Linking is very important, as we mentioned, probably not as important is used to be, but it still needs to play a big part of your overall SEO strategy. Google still rates links pointing to your site depending on relevance, content and page rank, so it is very important that you choose where you ask for your link to be placed, even down the page on which the link is placed.
There are a few types of links, but the ones below are probably some of the most important types when it comes to link building campaigns for your site.
One Way – One way links are pretty much what they say on the tin. It is where Site A links to you, but you offer no link back to them. This is often found with directories and articles or press releases.
Reciprocal - This is often called a link exchange or link swap. It is basically where you link to Site A and they link back to you. If you are doing reciprocal linking, try to make sure the sites you are swapping links with are relevant and have some kind of existence.
On-Site - On Site links are links on your site pointing or leading to other pages on your site. These are basically the links you use on your site for navigation.
When embarking on a linking campaign, we sit down with you and work out what you are looking to achieve. We then plan a strategy and begin the work needed to achieve your aims.
It is also important that your links are relevant. For example, if you ran a golf website, your links will be of a much higher value if you have links back from other golf sites and golf related sites. These might include golf directories, golf property sites and golf clubs. If the link pointing to your site is of relevance, i.e. it is related to your theme, the link will be considered of higher value by Google and other search engines.
Link building also has to be done naturally and over a period of time. If you suddenly embark on a quick campaign and end up with a thousand links in Google within a couple of weeks, Google will think this is very unnatural and you may well be penalised for this. All of our campaigns are spread over a period of time, we only try to add to so many links in one go and we feel this makes the campaign look as natural as possible to Google. It is very important to see link building as a long term project and make sure you are trying to get links back in small goes, as trying to cheat the system by buying or adding thousands of links will only back fire.
A great way of getting one way links is to embark on a linking campaign using directories. It is important to try and get links from established and respected directories, but even new directories are usually worth having a link in. Link swaps are nowhere near as effective as they used to be, but swapping links with established and relevant sites is still worth doing.
Paid links have caused a little bit of stir over the past few years. When Page Rank was at its most important, people were buying thousands of links to try and exploit the algorithm, and as such Google has now tried to close this loophole, and quite rightly so in our opinion. However, it is important to remember that paid links can still be beneficial if used effectively.