| Incoming links are one of the most important factors for high search engine rankings. If your website doesn't have enough incoming links then it's very difficult to get high rankings for a competitive search term. It's important that you get the right kind of links. If you have 20 good incoming links then you'll get better rankings than with 100 bad incoming links. So what makes a good incoming link? There are several points that can make a link better than other links: 1. The link should use the keyword in the anchor text
2. The link should be from a relevant page
3. The link should go to a relevant page on your site
4. It's good if the link is from an authority site
5. The link must not have a nofollow attribute
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The perfect incoming link for high search engine rankings
How Google might filter annoying pages
Google recently filed a patent application with the title "Detecting and rejecting annoying documents". Here's the abstract of the application:
"A system and method for evaluating documents for approval or rejection and/or rating.
The method comprises comparing the document to one or more criteria determining whether the document contains an element that is substantially identical to one or more of a visual element, an audio element or a textual element that is determined to be displeasing."
The document describes how Google might analyze text and audio files. For example, Google might use optical character recognition tools and pattern matching against image and sound databases.
Why did Google do this?
Google probably wants to make their ad reviewing process faster. Their AdWords system accepts images ads, video ads and text ads.
Google has ad design guidelines and Google has to review all of these ads before they can be displayed in the AdWords network.
Manually reviewing these ads would take a lot of time. Given the high number of ads that Google displays, it might be impossible to review them all.
What are they looking for? Does this affect normal website rankings?
Google wants to avoid that ads are annoying or offensive. For example, they check if an ad is flashing, has repetitive movement or infinite loops. The use of streaming video and audio is also checked as well as the quality of the images.
Google also checks the content of the ads (offensive language, adult content) and many associated factors.
While it seems that these methods are currently used for ads the same criteria can also apply to normal web pages. If an ad annoys its viewers then it's likely that a web page with the same elements will annoy its visitors. For that reason, Google might also use these quality checks for the normal search results.
What does this mean to your website?
If your website contains many flashy elements, you might want to redesign it. Professional website design might be an important factor for high search engine rankings in the near future.
While professional design is important, it is also important that search engines can parse the content of your web pages. Use IBP's search engine spider simulator to check if search engines can read your web pages.
The importance of a page 1 listing and how to get it
High search engine rankings are important if you want to get more customers and more sales. Is it important to be listed on the first result page or is it enough to be listed in the top 30 results?
If you want to get visitors, you must be listed in the top 30 results
A study about this topic was released last year:
"Key among the findings relating to the current search engine user community is that 62% of search engine users click on a search result within the first page of results, and a full 90% of search engine users click on a result within the first three pages of search results. [...]
Fewer search engine users are willing to click on results past the third page now (10%)."
It's time to act now
The study confirms the importance of being listed on the first result page. If your web site is not listed on the first result page, changes are that web surfers won't see your site.
Many webmasters still believe that they can get top 10 rankings just by submitting their websites to search engines.
This might have been true several years ago but now you have to do a little bit more to get high rankings.
How to get listed on the first three result pages on Google
- Start by choosing the right keywords. This is very important.
It makes no sense to target general keywords such as "business" because you have no chance of getting the number 1 listing for such a keyword. In addition, general keywords usually don't convert to sales.
The best keywords have little competition and a high conversion rate. Use this keyword analysis research tool to find these keywords. - Create a content rich web site that can be optimized for many different keyword combinations.
The more different web pages you have the more likely it is that search engines will list your web site on the first position for a keyword and that web surfers will find your web site relevant to their needs. - Get inbound links to your web site. High search engine rankings are the result of optimized web page content and good inbound links. If you want to have rankings, your web site must have both.
Top 30 search engine rankings will bring your website more visitors and more sales if you target the right keywords. Detailed information on how to get top 10 rankings on major search engines can be found in our free SEO book.
How to find websites with faked PR
Although most professional search engine optimizers agree that the green PageRank display has little to do with the actual performance of a website in Google and other search engines, many webmasters still focus on websites with a high PageRank when it comes to link building and website promotion.
How to fake the PageRank of a website
The PageRank of a web page can be faked with a combination of a 301 redirect and cloaking. It works like this:
- When a search engine spiders visits a web page URL, the server redirects the spider to a web page with high PageRank.
- Google assigns the high PageRank to the page with the redirection because it thinks that the pages are identical.
- When a human web surfer visits the web page URL, the server does not redirect the surfer. That means that the web surfer sees the web page of the faker and the Google toolbar displays the PageRank of the redirected URL:
To web surfers, it looks as if the web page has a very high PageRank although it hasn't. Note that this method doesn't increase the rankings of the page in any way. It just influences the PageRank display in Google's toolbar.
Google doesn't like cloaking at all so you risk the rankings of your website if you use the method above.
How to check if a website has a faked PageRank
If you think that a web page might have a faked PageRank then you can do the following simple check:
- Search Google for "info:domain.com" (without the quotation marks, replace domain.com with the domain that you want to check).
- If there are no results or if the returned URLs don't match the original URL then it's likely that the PageRank has been faked. If Google returns only one URL for the query and if the URL is the same as the checked URL then the PageRank is okay.
