jon
CibbuanoIncoming Links and Blogrolls
October 4th 2007 06:32
Most successful blogs obtain a large percentage (80% or more) of their traffic from search engines so it's very important to know how they work.
Search engines rank websites by counting the number of other websites which link to them -- called incoming links. The more incoming links your website has the higher your ranking will be for search terms relevant to the content on your site. However it's actually more complicated that this:
1) Links from important websites count for more. How do the search engines tell if another website is important? By counting the number of websites which point to it, and so on and so forth. A link from an important website can be worth 100 or more regular links.
2) Links from sites which are of a similar topic to yours are worth more. For a website devoted to chess, links from other chess websites are worth more than regular links.
3) Older links are better. The longer a link has existed the more it is worth.
4) New links should be spread evenly over time. Search engines figure that websites with good content will obtain links at a fairly steady rate. This basically means that you should put a little effort into getting links every week rather than going nuts for a week and then leaving it.
That's the bare basics. Again it's actually much more complicated than what I've described. Most people think (completely guess) that Google has over 100 different factors that it takes into account when ranking a website for a given search query, and the importance of these factors are probably interdependent creating a non-linear, probably chaotic system, where predicting how a given site will rank is almost impossible.
In fact it's suspected that Google now employs actual people to double check the quality of most high-ranking sites. All the different rules will apply to different degrees to different websites depending on how they fair under all the other rules -- for instance if a website already has lots of incoming links then Google is probably not too worried about the rate that new incoming links appear. But for the purposes of our discussion the above 4 rules will be enough.
So how do I get incoming links to my blog?
1) Write your blog with Orble
All the Orble blogs link to other Orble blogs automatically giving them a great head start in the search engine wars. This is one of the main advantages of joining a blogging network.
2) Write amazingly useful and entertaining content. This one is often overlooked but if you have the talent and the time it's probably the best way to get links. If people like your content they will inevitably link to it, and comment about it on other sites. Most of the best Orble blogs have become successful mainly through attracting completely unsolicited links from people who just liked the content.
3) Swap links on a blogroll. A blogroll is a list of links to related blogs which you recommend to your readers. Ask related blogs if they would like to be on your blogroll in exchange for them putting you on theirs. Only link to very high quality blogs. Linking to blogs with low quality content and spammy link getting policies can actually harm your search engine ranking. Giving a link to someone from an Orble blog is a big favour -- you are in effect putting your blog's reputation with the search engines on the line -- so make sure they deserve it. Have a look at this post to see how to set up a blogroll on Orble.
4) Comment on other blogs and forums outside of Orble. Many blogs will allow you to link back to your own blog from theirs if you leave a worthwhile comment. You can search for related blogs using Technorati or Google BlogSearch. Be sure to play by the rules of each blog.
5) Submit your posts to social bookmarking sites. These include Furl.net, Spurl.net, Simpy.com, Digg.com, Delicious, Fark.com, StumbleUpon.com, Reddit.com, and TailRank.com. This can also be a great way to attract new readers.
6) Get all your friends who have websites to link to your blog. This is one of the easiest and most overlooked ways to get quite a few links.
7) Take part in blog carnivals. This is a huge topic in itself and the subject of a post for another day. To find out more either type in "Blog Carnival" into Google or try the relevant Wikipedia page.
There are also a few things that you should definitely not do, which will almost certainly get you banned from Google. Any kind of link exchange program or marketplace is definitely a big no no and don't pay for your site to be submitted to hundreds of search engines. Basically any scheme which makes it seem super easy to get incoming links will probably get you banned. If in doubt don't do it, or leave a comment below and I'll let you know what I think.
By putting a little bit of effort into attracting incoming links you will really notice the benefit in increased traffic from the Search Engines. Even 3 or 4 good links can make the difference between a couple hundred readers per day and a couple of thousand.
If you have any other suggestions for attracting incoming links let us know!
Search engines rank websites by counting the number of other websites which link to them -- called incoming links. The more incoming links your website has the higher your ranking will be for search terms relevant to the content on your site. However it's actually more complicated that this:
1) Links from important websites count for more. How do the search engines tell if another website is important? By counting the number of websites which point to it, and so on and so forth. A link from an important website can be worth 100 or more regular links.
2) Links from sites which are of a similar topic to yours are worth more. For a website devoted to chess, links from other chess websites are worth more than regular links.
3) Older links are better. The longer a link has existed the more it is worth.
4) New links should be spread evenly over time. Search engines figure that websites with good content will obtain links at a fairly steady rate. This basically means that you should put a little effort into getting links every week rather than going nuts for a week and then leaving it.
That's the bare basics. Again it's actually much more complicated than what I've described. Most people think (completely guess) that Google has over 100 different factors that it takes into account when ranking a website for a given search query, and the importance of these factors are probably interdependent creating a non-linear, probably chaotic system, where predicting how a given site will rank is almost impossible.
In fact it's suspected that Google now employs actual people to double check the quality of most high-ranking sites. All the different rules will apply to different degrees to different websites depending on how they fair under all the other rules -- for instance if a website already has lots of incoming links then Google is probably not too worried about the rate that new incoming links appear. But for the purposes of our discussion the above 4 rules will be enough.
So how do I get incoming links to my blog?
1) Write your blog with Orble
All the Orble blogs link to other Orble blogs automatically giving them a great head start in the search engine wars. This is one of the main advantages of joining a blogging network.2) Write amazingly useful and entertaining content. This one is often overlooked but if you have the talent and the time it's probably the best way to get links. If people like your content they will inevitably link to it, and comment about it on other sites. Most of the best Orble blogs have become successful mainly through attracting completely unsolicited links from people who just liked the content.
3) Swap links on a blogroll. A blogroll is a list of links to related blogs which you recommend to your readers. Ask related blogs if they would like to be on your blogroll in exchange for them putting you on theirs. Only link to very high quality blogs. Linking to blogs with low quality content and spammy link getting policies can actually harm your search engine ranking. Giving a link to someone from an Orble blog is a big favour -- you are in effect putting your blog's reputation with the search engines on the line -- so make sure they deserve it. Have a look at this post to see how to set up a blogroll on Orble.
4) Comment on other blogs and forums outside of Orble. Many blogs will allow you to link back to your own blog from theirs if you leave a worthwhile comment. You can search for related blogs using Technorati or Google BlogSearch. Be sure to play by the rules of each blog.
5) Submit your posts to social bookmarking sites. These include Furl.net, Spurl.net, Simpy.com, Digg.com, Delicious, Fark.com, StumbleUpon.com, Reddit.com, and TailRank.com. This can also be a great way to attract new readers.
6) Get all your friends who have websites to link to your blog. This is one of the easiest and most overlooked ways to get quite a few links.
7) Take part in blog carnivals. This is a huge topic in itself and the subject of a post for another day. To find out more either type in "Blog Carnival" into Google or try the relevant Wikipedia page.
There are also a few things that you should definitely not do, which will almost certainly get you banned from Google. Any kind of link exchange program or marketplace is definitely a big no no and don't pay for your site to be submitted to hundreds of search engines. Basically any scheme which makes it seem super easy to get incoming links will probably get you banned. If in doubt don't do it, or leave a comment below and I'll let you know what I think.
By putting a little bit of effort into attracting incoming links you will really notice the benefit in increased traffic from the Search Engines. Even 3 or 4 good links can make the difference between a couple hundred readers per day and a couple of thousand.
If you have any other suggestions for attracting incoming links let us know!
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Brenton -- I think the Blogrush widget is fine as it's just a traffic exchange and is all done through redirects.