Links and your Keywords

Once upon a time, link building was all you had to do get to number one in Google's rankings because of the patented Page Rank system. A site was given a Page Rank ( PR ) depending on how many links that came to it. Links that came from sites with a high PR were worth more and further increased your PR. This system was a major step forward in search engine technology and propelled Google in to its number one, world dominating position.

Those days are gone though. The Page Rank system was easy to manipulate by link building and therefore quickly became a target for spammers and unscrupulous web site owners. How Google works out your position nowadays is a closely guarded secret. Incoming links and PR appear to play apart but they are far less important than they were.

Less important but not unimportant

Link building is now just one more trick in your SEO arsenal and what really matters is not the PR of where the link comes from but the content of the link's page. Google likes pages with good quality content that link to other pages with similar, good quality content. So an article about widgets that links to www.WidgetShop.com is far more valuable than a link from www.BritnetSpearsNews.com , even if www.BritnetSpearsNews.com has a higher PR.

Why? Because Google sees links from irrelevant sites as potential spam. Too many of them and your web site will be punished for it. Your link building strategy needs to be focused getting links from relevant pages.

There are three aspects to succesful link building. First is there is Internal Link Building. This is the simplest because you control your sites so you can control where the links go. Next is External Link Building. As the name suggests, it is about getting links from other people's web sites. A key element in Search Engine Optimization. Finally there is DIY Link Building. This is also about building links from external sites but under your control using free tools.