What about the PageRank of your own website?
The green pixels in Google's toolbar are not important. It's important that your website has high rankings for keywords that convert to sales. Website promotion is about getting leads and sales. It's not about getting green pixels.
Don't focus on the PageRank display in Google's toolbar but try to get good rankings for keywords that are relevant to your website. High rankings for relevant keywords that convert to sales are much better than having a lot of green pixels.
The effect of unnatural linking patterns on your search engine rankings
Inbound links are one of the most important factors that Google uses to determine the position of a website in the search results.
Some years ago, it was sufficient to get a lot of inbound links to top Google's search results. Nowadays, it's not that easy. Google has started to detect unnatural linking patterns.
What are unnatural links?
Unnatural linking is linking that wouldn't happen if search engines didn't exist. Unnatural links are links that are built purely to increase the search engine rankings of a website. These links don't have topical relevancy.
For example, unnatural links are:
- links from totally unrelated websites (that have no value to the web surfer)
- links from blog comment spam and forum spam
- links that exploit a weakness in server design (like form injection)
What are natural links?
Natural links are simply links that webmasters would also build if search engines didn't exist. For example, reciprocal links with related websites make sense (I send visitors to you and you send visitors to me, our visitors benefit from the links).
If a link is logical and on-topic then search engines will like the links. The following graphical example explains why on-topic links will increase your search engine rankings:
The topic of your website is symbolized by the green color. The more other "green" websites link to your site (symbolized by the green arrows), the deeper is the green of your own website.
In that case, search engines know that your website is very relevant for this "green" topic and they will give your site high search engine rankings for search terms related to that topic.
Now lets take a look at the effect of unrelated links:
The links from unrelated websites (symbolized by other colors) take away the green from your website. They make it harder for search engines to identify the topic of your site.
If you have a lot of links from unrelated web pages then your website becomes less relevant to the original topic of your site.
What does this mean for your website?
Links that are useful to web surfers are links that search engines deem relevant. Do now waste your time with shady link farm systems that promise hundreds of links in a short time. This won't help your website much.
Better focus on high quality links that will bring your website targeted visitors while increasing your search engine rankings at the same time.
Top 3 tips to get indexed on Google within 48 hours
If you have a new website then it takes some time until Google visits your web pages. Even if you submit your website to Google via their regular submission form, it usually takes weeks until Google visits your site.
There are some things you can do so that Google indexes your web page within 48 hours and not within weeks.
Tip 1: Get a link from an existing site
Links are very important for high rankings on Google. The more (quality) links you have, the higher Google will rank your pages.
An easy way to get a link to your website is to join a forum that is related to your website. Participate in the discussions and sign your posts with your name and a link to your website.
Make sure that you do not spam the forums. Only participate in an online discussion if you really have something to say about the topic. If you post in a well known forum then Google will quickly pickup the link to your site.
Tip 2: Create an external blog
Google likes blogs and many blogs are indexed very quickly. Use Google's Blogger.com service to create a blog that is related to your business.
Write a few posts and add a link to your website in your blog posts. Google will quickly index your Blogger blog and find the link to your site.
Tip 3: Get as many links as you can
The more other websites link to your website, the sooner Google will find your site. Use IBP's link building tool ARELIS and IBP's directory submitter to get as many links as possible.
If you use all of these methods, it's very likely that Google will index your website within 48 hours.
Four tips to increase your sales by creating a trustworthy website for search engines
Even if you have high search engine rankings, people still might not buy from you. The reason for that is that your website might not be trustworthy. Of course, you need a professional web design to create trust.
In addition, there are a few other things that are necessary to convince your website visitors that they should do business with you:
1. Show your visitors who you are
It's amazing how many Internet businesses don't list their postal addresses. Do they have something to hide?
If your customers don't know who you are and where you live they might refrain from doing business with you.
For example, you can find our full contact information here. We link to that page at the bottom of every web page. In addition, our full postal address is listed in the footer of every web page. We do this to make sure that our visitors know who we are.
You should do the same if you're serious about your business. Show your visitors that you have nothing to hide.
2. Show your visitors how you're different
Why should someone buy from you and not from your competitors? Is there anything that distinguishes you from the rest?
For example, we distinguish ourselves from other SEO software companies by using only ethical search engine optimization methods. Our products don't use any shady tactics that might work for a short time but that will also get your site banned from search engines.
We want our visitors to know that they can trust our products. That's why we link to our code of ethics in the footer of every web page.
Show your website visitors how you're different and why they should use your products or services instead of your competitors'.
3. Show your awards and testimonials from satisfied customers
Web surfers don't like risk. If other people used your products and services before then it's less risky for new customers to try them. Your website visitors want to be reassured that you're a serious business.
If your company or your product has received awards then show them to your visitors. If your current customers have something positive to say about your products or services, list these testimonials on your website.
Show your visitors how other people benefited from your products and services and what other people say about you.
4. Show your guarantees
As mentioned above, web surfers don't like risks. That's why guarantees will help you to sell more.
For example, people can test our products 100% risk-free. If you want to try IBP to increase your search engine rankings, then you have 30 days to test every single feature of the product. If you're not fully satisfied, you will get your money back. Guaranteed.
