Links

Links play a critical role in providing both direct and indirect traffic to a website. Direct traffic can be obtained from people clicking on a link from another website. Perhaps more importantly, links are also crucial in determining search engine rankings. Therefore any proposed search engine optimisation (SEO) needs to include a strategy that addresses the links issue. Developing and implementing a links strategy for your site will take a fair bit of time and effort. The rewards, however, can certainly be significant over the longer term.

Different Types of Links
When we talk about “links”, what exactly are we referring to? Well there are a few different types, namely:

• Internal Links - these relate to the page links within a site.
• Incoming Links - refers to links pointing to your site from other sites. Also referred to as Inbound Links or Backlinks.
• Link Text - this is also known as Anchor Text and refers to the words used in the link to another site.
• Outgoing Links - refers to links pointing from your site to other related sites.

Importance
Links associated with a site are one of the major criteria used by search engines in determining their rankings. While the number of links is a factor, their quality is also very important. Google, for example, measures quality by a system called PageRank which effectively looks at the relevancy of the links and the sites that contain them. Basically Google assesses that a page linked to by a lot of other pages is therefore more popular and deserves a higher ranking. This principle is often referred to as "link popularity" and has been a major focus for any SEO in recent years.

The search engines, Google in particular, continue to refine their ranking approach. While links are still very important, ensuring that the links relate to quality content seems to be of increasing importance to all the major search engines.

Obtaining Links
Knowing the importance of links is one thing, but how do you go about obtaining more links for your site and maximising their value to the search engines? Here are some suggestions:

• Cross-link the main pages of your site
• Setup cross-links between any other sites you control
• Approach sites that currently link to your competitors
• Search for sites that accept site submissions
• Find link partners in directories
• Approach sites with content related to your own or with complimentary products/services
• Join forums and place a link in your signature line

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