Building links with the right structure to provide maximum search engine results
Most site owners tend to build links in a very one dimensional way. What I mean is that they are prone to building all their links directly to the target page they are attempting to rank for a given key word or phrase in the search engine results. What I mean by this is easily illustrated in the diagram below. Do not give much thought to the sources of the links in the diagram below as they are only examples of possible sources of commonly created links.
The problem with the above approach to link building is it does nothing to boost the power of the pages giving your target page the links. This will in time require far more total links to produce a desired ranking in Google or other major search engines. In fact many sources of such links like Squidoo, Social Bookmarks or Articles in well respected directories are only effective because the sites they are hosted on have a given amount of link value simply because they are on large and trusted sites.
Smart search engine optimization experts know that such inherent link value can easily be increased by simply interlinking these sources. In other words by linking an article or press release published on a well respected site to a page on a site like Squidoo or Hubpages the power of the Squidoo or Hubpage is exponentially increased over the power of either of them individually. You can then pass on that power to your target web page. With this in mind look at how one might structure the same 7 links that we looked at in the first diagram.
The diagram below consolidates the power of 5 of these links into two main pages that I call “power heads”. By taking this approach each of the pages builds increased power as the total web structure is created.
Again do not put to much emphasis upon which sites are where in this diagram. There are many sources of such links including links on partner websites, natural links, viral links etc. The point here is to think about the term “deep linking” in a new way. Typically “deep links” are considered links that link into sub pages of your websites rather then just the home or primary pages of the site. Of course this is very important, however, my suggestion is to also think about “deep links” on the other side of the equation.
In addition to “depth” into your site intentionally build “depth” back into the external side of your link networks. Taking this approach in addition to conventional link building results in much better and much faster search engine rankings for highly competitive key words and phrases.
When this approach is applied to “long tail” phrases it is particularly deadly! Doing so not only often results in landing your target page at position number one in the SERPs, it will often end up with many of the pages where you build your links in the top ten results as well yielding not just positive results but high “frequency” in the top ten results. In other words if people end up on your web page great but if not they may indeed end up on an article that will refer them to you or perhaps a press release or some other content that can push them on to your target content.
Working with this type of link building on long tail terms is also an immense learning experience. As you build this external link depth and watch the SERPs change a very telling picture tends to form about which sites have the most relative ability to pass link power and gain their own SERPs.
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March 12th, 2008 at 8:34 am
Great Post. I am guilty of doing exaclty of what you speak of in diagram one. It wasn’t until about 9 months ago that we started to diversify our linking structure and build up the pages/domains that are 2-3 levels deep i.e squidoo, the “ever” project, blog, social bookmarking/networking sites. ect. There has been a tremendous increase in the Serps over the last month or so, especially in Yahoo (We rank top 3 for several keywords). Google is coming along a little slower but coming along nonetheless.
I sphunn ya!
March 12th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Thanks for the wonderful post…I have to admit that there are lots of room for improvement for me when it comes to link building..this post helped me in a way realized some of the things that I need to do more..^^
March 14th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Fascinating idea. Great if you have several product lines, each with their own set of blogs. You can comment market/social market and even do cross-tie-ins where applicable. If you avoid no-follow blog posts (among others) you also get some pagerank flowing up (and otherwise the search engines can’t make the link directly).
Another approach is in using LSI/theme words as your linking phrases - the same ones you use in your site. While perhaps not as powerful as header/title/H1 entries, they will still give you credence where a organic SEO-optimized site wouldn’t take over top positions in Google.
Just means you have to keep talking about your theme in all your posts and social media links.
March 17th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Great post as usual! This is great info, espically now since links are so hard to come by.
March 18th, 2008 at 12:31 am
Thanks for sharing and for the thorough explanation. I got more useful ideas that could help in promoting my website.
March 23rd, 2008 at 1:29 pm
This is a great idea….. but I keep getting stuck in the mindset that Diagram one link building efforts will pay off, and I should put all of my energy into that. It is really hard to begin to think that my content efforts, etc, could be put into other blogs/squidoo/etc.
March 24th, 2008 at 8:37 am
@Link Building Bible,
What you have to realize is that a link is only as useful as the value of the page and site that it is on. If you build flat link depth into the net and don’t but good content out on other sites how do you expect relative link value to increase?
I still have many Squidoo Lenses for instance in top ten results for quite competitive terms, most are driving other pages to higher ranks as well. Yet most people will tell you the magic of getting good rankings with Squidoo is over. What they mean is you can’t put up 15 words of content with a good URL extension and title and get rank anymore. That wasn’t “magic” it was Google giving Squidoo to much authority and then correcting it.
This happened to PRWeb almost 5 years ago, not as much changes as we seem to think at times with the SERPs. Good content and good links work the key is to create it in many forms, in many places and with a clear objective in mind right from the beginning. You might want to put that in your “bible”.
March 24th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Thank you for presenting this topic with diagrams and illustrations. It made it easier for me understand it. The illustrations really did help a lot. Thanks again for this post!