SEO FAQ - Search Engine Optimization Tips and Tricks Only For SEO Experts

Why Aren't The New Backlinks Built Showing Up In The Backlinks Checkers?

If you have used backlink checkers like Yahoo! Site Explorer to check the number of "inlinks" or backlinks to your site, you might notice that although you've just had 80 backlinks built for you, only 10 or lesser show up. 

Does it mean that you are wasting your money? Well, the answer is of course... No! 

Strangely, most of the backlink checkers are not able to register all the backlinks that we've built for you. And based on our personal experience, this is a common issue! 

Despite this 'problem', you most probably will still find your websites rising up the search engine rankings. Again, this is where faith and determination comes into the picture and both Dominic and I cannot stress enough how important these elements are in SEO. 

So if we can't rely on backlink checker tools, what can we rely on to determine if our 

SEO efforts are paying off? 

The answer is your search engine rankings. 

Track your search engine rankings after at least a 3 month period and see for yourself the excellent rankings you have because of our link building campaign. 

Realize that link building and other SEO strategies take time to produce their excellent effects. Remember, have faith and determination and we'll see you at the top for your search engine rankings. 

Will Google Penalize My Site if a Webpage with Multiple Links (e.g. Link Farm) Links to Me?

It's true that Google dislikes link farms, and you've probably heard of how Google slapped this sites and drop their rankings after they are discovered.

With that said, think along this line. Webmasters like us do not have control over which sites link to our sites, so isn't it unfair to be penalized if a link farm links to our website? You bet.

And if that's true (and if you're into blackhat), we can easily sabotage our competitors' rankings by setting up a link farm using free webhosting services and put their sites along with thousands of links there, and submit a complaint to Google.

However, it doesn't work that way and so, do not worry if a link farm is linking to you. After all, link farms often have low PageRanks and a high number of outgoing links, so the 'link juice' you're going to get is so little it can be negligible.

With that said, DO NOT ever link to a link farm or attempt to put 'hidden links' in your pages. You know, those links that are blended into the background color (e.g. <a href="http://www.yourdomain.com" style="color:white">Keyword</a>).

Should I Build Backlinks to Inner- Pages or Directly To My Homepage?

Honestly, it really depends on you. But what I've realized is that when you rank for the inner page, most likely your homepage will be "pulled" up along with the inner pages in the search engine. So what's going to happen is that you're going to have multiple listing of the same domain, for the same keyword!

Personally, I have built backlinks to both homepages and inner pages and I've not really seen a big difference in the results.

However putting ourselves as Google to win them in their game, what would be more natural in your case? People linking to your inner pages or direct to your homepage? Here's a good example:

If you have a blog, it will be more natural to link direct to the specific post optimized with the keyword you are targeting. On the other hand, if you have are aiming to target for keywords such as "social bookmarking service", then you can just link directly to your homepage which will most probably a salescopy.

Isn't It True That We Should OnlyBuild Incoming Links That Are Relevant To My Site?

I know where most people get the idea from. After all, getting relevant backlinks to your site is preached by most of the top internet marketing experts.

However based on my personal sites and success, I can tell you that building backlinking links from irrelevant sites also boost your Search Engine rankings.

Please do not ask me why because frankly I can't give you a logical reply. However, I can tell you that most of the sites linking to our internet marketing sites are actually sports, news and education sites that have little or nothing to do with Internet Marketing. But the strange thing is that our site is still rising in search engine rankings despite all that.

With that said, it doesn't harm to have relevant sites pointing to your site because the traffic that you're going to get will more targeted and they can result in sales.

But where SEO is concerned, do you need relevant sites to link to you to rank better in search engines? Nope!

Why Did My Site Drop In RankingsAfter Backlink Building? What Happened?

Winson and I get this question all the time. Perhaps you already know that this is common in the SEO community.

Personally, this has happened to all my sites before - I would be doing link building to my sites and all of a sudden, my site dropped drastically in search engine rankings for the keyword I am targeting for. What happened?

This is known as the Google Dance - this is what happens when Google updates their index. Frankly, I do not know what really happens but I refer to it as the "stock market" pattern. Here's why...

