After a searchmeet conference with loads of talk about links, I find it quite nice to kick back and write some about the social basics behind natural linking on the web. Cause links, as they are used, are more than a connection between two pages on the web. A link comes with a person, or more accurately it comes with a persona.

So, how can I say this? Well, basically this statement is two folded. If you recieve a link from someone they actually do more than connect their page to one of your pages. They connect everything that’s been said on that domain historically, along with all that will be said in the future when passing the link love along.

Secondly, it is allways a person linking. Even though there are some pretty neat spam tools out there, the common link is an action by a person, with a reason to use the link as a way to put a story into a context or mention what they are linking to with a good or bad reference.

Co-Citation

Many of us out there have read Jim Boykin’s Co-Citation post. I remember finding a link to it when reading a post written by Swedish SEO Jim Westergren sometime in 2007. What it says is basically that your website is effected by what neighborhood it is connected to. Just as we get judged by the crew we hang with when out in town a dark winter night. Google cares about which pages your web pages hang out with online. The way they judge your crew, and thus, what to label you with, is by watching what pages you are linked together with.

LSI/LSA – Latent Semantics

What this theory basically tells us is that in order to be an authority on a topic, you’ll have to know a lot about it. If you are an authority within a niche of a topic, then you’ll have to know all about that niche. Basically, LSA looks at what you know, if you know the details, the slang, the synonyms and if you can connect them to all other information in related topics. When Google uses LSI I suspect they have a look at first, what you write. Do you cover the full topic? Do you spend time on linking to individual pages about more detailed descriptions for complicated terms? Do you vary your copy to include all different synonyms and do link to the most authoritative page outside your own website when the info cannot be found on your own.

Semantics deal with meanings. If I write, “break a leg”, then that can mean a lot of things. It can be a wish for good luck, but it can also be a curse for bad luck. Google, and semantic analyzes takes aim at knowing when you mean which by determining the context in which you use the phrase. That is what LSA is all about.

A Person Links because

On the modern web the link to your website is shared amongst users if it leads to a valuable resource. Value can be determined in many ways, but in the end it is all about what the reader thinks is valuable. People will link to your content if they like it or if they think that you have said something important, or well explained enough for them to clarify what they themselves are writing. You complete them… to use words of Mini-Me.

Regardless of why a person links to you or not, a natural link comes with a motive. That motive might be praise, recognition or just simply a way to say that “you explain this better than I so I won’t even bother”. A link might also be a thank you for something you’ve done and it might sometimes be a sign of the fact that you belong in the same crew as another person. Blogroll links are commonly used to say; “we write about the same stuff”.

In the Eyes of Google

As your link profile starts to build, all the people linking to you becomes the mirror of your face online. Your persona builds from the way that others are including you in their multidimensional Internet. For each link your dependence to the next link decrease whilst your importance to the previous link increase. Your persona, and thus the personas of all the people who has previously linked to you, change as you get new links putting you in new light of the search engines.

In the eyes of Google, I suspect, your complete profile is a constantly changing process. Just as you grow older and gain wisdom, or idiocy, your link profile is what determines your position in the eyes of others. Have you been a “good” person, then you will probably have a “good” legacy. People will have linked to you because of your impression on them or because of your knowledge.

Google recognize this. They also recognize that a one time star, can fall if they break a trust. That’s why you have to build your links over time, at a constant and increasing flow as your reputation spreads all over the web.

What am I really trying to say

Well basically I am trying to say that the natural link exchange on the web, just as the relationships between people, performs just as judgmental as society. If you hang out with the wrong crew, or if you say the wrong things, then you’ll have a much tougher time making advances in life.

In the eyes of the search engine, you’ll have to keep the chin high, and not just leave a one time gigantic footprint. You have to care for your relationships and inbound links over time. You have to nurture where you get mentioned and how. You have to exercise the kind of judgment you would do in real life.

LSI and Co-citation tells us that it doesn’t matter if we wear a suit, if we hang out with gangsters. It is the association we bring that is important to how people will judge us, our websites and what we do online.

//Jesper

I will now continue my SEO 101 guide with explaining where to put the keywords for a particular page.

Just as you arrange your ordinary word document that is longer than just a page, you construct an index so that all people reading your document will have an easy overview of what they are reading. On a website this index is called the sitemap. (Now some of you think… “Isn’t that the start page??” NO IDIOT… I will deal with the start page later… but keep in mind that you do NOT… I repeat… do NOT put all the links to all your content on your start page)

In the sitemap you should put links to all the pages of your website. As you want your reader, google and all other interested to know where they end up you use the “jam jar method” to lable your links and the pages where the people will end up.

Jam Jar Method
Just as you don’t put “Sweet and sticky” on a jar of strawberry jam (because no one knows what’s in it) you don’t put a slogan or something catchy in a link to a page. You simply say what’s on the page or in the jar. As for the case of the Jam jar you would write “Strawberry Jam”, as for a web page explaining the recepie for strawberry jam, you would give it the name “Recepie – Strawberry Jam” or “Recepie for strawberry jam”.

