5 Things You Need to Know About Link Building
All links are NOT created equal. There are many aspects to links that affect the value (or lack there of) of any particular link. We’ve already talked about link authority and reputation. In this article we’ll take a look at some other basic facts of link building that you should be aware of as you develop your link building strategy.
- The nofollow tag:
A while back the search engines developed the nofollow tag which can be applied to individual links or entire pages. It’s simply a command given to search bots telling them not to follow the link(s) and thus making the link not count for anything SEO-wise. There is some debate as to how much the search engines actually pay attention to the nofollow tag, but Bing and Google both claim to adhere to the nofollow tag, so it’s a safe bet that nofollow links aren’t that valuable, if they count for anything. Make sure the links you are getting are not nofollow. - Pages must be indexed:
If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it makes a sound? It doesn’t matter. If a link is on a page and the search engines haven’t indexed it, do you get credit for the link? No. In order for a link to benefit you in the search engines, the page on which the link is located must be indexed. If you find that pages which are linking to you are not indexed, you can help them out by getting some links to those pages so the search engines find and index the pages. - Relevance matters…sort of:
Google tells us that links from site relevant to your site are worth more. So, sites related to churches or a specific ministry are worth more than a link from a shoe store. But relevance is just one of many factors and links from not-so-relevant sites have value too. It’s best to get links from relevant sites, but by no means should you limit your link building to only relevant sites. - First link priority:
According to Google, if you have two links on a page that both link to the same page, only one of those links, the first that shows up in the code, will be counted. This means two things. First, it doesn’t help you to have 30 links to your homepage on some page. Second, if you are going to have more than one link on any page, make sure the first link has your keywords in the text. To be clear, if you have two links on a page going to two different pages on your site, they will both be counted. It’s only if the two links are going to the same page. Also, two links to the same page on different pages of a site will both be counted as well. (This can be confusing, so let me know if you need further clarification) - Link value can be diluted:
A page only has so much link authority it will pass. Each link on that page shares that link authority. So, if there is one link on the page, that one link will get all the link authority. If there are 4 links each will get about 25% of the link authority. So, for pages that have tons on links on them, those links are not going to be very valuable.
Great!, you are now a link building expert 😉 So, with the great things that link building can do for a church’s website, why are a lot of churches not doing any link building? Let’s look at the top 7 reasons churches don’t link build and why your church shouldn’t fall victim to them.
Photos by iseethelight and darkuncle
What other factors do you think are important to know about link building?
