You’ve worked hard, built a great website, optimized your pages for the search engines and not much is happening.
What?
It’s time to check your links. Back links into your websites, while not as important as they were a couple of years ago, still matter to the search engine spiders. Broken links can slow down your climb to the top of the rankings. Here’s a checklist for checking backlinks into your site.
1. View the source of each and every page.
Is there JavaScript and CSS on the page? Remember that spiders may not index pages that have more than 10k or so of JavaScript or CSS embedded in them. Spiders don’t enjoy getting tangled up in JavaScript. In general, avoid putting out prompts and alerts using JavaScript every time that a page loads. Avoid link partners who do the same.
2. With CSS, link to it from another source.
Create a separate CSS page and use the “link” tag to work it into the head of your HTML. This method will keep your file size small. If you use the same CSS on several pages, decrease your bandwidth usage.
Normally a large quantity of CSS within the document isn’t indicative of any suspicious behavior on the part of the linker. If you feel that you are, indeed, suffering from the fact that the site uses such an excessive proportion of CSS on the page itself, create an external CSS document and link to it in your header.
3. Check domains
Make sure you are linked to the domain you think you are linked to. Check it regularly. There are some good, free link check softwares that automate the process well. The sad news here is that some people will move you to other domains and subdomains without notice. If the domain has changed, delete your backlink to the site in question immediately and then email the webmaster with your complaint. If the problem remains delete your end of the link.
4. Check back links
Make sure that these links appear in legitimate places. If the site is completely dedicated to linking to other sites and doesn’t seem to be a directory or something similar you will want to get your link removed as soon as possible. There is no time when one link is worth the risk of being permanently banned from any popular search engine.
A good site with no html errors and all links working is not a very complicated thing to get on the web. It takes time and effort but will pay off with the search engines. Chek your links regularly. While search engine optimization and what the spiders look for changes and will change, a site with good links is and will be important. Clean html and good links from solid sites pay off dividends to webmasters.
Joyce Jackson is a webmaster and consults on search engine optimization and site rankings. For more information see Net Home Profits.