Part 6 – Offpage Search Engine Optimization II
In the last article, we talked about how getting high quality links from
authoritative websites in your field can boost your search engine rankings.
This
time, we’re going to explore further linking strategies, and how to
determine and obtain “high quality” links. We’re also going to talk briefly
about Google’s PageRank.
First, let’s examine a regular link. It’s a piece of text (or image, but
we’re going for text) that links to your blog, and some of the factors that
matter are
1)
The address which it links to
2) The text of the
link
3) The PageRank of the
page on which the link resides
Let’s analyze this information one by one. First, you’d naturally want
the link to link to your blog, but to which page of your blog?
To an individual
post or to your blog’s home page?
Since your blog is a constantly updated
website, it is always wise to accumulate all the links to point to your main page
instead of individual posts because they tend to be very time-sensitive.
The text of the link also affects your rankings for a certain keyword. Assume, for example, that your blog is about technology and that a link on another website titled “Barbie dolls” points to your blog.
Doesn’t make much sense,
right?
If a lot of links that link to your site contain the terms
“technological” or “gadget”, it will greatly boost your rankings for those
keywords. Because of this, you should be thoughtful when asking other webmasters for links since you want them to link to your site using relevant keywords.
Now, about Google’s PageRank. It’s basically a scale set by Google to
measure the popularity of websites. You can read more about it at http://www.google.com/technology/.
It’s noteworthy to note that Google’s robots will visit a website more frequently to index it if its PageRank is higher. Naturally, a page’s PageRank will also contribute to its higher ranking in Google’s search engine results. In short, having a high PageRank will bring you many benefits
SEO-wise.
Your blog will start with no PageRank (which is different from targeted PageRank 0)
because Google has not yet indexed your blog. Your blog will display a PageRank of o when Google’s robots discover it through links on other websites; but, over time, its PageRank will increase based on the PageRank of the referring page.
Acquiring high-quality connections to your blog can help it become more visible to targeted readers interested in your niche, make it easier for search engines to find and index it, and eventually help it rank higher in search results.
