Offline optimization strategies aren't about building your site to be search-engine friendly. This is where the hard work begins. To rank well with search engines, especially with the biggest of them all-Google-you need to be an authoritative source. It takes time, but it's worth every penny. How do you become one? The answer is simple-LINKING. The whole game is about getting high-value one-way links to your website.
What is a valuable link?
Well, the answer to this is probably top secret, locked away in a big vault inside Google's labs... Seriously, while the exact formula is kept secret, this doesn't mean we cannot learn from best practices-the ones that Google credits the most.
Search engines view incoming links to your website as a vote. The more credible votes you have informs the search engines that your site is likely to be more favorable over others in the same category. Does every link count? Not necessarily-some linking strategies could even lower your ranking. You should be very careful.
Offline optimization or 'the art of linking' is about knowing what's best for your site. Inbound links to your site connects it with the rest of the Internet. One of the best things you can do is to look for related content and themes on other sites. This is a good way of being considered favorably by the search engine ranking methods.
But we don't stop here. We need to make the linking smart. One thing that search engines give attention to is the anchor text that describes the page or URL to which your affiliates link.
Let's take an example. Suppose you build a site about your services as a computer technician. You choose a few keywords and build your site on them. Now you think to yourself: What should the links to my website say? Does it matter? Of course it does. Well, if you've built them correctly, you probably know that each page of your site is focused on not more than one to two keywords. This allows you to place them, wisely, in the anchor text of your incoming links. Use a few alternative ways of describing your anchor, otherwise it could be seen as a spamming method known as 'bombing the search engines.' While this method may produce results in the short run, the same pages will be depreciated later or even banned outright, so it is not recommended. The smartest thing you can do is to use a few alternative anchor texts for the descriptions of each page of your site, each related to its main theme. Try putting the main keywords for the relevant page inside exactly the way they are, then add a word or two for the page description.
Over time, building trusted link opportunities will help your site rank higher. Offline optimization delivers.
As we mentioned before, offline optimization and linking should use 'related content and themes.' What's the importance of this again? Let's take another example. Would you prefer to hear advice about professional computer services from an Internet cafe or from a shoe-polishing business? The answer is obvious, and the search engines' opinion is also straightforward. Avoid unrelated themes or content that link to yours. You will not enjoy the benefits.
What about offline optimization and directories? Well, if they are respected sites, this should be okay. Others should be considered only if they are niche-focused and relevant. The rest should be avoided. Many directories today are best described as 'link farms.' Some require reciprocal links (outgoing links from your site). Those are not considered favorably by the search engines and could even harm your page's ranking.
One way to get incoming links is off course make great content. It goes hand in hand with one way links. You see, when you make great genuine content, for example, making a good article about a fashionable issue, it only make sense that related websites would like to have links to it. Many websites are even Hub like and build on materials from others. Same thing goes for relevant tools and services online. Websites would love to have more content so they give your site the desirable link. RSS Feeds and Blog technology allows as to 'sell' our content to current demand. Posts about related content with linking to full reviews on our site are also considered just as good. The Web 2.0 is here and it allows as to make blogs, actively participate on forums and make great content on many site that we do not own. As writers, we could greatly effect the imminence of our site and it's popularity, on human prospective or search engine's.
Speaking of offline optimization strategies, we should also make a habit of exploring other website content that relates to ours. Typing 'linkdomain:"websiteDomain"."websiteExtension"' inside Yahoo! will show all a site's back links. Thus, you can check these related websites and ask them, if you choose, to refer (link) to your site. Many websites today still use or ask for reciprocal linking. Two-way linking is not as favorable as it used to be, but sometimes it's the only way to negotiate with websites that are like yours. You ask the site's webmaster or owner to link to your site, and in exchange you link to theirs. Again, one-way linking is much better. Still, no matter what method you choose, you should remember the following guidelines for choosing the right websites for your offline optimization strategy:
- They should have a higher Page Rank than zero. The higher the better, but be careful not to choose only high PR linking since this might seem unnatural to the search engines.
- Pages that link to many other sites in addition to yours are less important than those that link to only a few other websites besides yours. (Of course, having a trustworthy page that links to your website only is the ideal scenario if you can get that, but we are trying to be as realistic as possible here.)
- Are they listed with the relevant search engines? Linking from a web page that isn't listed within the relevant search engine will certainly not help to promote your website's ranking in that search engine.
- Linking from websites that block search engines, either mistakenly or deliberately.
Short on time? Want to see results faster and give your site the starting boost that will make your link exchanges easier later on? If so, check out popular paid programs such as
Permanent Links
Always remember, spending time and effort is more rewarding than spending money on the Web, so do remember to work on mutual value exchanges with related websites.