Show your visitors that you're 100% sure that your product or service really delivers. Give strong guarantees so that your visitors can only win if they try your products.
It's important to have a trustworthy website if you want to sell something on the Internet. Show your visitors that your business is real and that they can trust you by using the tips above.
Recommended resources for webmasters (SEO)
How to get incoming links
Getting incoming links is very important if you want to get high rankings on Google and other major search engines. If you want to get incoming links, take a look at the following tools:
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Articles of the week
"To finish, Yahoo will be pushing for keyword insertion in copy — I knew this was coming before I read the e-mail, though. The last 10 times I contacted my rep about poor performance for a particular category, he suggested I use this tool. In those instances, I actually did follow his recommendations, and the results were, hmmm… let’s call them indecisive."
Clicks that count
"Depending on whom you ask, click fraud is either an unsolvable quagmire threatening the online ad industry or, as Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said last year, 'immaterial.'"
Microsoft fires volley at Google in ad battle
"Microsoft is in talks to buy a minority stake in the popular social-networking Web site Facebook Inc., a sign of a new urgency by the software giant to jump-start its online business at a time when Google is widening its lead in the fast-growing Internet-advertising business."
Search engine news of the week
"Google accounted for 63.98 percent of all US searches in the four weeks ending September 1, 2007. Yahoo! Search, MSN Search and Ask.com each received 22.87, 7.98 and 3.41 percent respectively. [...]
Search engines continue to be the primary way Internet users navigate to key industry categories. Comparing August 2007 to August 2006, the Travel, Entertainment and Business and Finance categories received double digit increases in their share of traffic coming directly from search engines."
Nielsen/Netrankings August U.S. search share rankings (PDF)
"Google handles 53.6% of all US searches, Yahoo 19.9%, Microsoft 12.9%, AOL 5.6% and Ask 1.7%."
Google: Websites that may merit a low landing page quality score
"Types of websites that will be penalized with low landing page quality scores:
Data collection sites that offer free gifts, subscription services etc., in order to collect private information, Arbitrage sites that are designed for the sole purpose of showing ads, Malware sites that knowingly or unknowingly install software on a visitor's computer."
Search engine newslets
- Google to "out open" Facebook on 5 November.
- Google to end ad agency subsidy.
- Google Trends is now updated every 24 hours.
- Google releases a new cost per action tool for AdWords.
- Google seeks EU approval to buy DoubleClick.
- Google plans new undersea "Unity" cable across Pacific.
- Local search site Zillow.com gets additional $30 million.
- Google security flaw exposed email addresses.
- Reuters introduces a video search for people.
- New version of Gmail being tested.
- New features in Google Print Ads.
The perfect incoming link for high search engine rankings
It's important that you get the right kind of links. If you have 20 good incoming links then you'll get better rankings than with 100 bad incoming links.
So what makes a good incoming link? There are several points that can make a link better than other links:
1. The link should use the keyword in the anchor text
If you want to get high rankings for a search term like "buy brown shoes" then the links to your website should use exactly that text. The text that is used to link to your site (the "anchor text") influences the words for which your website will get high rankings.
Make sure that the texts that are used to link to your website contain words for which you want to get high rankings on search engines.
2. The link should be from a relevant page
Links from related web pages usually work better than links from unrelated pages. Links from unrelated pages won't hurt your rankings but Google likes links from websites that are related to yours better.
3. The link should go to a relevant page on your site
While it's okay to get links to your home page it is better to get links to the page that is most relevant to the chosen anchor text. If the link text is "buy brown shoes" then you should make sure that the link goes to a page that deals with brown shoes.
If the link text matches the content of the linked pages then it's more likely that your web page is really relevant to that term and it's more likely that you'll get high rankings for that search term.
In addition, you increase the user experience. If a surfer clicks on a "buy brown shoes" link it's much more likely that he'll buy on your site if he gets the correct page.
4. It's good if the link is from an authority site
Links from pages with high authority will help to increase the TrustRank of your website. Links from websites with high PageRank have a positive effect on the rankings of your own site.
Unfortunately, the Google PageRank that is displayed in the green bar in Google's toolbar is not the PageRank that Google uses for its ranking algorithm. The PageRank displayed in the toolbar is outdated, often wrong and more a gimmick than a real help (details can be found here and here). You'll often find websites with low PageRank that rank higher than pages with high PageRank in the search results.
Don't trust the green pixels and use common sense. If a website is well known and if the site has good search engine rankings then it's likely that it is also an authority website.
5. The link must not have a nofollow attribute
The nofollow attribute tells search engines that they should not follow a link. Links with that attribute don't help your search engine rankings.
Unfortunately, you have to check the HTML code of your link partners to find out if they use a nofollow attribute to link to your site.
If you don't want to check the HTML code of each website manually, you can use the link check command in IBP & ARELIS to quickly check if your link partners use a nofollow attribute to link to your site.
Further information on how to get high quality links can be found in our free link building eBook. If you build links to your website as explained in the eBook, your website will get the best possible rankings on Google and other search engines.