A link ring, sometimes referred to as a link wheel, is a technique used to manipulate a search engine or other platform that ranks a site, or page, on popularity and relevance.
The aim of a link ring is to supply relevant one-way backlinks, but a link ring can also speed up the indexing process, increase site traffic and improve even PageRank if created efficiently. They are probably on the wrong side of ethical SEO and as such are considered a blackhat practice.
Here we will discuss the traditional backlink wheel.
Link Rings
The main concept is to create free blogs, or hubpages, that can then be linked to a main website page. The aim is to improve that page's SERP position via increased backlinks.
There are many free platforms that can be used to create blogs and hubpages and rather than using just one of these, it is more prudent to spread any mini-sites over a variety of platforms.
Some of the free platforms available include:
- Blogger (owned by Google and allegedly favored by the search engine giant)
- WordPress (the.com free platform, not the private software version)
- Squidoo
- Hubpages
- Xomba
- Snipsly
How Link Rings Are Created
Firstly, an account would be set up on one of the free platforms. Then depending on the choice of platform, a free blog, lens or page is created and content added to this. It is best practice to keep the free mini-sites relevant to the main website, in terms of topic, niche and keyword selection. An advantage would be gained by carefully selecting low-competition, moderately searched keyword phrases to base each mini-site around.
The first mini-site is then linked to the main site. A link is added from the mini-site to the main site, anchor text links would be best.
Now more mini-sites are created and each is linked to the next. For example, site A is linked to site B, site B is then linked to C, C to D etc. This process is repeated until the final mini-site is linked back to the original mini-site A. All the mini-sites should have a link added to the main site. An ideal amount of mini-sites to link would be 5 or 6 to begin with. You now have a set of mini-sites all linked in a ring - hence the title, Link Ring.
After adding content to a mini-site it would be beneficial to submit each site to a pinging service to let the search engines know they are alive.
The Advantages of a Link Ring
By linking these mini-sites together a chain is created that allows a search engine crawler to follow the links, from site to site. The main bonus, and the reason for a link ring, is that at every new mini-site it encountered, the crawler comes across a relevant one-way backlink pointing to the main site.
These links may initially be from low PageRank (PR) sites, but these sites are relevant and that adds to the links authority. One-way backlinks are the most powerful links and the search engines considers links from related, or similar, sites to have more substance.
Another advantage is that once the search engine crawler discovers the first backlink it will also see a link to the next mini-site, where it will find yet another backlink to the main site and so forth. One of the main problems with trying to obtain ordinary backlinks from other sources, like blogs, is the uncertainty of when that site will be crawled next and when your backlink will appear.
Then there is the indexing bonus. If any mini-site is indexed the rest should follow suit, due to the linking strategy. It has been proposed that Google in particular, favors Blogger blogs and indexes them very quickly. If this is the case then all the sites in the ring would be indexed in a short time, including the main site.
Advanced Link Wheeling
Once a wheel is established, mini-rings can be injected into the design. These new mini-rings benefit from advantageous indexing due to their immediate connection to an established network of sites. These are created using the same process.
A link is added from one of the original mini-sites to the mini-ring, connecting the two. There are two ways to use this new mini-ring.
1. You can link all the new-mini sites to your main site again for more backlinks.
2. You can link the new sites in the ring to one of the mini-sites, like site C for example, and increase the links to that site and hopefully that mini-sites PR. What this would mean is that the link from site C to the main page would then have more PR juice and pay greater dividend to the main site PR.
3. Link one of the sites in the mini-ring to site C and the rest to the main page. The main page gets more backlinks, but site C also gets an extra backlink.
The whole process of building a complex link ring can be time consuming and laborious. However, once they are set up the only real input needed is to update the content of the sites so the search engines consider them fresh. This can be something as simple as altering a few phrases in the content or adding a picture or video, then re-pinging. Many people will outsource this task and hire someone to create fresh content and submit it to the sites.
Link wheeling is a covert technique and can have consequences if discovered by the search engines. The benefits can be very good but the penalties can include being sandboxed or de-indexed by the search engines. Anyone attempting this strategy should do so wisely, with caution and pay close attention to the overall linking strategy.
About this Author
Borko Simms is a member at WebmasterFormat, a webmasters resource website. He writes about web design, search engine optimization, social media marketing, blogging and best hosting providers
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