Why are properly formatted links from related websites so important?
Links are not the same - here's the little known inside scoop on what works and what doesn't.
Most potential clients searching for a product or service provider will do so using search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Most will click on the links "above the fold" - the first 5 or so companies listed. The search engine game is extremely competitive. I have worked with websites since 1999, and I can tell you - it is very difficult to get high rankings for a any site. But I have had some great successes.
Link popularity is proving to be the deciding factor on what will or will not rank well, especially on Google. Google's algorithm ranks law websites mainly on:
1.The link count
2.The quality
3.The anchor text
Search engines give a higher value to one way links to your website.
Aside from a clean, useful - content rich site the top method used to achieve a high search engine ranking for any website is:
Valid inbound links from related sites.
This is absolutely the top law firm SEO tactic. Google recognizes that if there is an inbound link from a related site it validates the site. But links are NOT the same. Links from "link farms" are disqualified.
A perfect link is this:
oOne-way (no back-link from your site to their site).
olink text contains your key words and/or your domain name IF it contains keywords. Keyword domains are key to SE rankings. Link page heading contains your keywords.
oLink is from a page with the same content.
oLink source domain name contains your keyword(s).
oLink page is ranked on search engines.
oThe link source page has few other outbound links. Search engines count this and reduces the value of a link if there are more than 8-10 other links on the page.
Some say more than 50 disqualifies ALL links...!
So links on the common "resource" page don't count as much as a single link on a page with related content. One way to achieve this is to set up separate pages for various service/product areas on a different domain with some of the keywords in it.
The absolute best links are found on the HOME PAGE of a very related website.
How do you get links like that?
1. You ask for them.
This is difficult, since for one - it's competitive. And who will give you a valuable link if there is not a link back of similar value? The way around that is to ask someone with several sites to link from one site and to give a link to another. Then both are one-way. By the way - another SE tactic is to have many web sites with similar content on different domains and servers.
2. You pay for them.
Sites like text-link-ads.com will charge anywhere from $5-20 per month for a link from a PR ranked site.
3. You create them.
The best way to do this is to write articles and submit them to web-based article databases.
You can also be active in blogs and forums related to your practice area. Make sure your link is correctly formatted as per above. ** Note: Many blogs now tag links with a . This means the link is not picked up by search engines. Press releases are another great way to create one-way inbound links.
So - bottom line is: if you want search engine rankings - correctly formatted inbound links is pretty well the only way you will achieve this.