SEO Basics - Good Link, Bad Link

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Your link profile is potentially the most powerful aspect of your SEO efforts, especially in the eyes of Google. Quality counts over quantity, but it is important to get a good list of well-balanced links pointing to your site. Diversification really is the key. Try not to concentrate all of your efforts on gaining links from one source, and similarly try not to gain them using a single method. A number of tactics should be avoided wherever possible because they either offer you no benefit whatsoever or your page may be penalized.

This article looks at the acquisition of links purely from an SEO standpoint and, aside from the really bad linking methods, if a link will provide good-quality, direct traffic then it is definitely still a good link and well worth considering. You will have to use your judgment on this, to a certain extent.

Good Links

Directory Links: Directories are viewed as being a very positive source of links by a number of search engines. Obviously, some directory listings carry much more weight than others and some directories are hardly worth the effort. Be careful to drip feed your site with directory links at first because it is possible that too many too quickly will see your site penalized until your link profile becomes more natural.

Start with the major Internet directories and consider getting links from free general topic directories as well as niche directories and also look at paying for inclusion in one or two of the seriously large directories like the Yahoo directory and business.com. As your link profile expands you can add more directories to gain extra weight.

Reciprocal Links: You may have read that reciprocal linking is dead. While it is true that Google and possibly other search engines now place much less weight on a profile that is crammed with nothing but reciprocal links they still have a place. Keep the number of reciprocal links you use down to a minimum and certainly don't base your entire link building efforts on this one tactic alone.

Again, balance is a big part of reciprocal linking but also of importance is relevance. Regardless of whether you offer a separate links or resources page, or you choose to include the links throughout your site you are still essentially endorsing the site. You will also gain much more credence from a link that is placed on a page containing information relevant to your own page.

Unique One-Way Inbound Links: These should pretty much be the staple diet of your link portfolio. An inbound link that is one way does not necessitate the inclusion of a link back to that page on your site. This can help to give your own pages the benefit instead of handing it out to your link partners. The more relevant and the more important that search engines deem the linking site to be the more weight they give that particular link.

Site Wide Links: Again, these should be used sparingly. Gaining a site wide link means that a link to your site or your pages is placed on a number of pages in a site. Search engines are known to give less weight to links that are procured on this basis but it does help to give your portfolio a more rounded appearance.

Press Release Links: Writing and submitting a digital press release can provide good links. Many press releases are used by other sites and industries related to your site and they may also be included on some major news websites. There are free press release distribution services available, but it is common to need t pay to make the link clickable and to use anchor text.

Article Links: Writing and submitting articles to article directories can provide a large number of links. Not only can you submit one article to numerous directories but each directory has the potential of generating a number of interested websites. These websites also publish your article (which includes an author bio section with your link). This can be a good way to get authoritative sites to link to you.

Community Links: Join forums and include your link in your signature. Post useful comments on other people's blogs and include your link as your username. You should, under no circumstances, spam blogs or forums and only include links on the sites that allow it.

Presell Advertising Pages: Some websites will allow you to include an entire page on their site. In most cases you will either need to pay to have the page written or you, or write the page yourself. Generally the website will also include other forms of advertising but as long as you choose sites carefully this can generate some excellent links.

Bad Links

FFA Sites: An FFA, or Free-For-All page, is one that allows anybody to post any link they like on the page. Typically they are not only useless to your cause, because the search engines ignore them, but they will not generate any natural traffic but may attract the spammers to your doors.

Link Farms: A link farm is a page that contains an excessively large number of links. Some say a page with 100 links directed out of that page is a link farm, but in all honesty it is unlikely that a page will yield much benefit for SEO or non-SEO with more than fifty or so links.

Off Topic: Off topic links are something of a bone of contention. They may offer very slight weight with some search engines because it is quite possible that natural links from certain websites would point to any number of pages on any topic. This appears in the bad link section because they offer very little positive benefit and your efforts would be best placed gaining on-topic links.

Unindexable: Purely from an SEO standpoint, links that cannot be indexed by search engines are completely useless. A search engine spider must be able to follow the link to find your page and provide you with any benefit for that link. Avoid any page that offers to display your link in a frame, or includes the noindex or nofollow robots.txt tags. However, bear in mind that a site that is currently not being indexed by search engines may be a new site. It could also grow up to be the next Google.com and take your link with it.

