The Best Link Page, what is wise to do? Options

[way2stay]

Hi everybody, after i spent my time to set up our new website as good as possible for seo, following all the top end info on this forum, i´m finally ready to start with my link page.

Now I have a doubt when I see all link pages at other sites. Some are simple categorized and some are over categorized based on their key words or business. Some sites use multiple pages for their links (which i don´t prefer but if needed i will....)
and some have just one page with all links on it.

In the past i read some articles that too much links on one page would be not good for google. But i see sites that have just 1 page with 100rds of links which rank very good.

Well my question is; how should I organize the link page, get the best results and keep it simple?
btw thanks for all good input that i have from this forum! (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
best regards,
ronald

[AaronNimocks]

In the past i read some articles that too much links on one page would be not good for google. But i see sites that have just 1 page with 100rds of links which rank very good.

I dont think that is referring to your rank. If you have 100ish links on a page it will decrease the value of those links. Nothing to do with your site. But I wouldnt do it because 100ish links on a page just looks stupid to me.

[Justilien]

1) I would not call it links.htm or links.php. That is too easy for a Search Engine to devalue.

2) Create categories related to your site.

3) Make sure it looks good for your visitors

4) I would not put more than 20 links on the page.
- More will decrease the value of the links
- It will discourage quality sites from wanting to trade with you
- Too many links on a page is not natural. It is too easy for it to be flagged by a search engine to devalue those links.

5) Make sure those pages have original content

6) Link out to authority sites for each page topic

Hope this helps!

[SpeedyPin]

STOP WORRYING about what "Google would want to see". There is no RIGHT or WRONG way to build a links page and you should build one ONLY if it will benefit your audience. Put it this way, a links page no matter what the name, number of links, etc. will NEVER ranks as highly as a more CORE page, nor will it have HUGE impact on your website's overall ranking and popularity.

[Jill]

Well my question is; how should I organize the link page, get the best results and keep it simple?

What sort of results are you looking for?

I don't believe links pages actually provide any sort of result, so I'm not sure what you're asking here.

Isn't your links page for your site visitors? Isn't it full of the other sites that you think they may find interesting? If so, it seems to me that it should be somehow easy to read and categorized so that your visitors can make the most of it.

If yours is something other than recommended sites for your visitors, then you may wish to rethink the whole thing!

[way2stay]

hi jill, you are absolutly right that it does not have any interest for me how it looks and i should do the best for my visitors ... but i see different set ups of link pages. such as with links on the link page itself and some links one level further from the index page. is it that links on the index page are more important then on other pages?

when i see sites with links1, links2, links3 etc, or i see linkpages with links to other pages, then i think that i might have a purpose ... but that is exactly my point.

i don´t know what is good to do to have backlinkers, visitors and search engines happy with my linking.

and yes "recommended sites for your visitors" is nice but my link page is not really something that i would recommend to my visitors that want to book an apartment. Links are on the web important to get high rankings ... no?
for my visitors (besides spiders) i have other info that is usefull.

but for a quality link exchange with other websites there must be some kind of rule for how i have to link back to them.

so??? (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) any tips?

[Michael Martinez]

but for a quality link exchange with other websites there must be some kind of rule for how i have to link back to them.

I was wondering what you were referring to. I suspected you might be talking about a reciprocal link program.

In my opinion, there is no such thing as a "quality reciprocal link" page (or program). Everyone who still reciprocates insists they only get "quality links" and they are very particular about whom they exchange links with.

Well, if everyone does it that way, that means that all the mediocre links are carefully selected.

Okay, that said, if you are going to put link pages on your site, then make them useful and interesting to your visitors. Link pages ARE deemed to be important by the search engines for two reasons:

First, every categorized link page is a hub (an "expert" on a topic) because it tends to link to mostly similar sites. Uncategorized link pages nonetheless help the search engines establish associative relationships between sites (not always accurate, but those "Related Pages" results are usually built on the basis of third-party links).

Secondly, links are themselves content (a fact that the SpamAd site operators picked up on a couple of years ago). Your content will be crawled and indexed, and it will occasionally come up for oddball queries. You want people who visit your link pages on the basis of those oddball queries to find some value in the visit. After all, if you provide them with a trustworthy resource (even a mediocre one that looks like everyone else's), they will be more inclined to look around your site.

Content is important. Good content is hard to come by. Not everyone can be an expert HTML document designer, much less an experience Web page designer. So, if you can favor usefulness over prettiness or whatever, do so. Usefulfness is recognized as much as if not more than prettiness.

That said, organizing your links in an attractive, functional manner helps. I don't favor the directory-like structure because it looks fake and automated. Too many site operators go the lazy route and make their own directories. Most people won't really care about those directories unless they add some value. After all, there are plenty of commercial directories out there.

One thing you can do that no one else can do is to share YOUR OPINION about each site in a brief comment. Other people can share their own opinions on their Web sites, but in your link list, yours should be the only opinion expressed. If you express yourself well and if you don't laud every site as "great", "useful", and "trily excellent", but give some honest "I like this, I don't like that" appraisals, people will give you a little credit for sharing some actual information.

And you may find that your link pages become relevant to more searches because you take the time to include more than just the usual 1-2 sentence site descriptions. Your expressed opinions don't have to be more than 1-2 sentences long, either. But they will stand out from the typical link directory-like "XYZ Widget Company Web Site - Manufacturers of Widgets" description.

