Link Building: Graph Theoretic Strategies

This is a continuation of the article Link building structures: hunters and collectors. What I’m doing is looking at web traffic control from a graph theoretic perspective. This is article is hypothesis, though I believe you can use the principles in reality.

Look at the diagram below. There are a number of different types of graph networks and clusters.

• Overall graph shows nodes and clusters of mixed connectivity
• The green node is a hub site.
• Everything in blue belongs to a hyperlink cluster or clique. They are traffic “hunters”, and send traffic to the hub node. To reduce clutter, the diagram does
  not show links from each of the blue nodes to the green node. Instead, this is shown in shorthand visual notation using the larger circle encompassing each cluster.
• Peach nodes are traffic “collectors” – they get traffic sent to them by the hub.
• The curved green lines show traffic flow, from blue to green to peach nodes.

How can we use this link structure to send traffic from blue nodes to peach nodes? One possible scenario is as follows:

1. Blue nodes are part of separate blog network clusters. Their fully-connected link nature likely means high traffic for all nodes. That’s assuming, of course, that each network has high authority. Ownership is different for each network, and unrelated to the peach and green node network.
2. The strategy would be to get links on to the blue sites so as to draw traffic to the green site. Possible ways include:
   • Graphic ads on the blue sites.
   • Purchased text links on-site or in-feed.
   • Purchased reviews.
   • Targeted articles and linkbait on the green site to draw links from blue sites.
   • Guest articles on blue sites.
3. The green hub node could be some sort of general or portal site, with the peach nodes being niche domains.

The traffic redirection from green to peach is done through a number of methods:

1. By placing strategic articles on the green site, with links to peach sites.
2. By architecting the green site so that a visitor only has three choices, all of which result in vistors clicking through to a peach site.

The next article will discuss a traffic-building strategy that I’m trying for a client, using some of the concepts discussed here.