Many people put catchy phrases in their links, or even worse, put “read more” in their links leading to pages. This method sucks as it doesn’t give the reader any notion on where he or she is going to end up.

On-Page keyword optimization
Once you are on the page there are some elements that search engines as well as people find more important than others.

The title
First of all it is the title of the page. This is what is seen as the link from Google. It is also what is seen in the field on the very top of your browser. The title is defined in the head meta text of the page. The tag you use to define it is <title>Your title</title>.

Important is to put the keyword you want the searcher to find your page with as early as possible in the title. People are impatient, and search engines give more value to what comes first rather than what comes later. Thus a good example for a Strawberry Jam title would be something like;

Strawberry Jam : Recepie on how to make Jam of strawberries

As you can see I have included two variations of your same keyword; “strawberry jam” and “jam of strawberries”. This is a good thing to think about. All searchers might not search for the same thing. Check in google keywordtool for where most of the searches are. Use those two variations with the highest search density in your title.

The Description
Secondly you should write your keyword in three different variations in your description text. This text is never visible for the user except for when they search in google. It is the text visible underneith the link they click from the search engine.

It doesn’t give you that much value, but it gives you clicks if the search matches one or several of your phrases in your description. Description is a meta text wich means that it defines the content of a document.

The headline
Third you need to put your keyword in your headline. I generally use the same phrase as I use for my title as my headline. The headline is defined by the h1 tag. <h1>your headline</h1>. There should only be one h1 tag in each document.

The sub-headline
On a page you can use between two and three sub-headlines defined as <h2></h2>. These are used to divide your content into graspable paragraphs. In your sub-headlines you should try to not use your keyword in all of them. You should rather use keywords that are semantically related to your main keyword for that page. You can find semantically related keywords by utilizing the google service “Google Sets“.

For strawberry jam there is a whole set of different combinations you can use from the result you get. “jam for your coffe or tea”, “jam on the sandwitch”, “recepies for other fruit jams” etc. Use your imagination.

In the paragraphs
You should try to use your main keyword in your paragraphs as well. Do not spam your content with your keyword, but use it wisely about one or two times per paragraph.

In your image names, titles and alt texts
Remember that you should use your keywords not only when writing visible stuff for the users. But you should also give your image files, their alt texts and their titles names with your keyword in it. If it doesn’t fall natural. Write the title of the page you are using the image for and then give it a specific image name. Remember that Google don’t care abot the 7th or 8th word in your alt text… so be brief in your description on what is actually on the image.

Related articles
A neat little feature is the “related articles” section that many blogs and other websites have started to use. As google likes when you know a lot about a specific area, they also like it when you show your users that there is more to read. If you have been consistent with putting the keywords in your titles then a related articles feature in the bottom or to the right of each content is a very neat way for you to make google and readers find content that you have previously written. If google finds it often and you optimized it the first time, then it will for sure rank better.

I will get into explaining LSI later, but for now let’s just settle with the fact that google likes it when you 1. show that you are an authority within a topic and 2. they like loads of internal links with keywords in anchor texts. (see what I just did… soooo easy when you are too lazy… just link to a resource explaining the god damn word.. I know.. if I would have my own glossary it would be better, but this suits me well right now… and co-citing your page with Wikipedia is never a bad thing.)

There is allways a huge discussion in the search engine optimization community about link values. However, only a few people come out and say that they are actively building links to rank better in the SERPs. Even fewer people say that they buy links.

In an attempt to actually build some understanding on the topic. I contacted the link builder and black hat SEO spammer Gollum. Yes, you’re correct. Gollum who made an outstanding performance in playing himself in the Lord of the Rings. Gollum takes us behind the scenes to describe what the Lord of the Rings is really all about. Namely: The value of different links!!

- Oooooh… preeccciousss… links… preeecious liiinks… I’ll tell you all about them links..

Frodo Links
These links are built with a clean consience. Frodo links are the true soul of link love. There are loads of Frodo links out there. Small to medium sized websites, rich with content on a specific topic. Frodo links are personal, they are not to be bought. Frodo actually hates the pure notion of buying and selling links. He only gives links if he likes you, if he trusts you… Frodo never gave me any link. Once he was about to, but then his stupid hobit of a friden Sam told him about my black hat methods which made him stop…

Sam Links
Sam is bestest of friends with Frodo. He links to and talks about everything linked by Frodo. Frodo is basically Sams master and any link love given by Frodo will be doubbled by Sam. Sam is weaker than Frodo, but there are more followers than leaders out there, so Sam links are sweet. Worst thing with Sam links is that they tend to sneak of and tell the Frodos about your corrupt methods if you manage to get Frodo on your side. Enough Sams and Frodo might listen. I truely love to hate those Sam links.

Pippin Links
These links are as strong as Sam Links, but they are usually a bit less stable. They tend to go up and down as Pippin tend to run all over the place. Keyword clusters are not that tight around the Pippin links.

