Links, Links and Links…

When it comes to search engine positioning, businesses vying for good rankings should focus on the quality, not quantity, of links to their web sites.

There are several methods clients should avoid when seeking to improve their Search Engine Results (SER), says Sinai Marketing President Ali Husayni.

The Internet is full of SEP “experts” who rely on quick methods that may improve SER’s in the short term, but those methods often prove detrimental in the long run.

Search engine leader Google employs a great deal of tools to make sure Web sites that rely on these quick methods for top rankings never get a chance to be on top.

Google works to maintain the integrity of its search engine results, Husayni says. For example, when someone turns to the Internet in search of information on breast cancer research, Google seeks to ensure that the web sites ranked highest on the search results pages are there because they truly contain information the person might be seeking; not because a marketing company has jockeyed for prime positioning for their clients’ web sites.

Link Building Techniques to Avoid

One ranking technique to avoid in the quest for improved SEO is the use of link farms, Husayni says.

Link farms are Web sites designed to provide links to other sites in an effort to improve Web sites’ rankings, according to Webopedia.com.

Google and other search engines frown upon this practice and when they discover this method being used by Web sites, search engines have been known to remove those sites from future rankings, Husayni says.

Many Internet directories have the same goal as link farms, and often should be avoided for the same reasons.

Two-way links and three-way links are other SEO tools that don’t help improve rankings.

“You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” is not effective for Web site optimization, Husayni says.

Gaining Quality Links

Because Google is the reigning leader in search engine use, SEP professionals must “concentrate on what Google is looking for” when assisting clients in improving their ranking. That is getting high quality, related web sites on the first page of search results.

The good news for clients is that because Google employs the highest level of techniques to constantly rank Web sites, once a site passes Google’s test, it will hold up to scrutiny by nearly all other search engines, as well.

Sinai Marketing achieves better placement on search engine results for clients by getting high quality, one-way inbound links. These are links coming from related web sites to the client’s site, Husayni said.

For example, “Dentist A” has a web site and wants to ensure that when certain key words are entered into Google or other search engines, his site will appear on the first page of search results. One-way, inbound link building is a good way of achieving that goal.

The process is time-consuming, but necessary for Sinai’s clients to reach the first page of search engine results within three months and remain there.

“Link building is not an easy thing to do,” he says. “It takes hours of really good work to generate one quality link for a client.”

But when Sinai Marketing locates that one quality link, it can be equivalent to a thousand links achieved through link farming and other “quick and easy” linking techniques.

Although, as stated earlier, many internet directories should be avoided, Husayni encourages his clients to list their sites in well-known directories, such as Yahoo! And DMOZ. These reputable directories can help clients improve their search engine ranking.

Contact us to learn more about our SEO/SEM techniques.