Inbound Linking and Off-Page Search Engine Optimization
Off-page optimization is essentially getting inbound links to your website, where inbound links is nothing but other websites having a link that goes over to your website. Think of these inbound links as a “vote“. A vote that tells the world that someone out there likes your website.
It’s like social proof, the more votes you get means the more people who like your website. And as a result the more search engines like you.
However, Not All Votes (Inbound Links) are Created Equal…
See, Google put weight on the quality of the links. It observes where your links are coming from - is it coming from an authority site who’s already established good rapport with Google (i.e. has good rankings), is it coming from a *gasp* spam-happy garbage website, or is it coming from a recognized social media site, etc.?
It also looks at where are these links pointing to? Is it a reciprocal link that you “traded” for?
A reciprocal link is basically where you put a link to someone’s website with the understanding that he does the same for you… As opposed to a “one-way link”.
Hers’ a quick graphical representation of a one-way link and a reciprocal link:
One-Way Link = Good!
Reciprocal Link = Not so Good...
Why They Actually Care
Now, why does Google (and other search engines) care so much about the quality of these inbound links?
Well, the answer is simple, it’s because people have been abusing inbound links to try and game the system!
Take Squidoo.com as an example. You may know that Squidoo is a widely-popular social media site setup by Seth Godin. It is a website where people can freely post what are called “lens” and share with the world whatever he wants to talk about. And in good social media fashion, others are allowed to leave comments on the lens.
Well, people started abusing these comments section. They would go to every lens and leave spammy comments with links to their own website. They were obviously building up their 1-way inbound links to artificially inflate their website’s ranking.
Google didn’t like this one bit.
So what’d they do? They slapped Squidoo. And slapped it hard. Squidoo lost a lot of its authority overnight - just like that.
They’ve since then restricted comments section such that any links out there would provide absolutely no SEO juice and has started getting back on the good side of Google.
This is a perfect example of how people can abuse inbound links and why Google and other search engines had to think harder about HOW they rate your inbound links.
And this is just as good of an example of how sever of a punishment Google hands out when it catches you trying to game the system
Attracting You More Customers,
Who are Ferny Ceballos & Ray Fong?
Ferny & Ray are former aerospace engineers turned internet marketers. Despite holding degrees from MIT & Harvey Mudd, respectively, and both having earned graduate degrees from USC, Ferny and Ray decided to turn their backs on engineering and jump into the vast and profitable world of online network marketing in 2006.
Definitions: Search Engine Optimization | On-Page SEO | Off-Page SEO | SEO Scams