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Link Building - The Waiting Game

Link building is a waiting game. Many clients have asked me why they do not see changes in traffic or ranking before a month goes by. It takes time for the search engine robots to find those new links and index the pages they are linked to.

The Process Of Indexing Links

Links are what make the world wide web go round. Links are how we travel through the web pages of the world wide web. The indexing, or spidering, of links on a web page works much the same as the search engine submission process. In order for your new link to provide link popularity back to your website, the page the link is on must appear in the search engine databases. In other words, the link page must be indexed. Just like pages that get included in the search engine databases, the search engine robots must index the web page to be included into the search engine databases. If the web page is already in the search engine database, it is a matter of indexing the updated information on the web page and having that link show as a backlink in the search engine results.

Why Do I Have To Wait So Long For Results?

When it comes to link building, it is quite simply a slow process. Even if you pay for a link, the page the link is on still must be indexed by the search engine robots in order to be included in the database, thus showing up in the search engine results. Just like your web pages may take time to be indexed in the search engine databases, the same is true of the links you submit for link popularity. A link is on a page, it must be indexed to count.

What's A Backlink?

A backlink is a spiderable link (typically a text hyperlink) that points from another web page to your designated web page.

The preferable type of backlink is one that is topical in nature. If your web page and keywords focus on gardening books, you would want to have backlinks from other gardening websites, especially gardening book sites, pointing back to your web pages. The link pointing back to your web page counts for just the one page as a backlink, unless you have multiple links on multiple pages on the link website.

For more information about who to link to, see our article:
http://www.searchinnovation.com/link-building.asp

Finding Backlink Results

Google has limitations on the number of links that show up in their backlink search results. You may have many more links in Google than what is shown in the link query in the search engine results.

AlltheWeb generally shows many of your backlinks, it picks up most pages that link to you. Yahoo also shows quite a few backlinks.

To find your backlinks, search in the search field using: link:www.yourdomainname.com

This query should show the number of backlinks you have pointing back to your web page.

If this search does not work in the search engine you are using, try using the advanced search feature of the search engine.

For an overall report view of your backlinks, visit http://www.marketleap.com and choose the link selection to see how many backlinks show in the search engines listed. You may list your top competitors websites in this query and see their backlink results along side of your own results. As always, use any search tool as an estimation of the number of backlinks pointing to your website.

Is The Link Page In The Database?

You can check to see if the page your new link is on is in the search engine database by using this search in most search engines search field:

allinurl: www.yourdomainname.com

or

site: www.yourdomainname.com

or by page name: info:www.yourdomainname.com/articles.html

Or use the advanced search features offered at each search engine.

Of course, to find out if you are listed in a directory, you must click through the categories to the category you submitted your information to. To shortcut your search, look for the directory link results that usually accompany regular search results at directories. If you are listed in the directory, the next step is to wait until the link is indexed by the search engine robots and shows up in the search engine results and your backlink results.

Waiting For Results

Link building is time consuming and you must wait to see the full results. Most importantly, work on your content for natural linking from other websites. Become an authority on your subject and other websites will think the same thing. Think of link building not as an immediate payoff but as a long-term goal to better your overall ranking in the search engine results.

Daria Goetsch is the founder and Search Engine Marketing Consultant for Search Innovation Marketing, a Search Engine Marketing company serving small businesses. She has specialized in Search Engine Optimization since 1998, including three years as the Search Engine Specialist for O'Reilly Media, Inc., a technical book publishing company.

Copyright © 2002-2005 Search Innovation Marketing. http://www.searchinnovation.com All Rights Reserved.

Permission to reprint this article is granted if the article is reproduced in its entirety, without editing, including the bio information. Please include a hyperlink to http://www.searchinnovation.com when using this article in newsletters or online.

Author: Daria Goetsch

 

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Being a webmaster is a much more important job than most companies would dare admit. Webmasters are responsible for the company web presence on every level, from the website copy to the web and email server administration. Additionally, webmasters are often tasked even more duties that should be considered unrelated responsibilities for the position of webmaster. These extra duties often will include online as well as offline promotion and marketing, search optimization, advertising, application programming, graphic design and/or brand management. The role of the webmaster has grown over the years and webmasters need to grow with the company's expectations or the website will not succeed. For instance, it is easy to get banned from the search engines for not knowing the correct methods to use to optimize a website for a better results ranking from the search engines for any particular search phrase.

This is why Webmastery is here, not just to offer direction and assist webmasters, but to do so masterfully, as you expect of yourself, or as your company expects out of you.
 

Since I am an American and know only American English and SEO methods, I specialize in American Webmastery. Hence the domain name, Webmastery.US.
 

However, please note that often both sides of the coin are presented here. Some webmasters swear by Linux and we offer articles by such authors to give insight to their creativity. Others are die-hard Microsoft software fans and use Windows based servers. Despite the bias, each system has its own advantages, and such articles are reprinted here for their positive contribution to those platforms, not to enforce their bias. It is we that have to make the final analysis.
 

This difference is even more apparent when I am showcasing and promoting white hat SEO (search engine optimization) and a black hat SEO article is published here, which method if followed could get a website banned from the search engines. The reason I allow it a small platform is to showcase its apparent and obvious idiocy in contrast to white hat SEO techniques. And as I cannot edit these articles in order to correct them, I let their illogicality and stupidity stand on their own for a time without any edits. But in case their spaminess is not apparent, I often do not let such articles stand long.
 

 

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