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About Mert Erkal

He left his full time job as of 1st August, 2008 to earn his living from blogging and freelance Internet projects. He also shares his 10 years of experience he gained in a giant multi-national company for Small Business companies and builds Corporate Identity. Read more about him!

Sep
19th

The Effect of Unnatural Linking Patterns On Your Search Engine Rankings

By Mert Erkal in Search Engine Optimization

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Unnatural Linking

Inbound links are one of the most important factors that Google uses to determine the position of a website in the search results.

Some years ago, it was sufficient to get a lot of inbound links to top Google’s search results. Nowadays, it’s not that easy. Google has started to detect unnatural linking patterns.

What are unnatural links?

Unnatural linking is linking that wouldn’t happen if search engines didn’t exist. Unnatural links are links that are built purely to increase the search engine rankings of a website. These links don’t have topical relevancy.

For example, unnatural links are:

  • links from totally unrelated websites (that have no value to the web surfer)
  • links from blog comment spam and forum spam
  • links that exploit a weakness in server design (like form injection)

What are natural links?

Natural links are simply links that webmasters would also build if search engines didn’t exist. For example, reciprocal links with related websites make sense (I send visitors to you and you send visitors to me, our visitors benefit from the links).

If a link is logical and on-topic then search engines will like the links. The following graphical example explains why on-topic links will increase your search engine rankings:

 Site1

The topic of your website is symbolized by the green color. The more other “green” websites link to your site (symbolized by the green arrows), the deeper is the green of your own website.

In that case, search engines know that your website is very relevant for this “green” topic and they will give your site high search engine rankings for search terms related to that topic.

Now lets take a look at the effect of unrelated links:

Site2

The links from unrelated websites (symbolized by other colors) take away the green from your website. They make it harder for search engines to identify the topic of your site.

If you have a lot of links from unrelated web pages then your website becomes less relevant to the original topic of your site.

What does this mean for your website?

Links that are useful to web surfers are links that search engines deem relevant. Do not waste your time with shady link farm systems that promise hundreds of links in a short time. This won’t help your website much.

Better focus on high quality links that will bring your website targeted visitors while increasing your search engine rankings at the same time.

For more detailed coverage please visit Axandra.com

And if you like my article, please link it to your blog with the keyword targeted visitors. Thanks in advance :)

Popularity: 28% [?]

Comments

Megan November 14th, 2007

The linking strategies brought to life again. Great job putting it into context. Biggest thing is never pay for links to your site. If you do this be VERY careful as to how it is utilized. Your site can be brought down in an instant

Keep up the great work on this blog. One I intend to book mark and return to

http://www.PassportMentors.com

Mert Erkal November 14th, 2007

Thanks Megan for your positive comments. I have just checked your website and amazed to see how successful you are. Looking forward to host you again with another interesting blog post.

Cheers,
Mert

bloggingzoom.com November 28th, 2007

The Effect of Unnatural Linking Patterns On Your Search Engine Rankings…

Inbound links are one of the most important factors that Google uses to determine the position of a website in the search results. Some years ago, it was sufficient to get a lot of inbound links to top Google’s search results. Nowadays, it’s not th…

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[…] The Effect of Unnatural Linking Patterns On Your Search Engine Rankings | searchforblogging.com - Inbound links are one of the most important factors that Google uses to determine the position of a website in the search results. Some years ago, it was […]

Mapquest April 25th, 2008

Not sure I fully agree to you Mert. Jonathan Leger has a good article on this issue, but I can’t for the life of me find the link now.

Basically, his point is that links from not relevant sites DO happen naturally pretty often, and he had a reasoning there that convinced me when I was reading it.

If I find the link I’ll share it :)
Regards, Misha

Mert Erkal April 25th, 2008

Hi Misha,

Thank you so much for your valuable comment. I am looking forward to see that.

Cheers,
Mert

Pregnant July 17th, 2008

I know many preach, this theory, but I have looked at many high ranking websites that have many links coming from sites that are totally unrelated.

Take a look at this site www.lasikathome.com all his links are from people linking to his site (link bait) and they have nothing to do with Lasik, and he is on first page for LASIK..

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