Link building is a waiting game. Many clients have asked me why they do not see changes in traffic or ranking before a month goes by. It takes time for the search engine robots to find those new links and index the pages they are linked to.

The Process Of Indexing Links

Links are what make the world wide web go round. Links are how we travel through the web pages of the world wide web. The indexing, or spidering, of links on a web page works much the same as the search engine submission process. In order for your new link to provide link popularity back to your website, the page the link is on must appear in the search engine databases. In other words, the link page must be indexed. Just like pages that get included in the search engine databases, the search engine robots must index the web page to be included into the search engine databases. If the web page is already in the search engine database, it is a matter of indexing the updated information on the web page and having that link show as a backlink in the search engine results.

Why Do I Have To Wait So Long For Results?

When it comes to link building, it is quite simply a slow process. Even if you pay for a link, the page the link is on still must be indexed by the search engine robots in order to be included in the database, thus showing up in the search engine results. Just like your web pages may take time to be indexed in the search engine databases, the same is true of the links you submit for link popularity. A link is on a page, it must be indexed to count.

What's A Backlink?

A backlink is a spiderable link (typically a text hyperlink) that points from another web page to your designated web page.

The preferable type of backlink is one that is topical in nature. If your web page and keywords focus on gardening books, you would want to have backlinks from other gardening websites, especially gardening book sites, pointing back to your web pages. The link pointing back to your web page counts for just the one page as a backlink, unless you have multiple links on multiple pages on the link website.

For more information about who to link to, see our article:
http://www.searchinnovation.com/link-building.asp

Finding Backlink Results

Google has limitations on the number of links that show up in their backlink search results. You may have many more links in Google than what is shown in the link query in the search engine results.

AlltheWeb generally shows many of your backlinks, it picks up most pages that link to you. Yahoo also shows quite a few backlinks.

To find your backlinks, search in the search field using: link:www.yourdomainname.com

This query should show the number of backlinks you have pointing back to your web page.

If this search does not work in the search engine you are using, try using the advanced search feature of the search engine.

For an overall report view of your backlinks, visit http://www.marketleap.com and choose the link selection to see how many backlinks show in the search engines listed. You may list your top competitors websites in this query and see their backlink results along side of your own results. As always, use any search tool as an estimation of the number of backlinks pointing to your website.

Is The Link Page In The Database?

You can check to see if the page your new link is on is in the search engine database by using this search in most search engines search field:

allinurl: www.yourdomainname.com

or

site: www.yourdomainname.com

or by page name: info:www.yourdomainname.com/articles.html

Or use the advanced search features offered at each search engine.

Of course, to find out if you are listed in a directory, you must click through the categories to the category you submitted your information to. To shortcut your search, look for the directory link results that usually accompany regular search results at directories. If you are listed in the directory, the next step is to wait until the link is indexed by the search engine robots and shows up in the search engine results and your backlink results.

Waiting For Results

Link building is time consuming and you must wait to see the full results. Most importantly, work on your content for natural linking from other websites. Become an authority on your subject and other websites will think the same thing. Think of link building not as an immediate payoff but as a long-term goal to better your overall ranking in the search engine results.

Daria Goetsch is the founder and Search Engine Marketing Consultant for Search Innovation Marketing, a Search Engine Marketing company serving small businesses. She has specialized in Search Engine Optimization since 1998, including three years as the Search Engine Specialist for O'Reilly Media, Inc., a technical book publishing company.

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