Journey to the Tower of Inbound Strategies

Before the quest for the golden link can begin, there are a number of tasks to be completed and obstacles and foes that must be overcome to increase the probability of a successful campaign and to maximize the effectiveness of new inbound links.

Choose Your Steed Wisely

Speed has been a signal in search ranking algorithms for a number of years now. Site speed reflects how quickly your new Website responds to visitor requests, so for sterling results, choose a host with lightning fast page load times and constant uptime.

Alas, gallant Sir Linksworthy has chosen not to heed this sagacious advice. After losing a considerable wager playing darts against Squint the squire at the "Inn of the Pompous Prince", his purse would sadly not stretch to the acquisition of a thundering War Horse. This malnourished nag, exchanged for the paltry sum of four copper groats may hinder but will not thwart our hero in his quest to obtain links of the golden variety.

Overcoming Wedgeword - The Giant of Meta Tag Stuffing

Back in days of yore a Website could rank highly by simply using a technique known as meta tag stuffing. This involved repeating keywords in the meta title, description, keyword tags and image alt tags, often wholly unrelated to the Website's content. Today this same strategy can result in your site being penalised. or banned so it must be avoided at all costs.

Sir Linksworthy has not journeyed many leagues along the road before a booming voice causes his steed to rear and bolt. Dusting himself off, he looks up to see the looming figure of WedgeWord standing proudly high above him. This fearsome giant of meta tag stuffing grunts, then swings his morning star wildly at Linksworthy, however the blow though powerful, is clumsy and easily evaded. With a quick, skillful thrust of Linksworthy's sword "Link Bringer", the giant is dispatched and the journey continues in earnest.

Avoiding Flintneck - The Archer of Anchor Text Repetition

It was considered standard practice for webmasters to fill the clickable text within inbound hyperlinks with the name of the product or service their Website was offering. If a proprietor was selling jousting lances the more exact match internal or external links they could get using the phrase "jousting lances" the better. Today with advances in search engine algorithms, this kind of backlink profile is deemed unnatural. Indeed these repeated links could be discounted, or worse still result in a filter or penalty. Anchor text diversity should be the goal with a natural blend of branded and non-branded anchor text.

Shortly after his battle with Wedgeword the giant, our hero hears the unnerving twang of a bow string, before an arrow whistles past his ear. He instinctively raises his shield as a volley of arrows is unleashed from the bushes at the side of the trail. This is the work of the villainous Flintneck, the infamous Archer of Anchor Text Repetition.

Though fired with impressive accuracy, they do not manage to breach Linksworthy's trusty shield. If Flintneck had mixed up his quiver with a percentage of barbed armour piercing arrowheads rather than using the same old wooden tipped arrows, our protagonist's quest would have ended prematurely. Thankfully Flintneck's quiver is soon depleted and it is now time for Linksworthy to take the offensive. A loud battle cry and sudden charge from our hero sends the swift footed but cowardly archer running for the hills.

Many view over optimisation as a catch all phrase that refers to "pushing the seo boat out too far". Some hope in vain that mentioning a term more often will improve your site's ranking for that word of phrase. For example a site selling silver spurs might have that exact phrase in the title and description tags, in the H1 header, mentioned 20 times in a 400 word article and in a footer link that points back to the homepage with the phrase "Silver Spurs". They may also have created hundreds of shoddy links with that phrase pointing to their site.

Vanquishing Hodgebelly - The Ogre of Over Optimisation

As Linksworthy makes a slow, uneasy descent into "Black Cap Valley", he hears a creaking door from a shack at the side of the road. The corpulent figure of Hodgebelly, the Ogre of Over Optimisation emerges, squinting into the sunlight:

"Fancy 500 backlinks for a farthing?", cries Hodgebelly harshly.

"Afraid not good fellow," is Linksworthy's swift reply. Now be on your way, for I must continue on my quest solely for links of the golden variety."

"Think yer better than me do ye!? I'll teach ya!" Hodgebelly lunges forward with his gargantuan wooden club but he is no match for our steadfast hero. Sir Linksworthy leaps onto the ogre's back, the hilt of "Link Bringer" is ruthlessly administered to Hodgebelly's sweaty temple and the ogre's lucrative operation, selling cheap backlinks to the goblins of Black Cap Valley, is temporarily out of business.

Confronting Duplicito - The Dragon of Duplicate Content

The term "Duplicate content" usually describes quantities of text on your pages that match other content on your site or elsewhere on the web that are extremely similar. If you have a number of pages across your site with near exact content it may be best to 301 redirect those pages to create one authoritative page, or rewrite the content so that it is unique.

Some unscrupulous webmasters steal content and claim it as their own without giving credit to the author. Now and again this can cause issues for the original writer. To tackle this thievery, you can email the culprit and ask them to credit you with a link or to remove your content. If that fails to bear fruit you can consider filing a DMCA request to have the offending pages removed, but always try and resolve this with the webmaster first as sometimes it can just be an oversight on their part.

ow with evening falling across the realm, Sir Linksworthy nears the Tower of Inbound Strategies where the scroll of link location resides. From out of the shadows stalks Duplicito, the Dragon of Duplicate Content. Residents of this land have long lived in dread of this plagiarising creature. Indeed the soil is blackened from the dragon's incessant fire, and will no longer grow the profuse crops that once had proliferated.

A burst of fire greets Linksworthy as he nears his journey's end, but his thick plate mail and shield, effectively repels the dragon's searing attack. The distinctive blade of "Link Bringer" mirrors the blazing light of Duplicito's fire as he sprints towards his foe. With Duplicito's main strategy of intimidation and incineration proving ineffective against the stout hearted Linksworthy, the beast shows his yellow belly and swiftly retreats to his cave after a few half hearted jabs from Link Bringer.

Sir Linksworthy ascends the steps of the Tower of Inbound Strategies, eager to gaze upon the scroll of link location, where the secrets to the whereabouts of the golden link can be revealed......To be continued.....