Advanced Access Blog

As with anything technological, search engines have improved more and more over the years. These improvements range from things as simple as ease of use and general aesthetics, to the more complicated algorithmic features like PageRank. One of the things that they have been tweaking over the years is the worth and overall functionality of links.

Obviously, this has not been an easy task. From the very beginning, the search engines have tried to establish the best way of determining the value of inbound and outbound links. With the birth of SEO in the 90’s came the first onslaught of issues Search Engines experienced, now having to consider the fact that “intention” could sometimes almost outweigh the worth of the link.

In recent years there has been a lot of moving and shaking in regards to links, especially in the Real Estate field. What once was a common practice has now become something that the biggest and brightest in the industry are taking great steps to avoid, namely Realtor to Realtor linking. Advanced Access has seen its share of highs and lows on this subject and we are happy to see so many of our clients now taking the initiative to not only stop these negative practices, but to also work on cleaning up the previously built-up arsenals of Realtor to Realtor links they have amassed on their sites.

So the big question is, Where do you go from here?

Well first thing is first, you need to realize that linking is a long term goal. Linking is something you need to build up naturally, over time. It should be done with the constant consideration that whoever you are linking to, and essentially trying to get links from, matter in the grand scheme of things. Why do they matter? Because you are associating yourself with these people!

We’ve all heard the term “Quality not Quantity” but it truly is a concept that needs to be utilized when working on long term linking. If you get yourself 4000 inbound links, but 75% of them are with bad sites who have duplicate content, keyword stuffing, etc., you’re going to soon realize that the competitor who only has 500 inbound links, but they are all from high quality/legitimate sites, will 9-times-out-of-10 outrank you!

Focus on getting yourself some links that are truly indicative of you and your area. If you work in the City of Shamarie, try getting yourself links from the Shamarie Chamber of Commerce, as well as the websites of other reputable businesses in the area like contractors, plumbers, mortgage lenders, gardeners, etc. When placing their link on your website, consider the fact that the link should make sense on the page. Would it make sense for me to have a page about Shamarie real estate and then have links on the page to other Shamarie Realtors? Probably not. If you were interviewing for a job would you attach a copy of one of your competitors’ resumes to your application? I HOPE NOT! Golf pages should have links relating to golf, City pages should have links relating to the city.

What this all comes down to is the fact that the quick and easy way of doing things hardly ever ends up being quick or easy. If something is too easy to attain it should make you wonder how much value it has. My Dad has always said that he has never bought anything off of a Salesman that he didn’t make work for the sale. Consider your website to be the same way, when it comes to your linking, work for it!

This entry was posted on Friday, January 18th, 2008 at 4:36 pm and is filed under Search Engine Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.