A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about link building and the importance of your Deep Link Ratio. That post explained that backlinks built to your site – including your deep link ratio, the anchor text used in the links, and the speed at which those links are acquired - should always appear “natural” to the search engines. Taking this one step further, the “natural approach” should apply to your entire link profile (incoming and outgoing).
So, what does this mean to your inbound link building efforts?
First, a healthy mix is necessary. And not every link needs to be perfectly optimized. Although this might seem contrary to what you have learned about SEO practices, even some no-follow and links without anchor text are desirable to ensure the right "mix."
Second, it means spending some time analyzing and understanding not only your own link profile, but also that of your competitors. Learn what they are doing, leverage it, and do just a little bit better. Just don't overdo it - that's not natural either!
Remember, every site has “good” and “not so good” links. As long as you stay within the “average” of other sites in your industry, your link profile should appear “natural.”
Here's a few Link Building Tools that can help:
