Technique vs. Intention (part 4)
Link building is just one method of website marketing, though important and significant it is a technique highly based on attitude. Technique vs. Intention is extremely relevant to online marketing, as without the right combination, your efforts may do more damage than good. The right technique however, combined with good intention, will improve your long term online marketing strategy, and cement your effort within the architecture of the Internet for many years to come. This will allow your site to become a prominent site with sustained growth.
If the technique you adopt conforms to each search engines editorial guidelines, then your intention is already ahead of the game. Having said that, it helps to remain cognisant of the fact that there is a fine line between use and abuse with regard to online marketing and the application of technique. Using common sense will often be your saviour as search engines rarely allow a second chance once you have chosen not to conform to their editorial guidelines. If you are considering “tricks”, then its unlikely that you will see success with your link building campaign.
Link Building Types
There are five main types of link building associated with a website. They are:
- One-Way
A link from site A to site B, and has no further link relationship. - Reciprocal
A link from site A to site B, and site B to site A, as the favour is reciprocated. - Triangular
Site A links to site B, site B links to site C, and site C links to site A. - Internal
A websites internal link navigation for ease of user experience. - Outgoing
Links from your webpage to another website/s.
Whilst other more advanced methods exist, we will keep to the primary factors which will determine your websites outcome. Each method has a legitimate use. The search engines themselves often state, “A good site will naturally be linked to”, however; if a good site is not seen in the first place, then how can it ever be linked to? Interesting question, which does have a solution!
Tips for Application
Algorithms are designed to pick anomalies within a page and an overall site, and excessive use of any technique, is an anomaly. The algorithms outlined previously, now move in conjunction with your link building campaign. When online marketers outline methods to improve website rankings within the SERP’s, webmasters often confuse that information with the old thinking, “more is better”. In actual fact, less is often the better approach, when it comes to link building.
Gaining topical, authoritive links to your website is the hardest part of any online marketing solution. There are thousands of easy options, though not one of them will actually deliver the correct option. The algorithms today are much smarter than even a year or two ago, as the search engines constantly improve them from statistical data tools such as toolbars, which send back surfing habits. They also gather more data from various sources they own or have built.
Conclusion
This article is merely an introduction to link building, without actually outlining specific tactics. Learn the algorithms, to learn how to correctly build links for each topical search engine. Whilst Google delivers, generally, the most traffic to a site, it is often merely associated to target Google first, then attempt to capture the others, without offsetting your Google campaign. There is a second part to this article, which delves more into the tactics used to build links, though that article may only be current for a short time, as algorithms change, and likewise so do link building requirements. For example, at the time of writing this article, Google’s update Jagger 2005 has just been completed, therefore taking out most sites that are based purely on reciprocal link campaigns and little else.
It is for these reasons that industry experts often don’t like to talk tactics and specifics, as what works today, may just not work next week. It takes a link campaign months to take full effect, thus by the time it does, algorithms have often changed. Remember this, every decision you make, you make knowing that what you have today, you might not have tomorrow. That is merely a fact with online marketing and link building.
