This article tries to answer some of the most common questions asked by webmasters before they start link building.
We must first understand that SEO & link building is not an exact science; there is no one way to approach the complicated art of SEO. But to be successful, you need to have a thorough strategy and you should use the right SEO methods.
Here are a few common questions:
1. Do I need to have thousands of links to my website in order to rank high?
No. You can easily compete with other websites on the basis of the quality of the incoming links (and not the quantity). For example, if your competitor has thousands of PR 0 incoming links, they are mainly competing on quantity. You can easily outrank them by getting a handful of PR 6-9 links pointing to your website. Quantity is NOT the main determinant of high ranking.
2. Should I keep a specific keyword density on my homepage?
It is very hard to define what the optimal keyword density should be. Needless to say, this is one of the least important factors. I have seen many pages ranking high for keywords which are not even in the pages! Try it yourself: If you have many links pointing to a website with the keywords: PC services Canada, you will rank high for that keyword phrase even if your website does not make a single use of that phrase.
3. Why are some websites always ranking high in the search engines?
Simply put, the websites in question found out the right way to rank high in the seach engines. After that, it was pretty easy. Because they are ranking high, they have a lot more visitors and more attention, which makes many other people link to them, thereby strengthening their rankings.
4. Should I make sure that the incoming links have the exact same keyword phrase in them?
No. A better practise would be to use multiple anchor texts in the incoming links. This makes your link building look natural and gives your website a variety of keywords to derive exposure in the search engines.
5. Does reciprocal linking hurt you?
To be honest, I have never seen reciprocal linking hurt anyone. Sure, if you do it a lot and search engines catch you, they will know that the link building was not natural. So you can still do it, but make sure you do not make it too obvious.
6. Can I rank high in the search engines without making use of any good tools?
Sure, you can but the chance of that happening is 1 in 1000. Use tools like SEO Elite and Keyword Elite to make your job easier. The SEO tools are out there for a reason: To make your job easier.
7. Is there a secret to link building?
Yes, it is consistency and the use of right strategy.
8.Can I compete with established websites on a fairly low budget?
Yes, but then you have to make sure that you thoroughly understand how SEO works and you pick the right keywords to compete for. Also, it would be better to make a sizeable investment in the right SEO services to help you on your way.
9. Should I pay SEO experts $2000 a month to improve my rankings?
No, unless you have no idea what you are doing and you have a lot of money to throw around. You can actually do a lot of work SEO experts do by reading up on SEO techniques. This will save you a lot of money in the long run.
10. I am a business owner. Does doing business online make sense for me?
It makes sense if you want to slash your costs by over 70% and do not want to pay a huge amount of money in marketing.