ELEKTRONIKPRAXIS column: Part 035: How to find Internet link partners for your website

"Links are playing an increasingly important role in internet marketing," emphasises Sanjay Sauldie. In this part of his series of articles, the expert for strategic internet marketing in B2B explains what companies should consider when planning their link strategy and which links are really highly relevant for search engines.

One question I am asked very often is: How do I find good link partners in the B2B sector? Well, it's ideal to find partners on the Internet who have good links themselves. But that is not enough. Links from portals that have a good PageRank and also pass it on are ideal.

This is not trivial - because many portals do not pass on their good standing on the Internet - and your efforts to register there and make an effort to do so are wasted. Unfortunately, external agencies are happy to charge you for this effort and then show the entries in the portals - unfortunately, many of these portals do not benefit your own optimisation!

Only when a portal inherits its PageRank do you benefit from it - although it is only one of many criteria, you should still pay attention to where you link to. When planning your link strategy with an entry in a portal, you should pay attention to the PageRank (PR) of this directory and whether it is inherited.

Link partner must fit thematically

The higher the PR of the page from which you receive a link, the more valuable the link is for you. However, links with a low or no PR are also important, as search engines favour a balanced ratio of portals. When looking for a suitable link partner, always pay attention to the thematic relevance of the desired portal - so don't just choose any portals, but portals that really suit you.

• Which portals provide a good link?

There are many portals on the Internet. However, many of them are not updated at all and therefore lose importance in Google and Co. This makes the search for a suitable link partner a tedious and time-consuming task. In addition, a portal often requires the manual setting of a link and this creates an effort that should not be underestimated.

Make absolutely sure that the portal is kept up to date and that the content suits you. This is really very important, otherwise you will not benefit from it! You can find out which portals you are already linked to in our free online tool by clicking here.

• Backlink or not?

Some portals expect you to set a link to the portal so that the portal itself can grow. Unfortunately, since a change by Google in May 2010, this no longer makes sense, because a website A that links to a website B and a website B that links to a website A are considered circular links and are not taken into account at all or very little by Google.

The best form of linking is for website A to link to website B, website B to link to website C and then website C to link to website A. Please also bear this in mind if you link your own partner sites or branches to each other. Just 2 weeks ago I helped a B2B company to get a grip on their links and suddenly their visibility in the search engines was guaranteed!

• Linking but with whom?

A comprehensive compilation of portals and directories can be found here and here. Simply choose the right link partner and get started! Of course you can also use external agencies - but you should definitely check them. I would also be happy to recommend someone from my partner network www.ileadership.de who specialises in linking in the B2B sector. Good luck!