Hello Athack ~
There are many factors which enter into a site's search engine results
pages (SERPs) rankings.
Among those are:
- links to and from a site,
- the quality of a site's content,
- the user-friendliness (and search engine friendliness)
of a site's design
plus many other factors which contribute to how a site's pages rank in
answer to a searcher's query.
You asked specifically about links to your site, which are certainly
important. More weight is given to links from other relevant sites and
sites with relevant material than to links from a mere page of links
or linking schemes (which can be detrimental and get your site
banned), so if you're interested in adding links to your site, you
will have to carefully build them, which takes some time.
Remember, too, that search engines return PAGES, not websites, so you
may actually have a page within your site that ranks higher than your
own index.html (or home page).
===========================
Establishing Links
===========================
Google's PageRank is based on the number of pages which link to your
site. See "Technology Overview"
- ://www.google.com/corporate/tech.html
You will have to establish relevant links TO your site in order to
rank well in Google's index.
There are many practical ways of establishing links which are
beneficial to you in your endeavor to get respectable position
placement on search engines. These methods may take time, but they
also help in establishing credibility and help with your page rank.
Approach like-minded or complementary businesses about linking to your
site (with a reciprocal link from your own). This works without
harming search engine positioning or page rank.
A WORD OF WARNING:
==================
Google specifically warns "Don't participate in link schemes designed
to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid
links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web as your own
ranking may be affected adversely by those links." (See Google's
Quality Guidelines - Basic principles)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
It stands to reason that what's good for Google, currently ranked as
the number one search engine is good rule to follow for other search
engines.
Articles on Link Popularity
===========================
Some excellent articles on how to establish the right kind of links
are available in Traffick's "Ten Steps to Building Links to Your
Site", Craig Fifield - 5/3/2002
- http://www.traffick.com/article.asp?aID=77
Search Engine Watch's "Google PageRank Lunacy" by Mike Grehan, March, 2004,
- http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3319461
and his "Link Equity Explained", available in PDF,
- http://www.search-engine-book.co.uk/LinkEquityExplained.pdf
"Link Building Is Important", which discusses link building from A to
Z and also provides a good reference page with linking resources.
- http://www.linkingmatters.com/WhyLinkingIsImportant.html
The information contained in the above articles offer suggestions
which can be easily adapted for use on any website without resorting
to link farms. The differences in "good links" and those which may be
harmful are discussed, and the articles offer simple ways to get
started to the kind of linking search engines prefer.
========================
Comparison
========================
You mentioned www.helicallap.com in your clarification.
A close look at the Helical Lap site shows a great deal of relevant
content which also contains the terms you listed as search terms. If
you view the source code, you will see the use of menus (although not
really well designed) which link to all pages from every page, and
their "logo" which links to their home page.
This helps in the number of internal links which are added to their
list of links, as Google's search crawler follows and indexes links.
========================
Other Factors
========================
Although you specifically asked about links, I am also including some
additional information which will be of help to you in your SERPs
rankings.
Links are only one factor, though, in how you rank in SERPs. Other
factors (as mentioned above) include good design with proper HTML, and
incorporates the best practices for user-friendliness.
Just as you'd not want to perform surgery on yourself, sometimes it is
best to hire a site designer who knows how to design for the best
marketing, user-friendliness and search engine friendliness to make
your site more effective.
Good designers understand it's not enough to drive traffic to your
site - the key is to drive QUALIFIED traffic to your site - those
visitors which you can turn into customers because you have the right
information and the most effective and compelling information
available - just what he is looking for.
If you look at the www.helicallap.com site's source code they make
effective use of their <title> tags, keyword and description metatags
(for those search engines which DO use them) ... and they include a
simple design with relevant content - all of which help in their
ranking.
==========================================
Important Google Links For Your Reference
==========================================
I am also including important links from Google's site. This
information will help you understand Google's goals and responsibility
to the web searcher (and not the webmaster or site owner).
Webmasters who follow the guidelines and avoid Google's "Thou shalt
nots" usually have no problem getting listed and showing up under the
search terms they desire.
* Google Today (absolutely the best information you
can read about the "how and why" of Google's results
- ://www.google.com/corporate/today.html
* How Do I Get My Site Listed on Google?
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/1.html
* My Web Pages Are Not Currently Listed (a good 'primer'
on how and why Google works so well)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/2.html
* PageRank Information (covers both Google's PageRank and
SERPS)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/4.html
* Webmaster Guidelines (contains both the dos and don'ts)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
* Google Facts & Fiction (can you buy your way to a
high ranking in Google?)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/facts.html
* Search Engine Optimizers (some good advice on what to look
for if you're going to hire a Search Engine Optimizer)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/seo.html
* Frequently Asked Questions (pretty much what it says, but
definitely worth wading through)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/faq.html
* Remove Content from Google's Index (just in case you feel
a burning need to start all over again)
- ://www.google.com/remove.html
================================
Other Sources of Information
================================
There is also good information from many of the top search engine
optimization experts, such as
* Jill Whalen, High Rankings
- http://www.highrankings.com/
* Shari Thurow, Web Pro News (and quoted all over the Internet)
- www.webpronews.com/
* Detlev Johnson, Search Engine Guide
- http://www.searchengineguide.com/detlev/
* Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Watch
- http://www.searchenginewatch.com/
who all have columns or newsletters to which you can subscribe and
keep abreast of the best way to use good content for better
positioning in search engine results.
In addition, Webmaster World - http://www.webmasterworld.com/ - has
discussion boards on most of the search engines. While some of the
discussions are anecdotal and/or questions for information, there is
usually enough discussion to keep abreast of what seems to be
happening.
There is an entire section devoted to Google at:
- http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/
It never hurts to keep track of the discussions; but remember, trying
to optimize for search engines only is like trying to hit a moving
target. You'll notice among the more experienced contributors to the
discussions - plus the SEO experts listed above - that there really is
no substitute for content, relevant links and good HTML.
==================
Summary
==================
You have enough information available on how to build effective links,
which is one factor in how you rank in Google's SERPs.
You should consider hiring a designer to help with your pages to help
boost your own ranking. Effective design builds your own credibility
and turns visitors into customers. Each of those items adds to the
'importance' of your site and makes others want to link to you because
it is a credible site.
Search terms ~
=================
I relied on resources and information which is bookmarked and referred
to regularly in my day to day business.
The above should help to establish links to your site, and I hope you
consider the additional information which will also help.
Regards,
Serenata
Google Answers Researcher |
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