subject: In Search Engine Optimization, Not All Incoming Links Are Created Equal [print this page] In the major search engines today, your on-page content can help to determine the relevancy of your web page but it is really the quantity and quality of incoming links that determines your search engine ranking. But this does not mean that the web page with more links will always have a higher ranking, because not all website links are created equal and some can improve your search rankings much more than others. Not only is the anchor text of your incoming links important to your search engine rankings, but it is also the quality of the website that is linking to you which can affect your results.
An added bonus to building up your number of high quality incoming links to your website or blog is that not only will this help to give you a more prominent position in the search engine results, but you will also receive direct referral traffic from the links as well. This is the main reason why not all links are created equal and some can give you much more traffic than others. A small link off to the side of a web page where few people will see it can still deliver search engine optimization benefits based on the anchor text of that link, but a prominent link near the top of the page can deliver both search engine benefits and direct referral traffic from other people seeing the link itself.
So your goal when you are trying to build incoming links in order to get one of your web pages to rank high in the search engine results is to try and secure links that not only deliver the SEO benefits that you are looking for, but that can also give you as much direct traffic as possible. These are links that will hopefully be displayed in a prominent position that readers can easily see, as well as being "above the fold" on the web page meaning that you can see the link without needing to scroll down.
If you have a certain offer or product that you are promoting, getting referral traffic can sometimes be more beneficial than search engine traffic since it can serve as an effective "presell" where the reader who already knows and trusts the website where your link is posted clicks over based on their recommendation. By building links to improve your search engine rankings, but also focusing on the direct referral aspect of building website traffic, you can do more to make money and increase the success of whatever website you are linking to.
