Links pointing to your site help you to rank high on Google; we all know that. But what people may not know is that not all links are built equally. Some are a lot more valuable than others.
Rule #1: The More, the Merrier
You want to have as many links as possible.
Rule #2: Links from Authoritative Sites Are More Valuable
A link from CNN.com is worth more than a link from your cousin’s blog.
Rule #3: Topical Relationship Matters
If you own a dog training website, a link from another dog training website is more valuable than a link from a music e-store.
Rule #4: The Page the Link Is Pointing to Matters
Don’t forget that search engines rank pages, not domains. Try to get links that point to the pages you want to rank. That’s a lot better than getting links that point to your home page only.
Rule #5: Link Text is Everything
If I wanted to rank at the top of Google for “Internet Marketing Agency”, a link like this Internet Marketing Agency would be a lot more valuable than one like this one: click here. In fact, I’d rather get 10 links with my keyword in them than 100 links with irrelevant link text. When two or more links point to the same URL, it’s the first link in the HTML code that counts.
Rule #6: Context Matters
The text surrounding a link matters. So does the location of the link on a page. A text link in the first paragraph is worth a lot more than a tiny link buried in the footer of the page.
Rule #7: Internal Links Count
I’m always shocked at how many people use “click here” or “read more” to link to other pages within their sites. You have full control over your website, so why not make those links keyword-rich?
