In the world of SEO (Search Engine
Optimisation), there are sevaral techniques used to influence the
search engines. Over the years, many myths have emerged, leading many
SEO'ers into trying to 'trick' these search engines. Here I quickly
review a couple of these of these techniques including Inbound or
Outbound 'Linking'.
Inbound Links are; links from someone
elses website to your own and Outbound Links are; links from your
website to external websites. SOME SEO pros believe that both
techniques are beneficial for better search engine ranking...
Inbound Links:
With much evidence available online,
effective and quality Inbound Links can and do work. In Google's
words... “In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their
sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to
their pages” (support.google.com). Creating
Inbound Links (a technique also known as Link Building) makes up only
part of a succesful Online Marketing Campaign however is still very
influencial.
Outbound Links:
There is still an old-school thought
that if you include heaps of links on your website, pointing to other
people's websites, that your site will rank better. This is not the
case.
Some business do provide a “helpful
links” page as an added benefit for those browsing their websites.
This is more for the sake of convience and perhaps trying to build
credibility, however, just don't expect your website to suddenly jump
up in Google, Yahoo or Bing as a result.There is no reason why you
can't provide links to other local businesses that you recommend or
organisations that you are a member of or support (be sure to ask for
permission first just incase). There is a slight divide between SEO
pros wether having TOO many Outbound Links can damage your website's
performance but in the end of the day, it is all about balance and
ongoing maintainence.
Daily, myself and my customers receive
email requests; “Add a link to my website from your website, and
you will rank better.” OR “If you link to my website, I will link
back to yours and we will both rank better”. This type of two-way
link is called a Reciprocal Link and considerred yet another
non-effective technique if getting higher up in the search engines is
your aim. “Reciprocal links are of dubious value: they are easy
for an algorithm to catch and to discount.”
(seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo).
Hiding links is also another No-No.
Back-in-the-day, there was a technique where webmasters would create
an Outbound Link or Keyword the same colour as the background colour
of the page...effectively 'hiding' it from visitors to this
website...the search engines are now able to detect this using colour
codes – I told you the search engines are getting smarter.
