Any search engine optimization campaign involves link building as a major element in attaining top search rankings.
To rank well long term, a SEO must seek out the highest quality links possible and avoid links from bad neighborhoods, low quality sites, and employing other questionable SEO techniques. In the search for links, how does choosing what sites to obtain links from affect rankings?
All links are not created equal. There are regular links and then there are authority links. Regular links are those from average sites that don’t rank well and have poor search engine visibility. Authority site are established, large, well-known sites. Some authority sites may also be the leading non-profit or industry association. Many of these sites will rank organically for their site name at the very least. Truly powerful authority links will rank for a variety of important keywords as well as their site name. Authority sites linking to a site build up search engine credibility and trust – factors in attaining long-term top rankings.
Here’s a quick test to determine authoritativeness of a site:
- Well-known industry leader as provider of news/products/services (eg. Expedia, CNN, Priceline)
- Ranks well for their site name and several important keywords
- High Google PageRank (usually PR6 or higher)
- Domain registered on or before 1999
- Alexa traffic score of less than 100,000
These are just guidelines and do not necessarily exclude sites that are registered after 2000 or has an Alexa traffic score of 101,000.
What about links from .gov and .edu top-level domains (TLDs)? Are these authority as what many SEOs believe?
First realize the .gov domains are extremely difficult to come by. They cannot be bought in the link broker market – at least for now. They can only be earned. Thus, the concept of link reputation.
Let’s take a quick look at some random examples of how these links affect ranking for various keywords searched in Google. Many of these, you’ll find, have .edu backlinks.
Keyword: Football
The site funbrain.com ranks #10 and has staff.edmonds.wednet.edu, sanjuan.edu, sccollege.edu, courses.dsu.edu, www.am.dodea.edu, and teams.lacoe.edu in their top 100 backlinks.
Keyword: Diamond Jewelry
The site jewelrycentral.com ranks #7 and has emporia.edu as a backlink in their top 100.
Keyword: Sales Training
In #3 position, businessballs.com ranks with www.edu.salford.ac.uk and cyber.law.harvard.edu in their top 100 backlinks.
Keyword: Auto Parts
The site car-part.com ranks #8 and in their top 100 backlinks have wright.edu.
Keyword: Phone Cards
At #7, 1stphonecard.com ranks with a number of edu backlinks in their top 100 backlinks namely www.public.iastate.edu, lists.asu.edu, owlnet.rice.edu, www4.ncsu.edu, lehigh.edu, fcim.edu, and www.rso.cornell.edu.
Keyword: Recipes
The site recipesource.com ranks #4 with www.math.northwestern.edu, bama.ua.edu, www.cs.princeton.edu, www.accd.edu, www.oaklandcc.edu, students.washington.edu, and www.nd.edu among the top 100 backlinks.
While authority links are not required for top rankings in all industries at this moment, having authority links will give a site the unfair advantage.
I would love to do a more in depth analysis of top ranking sites in the near future. That would be a great subject for a more in-depth report.