Link Building - The Most Time Consuming, But Most Important Part of Your Marketing Strategy
http://www.articleland.com/articles/82751/1/Link-Building---The-Most-Time-Consuming-But-Most-Important-Part-of-Your-Marketing-Strategy/Page1.html
Steve Sharpe
Steve has been in internet marketing for a number of years. He runs a number of successful websites including Article Land. By Steve Sharpe
Published on 11/21/2008
Any Webmaster of note knows that to get his website ranked well in the Search Engines, he needs hundreds, if not thousands of quality links pointing to his domain. Link building not only encourages more traffic to your website from people using the actual backlinks. Also, search engine robots (spiders) follow the backlinks between websites. If you have links on high traffic sites, you therefore have the potential to gain lots of visitors from their traffic.
Link Building - The Most Time Consuming, But Most Important Part of Your Marketing Strategy
Any Webmaster of note knows that to get his website ranked well in the Search Engines, he needs hundreds, if not thousands of quality links pointing to his domain. Link building not only encourages more traffic to your website from people using the actual backlinks. Also, search engine robots (spiders) follow the backlinks between websites. If you have links on high traffic sites, you therefore have the potential to gain lots of visitors from their traffic.
However, all back links are not created the same. For instance Google gives a link a rating, based on its relevence to your site content, the site the link comes from (is it a good site, or is it in a bad neighbourhood), and also the page rank of the page the link resides. When seeking out possible link partners, you should bear all of these things in mind.
You can go for quantity, or quality. Personally, I believe that 10 good quality links will give you more benefit than a hundred poor quality links. However, this is my opinion based on past experiences.
There are many ways of getting links, but it can be a time consuming process. So what are the main ways to get links?
1. Contact a Webmaster Direct.
If you find a site that is in a niche or area relevant to your own content, contact the webmaster direct. Ask him if he wants to exchange links with your site. If your site is of a high enough standard, good webmasters normally jump at the opportunity. Make sure that you do all the work though, i.e. send him your link text, and request his. Put the link up to his site before you make the request. This creates a sense of urgency at his end.
2. Post your Links at Link Directories
Link directories offer an easy way to get one way links back to your website. I would advise staying clear of paid directories, unless you are feeling flush of course. Simply visit the link directory, navigate to the page you want your link included on and submit your link. Again this can be a time consuming process if you submit to hundreds of link directories, so why not set yourself a goal of submitting to say five a day? Remember though, that all link directories are not created equal. Look for the directories that have good page rank, and do not have too many links awaiting approval. (Too many links waiting for approval, either means they are very popular or the webmaster is too busy to review the links, in which case it may take months to get approval).
3. One Way links
One way links are considered the Holy Grail of link building. Although, its not quite as difficult to find the link building holy grail, you just have to do a little research. One of the best ways is to join forums in your niche, and post to the forum on a regular basis. Make sure your signature contains links back to your site.
Another way to get one way links is to post comments on Blogs in your niche. Try to find blogs that not only accept comments but also have the 'No Follow' attribute turned off. i.e. if no follow is on the Search Engine spiders will not follow the link back to your website. Make sure your comments are constructive, do not spam the blogs. I hate spam with a passion, so just make sure your comments add to the conversation.
And finally, another source of one-way links is Articles. Get into the habit of writing an article a day about your niche topic. Post the article to the article directories and hopefully if approved you will have gained a valuable one way link to your site.
Link building is one of the most crucial parts of any search engine optimisation campaign. It is a proven marketing technique that will boost traffic and increase your sales. However, it doesn't happen overnight, you need to spend time searching for and submitting to the best resources in your niche. Think long game, and you won't go too far wrong.
Steve runs a number of successful web sites, in many different niches. He makes his living over the internet, spending much of his time promoting his own web sites and those of his clients. He is a big believer in link building and recommends 3 Way Links as a good starting point.
However, all back links are not created the same. For instance Google gives a link a rating, based on its relevence to your site content, the site the link comes from (is it a good site, or is it in a bad neighbourhood), and also the page rank of the page the link resides. When seeking out possible link partners, you should bear all of these things in mind.
You can go for quantity, or quality. Personally, I believe that 10 good quality links will give you more benefit than a hundred poor quality links. However, this is my opinion based on past experiences.
There are many ways of getting links, but it can be a time consuming process. So what are the main ways to get links?
1. Contact a Webmaster Direct.
If you find a site that is in a niche or area relevant to your own content, contact the webmaster direct. Ask him if he wants to exchange links with your site. If your site is of a high enough standard, good webmasters normally jump at the opportunity. Make sure that you do all the work though, i.e. send him your link text, and request his. Put the link up to his site before you make the request. This creates a sense of urgency at his end.
2. Post your Links at Link Directories
Link directories offer an easy way to get one way links back to your website. I would advise staying clear of paid directories, unless you are feeling flush of course. Simply visit the link directory, navigate to the page you want your link included on and submit your link. Again this can be a time consuming process if you submit to hundreds of link directories, so why not set yourself a goal of submitting to say five a day? Remember though, that all link directories are not created equal. Look for the directories that have good page rank, and do not have too many links awaiting approval. (Too many links waiting for approval, either means they are very popular or the webmaster is too busy to review the links, in which case it may take months to get approval).
3. One Way links
One way links are considered the Holy Grail of link building. Although, its not quite as difficult to find the link building holy grail, you just have to do a little research. One of the best ways is to join forums in your niche, and post to the forum on a regular basis. Make sure your signature contains links back to your site.
Another way to get one way links is to post comments on Blogs in your niche. Try to find blogs that not only accept comments but also have the 'No Follow' attribute turned off. i.e. if no follow is on the Search Engine spiders will not follow the link back to your website. Make sure your comments are constructive, do not spam the blogs. I hate spam with a passion, so just make sure your comments add to the conversation.
And finally, another source of one-way links is Articles. Get into the habit of writing an article a day about your niche topic. Post the article to the article directories and hopefully if approved you will have gained a valuable one way link to your site.
Link building is one of the most crucial parts of any search engine optimisation campaign. It is a proven marketing technique that will boost traffic and increase your sales. However, it doesn't happen overnight, you need to spend time searching for and submitting to the best resources in your niche. Think long game, and you won't go too far wrong.
Steve runs a number of successful web sites, in many different niches. He makes his living over the internet, spending much of his time promoting his own web sites and those of his clients. He is a big believer in link building and recommends 3 Way Links as a good starting point.