In the ‘olden days’, most search engine, including Google determined the reputation of a website by counting the links it had from other websites. Broadly speaking, one link equalled a vote of confidence.

Link-based analysis is a useful way of measuring a site’s value, Google still uses it. More important than the quantity of links though, for a positive impact on this rating is the QUALITY of the links.

Some SEO and webdesigners swap, share, buy and even sell links, disregarding the quality of the links (and the sources). Practises such as buying links, with the sole purpose of improving a site’s ranking violates Google’s guidelines for webmasters and can have the opposite effect – negatively impacting a site’s ranking in search results.

Google and, for that matter, all the other search engines dislike websites that try to manipulate and cheat natural listings by using unfair techniques. If you are caught participating, you WILL be banned from Google, and then you will have to appeal, take remedial steps, and start again from a lower position. Is it really worth the risk?

What is the answer?
It couldn’t be easier. Just make sure your website is presented correctly, and embark on ‘Search Engine Optimisation‘ or ‘SEO‘. Write good quality content that relates to your main keyword phrases.

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If you found this article useful, then please link to this page so others can read it too. Please link with the abbreviation ‘SEO’.