Chapter 15. Understanding the Role of Links and Linking
IN THIS CHAPTER
How links affect SEO
How links and linking work
The basics of link building
Using internal links
Link trading strategies
Using RSS feeds
Free links vs. buying links
Avoiding deceitful linking practices
Judging the effectiveness of your links
During the early days of the Internet, before it began to interest the general public, there were two ways to get around in it. You either had to have the URL of the page that you wanted to reach or someone had to send you a link to it. There were no search engines to help you find what you wanted.
Even though we have powerful search engines today to help us find information on the Web, linking from one page to another is still a powerful tool for helping users find your site. Links can also group together sites that are relevant, giving visitors additional options for the information they seek. Links, when used well on your site, also give you more leverage with search engines than a site without links might have.
How you populate your web site with links will determine how useful they are in improving your search engine rankings. This method is called a link strategy. There is a fine art to creating a linking strategy, however. It's not enough just to sprinkle a few links here and there within the pages of your site. There are different types of links that register differently with search engines, and it's even possible for your site to be completely delisted from search results if ...
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