Conclusion:
Your link profile should appear as natural as possible so vary the good links as much as possible and avoid the bad links. Collect links from as many sources using as many tactics as possible and use keyword variants in your anchor text. By following these guidelines you should be able to improve the appearance of your link profile and, therefore, improve your search engine rankings.

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About the Author: WebWiseWords is a web content writer and is also establishing theseoglossary.com to help those that want to conduct their own SEO. The site includes definitions, articles, resources, and tools as well as SEO tutorials.

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High Performer Series: Appliancepartspros.com

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Roman Kagan has built a successful niche business selling hard-to-find appliance parts to do-it-yourself types around the country. The site was launched in 1999 featuring about 300 products and in seven years has grown to showcase more than 1 million parts for 170,000 appliance models. Along the way, the business has grown to about $5 million in annual sales with the site having about 150,000 unique visitors per month.

Why sell appliance parts?
I first had the idea of selling appliance parts online in 1997 while working for a local parts distributor and right after I placed my first order with Amazon. It was not until the end of 1999 that our first order was shipped. It took me about a month to make the first version of our site. There was no shopping cart. Orders were placed through a contact form. It's funny and maybe a little embarrassing looking back now, but I was very proud of it at the time.

What was it like for you in the early days with the business?
I was also working as an appliance technician back then. I would print out the orders from the site in the morning and then, during my lunch break, I would stop by my local parts store to fill them. Then on to UPS to ship them out. I did this for a couple of years.

In 2002, I was better prepared both mentally and financially to get more serious with the business. I quit my job, rented a small warehouse and hired a programmer. We began to work on the new version of the site.

A 16-hour work day was the norm, and I am very thankful for my wife's support and understanding. She's a very talented person and besides holding a full time job, she was (and still is) taking care of the financial aspect of the business, something I am really not good at. Everything we did was through trial and error and by watching and studying the "big shots" like Amazon. We spent countless hours trying to figure out the reason behind every aspect of their business and their websites. We took their sites for a spin, placing test orders to see how their system worked. It was an interesting process and I think we've learned a lot from it.

When you redesigned the site in 2002, what did you change?
It took about four months to finish the new site. We were very excited and anxious to see the results. We finally had a shopping cart. In addition, the site offered a searchable database of almost 1 million parts for about 170,000 appliance models, near real-time inventory, "my account" features and order tracking. There was also a pretty powerful backend program.

But as the new site was near its completion, I knew this was only the beginning. More functionality was needed, things to make it easier for both us and our customers. I also knew that it would take time and money, and I did not want to get stuck in the never-ending development stage.

So, the decision was made to launch the site, begin to acquire market share, gain experience and plan for the future. As the business began to grow, I was fortunate enough to convince my friend, Matt, to join the company. We used to work together for an appliance parts distributor some years back. He's one of the most knowledgeable people in the industry, but more importantly, he is someone I can trust and rely on completely.

Did you design the site yourself or hire a designer?
I designed every version of our site and our developer wrote all the script. I plan to have a professional designer in on the next version, but I assure you, I will be greatly involved in the process. After all, it is my baby.

Do you sell at online locations other than your website?
We haven't tried any channels other than our site. We do have a fairly large number of affiliates. More focus will be put on growing our affiliate program and utilizing shopping comparison sites in 2007.

How do you market your store?
We use pay-per-click extensively. In the beginning I was setting up and managing campaigns myself, and I'm probably pretty good at it. But then again, I was trying to do everything myself, because I didn't have money to hire someone, and because I didn't trust anyone.

I found that it's a very lonely and, more importantly, a slow way to grow your business. Now, I try to outsource as much as possible, I just make sure that I spend the time to find the best company or person for the job. We now have a reputable firm taking care of our pay-per-click campaigns, and I couldn't be happier. Traffic is up, while cost-per-click is down. Can't ask for much more.

Do you incorporate any email marketing?
One of the biggest mistakes I've made is not paying attention to email marketing. Lesson learned. This year, it will be a big part of our marketing efforts.

