Tutorial Overview

Topics covered in this tutorial (click link to jump to topic):

1.	Introduction
2.	Why Bother?
3.	Well, How do I do it?
4.	Lesser Used Functions of the Links Panel
5.	Link Categories
6.	Getting Inbound Links

Introduction to Outbound Links

Why bother? It’s very important to demonstrate to Google and others that your site is linked to what Google calls “good neighborhoods”, ie to websites with high Google PageRank. Pedigree sites in other words.

Remember the web is called the web because it is a connected by non sequential links. prior to search engines links were the only way of discovering new content.

How you you tell what Google considers a good site to be, versus a poor one?: install the Google tool bar and turn on the PageRank indicator.

Why Bother?

For one simple reason: if your site links out to quality resources on the web, search engines will reward your site with a higher place amongst the search results pages.

Told it was simple, but there is another reason too; you need a base on which to approach other people to link to your site. That is, you link to them first, contact them and ask for a link back. Everybody wins. The link popularity of both sites is improved (providing they are not spam sites).

Well, How do I do it?

Some people choose to create a links page. If you are in the tourism industry you’d have a “Things to See and Do” in your area page. Or you might just insert links throughout your site where the topic is mentioned.

Creating a link is simple;

1. Highlight the text (or click the image) that you would like to become the link.
2. Click the Insert/edit link button on your toolbar.
3. Type in the URL you are linking to. I suggest you cut and paste this from another browser tab or window. Do not forget: You need to add http:// (or https://, depending on the site) or the link will be broken, and Google could potentially lower your ranking.
4. It is up to you if you want to tick the box to open the link in a new window. In the case of internal links (links to pages or posts on the site) leave it unticked. For external links (links to other websites), there is a chance you may want to open the link in a new window so that people do not permanently leave your website.
5. Click the Add Link button and you’re done. But;
6. Don’t forget to save your changes.

Getting In-bound Links

Linking out to other web sites is a very important way to add value to your web site and to demonstrate to Google and other major search engines that you are connected to “good neighbourhoods”. But so is getting in-bound links to your website. Here is an article that discusses in-bound links.

Essentially you are looking to create up to 150 in-bound links into your website. Each one of these in-bound links will be treated as a vote of confidence in the material presented on your web site. If you have more votes of confidence than sites that are in competition with you, you will start to move up the search engine results pages.