Starting a Business | SEO & Google

The Importance of In-bound Links

Once it worked like this: I've got a website, you've got a website, let's reciprocally link. Now this won't help either of you. The rules have most definitely changed!

In-bound is king

People abused the system and now we're all being punished. I should no longer mention a friend's or a favoured business contact's website on my site unless it has a direct relevance to the content of my own site. Gone are the days where you'd click on a 'links' page and see a cornucopia of interesting, sassy and amusing sites - why? Well, if a site is still playing this game, it is likely to be penalised. Therefore it's in the site owner's best interest to remove all links that don't positively affect his or her own rankings. That means getting rid of the chaff and actively seeking and encouraging the great and the good. So, who are the good?

PageRank

There is some slight confusion over this name. Whilst, in effect, it means the rank of your web page or website, the actual name derives from Larry Page, one of Google's founders. He created an algorithm to assign a numerical value to a website or page - essentially designed to promote relevance, authority and clear meaning. This numerical value (expressed as a figure between 0 and 10) reflects the popularity of a website and its 'usefulness', which incorporates a number of defining factors, but let's concentrate on the relevance of links here.

What about out-bound?

This certainly shouldn't be your focus, but there's concentrating on making your site search-engine friendly and there's offering your users something value-added and providing a service. If you are selling a product and feel that adding a link to the manufacturer or a fan site or any other site will benefit your own, then your quest to make your site search-engine friendly shouldn't become a neurotic obsession. Include the link; your primary customer is your human user, not the Googlebot. Remaining search-engine friendly is, of course, important - but if you can enrich the life of your user, and help them feel comfortable with the information you provide, they're more likely to buy your product or service, or link to you. This is what will make your website a success, not Google.

Here's an idea for you

Download the Google Toolbar from www.google.com/tools/firefox/toolbar and if you're not using Firefox as your web browser, simply type 'Google Toolbar' into Google. It will then reply with the correct URL depending on your browser. Google's Toolbar will offer you a number of tools, but most importantly will display the PageRank of any given page you are visiting. Examples of sites with a high PageRank are www.bbc.co.uk and www.google.co.uk (no surprise there!). For a hardcore explanation into the mathematics and algorithm behind Google's PageRank check out this listing on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank


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