Who cares? If you don't care enough to say something, no one else will care enough to visit your links page again. And, frankly, whenever someone lands on one of my links pages, I want them to feel like they have found something of value.

The only difference between my links pages and yours is that I don't seek out reciprocal links. And my links pages do just fine in the search engine listings. People may or may not agree with my opinions, but they FIND those opinions through search engines and read them.

[Jill]

and yes "recommended sites for your visitors" is nice but my link page is not really something that i would recommend to my visitors that want to book an apartment. Links are on the web important to get high rankings ... no?
for my visitors (besides spiders) i have other info that is usefull.

If your links page isn't something you'd recommend to your visitors, get rid of it!

You having a links page pointing to other people's sites is NOT going to help your search engine rankings in the least.

Do you see this site with a links page? Do you see most authoritative brand sites with a links page? Probably not.

You don't need a links page to get links TO your site. Read our [url=http://www.highrankings.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5941]Link Building Articles[/url] for creative ideas for getting links. But don't even try unless your site is in "link-worthy" condition.

[bigoak]

A few opinions here. I guess link reciprocation is still up in the air. I have some clients that will not do it and some who demand we do it. I have been cutting back on doing link reciprocation and we certainly only to swaps with like sites.

But my first seo client I inherited from another seo firm is only doing link reciprocation as a search engine marketing tool. He is ranked extremely high for his area of competition and I can only surmise it is his massive link campaign. I have not tinkered with it out of fear of reducing his incredilbe ranking.

We only do themed links swaps now, but his older stuff was casinos and viagara link swaps, which we removed.

While I wish it wasn't helpful it really seems to make a difference. Especially if you have a product people don't really link to as a rule. I'm trying to wean our clients from it but the results are there for all of them.

[Michael Martinez]

While I wish it wasn't helpful it really seems to make a difference. Especially if you have a product people don't really link to as a rule. I'm trying to wean our clients from it but the results are there for  all of them.

Enough of anything will usually make a difference. You have to seek a happy medium. Me? I don't like the extra effort involved in link management. Don't use it. Don't need it.

Your mileage may vary. Happy customers are paying customers. Arguing with your customers is usually not a good business plan.

[bigoak]

Enough of anything will usually make a difference.  You have to seek a happy medium.  Me?  I don't like the extra effort involved in link management.  Don't use it.  Don't need it.

Do you find you don't need it even with very competitve sites? I'm not a newbie but article writing, directory links and requesting one-way links can only get you so far expecially when going against non-niche big company competition.

[Jill]

I'm not a newbie but article writing, directory links and requesting one-way links can only get you so far expecially when going against non-niche big company competition.

Correct. Which is why you always need to think outside of the box. Creatively. What cool thing can you do (the company who's site it is) that will get them noticed?

Matt Cutts recently talked about "Buzz Marketing" as the way things are moving, and I think he's right on the money.

[Justilien]

Speaking of creative link building ideas I came across a great one the other day recommended by Sugarrae.

Interview Industry Experts
“Requesting the interview lets the expert know you’re there. Getting the interview gives you great content for your site that won’t be something everyone else has. Promoting the interview connects your site to the industry expert and may even lead to the industry expert promoting your article to in turn promote themselves.”

[Michael Martinez]

Do you find you don't need it even with very competitve sites? I'm not a newbie but article writing, directory links and requesting one-way links can only get you so far expecially when going against non-niche big company competition.

Keep in mind that I don't give away the company store. There are trade secrets I don't share in the forums.

However, I don't mislead people through providing partial information. SEO should begin with fundamental site design. Create the content, then get a few links and see what happens.

In many cases, the content alone (plus the bare minimum links you need to be crawled and indexed) is sufficient to get many sites to the top.

Too many people assume, based on forum discussions and stupid tutorials, that THEY have to go out and build tons and tons of links. That just ain't so in all cases.

The only way to know how much is needed for any site is to do a little bit, wait and see the result, and make adjustments. At some point, you hit your ceiling (which may NOT be the top of the results) and no matter what else you do, you cannot improve. That is the time to stop and move on. You may be able to come back later and do more, or eventually time may favor your site.

Link building is, in my opinion, "cheap SEO" -- cheap in the sense of it's the easiest solution for people to pick because it makes you feel like you are accomplishing something.

Any SEO who gets new clients every month is naturally going to shift resources from older link building campaigns to newer campaigns. Some SEOs may continue link building for months and months on particular clients. Maybe those sites need it, maybe they don't.

But the average person, reading all the link building discussions in the forums, easily gets the wrong impression, which is that everyone needs to engage in constant link building.

Yes, there are people who strongly advocate that kind of SEO. The more you do it, the better you become at it. And there is no question that progressive link building will achieve results.

I just know, from both personal experience and analysis of thousands of Web sites since 1998, that not everyone needs it. Many people who know nothing about SEO achieve great results without ever going through a link-building campaign.

So, do what is necessary, wait and evaluate results, do whatever else is necessary, wait and evaluate results, and repeat as often as needed.

The one site I am currently tracking, that is in my most competitive phrase, probably will need some link building. But it got to 12th position out of 100,000,000+ without a link building campaign. I gave it some links to get it crawled. The content helped it soar past most of the link-heavy competition.

If a site that has fewer than 12 inbound links can compete with sites that have 20,000 inbound links on the basis of content, why bother getting 21,000 links?

[shimlad]

beacuse if your not an expert in seo and dont know the other "industry secerets" to get it there.

then you have to do something you know, like link building.