External link mass: understanding the theory
External link mass means all external links in the aggregate or the number of links leading to the site, indexed by the PS (relative to each individual search engine).
Define the concept of a link
A link is a specific entry in a document that refers to another document. In the case of sites, it is understood that we are talking about documents on the network, that is, pages of a certain resource.
There are different types of links:
- paid, purchased: installed on special link exchanges, installation is paid;
- free;
- rental: payment for accommodation is carried out for a certain period of time;
- eternal - those that stand "forever."
Anchor links are also distinguished - those in which text content is provided between the tags, or non-anchor links. They do not include keywords for promotion between tags, but are limited to standard phrases like here, here, on the site. Sometimes the name of the promoted company is indicated.
Some SEO experts argue that there should be more non-anchor links than anchor links. But Yandex claims that the link should contain more information about the resource than just “here”. Their requirements state that the link must contain semantic content.
There are also natural links: they come from someone wanting to share your products, and SEO links. It is the latter that all specialists in this field operate on. These are links created specifically (or bought) in order to change the position of the site in the search results.
Five categories of links
There are the following basic types of links:
- nofollow. A link framed by such tags does not participate in the ranking of the site and is not viewed by search robots. That's what the developers say. In fact, PS also take them into account.
- Redirect, indirect links: when you click on them, you get a transition to another site through a third-party resource.
- Single- and multi-word: respectively, containing 1 or more words in the anchor.
- Indexed and non-indexed: respectively, those that are taken into account by PS and those that are not.
- Natural (good, positively influencing the ranking) and bad, with a negative impact.
It is clear that this or that link can belong to several categories at once and be good, paid, eternal, anchor and verbose, and so on.
You can study the external link mass of a certain resource using special services: for example, Megaindex, LinkPad, Yazzle.
How can I get links?
The most important thing in this matter is the constant publication of important, interesting and timely content on the site. It will be referred to without additional requests, only because of its "interestingness". You can also prepare articles and reviews for thematic publications in your industry or look for crowd marketing sites - those where it would be appropriate to place your link.
Another way is to negotiate with the owners of third-party related resources to place links to your site. This may require payment. Links are also often left on forums, in comments, and on guest blogs.
It is worth knowing that search engine algorithms have learned to calculate a large amount of links put down by programs, without the participation of people actually involved. Therefore, cross-links (mutually beneficial exchange), link exchanges and link aggregators, the creation of satellite sites are not the best way for white promotion.
It is always worth remembering that you can get under the sanctions of the PS using spam. It will not be superfluous to study the methodology for building a link base of successful competitors. In addition, the link building strategy should be analyzed. It will not be superfluous to change something, if such a need arises, or to introduce a new trend - and for this it is worth being aware of the latest news.
The volume of external links and their appearance should be controlled. Just keep in mind that the number of links is not an isolated factor that affects rankings. Still, search engines evaluate sites comprehensively.