SEO (17) Outbound links

Outbound links

Outbound links may improve the ranking of a website as long as the website is citing good websites. Good websites are the ones which have been recognized as authorities in the industry relevant to the website. Outbound links may cause PageRank Leak as discussed in the preceding chapter. If one is following a reciprocal linking program, PageRank Leak can be minimized by masking the destination URL of outbound links using JavaScript code or using the NOINDEX NOFOLLOW property in the Robots Meta Tag. This is not an ethical practice but is followed by some websites. An ethical solution would be to maintain outbound links to a few authoritative and related websites. Avoid linking to websites which follow the practice of masking URL in a reciprocal linking program as this would cause a PageLeak with no worthwhile benefit.

Reciprocal linking and link building

Reciprocal Linking is a strategy to gain inbound links from websites that share the same idea as one’s website and provide an outbound link in exchange. This strategy improves the link popularity of a website. Link popularity can be defined as number and quality of inbound links to a website. Reciprocal linking is done by searching for websites that share the same idea and requesting for an inbound link in exchange for an outbound link. These websites should be rich in keywords and phrases that are emphasized on one’s website. Before starting a reciprocal linking strategy one should have the following web pages in place. They are:

1. A webpage which contains outbound links to websites (Link directory). This webpage should be linked from the homepage so that it gets indexed by the search engine spider.

2. A “Link to Us” page which gives cut and paste HTML code to link to one’s website.

Once these pages are in place, one should send emails to webmasters of short listed sites expressing interest in reciprocal linking. Key points to ask in this email are whether they would allow placing an outbound link on one’s website and if so, do they expect a specific format (text link, image, flash movie, etc.) and the HTML code that should be used for an inbound link. A text link will be most effective as an inbound link. Pay close attention to the link text in the anchor tag.

Zeus by cyber-robotic.com is a highly effective reciprocal link building software (Cost US$ 195). Zeus is a robot/spider which crawls the internet to find websites that have similar themes as one’s website. Once the list of sites is compiled, Zeus can be used to send personalized email messages to webmasters of these websites, track and maintain the details of each site. It dynamically generates keyword tuned link directory pages which can be uploaded to one’s website.

CPA affiliate programs provided by third parties like Commission Junction may bring qualified leads to one’s website. But if a website hosts its own CPA program, it serves a dual purpose. Not only does an affiliate program bring qualified leads, but also indirectly builds inbound links to the website. iDevAffiliate v4.0 Gold Edition (Cost US$ 149) by idevdirect.com is a popular software used by many merchants to host their own affiliate programs. One can promote their affiliate program by submitting to affiliate program directories, specifying the terms of their affiliate program.

source:SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION AND MARKETING by Binoy Varghese page 35-36

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