I’ve posted this before, but please read to the end, as (as Jimmy Cricket used to say) “There’s more”. (This is a repost from a while ago but a couple of people have asked me about linking recently so I thought it was a good time to repost, and it IS in the book…)

We all know that links to our website (from places such as Ecademy, BT Tradespace, etc) is a great way to help our Google listings. but did you know that the WAY in which the link is done also matters?

For example, let’s say that your company is called ABC Incorporated, and your website was www.abcinc.com. The keyphrase that you’re trying to get to the top for is “yellow bananas”.

So, the links to your site (in articles, blog posts, Ecademy / Linked In / Soflow / Xing / First Monday / Business Scene / BT Tradespace profiles, links from other sites etc) may say something like “For great yellow bananas, visit ABC Incoroprated”.

Invariably the words that link to your website will be “ABC Incorporated”. But this is telling Google that in that sentence, the words you want to be known most for are the ones that form your company name – that’s not true, as you’re probably already on the front page of Google for your company name, right?

The words that SHOULD form the link to your website are the important words, the ones you want to rank for – yellow bananas.

So your link should look like this: For great yellow bananas, visit ABC Incoroprated

NOT this: For great yellow bananas, visit ABC Incorporated

Another classic culprit is “Click here for yellow bananas…

And the “more”?

Well, I had a conversation with someone recently who said “But I don’t want to say ‘Click here for Liverpool art gallery‘ I want to say ‘The Artfinder’s gallery in Liverpool’”

We established fairly quickly that NO-ONE has searched for ‘The Artfinder’s gallery in Liverpool’ so linking that phrase would be a waste of time.

The compromise? ‘The Artfinder’s Liverpool gallery’. Now, before you jump in, you’re right – no-one has searched for that either. But it allows us to be a little creative. We can link the phrase ‘Liverpool gallery‘ which people HAVE searched for, and which is important to the gallery owner, and also link the first part of the phrase, but link them separately, so that the search engines see them as two seperate phrases, and give each of them their own weight.

So: The Artfinder’s (one link) Liverpool gallery (second link) – both link to the same place and the final link looks like: The Artfinder’s Liverpool gallery. This way the search engines can still put value on the phrase ‘Liverpool gallery’ without diluting it.

Some other examples:

- Search engine optimisation and higher Google listings from NikkiPilkington.com (3 separate links)
- Telemarketing UK, appointment setting and lead generation from Virtual Sales (4 separate links)
- The Boss Corporation, we specialise in software finance and finance for IT assets (3 separate links)

(If none of this makes sense, drop me a line with your usual signature / phrases you need linked, and I’ll try and help. Please note this could take a few days)

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 26th, 2007 at 9:05 am and is filed under Key Phrases, Links. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.