Recognizing the Obstacles in Link-Building

When it comes to links, many webmasters have been confused about what search engines consider to be good and bad. This is especially true in light of recent talks concerning Google's distaste for bought connections. Many questions have been raised about this topic, and I hope to address them in this post.

There are two types of links that can be commissioned for a fee: temporary "rented" connections and more permanent "paid" links.

A Primer on Paid Links or Rented Links More Accurately

In most cases, the page rank of a page can be used as a deciding factor when renting a link.

The problem with rented links is that Google has publicly declared that they do not approve of links being sold based on PageRank and that they are working on systems to identify and discount connections rented for PageRank. Even if they do manage to detect and devalue certain links that are sold for the sake of PageRank, such as those created by systems like Text-Link-Ads or Text-Link-Brokers, they will never be able to do so for all of them.

Ultimately, I expect Google will not punish the Source or Target websites for the links, but they will devalue each link individually. To help webmasters identify links for which they do not wish to convey PageRank, Cutts proposed and implemented the "rel=nofollow" attribute some time ago. Links that are determined to be paid or rented will only be treated as "rel=nofollow" by Google's algorithm. If Google is successful in their mission, the webmaster who purchases the links in an attempt to manipulate PageRank will be wasting their money.

History of Inextricable Bonds

Permanent links are the second type of link. There are many different kinds of permanent connections, but they all serve the same purpose: they never expire. You can choose to pay for placement on a monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis with rental links.

Although you "pay" to receive the link, Yahoo does not guarantee placement of your link in their directory; hence, Yahoo links are not considered paid links by Google's engineers. Yahoo, on the other hand, claims that our payment is for them to "review our link." This is why Google does not penalize Yahoo directory links. Although having a Yahoo link can be helpful, business websites are required to undergo an annual evaluation, which costs money.

Permanence is relative in every circumstance. In the context of the World Wide Web, "permanent" usually means that you won't have to pay anything further to keep that link live on that website. If a link is "permanent" on the Internet, it will remain at its current location unless and until the website's owner decides to move it or goes out of business.

Approximately 10% of the sites on which we have placed links have gone out of business during the past year. Website owners typically evaluate their P&L statements around the end of the second year to see if continuing operations into the third year is financially viable. At the conclusion of the second year, another 20% will decide to shut down their website. Thus, 30% will fail during the first two years of operation. Many of the remaining 70% of websites will still be around after five years. I'm not sure how long the lifespan of a permanent connection is, but the links I set up for myself back in 1999 are still sending visitors to my sites today, and they have been doing so consistently for years.

One-Way Links That Never Break

Gaining a substantial number of permanent one-way connections from pages that already have PageRank is possible. In such circumstances, it may be as simple as having your link added to an existing list of links on someone else's website.

Any link developed using content development strategies like pay-per-post or article marketing, on the other hand, will be published on a brand new web page. PageRank 0 is the default for all newly created web pages. It's a lot like having a baby. The infant is born small but develops into a kid, a teen, and an adult over time. Article pages all start off with a PageRank of 0, but over time, the vast majority of them improve in PageRank. Some websites will never go past the PR1 stage, while others have the potential to reach PR6 (at least, that's the highest PR I've seen for an article page).

According to Google's Matt Cutts, all brand-new pages start out with a PageRank of 0 in the Supplemental Results. In addition, he reassured them that supplements are not their last destination. According to Cutts, a webpage only has to obtain PageRank in order to be removed from the Supplemental Results. (If you're wondering why a page dropped from the Top Results to the Bottom Results, it's because Google changed the way it counts links or because the links that provided a website's PageRank no longer exist.)

Here Are Three Ways That Article Promotion Aids In Inbound Link Construction

Based on what I've seen, although I could be wrong, I've concluded that article marketing for link building is seen favorably by Google's algorithms.

This is my conclusion since PR-0 pages are used as the starting point for article marketing links. So, it's clear that we're not directly receiving links that are being placed on websites with the sole goal of increasing their PageRank. Links are being placed purely for the purpose of having them, but with any luck, many of them will eventually increase in PageRank.

Because of the nature of article marketing, we know that the links we create for our sites will be hosted on pages that are very relevant to our sites' subject matter.

Most article-publishing platforms use a moderation procedure that involves human evaluation of every article before it goes live. Most article websites are on par with Yahoo's human-reviewed directory because of the human review procedure on the other end of the transaction.

It's always better for business when the link leading to our websites includes our target keywords. However, the webmaster on the receiving end of the process will have an impact on the final product. However, not all webmasters will accept our articles because of the embedded keywords in our links (either in the article itself or in the author bio). Although we prefer to have keywords contained in our links, even a plain text link is better than no connection at all.

Concluding Remarks

An excellent article, no matter where it lives, will attract links from other great articles. This means that your article's hosting pages will gradually improve in PageRank.

You, as the article's author, will have complete say over the quality of the external connection to your site.

You have as much say over whether or not your piece is reprinted as you do over its relevancy. If you create a helpful article, others will share it.