Inbound links

One of the key elements in search engine optimization is the number and quality of inbound links. Inbound links are links that are located in other websites and refer to your website, hence the word ‘in’. The number of inbound links can be stated factually, but the quality of inbound links requires some explanation.

To best understand inbound link quality and the search engine rationale let us make an analogy. Let us refer to websites as people and links as recommendation. Let us refer to search engines as employers who seek out people (i.e. websites) with good recommendations (i.e. links) for work. Let us refer to search engine optimization as the system used by the employers for evaluating people and their recommendations.

Number of Inbound links
If a person has many recommendations from many people, then most probably his situation is much better than a person with only a few recommendations. This is on the assumption that the recommendations are positive.

The more inbound links a website has, the more search engines optimization may be improved.

Inbound link keywords
Suppose a person is a heart surgeon and suppose he received two recommendations. The first recommendation is “this person is very good” and the second recommendation is “a very good heart surgeon”. Which recommendation will the employer value more if the employer is looking for a very good heart surgeon? The inbound link keywords can be considered as the recommendation content. If the keywords describing the website and the keywords within the inbound link are the same, then the inbound link will be regarded more relevant.

Inbound link origin
Suppose a person is a brain surgeon and suppose he has two recommendations. Both recommendations state that “This person is the best brain surgeon”. The first recommendation comes from the head of the brain surgery department and the second recommendation comes from the head of a huge software company. Whose recommendation do you believe is more relevant to the employer?

If an inbound link points from website A to website B and both websites deal with the same subject then the inbound link will be more relevant. If there is no connection at all between A and B then it may be inferred that the link was placed as an attempt to increase traffic into website B.

Suppose our best brain surgeon had two other recommendations from other colleagues. Suppose our employer is familiar with the first colleague, a highly regarded colleague. Suppose our employer does not know anything about the second colleague. Whose recommendation will the employer favor?

Inbound links that originate from websites with a high page rank are evaluated more than inbound links originate from websites with a low page rank.

Now that the rationale behind inbound links is clear, it is time to see how to implement inbound links.

Place inbound links in personal blogs.
You can open several blogs that deal with the same subject as your website on different providers. Then you simply place inbound links from these blogs to your website. You have to check the terms and services of the blog provider to verify whether you may promote your website by using them. Do not abuse the blog by placing hundreds of inbound links. This abuse might yield negative results, since search engines are aware of these techniques.

There are a lot of blog providers, and most of them give this service for free. Since the service is free, they have no problem in removing your blog if they find it distasteful or inappropriate.

Note that there might be other blogs dealing with the same subject as your website. Some blog providers give you the option to comment on other blogs. In these comments you can strengthen or weaken the blog’s argument and place your inbound link as a link for more information.

Free blog service providers include BLogger and Squidoo.

Place inbound links in directories
Directory websites are websites that manage a hierarchy of directories and sub-directories. In each directory there is a collection of links to other websites. You may submit your website to be placed in a specific directory website under a specific directory. Each directory website has its own standards and its own pace of operation.

Directory websites include DMoz and Wow Directory.

Place inbound links in articles
There are websites that manage archives of articles. You may write an article discussing the subject of your website, place an inbound link to your website, and submit the article. Again, each website has its own standards and its own pace of operation.

Article archive websites include eZine Articles.

Conduct link exchange
Link exchange is like “I’ll scratch your back if you’ll scratch mine’ between webmasters. Conduct link exchange with other websites that have a subject linked in some way to the subject of your website. You have two ways to conduct link exchange: (1) Contact webmasters directly with an e-mail requesting link exchange; (2) Contact webmasters via a third party such as LinkMetro.

It is the custom to first place an outbound link to the other website, send the request for link exchange, and wait for the other website to return the favor. If the request is rejected you may delete the outbound link in your website.

Link schemas
Link schemas are like a group of unemployed persons who recommend each other for a job and hope an unaware employer might employ some of them. Search engines do not like link schemas, and you risk being banned.

There are different types of link schemas. The oldest link schema is called Spider Trap.