Inbound links
What are inbound links and why do I need them?
Inbound links are just what they sound like. If somebody else's Web site or blog links to a page on your site, that's an inbound link.
In the book, Search Engine Marketing, Inc. by Mike Moran and Bill Hunt (Prentice Hall 2005), inbound links are heralded as an excellent way to improve your site's presence on the Web. Co-author Mike Moran explains it this way, "The number and quality of your inbound links are one of the biggest factors that affect your search rankings."
Links work much like citations of scholarly books, journals and studies. Let's first look at an example of how authority is passed in the world of scholarly works.
How the scholarly world establishes authority
Suppose a prominent Doctor of Psychology (we'll call her Dr. A) has studied the habits of the best teachers—that is, those whose students consistently receive the highest test scores. In her book, she cites a little-known study done by a college professor (we'll call him Dr. B) that demonstrates that one particular personal character trait of teachers has an effect on student test scores. Because of the citation by an authoritative source, Dr. B's study gains authority, and may be sought out again by others.
Why does this happen? There are at least four reasons:
- Other studies may cite Dr A.'s book, thus exposing the footnotes at the end to more readers.
- Researchers looking for studies may run across the citation of Dr. B's study in Dr. A's book.
- Keepers of authoritative databases (such as the popular ProQuest) that are used by libraries and scholarly institutions might include Dr. B's study in their database as a result of its exposure in Dr. A's book. This means more researchers will run across it when looking for material about the effect of teachers on student test scores.
- In his contacts with others, Dr. B. can now say that he is cited by Dr. A., whom everyone in the scholarly community knows. This fact may draw more attention to the work of Dr. B. Other researchers may want the prestige of citing Dr. B's study—a study that they now perceive to be an authoritative source.
This well-established system of identifying authoritative sources is as old as libraries, and it works well. Here are some words tossed about by the scholarly community in reference to this system: "quality," "reliable sources," "identified writers," "important," and "librarian-approved".
Links establish authority
Interestingly, Web searching has grown up to mimic this age-old system of identifying authoritative sources. A link works like a citation, and the parallels between them are striking. For example, two lesser-known scholars might sometimes agree to cite each other's work, but such a reciprocal citation is often not regarded as highly as a one-way citation from the more established to the lesser known, or a two-way citation between high quality sources. However, reciprocated citations do at the very least serve to increase exposure of the two sources.
Similarly, reciprocal links (two Web sites that link to each other by mutual agreement) may slightly increase exposure of the two sources on the web by causing more searchers to stumble across those sites, but including a one-way inbound link from an authoritative source can improve your page's ranking in search results hits to a greater degree. When once your site appeared on the fourth page of search results, it may now appear on the second page, vastly improving the chances that searchers will click on your site.
As a case in point, the page that you are reading now gains authority by virtue of its inbound link from Mike Moran's Web site. Mike Moran is a Web search expert and co-author of the book, Search Engine Marketing, Inc.
However, his inbound link to this page is reciprocated, which renders his link, while still viewed positively by search engines, slightly less merit than had my site not reciprocated the link. In this case, the decision was made for this page to link back to Mike's site so as to have the overall effect of increased exposure by visitors to both Web sites. And besides, we're married to each other. Best not to get into an argument over who is more authoritative. Mike agrees.
Other parallels between scholarly works and the Web exist as well. You only need to review the above four-point list and draw accurate conclusions about the value of Web links. We can conclude that it is important for Web sites to solicit inbound links.
Even corporate sites must campaign for links
Owners of small Web sites may know they need to campaign hard for inbound links. Large Web sites, on the other hand, are frequently linked to with no campaign. However, upon closer examination, it is often only the home page that receives these authoritative links, leaving the more internal pages, those with more specific information, unlinked and therefore under utilized. According to Moran, these large corporate sites often miss the mark on getting high-quality inbound links.
Inbound links to interior pages (pages other than the home page) are important because the keywords typed into search engines by potential visitors are not limited to the company's name. "Your home page will rank number one when someone searches for your company name but it won't help you when somebody searches for anything else that should bring up one of your interior pages," says Moran.
Moran concludes, "If you have a small site that doesn't have a lot of links (you have good content but you don't have a very large number of high-quality links) that's one of the most important things to work on. If you have a big site that's popular already, you probably already have lots of links but the great majority of them might be to your home page only instead of to interior pages on your site." We can see that all Web sites, regardless of size, have some work to do.
So, how do I get these links?
There's some preliminary work to do before asking for a link, but it will be well worth the time and effort. Even just a few high-quality links can move your Web site up in your visitor's search hits list. Keep in mind the studies that show that searchers rarely look past the second page of search hits!
- Think in terms of the Web owner from whom you seek a link. You'll need to do a sales job. Be prepared to point out all the benefits to them of linking to your page.
- Offering free information is a good way to attract links. Start a newsletter, or write some well-researched information that doesn't exist anywhere else. Alternatively, you can offer a reciprocal link as the benefit, but keep in mind that an inbound link that is reciprocated does not boost your rankings as much as an unreciprocated link.
- Think of the page you are offering or newly developing as a "search landing page." Write or re-write your page as though it were a newspaper column, with the most important information appearing near the top. Consider your target readers carefully.
- Use a software tool to help you determine the best keywords. These are keywords that visitors customarily type in to their search engines when seeking the information you have to offer.
- Bear in mind that deeply-linked pages tend to be narrower in focus than say, home pages, and are therefore desirable search landing pages for searchers seeking very specific information. Moran believes that home pages tend to be overused as links, and deeper pages under-used.
For more information about all of the ideas put forth on this page, pre-order Search Engine Marketing, Inc., by Mike Moran and Bill Hunt.
Link to me please? How to campaign
Look for Web sites like yours or that complement yours in some way but that are not competitors to yours. Seek out a name of a person to contact rather than "e-mail us" or "webmaster."
Then compose an e-mail. Do whatever you can to personalize your link request. Do not compose mass-market e-mails. Those will be rejected by most savvy Web site owners, and will waste your time.
In your e-mail, suggest all possible benefits to the Web site owner's visitors of the link.
Include the suggested link, of course, and invite the owner to click on it to view it for themselves.
Keep a written or e-mail record of your link campaigns. That way, you will avoid inadvertently repeating a link request.
Find out more
Want to find out how else to make the most of your Web site? The book, Search Engine Marketing, Inc., by Mike Moran and Bill Hunt, is available on Amazon.com. There's something for everyone in this thorough, delightfully written text that covers every aspect of Search Marketing. Click on the book cover for more information.
Who is Linda Moran and why does she call herself "Search Wifey?" Find out who is Linda Moran?
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Last Modified: Saturday, 12-Jan-2008 21:49:20 PST Linda Moran
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