/pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">

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

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.

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.

RELATED ARTICLES

How to Top Google by Writing Articles
Search engines determine their rankings based on two things: Is your site relevant? (Optimized for certain keywords) Is your site important? (Many links back to your site from other sites)

Local Customers Know Where to Find Local Businesses... the Internet
Through search engines and directories, the Internet provides a quick and easy place to choose a local merchant or business.

21 Search Engine Terms Every Web Marketer Should Know Part 1
1. Search Engine - Is a database of web sites that is ranked according to the computerized criteria that the programmers decide upon called an algorithm. Various search engines determine ranking on their own different factors of importance or relevancy. For the last few years the Google search engine was the most popular search engine supplying the search results for Yahoo and to a lesser extent MSN and AOL. This all changed recently after Yahoo purchased different search engine companies and developed its own search engine. Soon MSN will enter this market with its own search engine algorithm.

Professional SEO: Hand Off to Bob or Outsource the Job
We are often asked if professional SEO (search engine optimization) can be done effectively utilizing in-house talent. Despite our obvious self-interests on the subject, our answer is always a qualified "yes"? you can achieve professional SEO results using existing talent. However, for every company we have known that has met with great in-house SEO success, we know of many more that have seen their in-house efforts fail. We have also discovered the companies that have succeeded share some common traits.

Google News - Just another article announcer?
In Google's recent battle towards becoming an international news center, I've come to notice that the results delivered from Google News seems like nothing more than the articles we publish everyday. So I ask, doesn't it seem like Google News resembles an article directory of some sorts?

Link Building Services
In today scenario when we talk about Search Engine Optimization, we also talk about one of the most important aspect of SEO, which is Link Building. But there are different types, aspects and limitations of Link Building, which would be discussed now under

How Important is PageRank, Really?
Webmasters can spend most of their waking hours doing everything they can to raise their Google PageRank. It is common knowledge that PageRank, which is largely based upon the number and quality of backlinks a webpage has, is an important factor in how well a particular webpage ranks within the Google search results. Since webmasters spend so much of their time worrying about PageRank, an important question is: how important is PageRank, really?

13 Tips For Good Search Engine Placements
When used properly in combination with other basic search engine tactics, these tips can help to dramatically improve your placement with the search engines and increase the traffic to your web site.

How To Use Google As A Niche Website Builder
The popularity of weblogs or blogs has gotten a lot of attention from the media recently. In fact, "blog" was picked as the word of the year by Merriam-Webster, a U.S. dictionary publisher.

How To Get Listed in Yahoo!
Getting listed in Yahoo! (The Very Top Search Engine/Index) is a lot like getting a date with the most beautiful girl in high school - often all you have to do is ask PROPERLY. I can make that statement because I have NEVER submitted a site to Yahoo! that wasn't listed. I've read a lot about how difficult it is getting listed, and how frustrating it is - so maybe I am just very lucky. Then again, if you follow the same steps that have ALWAYS worked for me, there is no reason to believe that they won't work for you too. So I wanted to share with you in four short steps how to get listed.

Optimize Your Website or Get Lost In The Crowd!
It used to be that designing an attractive website to promote your company and products was fairly straightforward. After you designed your site and built a few keywords into the code, you would simply submit the site to the search engines or a directory, grab an iced tea and wait for the traffic.

7 Steps to Highly Relevant, Search Engine Friendly, and People Useful Web Site Content
The task is to build a Content Rich Search Friendly and People Friendly Web Site Quickly. These 7 Steps will show you how with about 10 Hours work you can build over 50 pages of rich, Search Engine relevant content for your web Site

Getting Listed in the ODP, Google Directory
First of all, the Google directory is really just the open directory project (ODP: url here) with a few adjustments. While listings on DMOZ.org are arranged within their category according to simple alphabetic order, listings in the Google Directory are based upon PageRank [link]. Thus, sites with higher PageRanks will show up higher on the list of sites under any given category. You can see the PageRank of a site pictorially by looking at the little green bar off to the left of each listing. The other major difference is that the Google Directory updates its listings only once every few months. Therefore, a website that is accepted into the ODP today may have to wait 3 months or more before it is listed in the Google Directory. If you go to DMOZ.org, you can see all the latest listings because each category page is updated immediately after a new site is added.

How To Avoid These Ten Costly Search Engine Mistakes
If you have a website then you already know the importance of traffic. Traffic is to Internet marketing as location is to real estate. It's the only thing that really matters. If you cannot generate targeted visitors to your site, you will not make any sales.

HTML and Search Engine Optimization - What You Dont Know Can Kill You
When it comes to search engine optimization there is a lot of information available, some accurate, some not. If you really want to know what is going on regarding your website and how to best optimize it for good results with the search engines, you need to do some SEO research. Review the following suggestions and above all get your information verified from a variety of sites, don't just take one site's information as the truth and run with it because you could be running in the wrong direction.

The Search Doesnt End at Your Homepage
In a recent report for a new client, I wrote:

Help Your Visitors Zero in with Site-Flavored Google search
As Google has gained in their search reputation the past few years, many webmasters have added a Google search box to their pages. This is meant to provide a quick path for visitors to continue their search, should they not find what they're looking for on the original site. To help these webmasters provide even more service to their visitors, Google is currently beta-testing a new feature called Site-Flavored Google Search.

How Real SEO Analysis Works
If you're serious about SEO, you need to know how to analyze the information you uncover.

Your PC can Contribute with Google Compute
Have you heard of the SETI Project? SETI stands for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, and the project is operated by the University of California at Berkeley. SETI monitors and processes radio signals from space, looking for possible signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life. SETI uses proprietary software to distribute computer processing power among all connected PCs participating in SETI project so that the radio signals can be processed faster and more efficiently. SETI effectively creates one big supercomputer from thousands of connected PCs across their network. Now users of the Google Toolbar can contribute to scientific research in much the same way, through Google Compute.

Breaking the Myth About Page Rank (PR)
The most difficult challenge most web designers face is getting traffic to your site. There are plenty of companies who promise to send traffic your way. Sadly, most of this traffic is not qualified. Yes, your hit counter will move higher, however, if its not qualified, you may find you have unhappy visitors to your site. Unhappy visitors will not click on your ads or purchase your products.