SEO for Intermediate Sites-Building a Solid Link Profile

In the last two articles, I went over the SEO that you can directly control, on page optimization.  The next part is where it gets tough. Until Google algorithms state otherwise, off page optimization has everything to do with linkage.

In other words, the more links you have, the more popular you must be, and the more relevant your site must be.  Therefore, your site will be deemed more valuable by google and as a result, gain ground in the SERP rankings.

That is the cliff notes version.  It is actually a lot more complicated than that.  There are a ton of things to consider when you are building a link profile.  And unfortunately, there are absolutely no parameters that google discloses to you to give you a idea of when too much is too much.

Let’s take a look at some of the things that will affect your site…

1. Link Velocity-  This is the term that is used that describes how quickly you build backlinks.  If you build too quickly, then you will risk getting penalized (in most cases, your site is sandboxed).  How much is too much?  No one can paint a good picture because only google knows.  Personally, I think that link velocity can change according to niche.  For instance, a breaking news story can generate hundreds of links very quickly.  Would google penalize a site that happens to be breaking the story?  Probably not.  However, if your dog training site is getting 100’s of links a day, then it would look pretty suspicious.
2. How the site links to you- A typical SEO will tell you to anchor your keyword and give a few variations to mix it up.  But really….is that really natural behavior when webmasters link to each other?  Probably not.  If you are manipulating back links, then it would be a better strategy to mix in a few “click here now” and http://yoursite.com with your regular anchor text.
3. Backlinks and patterns-  Once you figure out that you can gain ranking by having high PR sites back link to you, then it is only smart to go after the high ranking sites and ignore the low PR sites, right?  Right?  Well, probably not.  Once again, it is all about what looks natural.  If your site is getting nothing but high PR backlinks, then you are generating a pattern that will be very identifiable.
4. All of your links are pointing to one page-  Another pattern that is easy to pick up.  You have 300 links to your home page and very few links going anywhere else.  This can be very problematic and let’s face it…it just doesn’t look natural.  I mean, when you think about it, how many times have you referenced another site’s home page?  It would actually seem more natural if your home page had less links going to it.

These are just a few of the things you should consider when building a link profile for your site.  The key here is to keep it looking as natural as possible, even if it isn’t.

 Subscribe in a reader