How Many Links Do You Need?
How Many Links Do You Need?
By Dan Thies, SEO Research Labs (c) 2006
We all know that link building is an important aspect of SEO.
Most of the websites I look at are reasonably well optimized, at
least in terms of "on page" factors, but they're usually in
terrible shape when it comes to links � both within the website
and within the area of link popularity.
Among my students, one of the most frequently asked questions is
"how many links do I need to get my site ranked better?" At SEO
Research Labs, this question has been the subject of much study,
of course. It's a simple question, but the answer can be
complicated. Fortunately, the answer is usually "a lot less than
you think."
In this article, I'll try to break the question down into
bite-sized pieces, and give you the best answer we have based on
our research and experience. I'll begin with three key concepts,
and then give you some rules of thumb to guide you to your own
answers.
The first idea that you need to understand is that there is more
than one type of link. For our purposes, we can safely divide
links into three main types:
� URL links � where the "anchor text" is the URL of a web
page. For example, "Dan Thies offers a free e-book on SEO
at http://www.seoresearchlabs.com/seo-book.php " These links
increase the general authority & PageRank of a web page.
When the search terms are part of the URL, as in the
example above, then this may contribute to rankings.
� Title & Name links � where the anchor text is the business
name or the title of the web page. For example, a link to
SEO Research Labs (http://www.seoresearchlabs.com ) or Matt
Cutts' blog post confirming a penalty
(http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/confirming-a-penalty ).
These links may contribute to the page's ranking, depending
on the words used.
� Anchor text links � these are links pointing to a specific
page, targeting specific search terms. For example, a link
to my upcoming link building
(http://www.seoresearchlabs.com/link-building.php )
teleclass, specifically targeting "link building" as a
search term. These links may contribute to a page's ranking,
and as a result, "text links" have become a major obsession
in the SEO community.
The second idea is that the location of the links matters.
Again, I'll break this down into three categories:
� Navigational or "Run of Site" links - those links which are
contained within a website's global navigation, and/or
appear on every page of the web site. Individually, these
links are likely to count less than others, because the
search engines are capable of identifying them as
navigation.
� Contextual links � those links which appear in the actual
body or content of a web page � like the links in the
section above. Individually, these links are likely to
count for more than the average link, because search
engines are capable of identifying the content areas of a
page.
� Directory links � those links which appear on links pages,
resource pages, and other pages whose primary purpose is to
link out to other websites. These links are likely to count
for more than navigational links, but their value will be
proportional to the number of links on the page.
The third key concept is that not all links are equal, and
quality matters far more than quantity. Search engines have
varying degrees of trust for links � in fact, some websites may
not be able to pass any authority or reputation at all through
links. Google's Matt Cutts and others have written and spoken
quite clearly about filtering links from websites selling "text
link ads," and told us that 2-way links (link exchanges) are
unlikely to help much with search engine rankings.
These three concepts are important to what I'm about to tell
you, because when you ask "how many links," the answer depends
on what kind of links you're able to create. Linking strategies
that take the search engines' position into account will be more
effective, require less effort, and deliver more predictable
long term results. Relying on one or two tactics is not a linking
strategy.
For a website that isn't ranked well, playing catch-up can take
some time and creativity, but it can be done. If you are in this
position, you may want to take a fairly aggressive approach,
with as many as 30-40% of the links you build containing anchor
text for your most important search terms. It's important not to
be a "one hit wonder," and focus all of your efforts on text
links, especially if you are targeting only a handful of search
terms.
A more conservative approach might involve closer to 10% text
links, and perhaps 90% of the links producing only general
authority (URL and title/name links). With many of my students,
I advocate a broad website promotion strategy that tends to
generate a lot of general links, and a follow-up program
intended to create anchor text links within that larger pool of
links.
So how many links do you need? Well, if you focus on higher
quality links, and keep your text links within a reasonable
proportion to your "general authority" links, we've found the
following rules to be pretty accurate:
� For a top 10 position, your text link count should
outnumber the count of half of the 10 top ranked pages, and
also exceed the count for two-thirds of the top 20 pages.
� For a top 3 position, on average, you will need to have 50%
more text links than were required to crack the top 10,
although in some markets there may be a wide gap between
the top few sites and the rest of the top 10.
These rules are just a guideline, and of course, relying on
outdated tactics like link exchange or "text link ads" may prove
ineffective. In our latest research, we've actually stopped
counting these links altogether in looking at competitors. This
approach has proven just as effective in the 5-6 months we've
been doing it.
When you start to analyze the competition, you'll usually find
that the number of text links you need is fairly low, in
comparison to the number of general authority links you need. If
you worry less about "getting anchor text," and instead look for
ways that you can promote your website, you'll find it a lot
easier. My students usually struggle with this idea, but in the
end, we've always been able to find ways to do (profitable)
promotions that also generate the links we need.
I wish you success.
===
Dan Thies is a well-known writer and teacher on search engine
marketing. He offers consulting
(http://www.seoresearchlabs.com/seo-consulting.php ), training
(http://www.seoresearchlabs.com/seo-training.php ), and coaching
(http://www.seoresearchlabs.com/seo-course.php ) for webmasters,
business owners, SEO/SEM consultants, and other marketing
professionals through his company, SEO Research Labs
(http://www.seoresearchlabs.com/ ). His next online class will be
a link building clinic
(http://www.seoresearchlabs.com/link-building.php ) beginning March 22.
===
posted by Victor Lloyd Smith @ 9:38 AM
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