United Worx Blog

Google uses a number of variables in their algorithm to calculate your overall link score. The higher your score, the higher you will be ranked in the search listings.

1) Algorithm, obviously, is the total number of sites linking to you. The more links you have, the higher your score will be. However, their algorithm is a little more complicated than that, and it is possible for a website with fewer links to be ranked higher than a website that has more links.

The reason for this is because Google also measures the quality of your links. If your website is about web hosting, and the site linking to you is a vitamin site, then that is not considered a quality link. The link still helps your score, but the link would help your score much more if it were from a website whose subject matter is the same as yours.

2) Also, Google gives a higher score to a link if it comes from a page that has actual content that relates to your keywords. For example, if your site is about domain registration, and another domain registration website has posted a link to your site on their links page, that link is not as valuable as a link to your site coming from a blog or a message board where a lot of information about domain registration is being written or discussed.

3) Google gives an even higher score to a link if it contains anchor text that matches one of the keywords that describes your site. For example, if I have a site that provides ‘Cheap Domain Registation’, and a blog about ‘domain name registration guide’ has posted a link to my site, it helps my score even more if the link text (also known as anchor text) is CHEAP DOMAIN REGISTRATION.

4) Another factor used by Google to score your link popularity is the diversity of keywords contained on sites linking to you. For example, if you have a site that sells web hosting, and all the links to your site are from other sites that contain nothing but the keyword WEB HOSTING, Google considers that to be abnormal. To get a higher score, you need to have links coming from sites that contain a variety of keywords related to web hosting, such as shared web hosting, affordable web hosting, etc.

It is difficult to increase your link popularity, but now that you understand how your score is calculated, you can devise a plan to improve your score. You might want to consider posting to forums and blogs that contain information that is related to your site, and when you post, include a link to your site. As long as you are persistent and tailor your strategy towards Google, you will do fine.