How does Appliance Parts Pros distinguish itself from other companies in the marketplace?
I think the main difference between us and our competition is that we have always put our customers and their repair problems first. Every business is out there to make money and be profitable. However, there are different approaches. It's always been my belief to do your best to take care of the customer, and the financial rewards will follow. And, I've yet to be proven wrong.

Do you manufacture any of your products?
We do not manufacture any product. Instead we sell the highest-quality, original appliance parts.

How do you acquire products for so many older appliances?
I think it takes a certain knowledge and experience and a willingness to go the extra mile. It is very easy to tell the customer, "Sorry, it's not available‚" especially when there is really not much demand for those old parts.

However, that's not the case when your business model calls for putting the customer first. So we make sure that first, we know what your 1950 O'Keefe & Merritt stove uses, and second, we make our suppliers stock it.

Do you offer a catalog of products?
We find that because of the nature of our business it would not be very helpful to publish a catalog. Most parts are model-specific, and our site does a very good job of locating the right part. We may be publishing a catalog for some of our wholesale customers though — for example, apartment maintenance companies or hardware stores.

What types of software/technology have you deployed to improve customer experiences?
We've been using live chat since 2002. It is very effective and our customers love it.

Our part search is extremely functional. By entering your appliance model, you will see it broken down by categories, with breakdown diagrams and a parts list for each category. This makes finding the right part very easy. Our customers tell us it takes them 3-5 minutes to find what they're looking for, less time than it takes just to sit on hold trying to contact the manufacturer or a local parts store.

Our cross-reference database is very powerful as well. Manufacturers may change part numbers for a part 10-12 times in 20 years. Let's say you take a part number off your 20-year-old dryer timer and put it in our part number search. It will go through every change and bring back the most current and correct information. I've been told that part distributors across the country are using our search on a regular basis.

What shopping cart do you use?
We built our own shopping cart. It made sense, since we built the rest of the site ourselves. However, I know there are excellent shopping cart scripts out there and I wouldn't think twice about using one of them under different circumstances.

Is search engine optimization a priority for your site?
SEO is a very high priority to us, especially with extremely high pay-per-click costs. ‚"White hat" SEO is the only way to go. It may be more difficult and it may take much longer to achieve good results, but it makes much more sense to be patient and see great results long term than to try to get results overnight — only to see your site banned from the search engines.

Also, find a reputable SEO company or person and pay them what they want. Don't even ask for a discount. One hundred thousand dollars a year? Fine. Just make sure they are good.

Any particular struggles in the early days you can share that can serve as an inspiration to young companies building a business?
I think the most important thing is to stay focused. Plan everything out, then work according to your plan. Do not expect quick results. Something you do today may not bring any results until six months from now. This is especially true with SEO and bringing traffic to your site. It can get a little frustrating, so telling yourself to be patient and stay focused will help greatly.

I found that there are a lot of advice- and opinion-givers out there, whether you asked for it or not. And, more often than not, their opinion and advice are based on their experiences and set of mind. Obviously, there are a lot more losers than winners out there, people that had given up but need to justify their failure to everyone in a form of an advice. They may actually think they're trying to help you.

I can't tell you how many times I've been told to quit, get a job, do something this way or that way, and that's from people who never owned a business or achieved any success. You may be the type that likes to hear things like that, if only to prove them wrong, but I prefer to keep away and stay focused instead. I've been very lucky, though, to have a supportive wife and parents.

Were there any mentors that helped you along the way?
Back when I was working for a local parts distributor, my manager, Dan Doti, really taught me a lot both about the parts business and, more importantly, how to run a store. I was 18 to 19 years old and foolish at the time, and I really didn't have any business discipline or knowledge. He really helped me a lot with that and showed me the ropes. Most of the things that helped me with this business I probably picked up from him. He's been in the parts business for a long time, and I really appreciate what he's done. I probably couldn't have done it without him.

What advice would you give to an ecommerce novice trying to decide which direction to take?
Take care of your customers. Be honest with them. They will spread the word and be your best sales team. Don't give up. The Internet is a wonderful thing. With so many opportunities, I wouldn't dream of doing business any other way.

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