SEO and Link Building: Good and Bad Plans - Specific and general links
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General links
A general link is a link to your main home page or your site's index page.
Specific links
A specific link is a link to a specific section or posting on your site. For example, if you run a blog and someone links to the URL of a specific posting, in order to use your site as an example, reference or to provide information, then they have given you a specific link to your site. It should be noted, of course, that both general and specific links can be either inbound or outbound.
From low ranking and high ranking sites
Now, before we begin it is important to know that not all sites worry about the places where your inbound links come from, but some do. Just to be fair.
Low ranking sites
This isn’t really a fair term. It just means that the site that has linked to you does not have a high traffic flow. This will be the bulk of sites.
High ranking sites
These are sites with a high traffic flow, and high rankings in search engines. These sites are usually also very well known. A good example of one of these high ranked sites is CNET.
So, which ones are the most important?
Well, that depends. Each of the search engines has an algorithm that determines how a site will be ranked. We won’t get into talking about the specifics of those algorithms, most of which are guarded like state secrets, but for now it is important to know that there are two main types of algorithms: those that count your inbound links and those that do not.
The theory behind the ones that do count your inbound links is that these links are an expression of your popularity, and therefore your relevance to readers. The non-inbound links counters have the philosophy that, as a site administrator, you have no control over who, if anyone, can link to your site, and you should not be penalized for that. Since it would be foolish to cater to one philosophy of ranking over another and run the risk of losing rankings because of it, we are going to take a balanced approach to building links and creating a solid link strategy. That means striking a balance between the links you make, both from and to the site, within the categories we talked about. We will talk about the ways to do this, and more importantly the ways not to do this.
Next: Strategy One: Build a high number of inbound links >>
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