| By :
Steve Weber
Search engine optimization is a multi-step and long-term process which helps your website pages rank well in the search engines. One of the most important aspects of search engine optimization is the process of linking. In this article I'll discuss the various forms of linking in the proper methods required for ensuring good placement in the search engines. First of all, it's important that the linking structure, or we may call it the navigation system, of a website is simple, straightforward, and easy for the search engines to navigate. If the linking structure is not clear to the search engines as they index the site they may very well miss many of the site's pages leaving them out other index. Using images or fancy drop down menu structures for displaying the site's navigation system is often very unfriendly to the search engines as they spider the site. It's important to use simple, text only, links when building the navigation for the site. These text links should be keyword rich with phrases and words which described the landing page they point to. Google, for instance, places much emphasis on the anchor text within these links. Next we'll talk about intra-linking within the website itself. Most people overlook this very important aspect of search engine optimization is a build their site. It's simply not enough to have a redundant navigation system displayed on each page. Every page of content needs to have one or several links within that content linking to other pages of content on the site. This is called intra-site linking. Linking in this way makes it extremely easy for the search engines to not only find all the pages that place those pages correctly in their index as the additional blanks with keyword rich anchor text help them identify the topics of each page. Webmasters should develop a plan for ensuring that all pages on their site are intra-linked together. In fact, Google Webmaster tools has a feature built into it that allows webmasters to identify just how many intra-links there are to the various pages on the site. This is an awesome tool site owners can use for making sure they have performed their linking correctly within the site. Back linking is the next form we will discuss. This is probably the single most important aspect of search engine optimization today. Google's page rank algorithm is built around the quality and quantity of back links pointing to give sights and pages on the Internet. All things being equal, pages which have better quality and higher quantity back links will rank better in the search engines than those pages with fewer. In the beginning, site owners should get as many back links as possible by performing article submissions and social bookmarking submissions. These are some of the best ways for building these links in the beginning. As the site gets developed and becomes more valuable in the eyes of other site owners on the Internet. Natural back links will become more common as other webmasters wish to wait to other sites with great content. Linking from your site to other websites should be done with caution. Some of the page rank value will be lost for a given page with each off-site link. Sometimes it is important to link outside of the site in order to assist visitors. If the link required goes to a site that is very unrelated in content, a no follow tag should be added to the link thereby informing the search engines that this site is not vouching for the other site. This will prevent any loss of page rank value to the site.
|
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.articlesbacklink.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
