Discuss Customer Relationship Management and Search Engine Optimization

Links are a vital part of how the internet works. The purpose of a link is to allow a user to go from one web page to another. Search engines, doing their best to mimic the behavior of humans, also follow links. Besides allowing search engine spiders to find websites, links are a way of validating relevance and indicating importance. When one page links to another, it is as if that page is voting or vouching for the destination page. Generally, the more votes a website receives, the more trusted it becomes, the more important it is deemed, and the better it will rank on search engines.

Links help send signals of trust. Signals of trust can come only from a third-party source. Few people will trust someone who says, "Don't worry, you can trust me!" unless someone else, who is already trusted, says, "Don't worry, I know him well. You can trust him." It is the same with links and search engines. Trusted sites can transfer trust to unknown sites via links.

Links help to validate relevance. Link text such as "Cape Town hotel" sends the message that you can trust that the destination site is relevant to the term Cape Town hotel. If the destination web page has already used content to send a signal of relevance, the link simply validates that signal.

The Parts of a Link 

Here is the HTML code for a link:

<a href="http://www.targeturl.com/targetpage.htm">Anchor Text</a>

You can decipher the meaning of this string of text as follows:

· <a href> and </a> are HTML tags that show where the link starts and ends.

· http://www.targeturl.com/targetpage.htm is the page that the link leads to. You should make sure that you are linking to a relevant page in your site, and not just to the home page.

· Anchor Text is the visible text that forms the link. This is the text that should contain the key phrase you are targeting.

The link sends a signal that the target URL is important for the subject used in the anchor text.

There is a lot more information that can be included in this anatomy, such as instructions telling the search engine not to follow the link, or instructions to the browser about whether the link should open in a new window or not.

In the link

<a href="http://www.targeturl.com/targetpage.htm" rel="nofollow">Anchor Text</a> ,

rel="nofollow" is included when you don't want to vouch for the target URL. Search engines do not count nofollow links for ranking purposes. This practice was introduced by Google to try to combat comment spam.

Not All Links Are Created Equal

Of course, not all links are equal. While link volume is the number of links coming to a specific page of your site, link authority looks at the value of the links. Some sites are more trusted than others. So, if they are more trusted, then links from those sites are worth more. Likewise, some sites are more relevant than others to specific terms. The more relevant a site, the more value is transferred by the link. Well-known and established news sites, government sites (.gov) and university domains (.edu) are examples of sites from which links can carry more weighting. Links from websites that have a higher PageRank also carry more link weight.

Search algorithms also consider relationships between linked sites. By analyzing various factors, the search engines try to determine if the links are natural links, or if they are manipulative, artificial links created solely for ranking purposes. Manipulated links are worth very little compared to natural links and may even lead to a drop in search engine rankings.

The search engine algorithm will also determine the relevance of the referring website to the site being linked to. The more relevant the sites are to each other, the better.

Also consider that linking to valuable, relevant external resources can help to improve the visibility of a site.

How Does a Website Get More Links? 

With links playing such a vital role in search engine rankings and traffic for a website, everyone wants more of them. There are certainly dubious means of generating links, most of which can actually result in being penalized by the search engines. However, the sections below outline some ways for ethical and honest website owners and marketers (and that's what you are) to go about increasing links to their websites.

Create Excellent, Valuable Content that Others Want to Read 

If people find your site useful, they are more likely to link to it. It is not necessary (or possible) to try to write content that will appeal to the whole of the internet population. Focus on being the best in the industry you are in, and in providing value to the members of that community. Make sure that valuable content is themed around your key phrases.

Creating Great Content

Ensure that you create remarkable, valuable content that people want to link to.

Infographics are visual and graphic representations of data. They are a popular type of content that is useful to users and can encourage lots of traffic and inbound links.

Create Tools and Documents that Others Want to Use 

Interview experts in your field and host those interviews on your website. Create useful PDF guides for your industry that people can download from your site. Think outside the box for quirky, relevant items that people will link to. Calculators are popular tools, and we don't just mean the ones that add two and two together. If you have a website selling diet books, for example, create a tool that helps users calculate their body mass index (BMI) and target weight. Importantly, be unique!

BMI Calculator

The BBC website has several interactive elements, such as this BMI calculator.

Create Games 

Creating a game that people want to play is a great way to generate links. Make sure that the theme of the game is based on the key phrases for your website, so that when others talk about and link to the game, they are using your key phrases.

Capitalize on Software and Widgets 

Widgets, browser extensions, and other software that users love to use all help to generate links for a website. Quirk has released a Mozilla Firefox extension called SearchStatus that is exceptionally useful to the SEO community. Each time someone mentions this SEO tool, they link to Quirk. People also like to include fun widgets in their forum signatures. Create a widget, make sure that the link is included, and let people spread these around the web for you.

Competitor Analysis 

You can find out who is linking to your competitors and which noncompeting sites are ranking highly for your key phrases. Use this information to identify sites to target for link requests.

Using Google search, the following search operators can be used to find these links and websites:

· Link:url.com

· Link:http://www.url.com/page.html

· Link:url.com –site:url.com

With all link-building tactics, make sure that you use your key phrases when communicating. You will be telling people how to link to you and ensuring that search engines notice your authority.

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