Search engines use links to find and index your website. Basically, links count as votes or endorsements for your website. Simply put, the more quality incoming links, the better your website will rank on search results pages. But as luck would have it, not all links are created equal. Below are some pointers about links and the value of link building.

What Are Backlinks and Why are They Important to Your Day Spa?

A Backlink is a link that comes from another web page. It can be in the form of a text link or an image link, and it can be on your own site or from an external website. Links found in email and favorites don’t count.

Links are used in Search Engine ranking criteria – especially Google’s. If you’re in charge of marketing your day spa, link development is a critical component to having your website (and marketing message) in front of millions of people.

Here a few tips to help you with your linking campaign.

Anchor Text:  this is the text used in the link. Here’s an example: http://www.spamarketing.net/email-branding.htm vs. Email Branding Tips. Both are links but the first is just a URL. The latter uses anchor text, and is more valuable for our website. Search engines look at the text and keywords in the link (and around the link) and assign a weight or relevance based on the content of the page it is pointing to. Here are some pointers about anchor text:

• Use keywords in your anchor text
• Make sure links  point to a page with content related to the keyword

Text around the link is also an important factor. Anchor text links found next to relevant content is much more valuable than a link near unrelated content. What does that mean? Don’t buy text links from unrelated websites and don’t use link farms – which might possibly get your website banned from search engines.

Website Themes: Links coming from sites with similar themes will help your website visibility. The value and relevance of the site linking to yours is important. Look for links from spa, beauty websites, or those with similar content. Inbound links from professional associations and spa directories will also lift your search engine position.

Types of Links

One-way inbound links coming from high quality, authoritative sites are considered first-rate. If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, spend your time and energy on these.

Internal links such as those used in navigation are extremely important. Use keywords judiciously in internal links throughout your site.

Outbound links can be viewed as a mixed blessing. If they point to a high quality, similarly themed website, some value may be assigned to the link. On the down side, sending traffic away from your site is a net drain.

Reciprocal links are exchanged between two websites and pass value to one another, albeit less than one-way links. With reciprocal linking, you sometimes have the liberty of choosing the anchor text and words close to the link (such as a description). If you exchange links with another site, select your keywords and anchor text carefully.

Link Farms are considered spam and therefore are extremely risky. If you are discovered participating in these schemes, your site may be penalized - or even banned from the search engine that caught you.

Link Building Guidelines

There are no hard and fast rules to link building, however, below are a few guidelines to get you started:

• Link Development is an ongoing process.
• There are no quick fixes.
• Avoid link building scams. Google does not approve of buying text links.
• Get links from relevant, high quality websites.
• Use your important keywords in anchor text.
• Link longevity matters.
• Create great content and the links will follow!

There are no short cuts for Link Development. It is a slow, labor-intensive process that should not be abandoned after you have procured a few. Together with search optimization, link building will improve your website visibility.

Need help getting your spa website ranked higher? Call Spa Marketing at 860-655-2283 for help.