Just like a stock market, there will be ups and downs. Using the analogy, our search engine rankings go up and down as well. However what's going to happen is that our search engine rankings might seem to be going down at times, but as compared to our search engine rankings BEFORE we start our link building, it is actually still an increase.

So my bottomline is this: Do not worry about your search engine rankings fluctuating. I've got sites that dropped behind 10 pages in the Google search engine results for 2 weeks. But when they came back, they are at a far better search engine position than they were before they dropped in rankings.

Many internet marketers would grab their hair in frustration and run around like crazy freaks when their sites drop in rankings, but if your site dropped in rankings, I'd congratulate you instead of sharing the worry.

Why?

Because most of the time based on my personal experience, I know that my sites are going to rank far better when it comes back.

Wouldn't My Sites Be Banned By Google If I Buy Links To My Sites?

Most people had this idea after reading what Google wrote in their Quality Guidelines: "Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank."

And let's not forget the fact that Matt Cutts, the Google engineer, is largely responsible for spreading this "buying links is forbidden" message around the internet.

So is buying links really illegal in the eyes of Google? Our take? It depends... It might be true that Google have their own algorithm to detect paid links (most probably by detecting if there's reciprocal backlinking), however, truth is that it isn't that easy to figure out which links are paid. Think about this...

If there is reciprocal link building (that means I'll link to your site if you link to mine), it's pretty obvious that there is something going on. (And this is why reciprocal backlinking doesn't work as well as before.)

However if it's just a one-way link from a website or a blog with quality content, Google cannot possibly determine if the link is bought.

And even if they do figure it out, it's most probable they simply won't count the backlinks as a vote. It wouldn't make sense to ban entire sites because they bought text-link ads on other sites.

How Come Blogs That Duplicated Content From EzineArticles Shows Up In The Search Rankings And Ranked Better While The Original Copy At Ezinearticles Didn't Appear In The Search Term?

That's the duplicate content filter working. Usually, Google will rank the content from the original site, in this case, Ezinearticles. However, sometimes Google does get it wrong and they wrongly determine that Ezinearticles is the one with the duplicate content instead.

So first, let's understand how Google determines which copy is duplicate content. According to a post in SearchEngineLand.com, there are 4 steps Search Engines use to determine duplicate content...

1. First, the search engine will determine the source the content is discovered first, and how many copies of the exact content is discovered previously by their bots

2. It starts comparing the copies, and discards those pages that may come from spam blogs, or blacklisted IPs

3. Next, it determines the link popularity and the sources of the backlinks

4. Lastly, it finds out which page is discovered first and together with the information in Step 3, it determines which copy will be considered to be the original content In this case, the search engine has determined that the article in Ezinearticles is a duplicated content.

Most probably, the site that is appearing in the search engines has beat the article URL at Ezinearticles in terms of popularity and relevancy.

Do I Really Need to Register My Domain for 5+ Years To Rank Well In Search Engines?

Before you start buying your next domain name for 5 years, hoping that it's easier for you to rank, stop and read this answer.

When asked if the Expiration Period of a domain affects the search engine rankings, Google actually commented, "Not every TLD publishes their expiration dates, but even if they did, why would the expiration date be the determining factor when comparing two similar sites? A year, the minimum time to register a domain name, is pretty long in internet time."

Bottomline? You don't have to register your domain for 5 years to rank well in search engines!

Personally, most of our sites are only registered for 1 year until we determine that the website is a money-maker.

I know this information is going to cut the profits of Domain Registration companies but Winson and I just got to get it out. (if you work for a domain registration company, please do not send us hate mails... Kidding!)

Conclusion

I sincerely wish that this report have blown away many of the myths and questions you might have when it comes to SEO Link Building.

If you have any questions regarding SEO Link Building or more knowledge that you'd like to share with us, simply drop us a message at CONTACT US

So far, I have helped many marketers improve their search engine rankings. If that's what you need - to get better visibility online, then you are always welcomed to join our membership so we can help you and your business.

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About Kamran

Kamran Khursheed, Founder and Author of GoogleWebTech, He specializes in on-page, off-page SEO, inbound marketing and link-based content marketing with a five-year track record of driving qualified leads and traffic to websites. Now he is a full-time blogger who loves to explore blogging. He has a passion for helping newcomer bloggers make their blog noticeable and money making.

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