PageRank & How to Get It:
Part 2

First Published: July 2004
Last Update: July 2004
Author: Bob Wakfer

Accumulating Backlinks

The title of my first article was Google PageRank & How to Get It. I thought I answered the "how to get it" question by indicating in the chart, that accompanied that article, how many backlinks, or inbound links (IBL), are needed from various PageRank (PR) level sites to achieve a desired PR. For instance the chart indicated that you can achieve a PR6 with either 101 links from PR5 pages or one link from a PR8 page. However, several readers wrote me and said that I had not answered the "how to get it" question. What they wanted was an explanation, or tutorial, on how to accumulate the necessary number of backlinks. This article will attempt to explain the various techniques that can be used to accumulate backlinks.

Internal Backlinks and Navigation.

Backlinks are normally thought of as links from outside or external sites. However it must be remembered that Google also counts internal links or navigational links within the site as part of the PR calculation. So let's take a minute and deal with that first.

Google uses a program known as the googlebot to crawl, or read, web page content. The most important thing to remember about internal navigation is that the googlebot must be able to read and follow the links. The googlebot cannot do this if the links are exclusively javascript or some other non html scripting or programming language.. The best links for the googlebot are straightforward text links. Images can be used as links, but alt tags should always be used in conjunction with these image links. If you are simply in love with the mouse over, drop down navigation that you can program with javascript then you must also supply the googlebot with text link that it can read.

This is normally done by placing simple text links across the bottom of the each page, or on large sites with many interior pages or sections, by the use of a site map.

Assuming that the googlebot can find and follow a link to every internal page how do we maximize the PageRank that is generated by these pages? Normally our initial concern is to transfer as much PR as possible to our home page. The way that this is done is to make sure that there is a Google readable link on every page pointing back to the home page. If you use a site map there should also be a text link on every page pointing to the site map.

I haven't got the space to go into all the other nuances of internal linking, but rather than try to link to every page from the home page, it is best to link only to the major category pages. The category pages will then link to all of the individual pages in their category and these third level pages will all link back to their category page as well as the home page and site map as mentioned above. This general hierarchical structure will transfer the highest PR possible to the home page and site map, and the next highest level of PR to the category pages.

How to Get External Backlinks

Finally we arrive at the part of the article the readers were really asking for. There are an unlimited number of ways to accumulate IBL or backlinks. Here are the four most common ways:

1. List your site in as many Directories as possible
2.  Engage in a reciprocal linking campaign
3.  Buy backlinks
4.  Write newsletters or articles and get them published on other sites or in your own blog.

Some purists advocate a fifth way of accumulating links. They maintain that if your page has enough outstanding content that people will put up links as a service to their viewers without asking for, or demanding, a link back in return. That is certainly possible for some types of sites, but is not generally a viable method for competitive commercial web sites.

Submit to Directories.

There are many directories, both paid submission and free, where you can submit your site. The most famous is probably the DMOZ directory, however be prepared for a long wait to get into this directory. Many of the other directories like GoGuides, Joeant, Gimpsy and the brand new Bluefind will charge you about $40 as a submission fee. Then of course there is Yahoo who will charge you $300 just to review your site with no guarantee of inclusion.

Depending on your market place and demographics there may be many regional, local or industry specific directories available. Some are free and others have a nominal inclusion fee.

Reciprocal Links

Let's deal with the objection that some people have to reciprocal links. Some "experts" claim that Google devalues reciprocal links. I don't believe this, but rather than attempt to tell you why I would rather refer you to this article written by a leading link building expert.

So how can you find people who are willing to exchange links with you? One of the simplest ways is to search in Google for your prime keywords. Then do a "search within results" for all the pages that contain "add your URL" or "add your link". The other variation on this is to do a link: search on the top 10 or 20 pages. This will show you all the pages that link to these sites. You can then contact the webmasters of these sites and ask them to exchange links with you.

If you are really serious about reciprocal linking you may want to use some software that will help you organize and monitor your links. As part of managing a reciprocal linking program you need constantly to be checking for dead links from your site, and to verify that all the reciprocal links from other sites are up and running. The software I use for this purpose is LinksManager.

Buy Backlinks.

There are a number of sites that will sell you links. Some people are hottified at this thought, but I see no difference between buying links and online advertising. If you pay to have a banner displayed on a busy web site you are also buying a link.

It is possible to buy individual links, or to buy what are known as "run of the site" links. These are normally text links from every page on the site. An entire industry has grown up around link buying. There is an auction site dedicated exclusively to buy and selling links and there are several link brokers and re sellers on the Internet.

Anchor Text

To get the maximum return for your investment make sure that you use your prime keyword phrases as anchor text in all your IBL. This practice should even be employed with internal links. Try and exchange link with sites that are related in content and theme to your own site. This may mean that you will have to link to your competitors upon some occasions.

Articles, Newsletters etc.

If you want to have links from relevant and related pages without linking to a competitor the easiest way to accomplish this is to write an article, or a series of articles, about your industry or market niche, and link to your site from these. There are many people who are looking for, and will publish, good articles. SitePro News is one example of this. I also publish a collection of articles in my InfoPool, and am always looking for new articles and good content.

Link Building is Hard Work

There is no free lunch when it comes to link building. With the possible exception of purchasing links, accumulating and managing an aggressive linking campaign is continuous hard work. However, experience has shown that if you want to place well in the SERPs for competitive search terms you really have no other choice.

Addendum:

Since I wrote this article I have become aware of two exciting new linking opportunities.

The first is a free Ad Network designed and operated by the Shawn at DigitalPoint, the home of so many excellent SEO tools. The Ad Network is a network of web site owners who are displaying banners and text links for each other in available space on their web sites. If you are interested in investigating and using this interesting link exchange service here is a link to the Ad Network

The other service is a paid service out of England offered by BriteCorp. For 79.95 British pounds per month (approximately $140 US) Brian of BriteCorp will create 50 new links a day for you. This is a approximately 1,500 per month or 10,000 over six months. 

In addition to these two there is brand new directory called SevenSeek. Be sure to submit your web sites to this exciting new directory.

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