The importance of links

[digitalfunstuff]

Hi,
I'm just new to this and finally my web site is finished and I have submitted to the major search engines. Also, I have signed up with Overture to get more traffic to my web site. But I have heard you need high level of links coming to your web site to get high ratings? Is this true? And that the more links to your web site the higher your ranking and the higher you are placed when people search the web?
Any replies in regards to this question would be much appreaciated.
Thanks

[dferguson]

Hi

Links to your site from others are an important part of SEO but can be hard to achieve.

The most important thing is site content.

[christof]

Hi Annie,

Links are really quite important and it does pay to try and collect as many as you can. Have a look at google's 'information for webmaster's' section - it'll explain how google ranks websites and the importance of links. http://www.google.com/webmasters/

If you use the google toolbar, you'll see the PageRank tool - its shown as a green 'bar' (PR 0 is the worst, PR 10 the best) and as you surf from page to page, you'll be able to visually see just how important google thinks each page on the internet is.

So, links to your site from a page with a PR 5 (Page Rank 5) are given more weight and importance than links from a page with PR 2 for example...

Anyway, I like to get links from free directories, I often go to google and type in "business directories australia" or "business directories melbourne" etc, etc... You'll be able to add your business to lots of on-line directories and the links will help your rankings a little more each time you add one.

Hope this helps,

Chris

[digitalfunstuff]

Hi Chris,
Thank you for your reply. I will take your advice and I hope my raking will be become better. I downloaded the Google toolbar and found out my rank is only 1. So I still have heaps of work to do.

Thanks again

Annie

[christof]

No worries Annie!

Another thing to remember is the importance of what's called the 'anchor text' in your links. But I'll come back to that in just a second....

What I do when I'm helping someone's website rank better is firstly work out what the best search terms are. You can do this by visiting...

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/?mkt=au&lang=en_GB

Start with, 'digital camera'. You'll see there are quite a lot of searches going on, in July, in Australia, there were 20129 searches on that term. However, further down there's a nice search term for you which reads 'digital camera sydney' - 68 searches. It's modest but it's targeted. Check out google with that search term and you'll see there's quite a few 'optimised' sites firmly entrenched in the top spots for 'digital camera sydney'.

Mmmm, maybe still a bit tricky to rank well, so let's go back to the search term suggestion tool, & try 'buy digital camera sydney' (massively targetted search term for your business) - ok, so there's 12 searches a month, 1 every two days or so. However, competition at google isn't too bad, you'd easily go top 3. Could be worth a try!?

Set your title tag to 'Digital fun stuff - a great place to buy a digital camera in Sydney!' or similar. i.e. place the search term you want to rank for in the title. Integrate it into your sales copy too - but be sensible, don't over do it! (google will spot you coming a mile off and throw you out of the directory if you go too far)...

Remember those links we talked about earlier, and anchor text? If you are able to set up a link to your website, put your search term in the anchor text like this:

<a href="http://www.digitalfunstuff.com.au>Buy a digital camera in Sydney here!</a>

Google's robot see's the link and see's the search term in the link, follows it, finds your website, makes a match and it helps your rankings!

The BBC explains it a bit better in this fun article

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3298443.stm

I know its not a huge 'traffic generating' search term to begin with but if you start small and succeed with it, you'll get some confidence and you can start optimising your site for more trafficked terms and slowly build your business.

I've been doing it with my girlfriend's biz, she now ranks number 1 & 2 at google for the search term 'indoor plant hire melbourne' - she's getting really strong business leads because of it.

Remember, every website starts out with a PR-0.

[digitalfunstuff]

Hi Chris,
Can you or anybody tell me approx how long it will take to get a PR rank of say 2 or 3? and is there a formula to calculate what PR rank you will get in terms of how many external links, links you get to your site?
Say for example if I was to have <a href="http://www.digitalfunstuff.com.au>Buy digital cameras sydney australia</a> on 10 external sites linking to me, does that mean my ranking will be increased say to 2 or 3 because of that?
The main reason is a SEO company quoted me a package that includes 10 good external links. What does that mean?
Not sure if I will be spending my money wisely?
Any suggestions? Anybody used a SEO before?

Thanks
Regards
Annie
www.digitalfunstuff.com.au

[christof]

Hi Annie,

Sorry to take so long to get back to you, I've only just checked back into the forums. PR is important, but no-where near as important as top rankings! I've put a link from my home page to yours (optimised with anchor text) - lets watch together to see what happens.

Your call on the SEO - it's very hard to tell how good they'll be without knowing who they are, but a good rule of thumb is to see what they've done for others and where they themselves rank at google.

Cheers

CT

[christof]

I notice your PR is now 3!

No register with http://www.dmoz.org - that's the "secret" listing that will give you an edge over nearly all Australian websites!

[christof]

Sorry, I miss-spelt, should read "Now register..."

[christof]

I've got you at 17th on Google (results from australia) for "buy digital cameras sydney australia", your ranked 12th for "buy digital cameras sydney" & 19th for "digital cameras sydney australia". "digital cameras sydney" your 14th! - Your hard work is certainly starting to pay off.

Not long now, and you'll be top 10. Just keep adding those optimised links - I quite like http://www.comeonaussie.com.au - it's a nice little directory.

Well done...

CT

[digitalfunstuff]

Hi Chris,
About mid January my PR Rank was still 1, then one day I check it jumped to 3. I was so happy as I was just about to give up!! Nearly threw in the towel and called the SEO and pay lots of $$$ so he can make it higher.
Day after day I would go on the internet to get listed into directories and checking day in day out at my rankings really made me miserable. If nothing had changed I think i would of developed depression!
Though now I feel much better. I think after all the time and effort I put into it, it finally has paid off.
I tried listing my site on www.dmoz.org but still no luck. They asked me to wait another 6 months before I check with them again.
I have visited your site at www.hibermate.com and saw my link on it. It's so nice of you. Thank you very much.
Just a question, you know how you have testimonials on your web site, do you have to get permission from the sender or you just put it on. I actually want to put something like that on our web site as well. I aslo get feedback from our suppliers. Some actually write in the e-mail that I can use it anyway I like but most don't. How do you go about it?

P.S How long did it take you to get a a PR rank of 4?

Thanks
Regards
Annie
www.digitalfunstuff.com.au

[christof]

Cheers Annie,

Testimonials... I always ask permission before I post them up on the site. Most people write them because they want to be featured! It's quite funny. I always respectfully say something like... "thanks so much for your kind words, would it be ok to post your email on my feedback page?". They almost always say yes. BTW, NEVER post fake ones! They're just so obvious.

PR... I used to have a PR 5, Google actually re-set PR on Jan 1st 2005 because too many sites were crowding the top 8,9,10. Most sites fell 1 PR level. For me, it took about a year to get a PR4-5.

Again, please don't get too caught up with PR, it's not the be all and end all. There are many sites with top rankings that have low PR's. There's a lot more to google's ranking algorithm than PageRank. Just as an example, this very page (the one you're reading now) has a better ranking at google for "digital cameras sydney" than your site because the phrase has been mentioned so many times. This page has a PR 0.

So, for you, try and increase the amount of times you mention your target keywords on your site. Content is still VERY important to Google...

CT

[niko]

Chris
That keyword link to overture is brilliant, I don't have to use or pay findwhat any more.

[niko]

Annie if you want to add GPS products to your product range please go to my distribution web site www.gpstechnologies.com.au and I'm sure we can help.

[niko]

I should have said, any reseller wants to add GPS to their product range go to the link inthe previous reply I gave.