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By A Web Design
Each link to your website is essentially a vote for the page that's being linked to. That was the original link analysis factors. Things have come a long way since then. Today's link analysis factors are far more complex.
Over years what’s analyzed as part of the link has changed in order to provide best possible search engine results to Internet based information seekers.
In early days search engines started out by looking at sheer link volume. The website with the most links won. This led to the creation of link farms, link trades, link pages and so on.
Before Google changed how it analyzed links people did everything they could to create large quantities of links to their site.
The relevance of the linking page to the linked content did not matter the number of links did. While sheer link quantity continues to play a role in search engine result pages, it is no longer the only factor in link analysis.
Google analyzes link text. Hence, the words used in the link began to matter. The words described the page content the link was linking to. Therefore when link text matched up with text on the page linked to, the more relevant and valuable the link became.
Next, search engines started looking at the quality of each link. Does it come from a low authority website or a high authority website? The higher the website's authority linking out the more the link value.
Link age became a factor as it was assumed that the longer a link stayed in place the more "serious" the linker was about the site.
If the links came and went then that might say something about the quality of the site being linked to, or if the link was an ad purchased under the radar.
As link buying became more and more prominent, the search engines started fighting back. It's impossible for the search engines to determine with 100% accuracy whether a link was purchased or not but there are some signals that they have learned to detect.
There is more to a link that meets the eye.As search engines began to analyze links seriously and then grade their value, website owners need to pay special attention to links in order to make sure that website was getting the most value out of each link it carried.
Here is a break of a link’s core components as relevant to search engines spiders.
Link text is factored pretty heavily in search engine rankings. Any clues the search engines can get about the content of the page from external sources ( i.e. the link ) weighs heavily in favor of the link. It not only tells the search engine what the linked to page is about, but that someone found it as a valuable resource for what it is. That last part being the important.
Linking to a site is one thing. Linking to a site and giving your site visitors specific information in the link text to what they'll find on the linked to site is another thing altogether.
Links you give (and receive) should be keyword rich. Instead of linking out using the name of the website you are linking to, use keywords relevant to that site.
Don't say "you can find a good used Honda Accord at Joe's Dealership." This assumes that the name of the website is bound to the link text Joe’s Dealership.
Instead, say "you can find a good used Honda Accord at Joe's Dealership." The words used Honda Accord will be keywords that Joe uses on his website and it’s these keywords used as the link text.
Where the link appears on the page tells the search engines a great deal about the link itself.
Search engines try to determine the value of the link by its placement on the page. Links in navigation are weighted one way, editorial links are considered more relevant and links in ad spaces are generally ignored.
Editorial links ( i.e. those linked in the midst of the page's primary content ) are deemed most valuable. These are generally links that are there not because they were purchased ( though clearly that can be manipulated ) but because the writer of the content finds it genuinely relevant to their site visitors.
There are a lot of different types of links and each carry their own weight. Many people will tell you that reciprocal links are worthless, but that's not entirely true. Context matters a great deal.
The same is true for whether the link is a one-way (non-reciprocated) link pointed to the site but not returned.
Known purchased links have the least value (none), but can still be useful for driving traffic and getting an audience which could in turn produce natural links.
Text versus Images used as links.
Linking actual text (words) gives the search engines more information as to what the destination site is about.
It adds to the page's keyword focus from an external site. Image links don't do that as well. Images can use the ALT text which can be factored in but likely aren't weighted with the same value as a pure text link.
How old a link is and how long it's been in place can affect the overall value of that link. In general terms the longer the link remains in place the more power it sends to the linked page.
This isn't true in all cases, for example I believe blog links give out some immediate value that then fades back into the normal aging process after a few months.
News links likely fade over time rather than build strength but with these ( and possibly a few other ) exceptions, the link gains value over time.
The site that links out plays a strong role in the value of the link itself. The higher authority the linking site is, the more link value is passed.
The page the link is on is also considered. A low authority page on a high-authority site may not have as much value as a lower authority site linking out from its home page, or the reverse may be true.
The topic of the page, how relevant it is to the topic site, can also be factored into how much relevance and weight the link sends out.
There are other factors as well, and I'm sure Google is always looking at ways to improve their link analysis algorithms.
Links from Twitter and Facebook profiles can factor in as can links from other social media sites.
Whether you're buying a link, asking for one, or looking for exposure in social circles, the key is to get as many high quality links from high quality sites as possible to make your website go up in search engine results pages.
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