Links were the first major factor in the “off-page” ranking (External SEO optimization) used by search engines. Google was not the first search engine that considered links to be “votes,” but it was the first search engine that heavily used link analysis as a way to increase relevancy.
Despite the chatter around other signals, links along with content remain the most important external signal for Google search rankings. But, as you will find, some links are more valuable than others.
Call quality
If you were sick, what would you trust more, the advice of five doctors or 50 random people who offered their advice as you walked down the street?
If you did not have a really bad experience with doctors, you would probably trust the advice of doctors. Even if you get fewer tips, they will come from experts. The quality of their opinions is better, therefore they have more weight.
This works the same with search engines. They will count all links pointing to websites (except for those blocked by nofollow or other methods), but they do not count them all the same way. They give more weight to links that are considered better.
What is a quality link? You will recognize them when you see them. A link from any major reputable site will be higher on a quality scale than a link that you can get by commenting on a blog. In addition, links from sites that are directly related to your site may also be of greater importance.
Link text
The words in the link — link text or “anchor text” —are perceived by search engines as the way one site describes another. It’s as if someone is pointing to you in real life and says “books” and declares you an expert on this topic.
You often cannot control the words that people use to refer to you, so take advantage of your ability to influence the anchor text within reason.
Ln: Number of links
Many sites have found that getting a large number of links can lead to success in SEO. Especially if you get a lot of links from different sites. All things being equal, 1000 links from one site will mean much less than 1000 links from 1000 sites.
The number of links used to be much more important, but their value was steadily decreasing, as search engines learned to better evaluate the quality of links.
Tactics such as viral link collection campaigns, icons and widgets can be effective in protecting a large number of links, and even search engine representatives have suggested these methods.
But in search of links, do not run automated software and do not start sending spam blogs. In many ways, this is bad.
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