Building a solid, ranging, and natural link profile is more essential than ever when it comes to optimizing your website to do well in the search engines (and beyond). But what exactly is a link profile?
Well in a nutshell, it’s a big picture of all of the links to and from your site. Not only is it a current snapshot, but it can also go back in history as well. Search engines almost certainly keep a close eye on a site’s link profile for several good reasons. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Reciprocal Links Aren’t Bad — They fit in well with the concept of an organic link profile. It’s natural for a site to have a few reciprocal links here and there. But that said, there’s no current proof that they are as beneficial as they may have been in the past. Keep it relevant with these and all is well.
- Good One-Way Links — Having several good one-way incoming links, often referred to as backlinks, are quite important to your website’s search engine vitality. The concept is that when other relevant, on-topic sites link to your site with no incentive to do so — either in the form of payment or by you giving them a reciprocal link — this should mean that they are naturally recommending your site’s visit-worthiness. One popular source for one-way links would be publishing articles on article directories. Another particularly attractive option would be to obtain an incoming link or two from a .gov or .edu site.
- Varying Anchor Text — It’s the natural thing to do, both for incoming links and outgoing links. This means that using “click here” as the link text every now and then is just as good as using the page’s optimized keyword for anchor text. When anchor text begins to appear too focused and unnatural, your link profile can become suspicious in the eyes of the search engines.
- Don’t Grow It Too Fast — The natural growth pattern of a site’s link profile is slow and steady. A couple new links here, a couple there. If your site was to all of the sudden come up with 100 new incoming links in a day or two, the search engines will definitely be able to tell (and possibly penalize for it).
- Even noFollow Links Add Balance — If it became clear to search engines that your site was only seeking fully weighted incoming links (those that have no restrictions and therefore pass along rank to your page), this is a likely sign that you might be trying to unnaturally influence the search engines. While links that are restricted with the noFollow tag are often ignored because their lack of direct influence, the truth is that the lack of having these links might be damaging as well.
Again, it pays to keep it natural. The more it looks like you’re trying to force links, the more likely it is that the search engines will keep a more scrupulous eye on your site.
Until Next Time.
George Chaney
President/CEO
SEO King, Inc.
