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Link Building Isn't Everything It's Made Out To Be
Certainly not every SEO professional will agree with the bold statement that link building isn't everything it's made out to be. In fact some of them might be downright upset at the idea of me saying it, especially those that make their living selling linking.
It's my opinion however and the opinion is based upon over a dozen years helping small businesses succeed on the Internet marketing their service or product at the lowest possible cost with the highest possible return and I'll say it again, link building isn't everything it's made out to be.
If you'll give me just half a chance, I'll explain myself and you just might agree. Or not, that's certainly your right.
First, let's take a look at why link building has become such a big business these days. Primarily, it is because of "Google Page Ranking." If you don't know what that means, I'll explain it. See, when another website has a link from their site to yours that's like a "vote" for your site. The more "votes" you have, the more popular you are (or seem to be). And if the "votes" are from websites that are a competitive or complementary business to yours that "vote" has even more credibility to it. Google takes a look at those "votes" and applying them with a complex and somewhat "secret" (for the most part) mathematical formula they determine what type of page rank to give your webpage on a scale of 0 to 10. (You can see the pagerank of pages by downloading and activating it on the Google toolbar).
Ok, so if you are following me so far, the more "votes" (links) you have from other websites, theoretically speaking, the higher your page rank will be. The higher your page rank is the more popular you must be, should be, or will be. Supposedly.
I don't agree. In the old days, we didn't have page rank and we didn't care about page rank. The only reason we wanted a link on another website is so we might get some traffic from that website. And it used to work that way. I remember many a time back in the old days surfing the Web when I would forget where I started because I would go to a website and follow a link to another site and then another, and another, and after awhile I think I would get lost. That ever happened to you? Most of the links were on the front page and that's where you want and need to be unless it's a really high traffic website perhaps.
Fortunately we got bookmarking and it got a little easier to remember where you had been when where you had been was somewhere you wanted to remember. Nowadays though, most of us don't use the web like we used to back in the old days. Mostly, if we are looking for something and don't know where it is, we go to our favorite search engine and type in the keywords or phrase of what we are looking for and that's how we find a site. And, as those of us in the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) business know, most people will follow a link from those first ones they see on the first page of the search they are conducting. So if you are not in the top ten or at least the top 25 for the most part of that search engine on the relevant keyword or phrase you are probably lost to search except when someone is either not finding what they are looking for or are doing some research that leads them deeper into the pile.
But we are in the business of commerce, at least most of us are. And in the business of commerce you are selling something. And when you are selling something and someone is looking for the something you are selling you want to have the opportunity to sell it to them. Thus, you want to be in the top ten of the search engine for at least some of the different keywords or phrases those potential customers might use to find you. Because the chances of them finding you by clicking a link from another website is slim in comparison to finding you if you are in the top ten of a major search engine on keywords or phrases related to your product or service! That's not to say you shouldn't have as many good links out there as possible on the off chance someone will find you that way because you should. But don't do it because of the search engines or how relevant you want to be to them.
In such case, page rank means diddly squat! Yes, I said it. Because its true. If you don't believe me go to Google and type in any keyphrase you want and visit the first ten websites and see what their page rank is. I just did by example. I went to Google and type in the two words: artic racing. (I wasn't even sure if there was such a thing, but apparently there is). And I looked at the page rank of the first ten links. At the time of this writing they were: 4, 2, 2, 0, 2, 2, 0, 2, 4, 5, respectively. Now, as you can see the first one was 4, pretty nice in comparison to 2 of the others which weren't above 2. Then dragging the end was another 4 and a 5. Now, here's my argument. If page rank mattered where it really matters which is in the search engine (which according to Forrester Research, a leading research company, about 84% of all internet users find websites by using search engines), then we would see the number ten site in the above example at number one since it had the highest page rank (5)of the ten. But page rank doesn't matter all that much unless except perhaps if you are an SEO person because average consumer doesn't go to a site and look at their page rank before deciding to buy or even know about page rank. Unless you are getting an incredible amount of traffic from those links that caused your page rank them it might make a difference. And the only way you are going to get an incredible amount of traffic from those links that got you that high page rank is if the links are in very prominent places with very good anchor text making a visitor from that other site want to click it. That happens, don't get me wrong. But most linking schemes in my opinion are worthless and they don't pay the bills. Customers coming to the site and buying something is what pays the bills and they come from search engines and other advertising for the most part not links buried on a high page rank page somewhere in the back of the site.
And why are those lower page rank sites above the higher page rank sites in my example? Because site optimization is what matters. Google had those PR 0 links above the PR 5 link because in their estimation those links delivered more relevance to my search than the PR 5 link did. The PR 5 link was relevant enough in the granddaddy of all equations in relation to the other 2 million plus pages that may or may not have something to do with artic racing that google had in the index in relation to my search so that it was in the top ten, but not relevant enough to beat out those other links with very low and in case of a couple of them nonexistent page rank.
See my point? Having some good quality links that you believe are probably going to bring you some relevant business is a good thing. But don't get all hung up on your Page Rank because that PR 0 Link might be beating you out in the search engine. What really matters is how relevant you are in relation to those other pages in the search engines and that should be your focus. Then if you see you are getting the searches but not the sales you need web analytics to tell you what to do so you can convert more visitors.
That's the bottom line and the real world of making money on the Internet, not investing in hundreds of links but investing in the real dynamic of visitor traffic and conversions by creating relevancy and understanding what your visitors need and want when they visit. It's how I help my customers succeed and why over 90% of my business is by referral and there's a waiting list. Spend the time on your insides and the outside will work fine.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
About The Author
Thomas is a search engine optimization and marketing specialist and has been involved in search engine marketing since the beginning days of the Internet. Operating a successful small business that receives 95% of its business by referrals he teaches small businesses how to achieve profitable websites at the least possible cost. You can see more about him at http://www.web-sem.com
Previously on SearchEngineChannel
- How to Attain Improved Search Engine Rank
- Relevant Content Brings Quality Traffic
- How To Roll Out Your SEO Link Campaign Like a Red Carpet
- Back links - what are they, why do I need them, and how to get them?
- Local Search Engine Optimization- help potential customers to find you
- Turn Your SEO Efforts Into Sure Success
- Directory Submission - Why Go For Niche Directories
- 5 easy ways to gather links
- Important Strategies To High Rankings
- 7 Things Every Webmaster Should Know About Links
