Incoming links are one of the most important factors for high search engine rankings. If your website doesn't have enough incoming links then it's very difficult to get high rankings for a competitive search term.
It's important that you get the right kind of links. If you have 20 good incoming links then you'll get better rankings than with 100 bad incoming links.
So what makes a good incoming link? There are several points that can make a link better than other links:
1. The link should use the keyword in the anchor text If you want to get high rankings for a search term like "buy brown shoes" then the links to your website should use exactly that text. The text that is used to link to your site (the "anchor text") influences the words for which your website will get high rankings.
Make sure that the texts that are used to link to your website contain words for which you want to get high rankings on search engines.
2. The link should be from a relevant page Links from related web pages usually work better than links from unrelated pages. Links from unrelated pages won't hurt your rankings but Google likes links from websites that are related to yours better.
3. The link should go to a relevant page on your site While it's okay to get links to your home page it is better to get links to the page that is most relevant to the chosen anchor text. If the link text is "buy brown shoes" then you should make sure that the link goes to a page that deals with brown shoes.
If the link text matches the content of the linked pages then it's more likely that your web page is really relevant to that term and it's more likely that you'll get high rankings for that search term.
In addition, you increase the user experience. If a surfer clicks on a "buy brown shoes" link it's much more likely that he'll buy on your site if he gets the correct page.
4. It's good if the link is from an authority site Links from pages with high authority will help to increase the TrustRank of your website. Links from websites with high PageRank have a positive effect on the rankings of your own site.
Unfortunately, the Google PageRank that is displayed in the green bar in Google's toolbar is not the PageRank that Google uses for its ranking algorithm. The PageRank displayed in the toolbar is outdated, often wrong and more a gimmick than a real help (details can be found here and here). You'll often find websites with low PageRank that rank higher than pages with high PageRank in the search results.
Don't trust the green pixels and use common sense. If a website is well known and if the site has good search engine rankings then it's likely that it is also an authority website.
5. The link must not have a nofollow attribute
The nofollow attribute tells search engines that they should not follow a link. Links with that attribute don't help your search engine rankings.
Unfortunately, you have to check the HTML code of your link partners to find out if they use a nofollow attribute to link to your site.
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