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Home » Site Promotion Articles » Mastering The Art Of Contextual Backlinking

Mastering the Art of Contextual Backlinking

One of the most important steps to master when you take on an online venture is grabbing the attention of the search engines. One of your primary business goals should be getting search engines to rank your site near the top of the results on returned searches. Search engines use a variety of tools for their ranking processes, but one of the most important things an Internet marketer can do is recognize the need for association with other sites - preferably ones with already decent recognition. It is because of this fact that the extreme value of contextual backlinking, or anchor text, is often noted by veteran Internet marketers.

This concept of anchor text refers to the links that are present on a page. The links are the hypertext within a body of text that will direct the user to another page. This linking to other sites allows the user to find more information on a given topic, and it allows the web page to be ranked in conjunction with the site to which it is connected. Remember, these are hyperlinks, wherein the words are the things that the search engines will associate with the linked site. The value of contextual backlinking means that words that are often searched for by Internet users can be associated with your site, even if they do not appear in that form on your site; rather, the words that were entered in the search are actually the words taken from the anchor text link.

To realize the optimum value of contextual backlinking, it is important to understand that the words that are chosen as the anchor text must make sense in relation to the surrounding text. For example, let's assume you have a home décor site. You have entered into an agreement with another, more recognizable home décor site to create some linkage. You would like to include a link on their page to yours, so you offer some anchor text. Ideally, and in order to qualify as "contextual linking," your hotlinked keywords pointing to your website should show up in the middle of a decorating article, or within a paragraph on their webpage. This link will direct users to a similar article on your page or reference point on your website. The reader has the option at that point to click through to your site or continue reading and return to the link when they are through.

While your anchor text could state, "for more information, click here," the value of this contextual link may be lost unless you are keying in on the word "information" or the phrase "click here." A better choice might be "for more home decor ideas click here." Of course, your choice of keywords to hotlink in a contextual setting should be chosen after careful research to see what the world at large is typing when they search for home decor items. Contextual linking creates a keyword-driven quality backlink to your site. Choose your words wisely!

Overall, the value of contextual backlinking is such that it allows for a number of links that ultimately improve the ranking of your website in major search engines. Therefore, your contextual linking should try to serve two purposes - appealing to the reader while stimulating the search engines to consider your keywords in association with your website.

Establishing firm associations with other web sites allows you to improve the likelihood that your site will be ranked highly enough in returned searches so as to reach the maximum amount of exposure. There is immense value using contextual backlinking - do not ignore it!

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Discovery Procedures for Building Effective Management Systems

Part One in a Five Part Series

Imagine what a professional football team would be like without a regimen of practice drills? Now take away their playbook and player statistics. What you have in this extreme scenario are highly talented (and perhaps overpaid) individuals participating in organized chaos. They might actually win a game or two, but in the long run, this team is doomed.

Management Policy

I offer this illustration to drive home the point of why any organization needs to examine the existence and effectiveness of its management systems. If there are weaknesses or holes in your documented procedures (playbook), or benchmark measurements (stats), then you will want to take corrective action.

Process Phases

It is my experience that when a company attempts to establish its management systems for the first time, it takes longer than expected, involves more people than planned, and grows in complexity.

To control this trend, I advocate dividing the process into five (5) distinct phases, each with clear objectives:

1. Discovery
2. Planning
3. Development
4. Implementation
5. Rediscovery

In this series, we will take a look at each phase. So this week, let's take a look at the Discovery phase.

Discovery Procedures

Think of this phase as all the things the coaching staff does up to and including the first pre-season team meeting. It is where the overall missions and goals are set, with clear effectiveness criteria established. Certainly the team may set it sights on the championship, but what about the kicking team or linemen? Each part of your organization must have meaningful and measurable performance criteria mapped out in this phase.

Management Objectives

Establishing objectives and criteria requires close scrutiny by management of what really contributes to the overall company mission. Departmental goals must be aligned with company goals. To illustrate with our football analogy: running backs may propose a goal of 5,000 total yards rushing in a season. This may or may not be beneficial to the team goal, whereas an aligned goal might be to achieve an average of +5 yards per run. The latter may be more appropriate for a highly pass-oriented offense.

System Action Plan

In your discovery phase, once your objectives and effectiveness criteria are agreed upon, you can create your action plan. This step is simply the broad roadmap covering the remaining 4 phases of building your management system.

The Discovery Phase generally takes from 2-4 weeks, and represents approximately 12% of the total process.

Planning Procedures Phase

In part two of this series, we will take a look at one of the most critical and also most overlooked phase in building your quality management system â€" the Planning Phase.

You have permission to publish this article free of charge, as long as the resource box is included with the article. If you do run my article, a courtesy reply to sean@bizmanualz.com would be greatly appreciated. This article is 531 words long including the resource box. Thanks for your interest.