Be Careful Who You Link To

[Dale King]

Many newbies when they come online attempt to get free traffic as quickly as possible. So they link to everyone and anyone who will link to them - including link farms and traffic exchange programs. This is a mistake. These types of websites provide zero end-user benefit. They offer little to no content - just a bunch of worthless links. I call these types of sites "garbage websites," because the quality of traffic that they send you will be just that - garbage!

Look, there's nothing wrong with trying to get as many inbound links to your site as you possibly can. That should always be your goal. But you can't approach link-building blind-folded. You have to do it the right way, because all links are not created equal.

For instance, if you have a website whose theme is internet marketing, a link from a site that sells real estate is of no value to you whatsoever. It just isn't. And if you sell hosting services, linking to a political site does you absolutely no good. In fact, non-relevant links might actually cause you to get penalized by the search engines. See my point?

The only links that you should attempt to obtain are quality, relevant links - period. Links that are compatible to the overall theme of your site. That's what the search engines judge you on.

Speaking of search engines, make no mistake, Google, Yahoo, and MSN pay close attention to who you're linking to and who's linking to you. In fact, when it comes to PageRank, Google places more weight on link quality and relevance than to the actual link itself.

So go ahead and link. Just do so responsibly!

Dale King

[GuyBBY]

Very applicable to most of the users here Dale!

Quality not quantity is the theme here. Sometimes the very people that thought of their business idea, developed it, and implemented it, can forget the "bottom line" of who is their target customer, what their value proposition is, and over all strategy- if solely focused on numbers regarding visits and links. If you provide affordable and personal dog walking in New York City area, why would you want a clickback/link through to Farmer John's Tractor Repair in Plattsburgh, NY? You not only are risking ineffeciencies with Search Engine Optimization and ranking, but also your brand.

Thanks again Dale!

Guy

[RLorenzen]

Quality is a key factor I focus on when link-building. I would much rather have 200 very quality links then 2,000 garbage links.

[Dale King]

Very applicable to most of the users here!

Thanks again Dale!

You're quite welcome. Thanks, Guy!

Dale King

[paul2145r]

Thanks Dale, another great post!

I agree about link farms, for the most part. Some sites, that can benefit from a very generalized audience, would benefit from "garbage links". Anyone trying to sell something and/or appeal to a niche would just be wasting throughput broadband.

[Upperz]

Good post. I better focus also on the quality links as from now on :-)

[n/a]

google is making it harder for people to benefit from garbage links. Dont waste your time spreading your site link if its not hitting the right target demographic. Great post thanks

[Dale King]

Thanks, Paul, Upperz & lamarsh!

Dale King

[HarveyJ]

Contextual linking, over reciprocal linking also helps.
If your link is embedded in the middle of an article, it's going to get a better value than something in a forum signature.