When an article is published to a blog, it is stored in our database as an link target. Associated with this article is a single keyphrase and a group of categories. While the keyphrase is provided by the author, the categories are identified by our tools to consistently apply a taxonomy to an article based on its content. Using complex statistics and natural language processing technology, the taxonomy tool can classify the article into its most likely topic categories.
Now that we have the article, keyphrase and categories we attempt to match it as both a link giver and a link recipient. We match the article to other articles in the database based on the alignment of the taxonomy. Once like articles are paired, we look for matching keyphrases for both inbound and outbound linking.
We then coordinate between the webmasters the linking plan. Assuming the site has our plug-in installed, we will automatically generate the outbound link from the article. The inbound links come from other sites where our plug-in is installed.
This approach ensures that links are “natural” and contextually appropriate. Yes, it is more effort. Yes, there are fewer links. And Yes, this is how to ensure that your linking strategy works on and off search engines.
