The Art of Give and Take in SEO
2010
The Art of Give and Take in SEO
Ah! The art of give and take in SEO. There are a lot of methods that people use in attempting to get their business website to rank higher in Google search engines. One of these methods is through link building. Link building includes both internal link building (often overlooked by businesses and SEO companies alike) and External link building, i.e. back-linking.
Every SEO campaign should be somewhat unique based upon the current ranking of a website, the popularity of a website, the type of industry and the geographic for that industry, including regional vs. national campaign needs and so on.
All of these matters should be taken into consideration, to list only a handful, when initializing an SEO strategy. Yes, there are many, many more aspects that should be taken into consideration, such as how competitive the market currently is for that industry and the productive key terms, etc….but this is not an all-inclusive list by any means for this specific article.
Building an Internal Link Structure
Power is provided your Google page ranking status via links that are coming INWARD. This means that it is extremely important to build a strong internal link structure and to receive back-links from other websites. The internal links also create a number of additional benefits for your online positioning campaign.
Search engine companies will look at your internal linking to determine how high of a placement you should receive under specific key phrases. Internal linking also adds ease of website navigation. Internal linking is providing your own links to other pages of your website from the various pages of your website. You cannot have a strong internal link structure if you do not have a variety of pages on your website, nor can you receive very good positioning from a 1-3 page website for the most part.
Some people would tell you that you should never link out from your website to another company website because of the loss of “link juice.” This is true in some ways, but not entirely.
The art of give and take in SEO involves the process of making your website a highly informative website. It involves partnering up with other companies to join forces in achieving mutual benefits. Be very cautious, however, regarding reciprocal link requests, as this is generally not a good choice for your online positioning. If a business website with a higher page ranking than your website would like a reciprocal link and if you feel confident that they will both link to you and are a credible company and source for information, then by all means….link up!!
However, the majority of cases are simply other websites attempting to get your “link juice” for their own benefit.
All of that being said, there are actually some very good reasons, beyond that listed above, to link out from your website to other websites. However, your particular industry or SEO strategy may not be one that benefits best from linking out. Talk with your SEO provider to ensure that you are making the right choice when linking out to another company’s website.
The primary reason that having outbound links can be good for your website would be to create an excellent resource for your readers. If your business website becomes known as a good place to find information and easily access a number of links to become particularly informed on a specific topic, then that can help your business via increased visits and popularity. You may want to consider restricting your resource provisions to one page and simply linking to the resource page from the other pages in your website though, so that you are not focusing too much of your energy on that particular aspect of your SEO strategy and are simultaneously providing additional strength to your own web pages.
Back-linking to Your Website
The more back-links you can get coming in to your website, the better. All links are not created equally however, and appearing to have purchased from a link farm does not do you any good service whatsoever…..quite the contrary.
However, if relevant websites make up a large percentage of your back-links and if you can actually get people to back-link to your website mentioning how great you are….That totally rocks! 
When you check out the number of links going back to some of the very highly listed websites on Google and in other search engines (Google holds more than 65% of the search engine activity and is currently the best choice to optimize for.) you will discover that these websites often have tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands or even millions of back-links.
Sometimes give and take is required. Sometimes you will truly have to read other people’s articles and web pages in order to fully understand them and connect with them in a sufficient way, doing your part to receive the credible back-links that you really need.
If you focus only on yourself…and make that obvious, you will not be generating any concern from others or encouraging them to give a little to you. If you are truly involved with others, you have a much greater opportunity to receive quality back-links than via any other way. Having the help of a good SEO firm who knows how to get involved with others as well is particularly useful.
Remember, have the smarts to use your resources wisely is more effective than just being smart in general and trying to do everything yourself. You will generally receive better results, have a better life with more quality time included in it, meaning having a better family and personal life and you will usually spend less money as well in the long run.
Leverage your resources, connect with others, build your link structures, carefully analyze your SEO strategy and remember that every aspect of a successful online marketing campaign is an ongoing process that should not end until you decide you no longer need to be in business….and then, of course, even after that, you should find ways to show your gratitude to those who helped you when you were “in the game.”
******The Art of Give and Take in SEO – This article only touched on a few points for this topic, but was hopefully informative and helpful. The author, Alicia Crowder, enjoys participating in coopetition and providing assistance where she can to other individuals and businesses. If you have a question, please don’t hesitate to ask!******
