For as long as we know it has always been understood that building links for your website is one of the most important strategies that must be executed in order to get closer to that first page in Google. There has always been a constant among the different ways of building links to your site and that is the relevancy to your website.
However, this might not be so true at all, at least not any more. If you read the latest articles and watch some of the seminars and YouTube videos by Google’s software engineer, Matt Cutts, you will see that he is constantly persuading you to having good content in your website. The main objective by Google is to train us into having websites that provide quality content and therefore people will link to your website. “If they find your website interesting they will link to you”.
But there is more in between the lines and as you get deeper into the blogs and articles by Matt Cutts you will also realize that he also mentions “natural links”. A natural link happens when some one lands in your website and he finds your content so interesting that he decides to link to your website. Unnatural links on the other hand are links that you manually create by making an arrangement with another website – “Reciprocal Linking” or “Link Exchange”, “3 Way Links” and also “One Way Links” which can be obtained by purchasing links from a website are considered unnatural links.
So let us evaluate for a minute the last paragraphs we just read. We now know that if some one come into your website and he finds the content interesting he might go ahead and link to you. This will be considered a “Natural One Way Link”. So think about this, you own a construction company and you have this website that illustrates ways to repair or build windows for a room you are adding to your house. I come across your site and when I read the content I find it so useful and interesting that I decide to link to you. But I am not a constructor, I am a homeowner and I am a dentist for a living. This is a real natural link.
Lets look at another example: You own a retail store that sells clothing and you need a website built for you. So you go ahead and you hire this web developer who designs a website for you. The website was a total success and you are so happy that you add a link to his website on your website. This is another natural link and once again there is no relevancy what so ever.
The point is that relevancy might have been an important factor a few years ago but nowadays the word is “Natural” and when a link comes to a website which is relevant to your own website it opens a gate to suspicion and doubt. Yet, if the link comes from a website that has nothing to do with your own industry this is interpreted by Google as a great token of gratitude from that other site.
Google is one of those books that you need to read in between the lines. They will not tell you the exact ingredients needed to push your website to the first 10 positions on the top. The teachings are very simple: “Provide good content and they will come”. Of course, we all know that will not happen but whatever technique you decide to apply in order to build the links to your website think about a strategy that can be interpreted as a “natural behavior”.
A good article with a good amount of sense.
My view is always to think what is useful to the visitor. If it makes sense to the visitor, then it’s going to make sense to Google. And, like you say, if it makes sense to the visitor as a human, not a bot, then there is a good chance that they will link to your site.
It’s all about natural conversation and communication. After all, our friends come from different walks of life so it makes sense that our site visitors should too.
Very good article, however, one important element is the speed acquiring links. You you start with a slow build up of relevant one way links over a 30 to 60 day period, You can a massive amount of links later.
Some sound advice about building backlinks.
Google’s ideas about relevancy and natural linking worry me somewhat, especially with their new style search.
The big G is pushing their most profitable pages at us. I don’t believe it’s a fair system for one minute. Google wants profits (and lots of them) from its corporate clients.
Google are a law unto themselves. Who was it that said “power corrupts” and “absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
They are the dominant search engine and we play follow the piper and dance to their tune… at least as best we understand it.
Natural linking seems like a good idea and thanks for an interesting article.
Regards
Mike
good article and very useful! Thanks!
I am pretty certain that Google is a monopoly now…and can do whatever they so please :/
I agree with this article.
It doesn’t mean that because one person is a bookkeeper has no other interests. Therefore, anymore interesting website that this bookkeeper find is likely to link to it.
I think I am just going to start focusing on the content of my site. It’s easy to get caught up in off site link building when we really don’t know what works and what doesn’t. I may as well get started….see ya.
Understanding Google PR is almost imposible… But I still think that relevant links are important…