The gentleman had obviously heard about “links” but believed that links from his site to other sites was a major factor in determining search ranking position. He was also looking at “hits” (not visits) to his website and consequently was under the impression that his site was way more popular than it actually was. Rather disturbingly, the poor guy was paying a well-known dental design company large monthly fees\u00a0 to look after his interests but was blissfully unaware what was actually going on. His ranking positions were also rather dire.<\/p>\n
To avoid this type of scenario, it’s important for website owners to build a working knowledge of basic web marketing concepts – simply so that they can understand how their website is faring and if the techniques being used to promote it are valid.<\/p>\n
So let’s make a start by looking at the different types of website “links” and how they actually contribute to you where your dental website ranks in the search engines….<\/p>\n
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There are three main categories of website links, in-bound, out-bound and in-site.<\/p>\n
In-bound links<\/h3>\n
Back-links are evaluated by Google and used as a vote of confidence for your site; the more you have, as long as they are from relevant, good quality sites, the higher you will rank<\/a>. This does assume that your own website is good quality as links are not the only determinant of ranking position. How you gain back-links and how they should be structured is covered elsewhere in this blog.<\/p>\n These are simply links which point from your website to another. Here you are conferring the vote of confidence for the other site, not<\/span> you own.\u00a0 Whilst it is thought to be slightly beneficial to link out to a few good quality, relevant websites from your own, you should not over-do this. Where you need to make multiple links out, use a “no-follow” directive on the link to make sure all of the Google ranking value does not flow away from your site.<\/p>\n Dentists are often duped by companies who “award” them with good service accolades and then request that a widget is installed on the practice website to promote this. Guess what? In that widget is a link back to the provider’s website – more than often this is just a cynical method that the company making the “award” uses to improve their own ranking! You will also see this with “sedation accreditation” companies amongst others. It’s really well worth checking what’s actually going on and if you are really benefiting – or the other party?<\/p>\n This third category of web-links covers how the content on your website is linked together. This is extremely important for ensuring that users can navigate around your site easily and also important for SEO. Please take a look at this earlier article about website structure<\/a> and inter-linking which discusses this in more detail.<\/p>\n Understanding the different types of website links and the role they play in dental web marketing will give you a better appreciation of how your website is performing. It will also help you to validate the work that your marketing partner is performing on your website on your behalf.<\/p>\n In future blogs we will take a look at more of the basic elements of website design and promotion techniques to help you build your working knowledge. If you would like to discuss any aspect of your website or SEO, please call our team for free advice on 01332 672548<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Back to basics – a look at in-bound and out-bound links to your dental website It’s sometimes easy to forget that dentists who are new to web marketing or completely outsource it, may be unfamiliar with relatively simple concepts which …<\/p>\n![\"back-links\"](\"https:\/\/www.dental-media.co.uk\/marketing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/back-links.jpg\")
These are the really precious commodities and the ones which really make the difference to you ranking positions. An in-bound link is one from another website pointing back<\/span> to your own site – this can be to any page on your site, not just the home (or “index”) page.<\/p>\nOut-bound links<\/h3>\n
In-site links<\/h3>\n
Summary<\/h3>\n