Contextual Text Links – In Context Text Links
Posted on May 21, 2007
Filed Under Text Link Advertising
Since they are a new concept in text link ad buying, I thought I should define ‘contextual text links’ or ‘in context text links’.
These links are standard search engine friendly HTML based links in the middle of relevant content that both human visitors and search engines can follow. When you buy links, the key is to get links that the search engines perceive as ‘natural’ and follow the link to your site and count the link as a vote to your site.
I should also note the services like Kontera or Intellitxt sell JavaScript based contextual ads - not contextual text links. While you may get some clicks, the search engines completely ignore JavaScript contextual ads as paid ads so they will not help your natural search engine rankings.
With the massive explosion in text link advertising sales, Google is being more proactive sniffing out paid links. If the search engines count unrelated links in the footer or sidebars of websites, the websites buying these links will get an undeserved boost in the search engine rankings. I have seen real estate websites buy links on software sites. These links are completely irrelevant and should not be, and are often not, counted by the search engines.
The great thing about contextual text link ads is that they are naturally relevant. If that same real estate website buys the contextual text link ad “Florida real estate” in the middle of existing text on another website, chances are the article the link is in is related to the website it is linking to – this is the reason the search engines use links in their algorithms. Inbound text links help them decide what a website is about and because contextual links are natural links, they are links the search engines can actually use in their search engine ranking algorithms.
The problem in the text link market is footer and sidebar links are easy to get compared to in context links, so link buyers continue to buy potential worthless links to save time. I see it every day, link buyers paying hundreds of dollars to buy link on site not related to there own website. Even if the site is closely related, chances are still strong if the paid link is in a giant list of paid links it is not worth very much.
It just doesn’t make sense that buyers continue spend money on text link ads that have the odds stacked against them instead of taking the time to do it right. But I guess looking for the easy way out is human nature, as well as link sellers willing to take money for worthless links.
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And that leaves the obvious question: “What’s the best way?”
I’d be curious to see if they’ll ever establish a standardized methodology within the next 10 years.