A growing number of search engines use link popularity in their
ranking algorithms. Google uses it as its most important factor in
ranking sites. HotBot, AltaVista, MSN, Inktomi, and others also use
link popularity in their formulas. Eventually every major engine
will use link popularity, so developing and maintaining it are
essential to your search engine placement.
In November of 2003 Google performed a major algorithm change. The goal of
the change was to improve relevance by making it harder to manipulate their
search results. It is believed that Google may have incorporated Topic Specific
PageRank and/or latent semantic indexing into their algorithm. It seems as though
they have since undid much of the change that occurred back then.
Over time it will become increasingly important to get links from the right
community and not just to perform random link exchange. For example, to a
search engine marketer a link from SearchEngineWatch (a search engine
information resource hub) may worth much more than many random off topic
links.
Off topic inbound links can improve your Google rankings significantly, but this will change over time. Currently off
topic inbound links still have significant power in manipulating Google search
results.
Google usually lists a site within a few weeks to a month. During the first month or
two it is common for your site to go into and out of their database many times
until you have built up sufficient link popularity.
Google primarily focuses its algorithm on linkage data. On page criteria is
weighted exceptionally lowly for shorter and highly competitive search phrases. To
do well in Google you will need to target less competitive phrases using many
different pages, or think of ways to get others within your community to want to
link to your site using your primary keywords in the link text. Some of the more
common ideas for improving your link count are to
Join trade organizations.
List your site in directories.
Submit press releases via sites such as http://www.prweb.com
Create a topical directory one level above your category.
Write compelling articles and get them syndicated.
Reciprocate links with other quality sites.
Google uses far more sophisticated formulas to gauge how popular
sites are. In general, however, link popularity is measured by the following factors:
1. Number of Links - The more, the better. Although lots of
irrelevant links are less effective than a few relevant ones,
they're better than nothing. Inktomi, a company that provides
search results to engines like HotBot, still values the number
of links more than nothing else.
2. Link Text - The text used to describe a link can also affect
your rankings. These links all point to the same URL but use
different text: Yourwebsite.com Your Keywords Click here Search
engines' spiders figure that any words other sites use to
describe your site are particularly relevant. So, if lots of sites
linking to you use keywords in their link text, search engines
will boost your ranking for those keywords.
3. Anchor Text: (inbound link text) - is the single most important element in
Google’s current algorithm and is worth far more than PageRank alone. Good
anchor text combined with decent PageRank will eventually yield strong search
engine rankings.
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