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FEATURE FOCUS: Part Four A: Link Structureby Bradley Leese, July 31, 2007 In the simplest terms, the Internet is a series of Web pages connected by hyperlinks. A Web site is a component part of the Internet, being both a member of the whole network and an individual group of pages unique unto itself. What search engines attempt to do is aggregate information on individual sites into content groups. Search engines award the Web sites with the most complete subject relevance with high keyword rankings. What factors are taken into consideration when the link structure of a Web site is evaluated? The answer has been well documented, but many important details seem to be lost on even the most thoroughly constructed Web sites. There are three main categories that affect high keywords rankings: inbound linking, outbound linking and internal site linking. Anchor TextThe anchor text directly affects the subject relevancy for all types of linking. As before, we are using Heifer International as our case study for this series. As discussed in the directory structure article, Heifer International chooses text throughout their Web site that fails to address their target audience, thereby making their site relevant for the wrong audience. The main category subjects we recommend are the following: Charity Giving / Individual Giving Celebrity / Philanthropy Estate Planning Governmental Giving World Charities, Africa Charities, Asia Charities Religious Giving / Charity Corporate Giving Fundraising Choosing the most appropriate keyword phrase to use as the anchor text will not only help to improve keyword rankings, but it will increase targeted fundraising to the site by helping to match donors with a worthy cause that meets their interest in giving and social justice. What improving link structure actually does is bring the most relevant audience/visitors to your site. Visitors are much more likely to click on the SERP if it addresses the most relevant keyword phrase. Inbound LinkingThe majority of the Web sites that link to heifer.org use only the company name "heifer international" in the link text, which helps the Web site to rank for the company name and little else. In order to rank for subject related terms, they must update the anchor text of inbound links with high traffic subject relevant keyword phrases.
Inbound linking is perhaps the most well known and discussed of the link structure elements. Despite all the good press, too few Web sites choose the most relevant keyword phrases to use in the link text pointed to their site. You might catch the fallacy in this agreement, which is that Web site owners don't control the text people use to link to them. However, for many charity or nonprofit sites, having a page on your Web site dedicated to instructing visitors on how you prefer to be linked to or even offering an appropriate code snippet would be embraced. Supporters and people interested in spreading the word about your cause are likely to volunteer to add mention of your site to their personal or even company Web site. Web sites can suggest to these people what the most appropriate way to link back might be. Never require certain text but provide options for the creatively challenged. Google has a system that evaluates these inbound links called Google PR or Google PageRank. Despite common misconception that it refers to a "Web page", the score is actually named for Google founder Larry Page. PageRank is the measure Google uses to determine the value or expert status of any Web site. PageRank is displayed within the free Google Tool Bar which can be downloaded at: http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/toolbar/FT3/intl/en/index.html What are the possible factors that Google evaluates to determine the value of an inbound link? Keyword Rich Anchor Text The link "text" should contain appropriate relevant keyword phrases (i.e. charity giving, religious charity). The link text must also match the page subject in order to be considered subject relevant. Relevant Web sites Link to Relevant Categories A relevant Web site linked to the most relevant category on the Web site offers the highest value. A Web site from a subject that has little or no relevance may harm or dilute the link value or overall Web site. Natural Link Acquisition It is important to have other high ranked Web sites pointing links to your site; however, if the only Web sites that link to your site are of expert quality, it may seem artificial or suspicious to search engines. It is more natural to see a variety of new and more established site linking to your site acquired "naturally" over time rather than instantaneously. Ethical Site Relationships Choosing to accept links from other ethical Web sites will have a lasting affect on your Web sites rankings. Choosing sites that deliberately try and boost link popularity through link farms or other schemes to fool the search engines may lead to a drop in rankings or possible search engine penalties. Do not buy links The most important lesson of the last year is to not buy links. Buying links is one of the major tactics that Google is attempting to eradicate from the Internet and may lead to severe penalties. Outbound LinkingLinks out to other Web sites or out of your Web site are called outbound links and are by far the least understood link structure elements. Often the drive to build inbound link campaigns dominates link structure projects while outbound linking remains ignored and misunderstood. Companies specifically express concern that they will likely lose traffic and customer sales if they link their site to other relevant information, products or services. However valid these concerns might be, most sites are unaware of the harm failing to link out causes to their search engine rankings. The effort devoted to building inbound links is only effective when balanced with appropriate outbound linking that is evaluated through the same type of keyword focus factors.
Outbound Anchor Text The anchor text that points away to another site must be evaluated with the same scrutiny given to inbound links. Evaluating the competition is critical to understanding why a site has high keyword rankings. The keywords phrases should reflect the same type of keywords that the site is trying to rank for. Relevant Compatible Web sites In order to pass on subject relevance it isn't necessary to link to direct competitors; rather choose compatible or related Web site subjects. Often subject experts are education-related sites, as well as other compatible services that complement, rather than confuse or confiscate users. Do Not Sell Links Finally, mind the warning and do not sell links to other sites. This practice, no matter how tempting, can be met with search engine penalties and possible complete Web site bans that will remove the Web site from the search engine. Internal Site LinkingPossibly the least understood factor is building subject relevance using the navigation and on-page elements of your Web site. Arrange the main subjects in most rational manner in order to build subject relevance. Organize menus to categorize the sites content and categories.
Heifer.org - Google cached text: This is the text that the search engine sees when it strips away images and graphic elements. The positive spin is that all the links can be followed and that the site is readily indexable. The negative evaluation is that the link structure does little to clarify the Web site main subjects.
Hierarchical Top Level and Sublevel Navigation As mentioned above the menus are thoroughly indexable; however, the menus do not help to classify the main subjects which should be: Charitable Giving, Philanthropy, Wills and Estate Planning, Non-Profit Organizations, World Charities, Church Fundraiser, Corporate Responsibility and Fundraising Ideas. These should replace the top level navigation elements:
Charitable Giving | Philanthropy | Wills and Estate Planning | Non-Profit Organizations | World Charities | Church Fundraiser | Corporate Responsibility Fundraising Ideas The sub navigation elements to support the types of subjects that support the main category in this example let's replace "Give" with "Philanthropy."
Menu items should support the subject that they link to drawing link relevance directly to subject relevance. For example, Corporate Responsibility and Individual Giving subjects are not compatible except in the loosest sense. Cross linking When inner linking throughout the site link like subjects together and divide unrelated categories. Use the link structure to channel relevance and be aware not to interlink subjects that break down or dilute subject themes. Rel="NoFollow" Add the rel="nofollow" attribute to eliminate passing PR when linking two subjects. This will allow unrelated pages to link to each other without confusing the subject relevance. A rel="nofollow" removes the PR relationship between two or more pages. Possible Alternatives to remove excessive navigation or cross linking When it is impossible to remove menus that contradict subject relevant categories, instead use technology to block the search engine spiders indexing of those specific elements and maintain quality subject relevance.
Striking a balance between these three elements of Link Structure including Inbound and Outbound Linking and Internal Site linking will serve to create maximum subject relevancy. Learning to control subject relevance requires a firm understanding of your subject and who you choose to include in your link network.
Link Structure best resembles a delicate ecosphere. Successful highly ranked sites carefully balance external and internal links to build maximum subject relevancy. In the article above we have discussed the nature of that balance from a wide angle perspective. Next time we'll take a closer look by changing viewpoints and further examine internal link structure elements including landing pages, menus and an examination of cross linking. For permission to reprint or reuse any materials, please contact us. To learn more about our authors, please visit the Bruce Clay Authors page. Copyright 2007 Bruce Clay, Inc. |
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