Why Link Building is Important:
Search engines can not determine the quality of a document without feedback. To date, linkage data from across the web has been the best form of feedback for the major search engines to use. Search engines may use other feedback, but linkage data is their relevancy backbone.
Some engines also manually edit their relevancy, but by and large most documents rank or do not rank primarily because of linkage data.
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Link Building Research, Algorithms, & Patents:
- Google
Temporal Patent -
- you want to build links:
- over time
- from a variety of types of sites
- from various C block IP addresses (sites are hosted on something like aa.bb.ccc.ddd. If a, b, and c are the same then the site is on the same C block IP address.)
- using various anchor text
- only build links in bursts when there is an associated increase in news and search volume about that topic.
- pages which are not changing and are losing links quicker than gaining them may be stale pages that need to be ranked lower
- links which come and go quickly will not be as valuable as those which are in place for a period of time.
- pages which change frequently or continue to acquire links are considered fresh
- Google may also be using user feedback to help improve search relevancy.
- additional coverage of the patent here and here
- you want to build links:
- Topic Specific PageRank (PDF) - on topic links are a good thing.
- Hilltop - if search engines find nepotistic links they will likely de weight them. also the community that site is in, the links pointing to the page your link is on, the page headings, subheadings, page titles, and links near yours may count significantly in determining the value of your link.
- The PageRank Citation Ranking & The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine - Google's original technology. Many filters and other algorithms are now likely laid over the top. PageRank in and of itself no longer is as important as it was a while ago.
- Topic Distillation (PDF) - explains Teoma's search technology.
- MicroSoft Block Rank (PDF) - algorithm breaks pages into blocks. links in content may eventually be worth more than links off in corners hidden near many other ads.
General resource sites / pages:
- Google Labs Papers
- Yahoo! Research Labs
- MicroSoft Research - Text Mining Search and Navigation Research
- IBM Research
- Google Directory Google Research Papers
Sites about Link Building:
- Linking Matters - free report about link building (PDF). Also offers link building services.
- Link Building Knowledge Base - Andy Hagans' single page link building resource which is formatted a bit like UseIt.
- Linking 101 - Larry Sullivan's linking resource site.
Places to Get Links:
Sponsor:
- Directories
- Yahoo!
- DMOZ
- Directories of directories:
- Directory Archives
- Search Engine Guide - lists search engines and directories.
- ISEDB
- Directory List
- GrackleFish
- Strongest Links - single page directory list with sortable stats.
- write press releases and submit them to sites like PR Web
- write articles and publish them on other sites
- create compelling content that people would want to link at
- be controversial or unique
- create news
- trade links
- trade articles
- sponsor sites or events
- buy ads
Link Building & Link Analysis Tools:
- Link Harvester - free tool on this site :) ... allows deep database querying of the Yahoo! Search database via the Yahoo! API. Tool gives unique IP addresses, unique linking domains, number of indexed pages, number of .edu and .gov backlinks. On top of doing all of those features it is the only link tool on the market which specifically specializes in allowing you to easily and quickly query beyond the Yahoo! 1,000 search result limit.
- Hub Finder - free tool looks for co occurring backlinks.
- Backlink Analyzer - free tool which does anchor text analysis. Optilink & SEO Elite are somewhat similar, but sell for about $150 - $200.
- Xenu Link Sleuth - free downloadable software checks for broken links on your site and creates a site map.
- MarketLeap - tool records the number of backlinks to a site using various search databases. The overall number can be a bit misleading since some of the known links are going to be duplicated in various search databases.
- CheckYourLinkPopularity - free downloadable software similar to MarketLeap's tool.
- OptiLink - the original link reputation analysis software. Performs anchor text analysis. Also provides sortable results that can be sorted by IP address, URL, page name, link text, or PageRank. Costs $224.
- Seo Elite - link analysis tool similar to OptiLink. Is newer and has more features than OptiLink. Costs $167.
- Arelis - reciprocal link directory management software.
- Link Vault - free static cooperative ad / text link trading program.
- Coop Ad Network - free dynamic cooperative ad / text link trading program.
- Link it Forward - link trading network where you get credits for linking to some sites and can redeem those credits by asking for links on other sites in the program. This is a non reciprocal link exchange network.
- Link Explore - software charges a $29 - $49 monthly subscription. Site also has a database of a few thousand site owners interested in exchanging links. Be careful for the hype newsletter that tries to get you to sign up to be an affiliate or buy other stuff through affiliate links.
Link Building Services:
- Alliance Link - Debra Mastaler is a well known link building expert.
- Andy Hagans - Smart internet consultant and link builder who sells his link building services at rates far lower than I think he should.
- WeBuildPages - Jim Boykin runs an SEO firm which well understands the importance of linking. Jim is a kick ass link builder.
- Text Link Ads - Patrick Gavin is a well known link broker.
- Link Strategy - Dirk Johnson's link building services and resource.
- URLWire - Eric Ward is a well known site announcement expert.
- Harvest SEO - Michael Turner "neuron" specializes in bulk outsourced low price link building.
- SEO PR - Specializes in link building and site promotion via public relations and news releases