The Link Wheel

The Link wheel is a popular off-site technique of internet marketing used by many website owners to build links for their sites. The principle behind this technique is creation of a pattern that is made up of links between several sites. This means that any given site is linked to another through several other sites in between with the links being the means of connection. Link building is a major component of search engine optimization hence link wheel also falls under search engine optimization. Inclusion of social media sites in the link building process has been proven to maximize the effectiveness of expected output results. This is then called social media marketing. The more links a site has, the higher they would rank in search engine results. Though, the links must of very high quality and from popular site with high authority. If low quality sites are part of a link wheel, they will reduce the quality of other sites in the wheel. Hence, this would lead to poor ranking of these sites. This is the reason site owners should ensure that their site is part of a link wheel containing only good sites that cannot compromise their ranking.

Development and Trends of The Link Wheel

With the rise of the concept search engine optimization believed to be in the year 2002, link wheels also came into being and were commonly used to build links to websites. Creation of link wheel was done using article directories as well as marketing of the content of various sites. Targeted keywords in a particular niche of given sites were used to create content which was then published in the article directories. Links to the given sites were inserted within the created content and thus creating link wheel as they would connect from one site to another through flowing links. Another link from a different site which is being marketed would also be inserted within the created content to make up a total of two: one from the original parent website and the other from the site being marketed.

By 2005 and 2006, search engine optimization had become very popular and the best of all, other type of media could be incorporated into created content to be used for link building via link wheel and not just plain text. Other type of media that could be incorporated into content comprise of blogs, video files, images as well as articles among several others. Introduction of social media sites led to another era of internet marketing where content is incorporated into the sites with the benefit of gaining links through link wheel. What made this a success is the fact that social media sites are viral in nature with so many people across the globe having access to them.

Currently, an advanced link wheel features web 2.0, blog posts as well as submission of high quality content whereas a basic link wheel features web 2.0 that connects to the next one to form a link wheel.  In order to achieve randomization, several sets of link wheels together with every small wheel containing breaks are applied.

The Link Wheel Pattern

Actually, link wheel has no definitive pattern and the organic one which flows naturally from site to site is the best. It should contain good and useful information that will make the reader interested to know more thus will click on the link in order to read more from the original site. Different marketers use different link wheel patterns with some only using social media sites and others a combination of various media such as forums, video websites, discussion boards and even image websites among other types of media.

Essence of Unique Link Wheel Content

Just like search engine optimization, the most important aspect of link wheels is text or rather content. All content to be published should be unique, of very high quality, well researched and also very interesting to keep the reader interested. Short articles that are very informative are created and submitted to web 2.0 websites like wordpress as well as blogger. Anchor texts, usually found in articles is where the links are placed since search engine crawlers usually give them credit that contributes to the general ranking of the parent site being promoted.

Ultimately, the essence of unique content in link wheels is to achieve higher ranking with the search engines. Search engine spiders value unique content of quality that is constantly updated and rewards it by ranking the parent site well in their search results.

Link Wheel Framing Constraints

The major and only constraint experienced when developing the best link wheels is time-related. This is due to the fact that a lot of time is spent doing research and writing articles in order to come up with content of very high quality and uniqueness to a given site it is meant for. Even though this is so, the time spent creating quality content is worth it since search engine spiders reward such content by giving it high value. This means the sites can easily be found when a search in a similar niche is made.

The Dark Side of Black Hat Link wheels

The aim of link building and so link wheels is to improve the visibility of websites by ranking well in search engine results. Search engines only give credit to genuine sites that use the right strategies to enhance their rankings. Though this is true, there are so many marketers over the internet that use black hat techniques to trick search engines into ranking specific sites highly. Though this usually works for some time, it can lead to the sites being banned by search engines. This is due to the fact that search engine spiders are very intelligent and can differentiate sites that use genuine techniques from those that use black hat strategies. Whereas black hat link wheels have a definite pattern, the organic ones flow naturally with high quality content that is very interesting to keep those who read them interested.