In the first post about Green Link Building, I explained my classification of links that make up a “greener” Internet. I expressed which sources of links I would consider to be a positive influence upon rankings and which shouldn’t be pursued. This post is the final piece of the link building puzzle: techniques to employ to take this classification to the next level. Basically, how to apply the classification of links to better build link equity to your site for better results. Unlike the link classification, with seven distinct categories, this has three steps (easier to remember) and can be more important than the classification of links.
1. Reduce
2. Reuse
3. Recycle
We will break it down into three steps:
Step 1 – Reduce
The first step in understanding the true value of links is authority. Authority online is not given based upon who you are or because you have done something valuable in another area, it is given based upon how many times you have been referenced, the amount of information, and of course the quality of the information you provide on a particular topic. Makes sense right?
Let me give you an example: you might listen to a friend that is an expert mechanic, when your car is acting up, however, you are unlikely going to heed his/her advice in matters in relation to your body acting up, right? Both a mechanic and a doctor deal with advanced machines (an automobile and the human body) but that doesn’t give them authority for all advance machines. In the same manner, search engines have been working to understand websites based upon topical reference & authority and those websites can pass general reference & authority.
I know what you are thinking… What does this have to do with “Reduce?” You haven’t gotten to the point!
OK, this will be a big difference in what many of you may think is important to link building, I just ask that you read through before you leave the page or blow me away in the comments.
Reduce the number of links you are trying to build to your site
Hurray, no more link building!!! – Not quite yet. 
What it is all about: stop trying to get links from any site… I have said before, and still strongly believe, that a link from another site that is in a bad neighborhood does not lower the value of your page independently, but crappy links are just crappy links, they don’t help you rank! Stop trying to get a lot of links and go after the great links. Attack each link that you want and make sure you know who you are trying to get a link from. Go after those great links for your site, forget the chump links.
Just like thinking greener in the real world, you don’t need to collect all of the junk that is available, focus on what you need and what will bring long-lasting results. Quality over quantity is the key! This is the first step in a greener Internet.
Step 2 – Reuse
Link building isn’t only about the links that are coming from external sources. You have a very powerful, authoritative page on your website, your index or home page. Not only your index, you have other pages with value, why wouldn’t you leverage these pages to improve ranking for new pages. A new page can use the help and a contextual link within a page that already has authority can not only get the new page indexed quickly, but also pass value to the new page with the anchor text of the link. Don’t worry, if you are publishing valuable content, the crappy links will come on their own!
Just like in the real world “It’s not having what you want, it’s wanting what you’ve got!” Reuse the pages of your website to build relevance and authority to the pages that you want to rank better.
You may already have the links you need to start ranking
Get it done with internal links!
Step 3 – Recycle
OK, how do you recycle links? I am sure that you are aware of the value of links that you have pointing to the pages of your site, but are you actively working to improve the links you already have?
This might be a new concept, but there are a few tools that can make recycling links much easier:
Link Analysis Tools, a plug-in for FireFox that allows you to see more information about the links pointed to your site while logged into Google’s Webmaster tools.
Screenshot of Link Analysis Tool in Webmaster Tools
This will give you the PageRank, anchor text and type of link for every link to each page on your website. Now that you know what the anchor text of the link to your particular page, you can go out and request to adjust the link text to your pages to include the keywords you are working to rank for.
Recycling the links you already have can be easier to improve your rank
Does anyone else have tips or tactics at building a greener Internet? Feel free to share below!
Related Posts >>
- Developing a Strategy for SEO part 3
- Green Link Building – part 1 of 2
- Link Building Strategies – Eric Ward
- Holistic Link Building Defined
- What is SEO? part 4 – Search Engine Optimization Defined
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Great post. Thank you for the tip on the fire fox plug-in. I am always looking for new ways to measure links and feel that could be a great tool to help me in this endeavor.
Hulio Prophet
I personally work for an auto wrecker and the benefits of auto recycling are indeed countless and countless studies prove it. One of the most telling stats is “automobiles are the most recycled consumer product in the country with the equivalent of 13.5 million cars worth of steel being recycled each year” – (Steel Recycling Institute).
The other impact is economical, we still import quite a bit of steel from China (world’s largest producer, we are 5th) and it further widens the trade deficit. Recycling steel is a highly effective way to help counter this imbalance and reduce our reliance on foreign suppliers.
Learn more about junk car recyling at FastCashForJunkCars.com