Golden Goose Marketing

When it comes to internet marketing ideas, it’s not exactly revolutionary to come out and say that you need inbound links to rank well in the search engines.  We all know that much.   Google has made it very clear that they value sites that are valued by others (in the form of inbound links, which act as popularity votes).  Among links, though, they’re not all created equal.  There are definitely some links that are more valuable than others – but which ones?  Below, we’ve covered a few of the most important factors in determining the quality of an inbound link.

• Anchor Text: Anchor text is crucial, as this is one of the best ways to tell Google what a page is about.  If you want to rank for a particular phrase, it’s vital to have inbound links that use that phrase as their anchor text.  This one small step will dramatically improve your ability to rank.
• Pagerank: Pagerank gives you a good idea of where a site stands in terms of inbound links.  Ideally, you want as many links as possible from high Pagerank sites.
• Relevance: It’s not just about anchor text.  If a site relates to your topic, the link is going to be worth more to you.
• Purity: If a link is purchased, it’s probably worth less than a non-purchased link.  Obviously, it’s impossible for Google to know which links are paid in all cases, but it’s not too difficult to figure out the ones purchased through major link buying services.  It’s also not at all difficult for your competitors to report you for link buying.  The best case scenario is one where you build links manually and don’t buy any at all.

What other traits do you look for in your links?  Although these are some of the top factors to consider, they’re not the only ones.  Weigh in on the comments!