Everyone has read the old saying that “content is king”, and to an extent I do agree that good content on any website is the foundation. Everyone who is in the know understand that link popularity is by far the primary reason for increased search engine rankings in Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask, etc.

You need to remember that link popularity ask much like a search engine credit score, or in comparison like gaining points with your Amex card to buy goods. It’s always the same thing when you first launch a website. It looks really good- in fact its the best looking website in the world! You have incredible content and a amazing business model. However until you have established some trust with search engines you will not get any “credit”.

Many of you have heard the common cliche’ “Google Sandbox” that any new website and domain will not be listed near top ranking in their search results, if in fact even crawled. In fact I have spoken to Google engineers and they admitted that there are synergies behind the Google Sandbox theory and the actual algorithmic logic that runs the search results in Google.

While there is much speculation and theories, the Google Sandbox is not something that they are inflicting upon new websites. (Yahoo! has a similar practice) We need to understand that search engines live and die based ion the relevancy of their search results.
We also need to understand that if they fill their search results with websites that have no established creditability, no tenure online and no trust from other websites they would have a very unsuccessful business model. Remember that the big three (Google, Yahoo! and MSN) are publicly traded companies and not a non profit public service. This is highly forgotten.

So the question when you have a new website or one that needs better ranking is “how do I establish creditability with the big three in the quickest way possible?”

Simple answer: Links.

Well, maybe that is harsh because you don’t want a bunch of links from garbage sites that have no value or may be involved in networks. (bad neighborhoods)

You want and need links from relevant sites. You need good anchor text links, preferably in content of relevant websites pointing back at your website.
Sounds simple, right? So is going on a diet or quitting smoking. (I’m going somewhere with this, hold on….)

The answer is simple and complex all in the same breath. Essentially building inbound links to your website builds creditability and trust with search engines and consumers. The problem becomes knowing the right type of links to get inbound to your site, having a plan to get links and executing the plan from square one. That is always the problem.

Similar to a diet you’re all Gung-Ho and heading to the gym a few nights a week. You eat different, get sleep and bust your ass- and you feel good. But then things start to change: the motivation and excitement in this new change of life hurts and becomes more of a duty then a benefit that you are getting in return for your hard work. So you start to slack off, and eventually old habits die hard. Sound familiar?

The three most important components of link building are:

• Link Quality
• Link Growth
• Link Volume

Most SEO’s in the industry have accepted link quality and volume as the primary ingredient’s for building link juice. (link juice is slang for the value a link from another website passes off to the out-bound website)
A common problem is that link growth is rarley addressed and long term link strategies are rarely mentioned in small SEO circles among the most experienced.

Sound interesting?

This is going to be a two-part series. I am going to ask for your comments so far and in another day post my top 5  recommended tips on link building. they are:

• Understanding what link growth is
• How back links helps expedite the “sandbox” removal
• Why back links are more powerful than fresh content
• Back link types and why you need all kinds
• Back link consistency