Inbound Links

One of the main ways in which the ranking of web pages can be improved in the search engines is through the accumulation of ‘high quality’ incoming links to the website. Attracting, obtaining and creating these incoming links are what is sometimes known as off-page / off-site optimisation. This is because ‘high quality’ incoming links can have a positive effect on the rankings of your web pages in the search engines, but they are not something you do to your own pages – links TO your pages are actually added to pages on other domains / on other websites / on other web content.

Incoming links / back link / in-links therefore are links to your web page from another web page at another domain / on another website / in web content outside of your website.

Distinguishing Between Links; Other types of links include:

Outgoing Links. These are links to other web pages / other types of content at other domains / outside of your own website. Adding these links involves opening your own web pages and inserting a hyperlink e.g. in text or from an image / picture/ graphic. Outgoing links on their own are unlikely to help your web pages to rank higher in the search engines.

Same Site (Text or Image) Links. The way you link your own pages together is known as your “website architecture”. This can involve using text and / images to link the web pages / content within your own domain / on your own website together. This involves opening your own web pages and inserting hyperlinks. It is good practice to link to key pages within your website using relevant key phrases in your web page text / text navigation links. Linking to your most important pages using relevant key phrase text links from your home page is a good way to help the search engines (and human visitors) to discover and reach the most important parts of your website.

Reciprocal Links. This is the name for exchanging links on web pages i.e. “I’ll link to your web page if you link to mine”. Although it is often said that this kind of linking ‘cancels out’ the potential value of the link this is not strictly true. A more likely situation is that links are actually of different values, and if the link to your page appears to satisfy the ‘high quality link’ criteria then there is a good chance that you may still get some good value from it.

How Google Treats Links

The value of links is subject to Google’s automatic ‘algorithmic’ system of ranking pages. This means therefore that Google treats all links the same way.

What Would be a High Quality Incoming Link For You?

We know that high quality incoming links, which may or may not be part of a reciprocal arrangement, are extremely valuable for the rankings of your web page search engines, and that Google treats the assessment of all links the same way. When looking for / choosing incoming link prospects there are 4 main criteria to bear in mind which form the basis of a ‘high quality’ incoming links. These criteria for a high quality incoming link anywhere are that:

1. The link comes from a page that is relevant in subject matter to the page in your website that it is linking to i.e. there is good context.
2. The incoming link contains a key phrases inn the actual link anchor text that is highly relevant to the main subject matter of the page that is linking to.
3. The incoming link comes from a page that has as high a Google PageRank™ as possible.
4. The incoming link comes from a page that has as few outgoing links on that page as possible.

The most beneficial incoming links are those which not only have high quality, but also have high ‘impact’. Getting high impact incoming links to your pages can boost your search engine rankings even further. High impact links tend to come from web pages / websites which are:

1. Old and established.
2. Don't or haven't contained 'spam'.
3. Have many (high quality) back links (incoming links) from other web pages.
4. Are important pages / important sites for a particular topic.
5. Are likely to link to competitor pages.

Google PageRank™: A Measure of the Importance of a Web Page

A good way to assess how important any web page is as far as Google is concerned in terms of the level of quality and impact of its own incoming links is to look at the Google ‘PageRank™’ figure that the page has been awarded.

The PageRank™ figure comes from a link analysis algorithm named after Larry Page, one of the original founders of Google at Stanford University. Each web page is allocated a PageRank™ figure. This is an outwardly expressed score of between 0 to 10 to a web page - 10 being most important. The PageRank™ figure used within Google is different and more 'fine grained' than the truncated 0 to 10 publicly allocated figure. This 'internal score therefore score is likely to numerically much higher as many variables about the links are given different considerations and weightings. This secret internal scoring system which is increased in a logarithmic rather than a linear way therefore makes it difficult to judge or measure the real power of incoming links to a web page at any one time. The fact that Google’s link algorithms are likely to change incrementally at many points throughout the year makes this an even more difficult task.

PageRank™ is computed continuously but updates are carried out by Google in cycles approximately 4 times per year (quarterly). There is little or no human intervention or overseeing - it is a mechanised / computerised process.
PageRank™ represents a kind of detailed ‘poll’ of the incoming links and their sources, and is therefore represents Google's opinion about how 'reputable' and 'important' a web page is. The more reputable and important, the higher the PageRank™, and the higher the page may appear in the Search Engine Rankings.

Since the PageRank™ figure that a web page is awarded is essentially based on the quality of the incoming links to that page, it is not therefore directly related to the content of the page.

Some of the value and power of PageRank™ for one page can be passed along to another through the right type of link. Web pages which try to deliberately focus on channelling and manipulating PageRank™ however can fall foul of Google’s link algorithms, and if reported to Google, can also fall foul of Google’s Web Spam Team. The Web Spam Team can manually inspect the web pages and can impose fixed penalty time periods where access to the offending page via search results is seriously restricted.

Links to Avoid

The initial basic assumption behind the importance of incoming links in terms of influencing a web page’s position in the search engine rankings (SERPS) has always been “if someone links to a page it must be important”. This assumption however led to a focus among webmasters on quantity rather than quality of links. Search engines in recent years have concluded that a focus on ‘quality’ of links is more likely to produce better and perhaps fairer results for both the search engines and their users. This has led to the search engines using changes in their algorithms to try and discourage web masters from obtaining links from the ‘wrong’ sources, and links which show unnatural patterns e.g. the number added in a given period of time, and the similarity of the ‘anchor text’ in those links. Google accepts that there is an ‘economy’ on the Web for the buying and selling links, but recent algorithm changes and public comments from search engine representatives have broadly advised against the buying of links in order in increase search engine rankings and improve PageRank™. The following types of incoming links should therefore be avoided by Webmasters:

1. Link schemes / link exchange schemes / link farms. These often focus less on quality and more on quantity. The quality of links is much more important than the quantity.
2. Links that intended purely to 'manipulate' the Google PageRank™, and search engine results.
3. Low quality 'paid links' / links that are bought in (sometimes in large quantities).
4. Links related to 'spam' sites / spammers and 'bad neighbourhoods'.
5. 'Excessive' amounts of reciprocal links.

There are some good quality ‘paid for’ links. These tend to be well used, reputable directory websites which have a good degree of editorial oversight.

Links Can Indicate Relationships

If your web pages and the web pages of another domain / website e.g. a competitor’s website both get incoming links from the same web page, the search engines may therefore interpret this as a sign of a relationship between yours and e.g. the competitor’s page. These ‘relationships’ with other websites will influence how Google ranks your pages e.g. how Google categories your web pages. This highlights the importance of at least being aware of the fact that ‘relationships’ are made by the search engines, and the importance of making sure that the pages that link to your pages strongly related to your website's subject i.e. the more pages in the other site that are about your subject, the better.