Most of us who are relatively new to search engine optimization have some idea that links are important, but only in a vague, fuzzy way. We may understand that linking will help our site climb the rankings, but don’t have a good handle on how to use that information to our advantage. Without a solid understanding of linking and its importance it can be difficult to build a sound link strategy, so some basics about how great links build great websites can be helpful.
A Roadmap to Great Content
Just as you wouldn’t set out in a large city you’ve never visited before without a map, so you shouldn’t throw your website out into the Internet world without links which allow others to find you quickly and easily. Back in the 1990’s, the notion of hyperlinks evolved, allowing users a quick and easy way to jump quickly from one spot to another—whether within a document itself or from one page to another. In the initial days of the web there were no search engines, meaning links were the only way to successfully navigate and end up where you wanted to be.
People were responsible for making notes of sites they felt others would benefit from, then adding links to their own site. Once the first main search engine climbed on board with spiders and crawlers in 1994, the programmers for the search engines recognized that tracking links was an especially useful way to discover and index new sites. The end result is that if you want to find a specific place on the web, following links—just like following a roadmap—can be the best way to get where you want to go. Our modern day search engines efficiently locate and index all pages on your site, however without any links your site becomes virtually invisible in the eyes of organic search results.
How a Search Engine is Different than a Human
Apart from the obvious differences, search engines are not adept at actual thinking, therefore are unable to find a website by typing in a URL or running a Google search of whatever pops into their heads. Search engine spiders do what they are programmed to do, and that programming relies heavily on links which send the spider jumping from one place to another. Spider-based searches only find the newest sites and index them by following links. If you want the spiders to visit and index your site—and that is the goal, after all—then you must build links from your site to other spider-indexed sites. The faster you gain high-quality links, the faster you will be indexed, and the higher number of links you gain, the more Google and other search engines will recognize you as an expert in your area.
Incoming Links Help Search Engines Understand Your Site
Because spiders are not humans, they have difficulty understanding what your site is about, or how others view your site. What spiders do excel at is understanding links; if the majority of the links to your site include the phrase cat toys, then it’s a pretty sure bet that your site either talks about, sells or is in some way related to cat toys. Search engines are progressing, and getting smarter every day. They have reached the point where they understand that an automobile and a car are essentially the same thing, or that a Toyota, Ford and Chevy are all types of cars. What this means in terms of building links is that the spider can look at the incoming links text, then be able to categorize your website under a specific theme. Remember that in the same manner, your internal linking structure tells the search engine how you see your own site, so it’s an important point to remember when working on your internal linking strategy. As you can see, links are critical to the ultimate success of your website, therefore spending the time to truly understand how you can get the best links on your site is worth the effort.
