This article describes the key attributes, characteristics and breakdown of a perfect incoming link to your website.

Keyword phrase in the anchor text

Unless you put your keyword phrase in the anchor text (the text that describes the web site being linked to), you are wasting a lot of link power. Unfortunately a lot of people don't know this an end up putting their company name in the link text rather than the keyword phrase that they want their company to be found by. Much better that the link anchor text says "Great Tasting Dog Food" than "Bob's Pet Store".

The link goes to a relevant page

Another mistake that people make is always linking to the home page rather than to the most relevant page to the anchor text. If the link anchor text is "Great Tasting Dog Food" then the link should go to a page about great tasting dog food, not the home page. This is by far the most common linking mistake seen in web design and SEO.

The link is from a relevant page

Google and the Google-powered search partners seek relevance in the interconnectedness of web pages. Incoming links should be from pages where the content on that page is related to the content of the page that is being linked to. A fishing related page linking to a gambling site is an example of a non-related link. A dog grooming related page linking to a great tasting dog food page is related and is looked upon favorably by the search engines.

The link is from an authority site

Links from high Google PageRank sites are worth more (a lot more) than links from other sites. It's all about trust. A link from a trusted site tells the search engines that the sites linked to are also trusted -- it's a vote of confidence from a credible source. Links from .gov, .edu, and .mil sites are also reported as having more weight than standard links. They are also more difficult to obtain thus adding to their quality.

The link is at top of the page

Links from the top of a page (except for the header), are said to have more weight than links at the bottom of pages. It's the same with keyword phrases. A keyword phrase in the heading is worth more than in the body text.

The link is within the body copy - not an advertising zone

Linking should be a natural part of the body copy. Some recent reports suggest that the search engines will derate links from parts of the page that are traditionally sold for advertising. These areas tend to be the margins, header and footer areas of the page.

The link is one-way, not reciprocal

Google's algorithm typically looks for link exchanges between sites and rates these links lower than straight one-way links. Whenever possible, look for one way links by creating link bait - compelling content that will encourage people to link to your pages.

The link does not have a nofollow tag

The nofollow tag is a recent innovation that tells search engines that although I am linking to this other page, I do not "vouch" for the integrity of the page. In short, the nofollow tag tells the search engines to ignore the link. Obviously you do not want links to your web pages to have nofollow tags. Be careful with link exchanges. Some dishonest people will exchange links with you but use nofollow tags in the links to your pages to preserve their own link power.

There are only a few links on the page

One link to your web site from a page with hundreds of links does little for your SEO results. The page's SEO power is being distributed over all the other links on the page. Google's guidelines recommend no more than 100 links per page, but a more reasonable goal is 20-25. You never know when the Google algorithm may change. The perfect page that links to your pages should have no more than 20-25 links.

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About The Author
John Hacking is Product Manager for Search Tempo, a Brisbane specialist SEO company. Search Tempo also conducts SEO training.