Link Importance in Search Engine Effectiveness

In general, the more links pointing to a website, the better the website will perform. Don’t be duped by schemers looking to raise their own website’s stature by “exchanging links”–or pointing a link to your site while you link to theirs. Only link to web sites that have a genuine appeal to your audience. Sending customers to websites offering no value may irritate customers. As for enticing others to link to your site, great instructive content, guides, or information of real value raises your link value far more effectively than any link exchange program or other schemes.

Popular websites frequently receive links from other websites with similar content. This linking into another raises the recipient site’s value. Care must be taken when choosing to link to these websites. For example, there are links used in the Thunder Data website to help explain facets of design and development. When we want our visitors to see these sites without creating a link to them (and thus raising the popularity factor), we use images containing the URL address for typing directly into the browser’s address bar.

The bottom line? Offer links to sites with value and with real content that adds value for your customers. Do not link to websites that are nothing more than links to other websites–including your competitors. Those are link farms. Never link to sites you do not want to help!