This week, we're taking a look at the perfect incoming link for high search engine rankings.

In the news: new search engine share statistics, search engines continue to be the primary way Internet users navigate to key industry categories and more.

Table of contents:

• Facts of the week
• Search engine news of the week
• Articles of the week
• Recommended resources
• Previous articles

Incoming links are one of the most important factors for high search engine rankings. If your website doesn't have enough incoming links then it's very difficult to get high rankings for a competitive search term.

It's important that you get the right kind of links. If you have 20 good incoming links then you'll get better rankings than with 100 bad incoming links.

So what makes a good incoming link? There are several points that can make a link better than other links:

1. The link should use the keyword in the anchor text

If you want to get high rankings for a search term like "buy brown shoes" then the links to your website should use exactly that text. The text that is used to link to your site (the "anchor text") influences the words for which your website will get high rankings.

Make sure that the texts that are used to link to your website contain words for which you want to get high rankings on search engines.

2. The link should be from a relevant page

Links from related web pages usually work better than links from unrelated pages. Links from unrelated pages won't hurt your rankings but Google likes links from websites that are related to yours better.

3. The link should go to a relevant page on your site

While it's okay to get links to your home page it is better to get links to the page that is most relevant to the chosen anchor text. If the link text is "buy brown shoes" then you should make sure that the link goes to a page that deals with brown shoes.

If the link text matches the content of the linked pages then it's more likely that your web page is really relevant to that term and it's more likely that you'll get high rankings for that search term.

In addition, you increase the user experience. If a surfer clicks on a "buy brown shoes" link it's much more likely that he'll buy on your site if he gets the correct page.

4. It's good if the link is from an authority site

Links from pages with high authority will help to increase the TrustRank of your website. Links from websites with high PageRank have a positive effect on the rankings of your own site.

Unfortunately, the Google PageRank that is displayed in the green bar in Google's toolbar is not the PageRank that Google uses for its ranking algorithm. The PageRank displayed in the toolbar is outdated, often wrong and more a gimmick than a real help (details can be found here and here). You'll often find websites with low PageRank that rank higher than pages with high PageRank in the search results.

Don't trust the green pixels and use common sense. If a website is well known and if the site has good search engine rankings then it's likely that it is also an authority website.

5. The link must not have a nofollow attribute

The nofollow attribute tells search engines that they should not follow a link. Links with that attribute don't help your search engine rankings.

Unfortunately, you have to check the HTML code of your link partners to find out if they use a nofollow attribute to link to your site.

If you don't want to check the HTML code of each website manually, you can use the link check command in IBP & ARELIS to quickly check if your link partners use a nofollow attribute to link to your site.

Further information on how to get high quality links can be found in our free link building eBook. If you build links to your website as explained in the eBook, your website will get the best possible rankings on Google and other search engines.

"Google accounted for 63.98 percent of all US searches in the four weeks ending September 1, 2007. Yahoo! Search, MSN Search and Ask.com each received 22.87, 7.98 and 3.41 percent respectively. [...]

Search engines continue to be the primary way Internet users navigate to key industry categories.  Comparing August 2007 to August 2006, the Travel, Entertainment and Business and Finance categories received double digit increases in their share of traffic coming directly from search engines."

Nielsen/Netrankings August U.S. search share rankings (PDF)

"Google handles 53.6% of all US searches, Yahoo 19.9%, Microsoft 12.9%, AOL 5.6% and Ask 1.7%."

"Types of websites that will be penalized with low landing page quality scores:

Data collection sites that offer free gifts, subscription services etc., in order to collect private information, Arbitrage sites that are designed for the sole purpose of showing ads, Malware sites that knowingly or unknowingly install software on a visitor's computer."

Search engine newslets

• Google to "out open" Facebook on 5 November.
• Google to end ad agency subsidy.
• Google Trends is now updated every 24 hours.
• Google releases a new cost per action tool for AdWords.
• Google seeks EU approval to buy DoubleClick.
• Google plans new undersea "Unity" cable across Pacific.
• Local search site Zillow.com gets additional $30 million.
• Google security flaw exposed email addresses.
• Reuters introduces a video search for people.
• New version of Gmail being tested.
• New features in Google Print Ads.

How to get incoming links

Getting incoming links is very important if you want to get high rankings on Google and other major search engines. If you want to get incoming links, take a look at the following tools:

• Inbound link optimizer
• Inbound link builder
• Free link building eBook

Get your site mentioned in front of 140,000+ subscribers

We want to hear from you about your successes with IBP or ARELIS. Just write us 2-3 sentences and you might get featured in this newsletter along with your web site address.

• Four tips to increase your sales by creating a trustworthy website
• Top 3 tips to get indexed on Google within 48 hours
• The effect of unnatural linking patterns on your search engine rankings
• How to fake PageRank and how find websites with faked PR
• Search engine market shares in Europe
• The importance of a page 1 listing and how to get it
• How Google might filter annoying pages
• Google's Matt Cutts: Don't stuff your keywords
• How your competitors can sabotage your website rankings
• View all past issues...