Posts Tagged ‘backlinks’

Free SEO Tools to assist you in improving your website

According to Wikipedia,  Backlinks (or back-links (UK)) are incoming links to a website or web page. In the search engine optimization (SEO) world, the number of backlinks is one indication of the popularity or importance of that website or page. 

In basic link terminology, a backlink is any link received by a web node (web page, directory, website, or top level domain) from another web node (Björneborn and Ingwersen, 2004). Backlinks are also known as incoming links, inbound links, inlinks, and inward links.

Although Search Engines may not place as much weight on the relevance of backlinks as they once did, does not mean that you shouldn’t ask for them. On the contrary, attempt to receive backlinks from high ranking and specific websites that compliment your website or niche area.

For example, if you own a landscaping / Gardening business and website, attempt to receive backlinks from highly sought after gardening experts, leading landscaping suppliers or even consider the major golf courses. Why the Golf Courses, I hear the masses screaming ? Simply because the greens of a golf course require expert gardening techniques, care and maintenance, so it follows that the search engines recognise or shold recognise this fact and reward you accordingly. In the event that they don’t, so what, you still have a backlink from St. Andrews Golf Course  Royal Melbourne Golf Club or The Golf Club

Hosting Impact has a free Backlink Checking Tool that enables you to ascertain who is linking to your website. Once you have this information, you can then create links to them, should you so desire.

http://www.hostingimpact.com/free_tools_backlink_checker.htm

We trust you have found this post of benefit and more importantly receive good use from the Backlink Checking Tool. 

Hosting Impact has a range of other Free Quality SEO Tools available and you can access them here

http://www.hostingimpact.com/free_tools.htm

Until Net Time…
Happy Blogging

SEO Steve
Hosting Impact – Quality SEO Tools

Free SEO Tools to assist you in improving your website

Spoke with a customer this morning and it was during this conversation that the question was asked, what does SEO mean ? What is a backlink ? What is a Blog ? and what the hell is Twitter ?

It is so easy to believe that everybody knows and understands what seo is, or a backlink and not to mention Twitter and more importantly what it can do for you. But alas poor Yorick, that is not always the case and with that in mind, we now pressent a brief Glossary of SEO Common Words.

This Glossary is by no means complete and final and is given purely as a guide.

AdSense – is an effective way for publishers, regardless of size or experience, to display relevant Google Ads within their website’s content pages. The ads are related to your website content and as such, appeal to your website visitors. This helps in monetizing your website. 

AdWords –
Google’s advertising service for displaying Ads of your website as paid inclusion.
More details can be found at http://adwords.google.com/

Algorithm – is an operational program rule that determines how a particular search engine, like Google, Yahoo and MSN, indexes content and then displays it accordingly.

Alt Tag -
A tag that provides alternative text for visually impaired users.
Search engines may pick this text instead of graphical images.Anchor text
Anchor text is the visible text in a hyperlink.
Search engines may pick this up for ranking, although this in itself is no guarantee of a higher search ranking.

Backlink
– As the name suggests are inbound links from another web page, pointing to your website.
 

Blog -
Blogs are also known as weblogs. An online Diary with the owner posting random comments, promoting products, services, or information. Posts are made on a regular basis and are increasing in value to both the users and the search engines.

Crawl
– When a search engine visits your website and extracts your content for search results.

External links
– A link that forwards to a website outside the home domain name (third party).

Flash Intro – An animated short introduction. The website sits behind the Flash Intro and visitors can skip them as a general rule.

Internal links
– An Internal link is a link that points to another page within the same website or Domain. Interal Links can also be utilised for navigation purposes.

Javascript
– A script language that can be embedded into the HTML of a webpage to add functionality.

Link Farm
– A set of interlinked web pages or websites that have been built for the sole purpose of increasing the number of incoming links to a web site, thereby with the aim of increasing link popularity and search engine rankings. TO BE AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS.

Meta Tag -
A special HTML tag that provides information about a Web page.
Generally used for search engines to describe your website. Please read more about Meta Tags and their Hidden Advantage

PageRank (PR) –
Google’s method to determine a webpage’s relevance, popularity and importance through the quality of sites linking to it.

Referring Page – A Website visitor clicks a link from another website and is directed to your website. The originating website is called the referring page.

SEO –
An abbreviation for Search Engine Optimisation (Optimization). Involves strategies to optimize and promote your website in a proven technique, all with the aim of improving your search engines ranking.

Spam -
Excessive manipulation to influence search engine rankings.  TO BE AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS.

The above is by no means complete and there are numerous good sources for more detailed explanations.

We trust you have found the above of some benefit.

Until Net Time …
Happy Blogging

SEO Steve
Hosting Impact – “Helping You To Make Money Online” 

Search Engine Optimisation Specialists

A backlink is a link which directs others towards your site; they are also referred to as inbound links (IBL’s).  So, the number of backlinks that your site has is an indication of how popular or important it is according to your peers (other site owners).  These are especially important for SEO, as search engines such as Google will give more credit to those sites with a good number of quality backlinks.  So they will then consider these sites more relevant than others in the results pages of a search query.

Most search engines will want websites to have a level playing field, and so will more often than not look for natural links that have been built slowly over time.  Although it can be fairly easy to manipulate the links on a web page in order to achieve a higher ranking, it is a lot harder to influence a search engine with external backlinks from another site.  This is why these feature so highly in a search engine’s algorithm.  Today it has gotten even harder to achieve these inbound links because of unscrupulous webmasters.  Such people try to achieve these links by deceptive or sneaky techniques (through either hidden links or through automatically generated pages).  Such pages are known as link farms and they are generally disregarded by search engines.  But if you are linked to such a link farm, then you may find your site being banned entirely from these search engines.

Another way of achieving quality backlinks to a site is to entice quality visitors to come to yours. 

There are a number of ways in which back linking can be achieved.

1. Reciprocal Linking – this is where you link to another site that provides the same service or product as you and they in turn have a link to your site on theirs.

2. Site Submissions.  Submit links for your site to directories which allow free submissions, or if you can afford it, some paid directories.  There are many sites around which offer a service where you can submit your site details to numerous sites.  Plus, if you want, you can always create your own directory of similar websites. 

3. Articles.  This is another way of getting great backlinks.  So if you have a reputable looking site that contains informative, well written reviews, then there is a good chance that your articles will receive high search engine rankings also.  But it is vital that any articles you write are on the subject, informative and thorough in relation to your site.  Also you could always write a few articles for submission to article sites such as EzineArticles.com or SearchWarp.com.  This is another great way of getting even more backlinks to your site.

Below are a few tips you will need to consider in order to write good articles for your site.

a. Write in a way that your intended target audience will understand what you are trying to say.  In other words, don’t write it like you were a teacher talking to a class of 10 year olds, but don’t be overly complicated.

b. Check your spelling, grammar and punctuation.

c. Consider an article of between 300 to 500 words.

d. Always include a resource box at the end, as this will include that all important backlink to your site.  This resource box should also include a short biography regarding you and your site.

4. Blogging.  This has now become an integral part of the internet and is one of the most effective ways of linking.  You either have the choice of placing a few words of comments on to someone else’s blog, or you may want to link to them from your own blog.  In fact, you will find that most blogs will be happy to link back to you.  However, it is important that you try to update your blog regularly and post interesting content to ensure that people will want to link back to you.

Trust you have found this article helpful and should you require additional information or assistance please feel free to contact us accordingly at Hosting Impact.

Till Next Time…

Happy Blogging
SEO Steve
Hosting Impact – Australian Search Engine Optimisation Specialists
Backlink. (2008, October 14). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:13, October 25, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Backlink&oldid=245192050