I have listed 16 important factors need to be considered in our link building strategy. Getting back links is easy but quality back links is worth the time and hassle. Check below points to be monitored in your next link building campaign. Make sure you have the best benefit from your link building activity to represent better SEO benefits.
1. Relevant
Only build relevant links. In order to get the most benefit for your link building campaign, get back links from relevant site. It will give heavy SEO benefits compared to not related back links. Let’s assume that relevant is the most important factor in link building campaign. Only build relevant backlinks, otherwise it may look like spam and you won’t get the full benefit from search engines either.
2. Domain Age
The longer domain age, the better it is. So, if you get a chance to build backlinks from 10 years old domain and it is still active, get it while you can. Domain age represents profile strength. Getting a backlink from 10 years old domain certainly increases your SERP ranking and PR.
3. Keywords In Domain or Permalink URL
If you find your important keyword is in domain or permalink URL, try to get a link from this page or domain. It will greatly benefit your site for that particular keyword. Keyword used in domain or permalink URL gives the extra strength to your link.
4. Top Level Domain (TLD) Extension (.com, .co.uk, etc)
If you concentrate on local traffic, try to get back link from your local country’s TLD like .co.uk for UK search engine. If you are targeting for google.com then concentrate on other common TLDs like .com, .org, .net, etc. Getting backlink from targeted various TLD to keep variety in your backlinks. Some says, .gov and .edu site back links give greater value.
5. Domain IP
Getting 10 backlinks from same IP is not so good compared to getting 10 backlinks from 10 different IP. Getting unique IP backlinks will show better link value in search engine. If all your backlink is from same IP, search engine might suspect you are interlinking your sites. However, you can always limit to 3-5 links from same IP.
6. In-Content Location
I strongly believe that link from content section is the strongest section. It was sidebar and sidewide link earlier but this type of link loses popularity recently among top link builders. They prefer to get a backlink from relevant content inter-section links. In simple words, a link from blog post or article. A visitor is referred from search engine and shown content as main section. In terms of click-through value, it is still considered the best location.
7. Total External Links (<100)
Monitor total number of external and internal links from main or that particular page. If both numbers exceeded 100, then you should skip this site. Google have the capability to scan more than 100 links nowadays, but they advice us to limit number of links per page to 100. You are only sharing your page quality to 100 links maximum following this method. If you only have 50 links per page, then you are sharing the same benefit to only 50 links. So, the lower number of links per page, the better you back link value.
8. XML Sitemap
Check if the site have sitemap page. It is the basic requirement for search engine to index well on all our pages. It is also will inform search engine on all our new updates. Overall, it may attract frequent search engine bots to the site. Updating your link to the content or sidebar will get faster benefit in search engine if the page gets crawled after our link is up.
9. Content Duplication Issue
Never ever get a backlink from content duplicate site. This type of site could get good ranking in SERP for short period of time. But, they are just waiting to get penalty. Getting a link form this type of site is simply a bad idea. It is considered as low quality site to get a back link from. If you ask me, I would say better get a Big Mac for your family members instead of getting a backlink from a site full of duplicate contents.
10. Page Load Time
Early this year (January 2010), Matt Cutts have declared that they will use page load time as one of over 200 factors in search ranking algorithm. If you find a site that is relevant and well maintained but it is full of flash, ajax, large pictures, etc which may increase the load time. Visitors or bots might not wait for 5 minutes or more to open your pages. You will be lucky if you links is crawled in slow load time pages.
11. Links To Bad Neighborhood
If the website or blog have link to some bad neighborhood site, than avoid getting a backlink from there. For example, let’s say you have a site about fashion and you are intended to get a link from fashion related blogs and websites. You found a good blog that posts about only fashion related articles. But, if you see a link to some phrama, casino, gambling, porn, or adult related links in blogroll or featured. It might be the sponsors that pay the webmaster to get a link from this site. Getting a link from this site will make your fashion site look bad. I don’t want my site to be close to all those spam links.
12. Relevancy Of Outbound Links
Make sure the site that you are going to get a link is pointing to other relevant sites too. If it is about fashion, make sure they link all fashion related sites. If you could find some unrelated links, then you may also can expect some spam link soon to be added beside your link. A proper management and moderation from webmaster required to maintain high level quality of a site. Getting a link from high quality blog is not easy now.
13. Listed In DMOZ, Yahoo Directory, Wikepedia
Check if the site is DMOZ listed. Also, check the site is under Yahoo Directory. A good wikepedia page about the site will be additional profile booster. It is not easy to get listed on those reputable sites freely. It may take time to get approval. Personally, my blog is still not listed in DMOZ after 2 years ago submission. Now, you know the quality of site that is listed in DMOZ.
14. Backlink Profile
There are so many free backlink checker tools available online. My favorite is Yahoo Siteexplorer. It shows the number of back link a site receives. Reputable sites often gather thousands of back links. Some made for link sales site or new site will only have significantly small number of backlinks. It is primarily targeted to increase page rank. Some bloggers who manages hundreds of blogs will employ this technique to increase page rank in short period of time by interlinking own sites. It is not genuine and they may sell off their site or domain whenever they lost interest in it. So, be aware of this type of site which may scam you in link building business.
15. SERP ranking For Keywords
If you manage to get a backlink from top ranking pages for your preferred keyword, there is nothing you could ask for more. It will deliver enormous number of targeted traffic to your site from those top ranking pages. But, it is not always easy to get a link from top ranking pages where most of the sites are high authority and ad rates will be on higher side too.
16. Content Update Frequency
Buying a link from blog that don’t update their content frequently is a bad idea. Updating their content daily will invite search engine bot to crawl, notice on changes, and index the pages on daily basis. You may enjoy faster benefit on frequently update blogs compared to low frequency updated blogs.
Another great post Atniz. Thanks for sharing this practical tips, I’m sure I’ll make this as a reference. In support to #10, Google made it official. They have included site speed as one of their ranking factors but it doesn’t have that same weight with relevance.
You can also use a heat map to determine the best place for a link to appear in a site.
I think the search engines will push for sites that have quality content, load fast, validate, low bounce rate, authority status, fewer 404 page errors, age and more of what you said in this post.
The age thing would be really cool for me since the Madmouse Web Directory is over 12 years old and the directory is a little over 4 years old. It also has authority status with Google. If you do a search for “madmouse web directory” you will see the extra links in the listing.
I hope with all of the changes, I get noticed a little more and people will see the value of a directory submission.
Thank you Atniz for sharing this information with us. This is definitely very informative post!
Wow, the 16 out of 180 algorithm was revealed here in Atniz. thanks for sharing.
What gives me a confuse is what if you have a tremendous good link but also have a bad links is there a relevancy with the two factors?
Since some link building technique especially in commenting you can’t distinguish a good with bad even so. you can’t interfere the incoming links for you once you’ve leave a comment.
this is indeed a great list… thanks keep it up… your helping a lot of bloggers out there.. like me.. more power
I think you need to change the title Reena, the ultimate link building from atniz, lol!
Thanks for the list. Love it!