?

Last but not least, if you have your suspicions that a site might be a link farm, for any reason, stay away. It's better to miss a great linking opportunity than to post your link and get downgraded in your search engine placements.

Non-relevant Links

When you're placing your links, you want to make sure that the site you're linking to has something to do with your own site and, vice versa.

A non-relevant link is defined as a hypertext link placed on a website, or in a directory, that has little to no relevance to the linking site or directory. These links are placed for the sole purpose of 1) increasing page rank or 2) getting a website crawled and indexed or a combination of the two.

The most obvious way to combat not-relevant links, over which you have complete control, is the placement of links on your own site. Avoid placing links on your own site to another that has no relevance to your content; even if it's a legitimate. Why? The link doesn't do anything for you or the person whose link you placed. On the other hand, don't ask someone to place a link on their site which doesn't relate to yours.

Google, Yahoo, and MSN all look closely at whom you're linking to and who's linking to you. In fact, Google's PageRank definition specifically states that link relevance (quality) is looked at more than just the link itself.

So what's the solution? As in researching a potential link farm, you need to check out the sites that are you're linking to. If you're submitting your site to directories or article directories, make sure that you're submitting your content and links to the most relevant topics and sections.

Don't worry about getting an exact match in terms of relevance between your site and the linking site; just make sure that each site complements the other.

Know the Linking Pitfalls

In summary, you can be accused of being a link spammer even if you think you haven't done anything wrong. To keep your linking strategy clean, I've outlined two specific techniques that will keep your site safe with the search engines.

First, watch out for unscrupulous link directories and sites (i.e. link farms). Use the techniques and ask yourself the questions I've outlined to recognize and avoid these harmful sites.

Second, make sure you're posting to relevant sites/directories/articles/blogs or wherever you choose to submit your content and links.

Most importantly, if you think you might get accused of being a spammer, by attempting to use a linking technique you just read about or software you just bought, trust your gut and don't do it. Linking software creators claim that you can get thousands of back links with the press of a button or for only "$49". The only way to get good quality back links is to do the research yourself and hand-submit every single link.

If you avoid these two traps, you'll be well on your way to getting the links you need to get your website placed higher in search results and, as a result, generate more sales.

Webmasters and SEO practitioners realise that quality links from other web sites are one of the main pillars to getting found on the Internet. Without links, it is highly unlikely a web page will appear at the top of the search engine results pages, except for obscure terms that nobody actually searches on.

What is a quality incoming link? This article describes the key characteristics of a perfect link. For explanation purposes, the sample company is a shoe retailer called Fred's Sports, and the keyword phrase being optimized for is "blue Nike sneakers".

Key word phrase in anchor text Unless you put your keyword phrase in the anchor text (the text that describes the web site being linked to), you are wasting a lot of link power. Unfortunately a lot of people don't know this an end up putting their company name in the link text rather than the keyword phrase that they want their company to be found by. Much better that they link anchor says "blue Nike sneakers" than "Fred's Sports Store".

The link is from a relevant page Google and the Google-powered search partners seek relevance in the interconnectedness of web pages. Incoming links should be from pages where the content on that page is related to the content of the page that is being linked to. A fishing related page linking to a casino site is an example of a non-related link. A jogging related page linking to a blue Nike sneakers product page is related and is looked upon favourably by the search engines.

The link goes to a relevant page Another mistake that people make is always linking to the home page rather than to the most relevant page to the anchor text. If the link anchor text is "blue Nike sneakers" then the link should go to a page about blue Nike sneakers, not the home page. This is by far and away the most common linking mistake.

The link is from an authority site Links from high Google PageRank sites are worth more, a lot more, than links from other sites. It's all about trust. A link from a trusted site tells the search engines that the sites linked to are also trusted - it's a vote of confidence from a credible source. Links from .gov, and .edu sites are also reported as having more weight than standard links. They are also more difficult to get adding to their perceived quality.

The link is at top of the page Links from the top of a page (except for the header), are said to have more weight than links at the bottom of pages. It's the same with keyword phrases. A keyword phrase in the heading is worth more than in the body text.

The link is one-way, not reciprocal Google's algorithm looks for link exchanges between sites and rates these links lower than straight one-way links. If possible, look for one way links by creating link bait - compelling content that will encourage people to link to your pages.

The link is within the body copy - not an advertising zone
Linking should be a natural part of the body copy. Recent reports suggest that the search engines will derate links from parts of the page that are traditionally sold for advertising. these tend to be the margins, header and footer areas of the page.

The link does not have a nofollow tag The nofollow tag is a recent innovation that tells the search engines that although I am linking to this other page, I do not vouch for the page's integrity. In short, the nofollow tag tells the search engines to ignore the link. Obviously you do not want links to your web pages to have nofollow tags. Be careful with link exchanges. Some dishonest people will exchange links with you but use nofollow tags in the links to your pages to preserve their own link power.

There are few links on page (less than 20) One link to your web site from a page with hundreds of links does little for your SEO results. The page's SEO power is being distributed over all the other links on the page. Goo;le's guidelines recommend no more than 100 links per page, but I believe 20 is a reasonable goal. You never know when the Google algorithm may change. The perfect page that links to your pages should have no more than 20 links.