The Importance of Link Authority
by Mike on May 26, 2009
in Link Building
In a recent post Christopher Ross wrote…
When a person creates a link from one website to another, it’s voting for the second site and telling Google that site A believes site B to be of equal or greater value to the web.
I think that’s an excellent way of explaining how the search engines view links and its absolutely vital that you understand this concept if you want to build a successful site.
For example, say there are 2 blogs on the same topic. We’ll call them ABC and XYZ. Both have top-notch content and everything about them is equal…except XYZ gets lots of link love from all over the web. XYZ has tons of links pointed toward it while ABC has comparatively few.
All things being equal XYZ should easily outrank ABC.
But why?? ABC has killer content…maybe even better content than XYZ. What’s missing?
Link authority.
The search engines look at all of the links pointing to XYZ from various sources and say, “XYZ must be really valuable for all of these other sites to be linking to it.”
Since XYZ is now considered an authority site, it receives an extra push in the rankings. Whenever a page from XYZ is compared to a competitor’s page, XYZ receives the benefit of the doubt. The SEs basically say ”These pages are pretty close in terms of content, but since XYZ has more link authority its probably better.”
And so XYZ wins the top ranking slot.
Thus the importance of a well thought out link building campaign. From the minute you launch your first site or post your first blog entry you should be considering ways to build your link authority.
Your entire business depends on it.
I agree completely Mike. Your link profile is the biggest factor in determining rankings. Not only do you need links from better/more sites than your competitors, but you also need those links to show relevance to your target keywords. Ideally a lot of those links would use one of your target keywords as link anchor text. It may also help to get links from pages that rank well for your keywords or that have your keywords in the title, domain or url.
For that natural feel that Google cherishes so much it’s also best to switch up the anchor text. Thousands of incoming links with the same anchors will get you the evil eye for sure.
Dennis Edells last blog post..Would Even The Slightest Hint Of Porn Stop You From Advertising?
Yep, like it or not, getting search engine rankings is akin to winning a popularity contest.
Think about how many talented artists, musicians, etc., that are out ther – 99% of them will never see any measure of success, because they don’t know how to effectively promote themselves and their works. It’s the same with internet marketing – there are lots of great websites you’ve never visited, because they’re not deemed popular enough to be featured on the first page of search engine results.
Dennis makes a very good point as well. Using varied anchor text will help you escape Google’s scrutiny. The links look more natural, so you’ll fare better in the search results.
While you’re at it, don’t forget about the power of internal linking. Providing links from your own site’s pages will help the bots find your content, so it will be indexed more quickly.
Excellent post, and I look forward to reading more!
Lee
Blogger’s Workshop
Traffic Geysers last blog post..Free Press Release Services
Mike, dont forget that google take into consideration time of link (google likes permanent links) and weight of external link do to pass in a moment. It was made because of fast progress of social systems like digg, reddit, twitter etc. thanks
Dennis I definitely agree about varying the anchor text. Many beginners go and use the exact same anchor text for all of their links then wonder why they aren’t #1 for that phrase. You need to develop a plan with your keywords and target several related phrases concurrently.
Your link profile is the biggest factor in determining rankings. Not only do you need links from better/more sites than your competitors.excellent post and i look forward to reading more.
Well google also looks at how many “good” sites are linking to the linking site. Confusing?
Ben Peis last blog post..Ben Pei Visits Japan
Ideally a lot of those links would use one of your target keywords as link anchor text. It may also help to get links from pages that rank well for your keywords or that have your keywords in the title, domain or url.
This is why everyone says that it’s better to have 2 backlinks from PR6 websites than 100 backlinks from some little unknown blogs.
Stancje Wroclaw´s last blog ..Wroc?aw 10.07.2009: Mam do wynaj?cia
Link to content that helps the user, that supports the content and do so in a way that makes it easy for both readers and search engines to understand what to expect after the link is clicked.
I personally feel link authority plays a huge part in the ranking process, of course I can back this up with my own website, that ranks at number 1 worldwide for a very competitive term. It is not the an issue of links, it is an issue of how they are gained.
Free Reminder´s last blog ..Time Management.Why you need it?
Backlinks are good but they should be quality backlinks that is link from a relevant and High PR Site. Quantity will matter but not as much as quality.