Aragorn Links
Ususally royal links that do not know their value until you tell their owner of the name about them. They have no clue they have influence over the whole link exchange empire and that they embody loads of power. Never buy a link from Aragorn as he can only be influenced for so long. As soon as the Sams tell the Aragorns about your filthy methods, the Aragorns tend to turn on you. Turn to the White hat side. Awwrrrgh…

Boromir Links
Sweet links. Usually found in the PR 5-6 level domains. Highly corruptable, and very much buy-able. You can identify a Boromir link possiblity from the About page on the blog. If a big ego exists then a big buy is possible. The more money the better placement… Boromir knows his worth but a Boromir link will be delivered with the right anchor text and the proper positioning. Beware of the “three month later nofollow” though… Boromir might switch sides in a minute to another highest bidder and is hence not to trust. Check them links all the time.

Legolas Links
Correct keyword links, very difficult to corrupt but if you provide them with some sentimental historical pages and some tradition or relation building you will get them Legolas links to your website. Legolas is usually found as the medium size influencer somewhere in the wicked pages of related keywords. Maybe not the best Semantics… you never get what those elves are saying… but.. they will link to you if they feel you are as trustworthy as themselves. Might be difficult with some elves.. but… it is worth the effort.

Gandalf Links
These are some magical PR 8-9 links. Completely impossible to corrupt. Gandalf links are found in the higher nature generic domain sectors. Non-affiliated and completely independent. Got loads of knowledge about everything. Even about you. It doesn’t matter how hard you work. Gandalf links might never fall on your website… with luck and hard work. You might still be the choosen one to get the trust of a Gandalf…

Confused yet?
Well. In some way I talked to Gollum the other day. It was when my friend Christian and I were talking about link values and how they differ. Also we can see a drastic change in how Google is appreciating and rewarding certain types of links. To be linked in a relevant cluster might just be more important than being linked a lot of times.

To be in the centre of a cluster is also more important than gaining only one link from the one in the centre. Also confusing? Well, I’ll explain it later. Right now. This post is about starting to think of links in a context instead of thinking plain links.

Use your imagination and figure out in what context you would like to put your website. Gollum knows everything about the different links available in his neighborhood. Do you know enough about the links that are available to you?

ps. if you got some time… please complete the list above as I think this was pretty funny to do… perhaps you got better suggestions on the Gollum Link directory… haha..

//Jesper

Extending keywords is a practice where you extend the concept of viewing your keyword as a theme. As it is meant to define your page, you should really try to include whatever words can complete your theme. If your main keyword or theme for the page is car insurance for example, you should think of whatever other words are related to car insurance.

Such words can be found in either Google KeywordTool or by using Google Sets. You can also search for you page keyword and look at what pages end up on top in the search engines. What other words, related to the word you are working with, are included in the top three results. I generally use SEO Quake to find what words have the highest density on top ranking webpages for the keyword I am pushing for.

Once you’ve found your extensions
For a keyword such as car insurance we have some supporting extensions that we can use right away such as “used cars”, “rental cars” and “new cars”. All these three extensions can provide different aspects of your keyword. You can write an introduction that focuses on your keyword, then use the extensions to create sub-sections and paragraphs including your extension keywords.

For all the extending keywords you decide on using, you have to create a main page. Although they are supporting keywords, as they are related to your keyword, they are also important if you want full coverage for the audience interested in your main purpose – car insurance.

IMPORTANT: You will eventually find that you will have pages where you want to use the same related keyword. Please do so, but ALLWAYS link the keyword on at least one occation from each page you use it, to the main page for that supporting keyword.

You will also find out that it will become difficult to keep track on what words you have used and on what pages they are supportive extensions and on what page they are the Keyword. Best way of keeping track of this is to produce a visual SEO-map as well as an excel spread sheet. The spread sheet should display the key words and their supportive words. The SEO-map should display how different pages are linked to eachother. More on this in a later post.

What is a keyword?
It is debatable whether or not a keyword is one word or if it is a theme. What we know is that a keyword defines the content of a page. There is a misconception that you can have several keywords on one page. Each page should be optimized around its own keyword. No other pages on a website should be optimized for the same word.

A keyword…

• …defines the page
• …is unique
• …matches a potential search queery from a user

A keyword can however consist of several words, making it a phrase. Each phrase or word you optimize for should match as many searches as posible that are in the right mindset of reaching your page. This means that if your page is a sales page, one part of your keyword should be a “buy” component. If your page is an informative page, your keyword should contain some kind of “informative” component.

Example keywords:

• Discount prizes car insurance – a buy keyword
• Compare car insurance – a information keyword

Social media and Search Engine keywords
There are some different variations of keywords you should keep in mind. Some keywords should be optimized for the search engines, and some for social media.

For search engine optimization – think of your searchers – who are they? – then think of what keywords you set in order to match their searches.

For Twitter, you want a lot of Retweets on what ever you post. You should allways keep track on what words Retweeted. Words such as “twitter”, “help”, “top”, “new” and “max” are good words. Basically any three letter word goes better than longer words.

Social media keywords, especially the ones that end up in good positions for conversion and viral spread, should either push for unique information, clusters of information (such as best of lists or top lists) or should open up for dialogue, ie. questions, statements, provocations.