Generate Incoming Links To Your Web Site
The more quality links you have coming into your website, the better. Below are several strategies for generating these links.
___Reciprocal Link
Exchanges
Never 'willy nilly'
exchange links with just any web site. That
strategy no longer works. In fact many SEO
experts recommend dropping the reciprocal
linking process altogether.
I don't agree,
reciprocal link exchanges aren't perfect but
they still offer some benefit however it
needs to be done correctly or it can be a
complete waste of your time.
The problems you will
encounter when exchanging links is
linking to unrelated sites or sites that
the search engines have not indexed or
penalized.
If you have the
time to work on reciprocal links I suggest
using Ken Evoy's Value Exchange
tool. It's an excellent
free tool that requires a simple signup.
Once signed your site will be submitted
to a pool of other users where interested
link partners can contact you for
exchanges.
Before doing any
reciprocal link exchanges here are a few
strategies to keep in mind:
1. Always
link to "like"
sites.
For example, a site about pet
care should only link to sites that are pet
care or pet related.
2. The
site you link to should be Indexed in the
search engines.
If a site is not
indexed don't link to it. If the search engines
can't see the site you are linking to, then
they won't see your link, so there will be no
benefit to you.
To check if a
site is indexed, I use the Google Toolbar as a
guide. Here's what to do:
Install the Google toolbar on
your computer
Once installed,
go to your favorite web browser and bring up
the site in question. On your Google toolbar
locate the 'pagerank' option. Click on the down
arrow directly next to it and then click on the
'cached snapshot of page. If it displays a page
that states this is Google's cache of
http://www.pagename at the top, then you
are good to go, if it does not display this,
move on to the next site.
If you really
want to link to a particular site, wait until
they are indexed.
3. Link
to sites with the highest page rank
possible.
You can link to a
low ranking site but it helps to find as many
sites that already rank well.
First make sure the site is a quality site, in other words is it a site that you would buy from, is it a site that is easily navigated, etc. Does it have loads of advertising on it? If so, avoid linking to it.
4. Provide accurate site
information.
When exchanging
site information with another site, be sure you
provide them with your URL, site title and site
description.
You can send your
information in HTML or just plain text. I
suggest sending both formats. Here's an
example:
HTML:
Helpful
Information for http://www.catgrooming.com">
easy cat grooming
TEXT:
URL:
http://www.easycatgrooming.com
Title: Easy Cat
Grooming
Description:
Helpful information for grooming your cat the
easy way
5. Place
a link on your site
first.
Before making an exchange
request, place a link on your site first, then
contact the reciprocal site. This can boost
incentive to reciprocate.
6. Don't
put more than 20 links on a
page.
Create an index page for all
your link pages and keep the links to no more
than 50 on a page. Too many links can
discourage the search engines.
7. Links
page 'link' is on home
page
Make sure the links or
resources page on the site you are exchanging
links with has their resources or links page
'link' on their home page.
The search
engines must be able to track to the links page
from the home page or your link won't be seen
by the search engines.
___Write and Submit Articles
Writing articles is very
effective! It's one of the best ways
of bringing quality one way links to your
website, and it costs you nothing.
Articles allow
you to include a 'by line' or 'about
author' at the end of your article which should
include you site link. By submitting your
articles to article directories and other
relevant newsletters you are allowing others to
use your article on their site, blog or
newsletter. This gives you a one-way link
back to your site and the more one-way
links coming back to your site the better!
Submitting one article to an article directory
such as ezinearticles.com could bring you
hundreds of new inbound links within a
couple of days.
Just be sure your
articles contain an 'about you' or resource box
that includes your site URL
Here's a
comprehensive list of article directories of
where to submit your articles.
http://www.homenotion.com/article_marketing.html
___Use
Profile Pages
Link to your website from social sites like facebook.com, Mybloglog.com, StumbleUpon.com, YouTube.com and Digg.com to name a few. These registration sites allow you to create your own profile page where you can link to your own website.
___Visit and participate in forums
Look for forums that pertain to your web site's topic.
When signing up on a forum
always include your web site' addresses in your
signature file. That
way each time you
make a comment or participate in a discussion,
your web site will be displayed and seen by the
search engines.
Each entry you
make acts as another link. Participating in
forums also establishes you as
an expert in your
field, particularly if you make helpful
comments. Forums are well worth at least one
hour of your time each week.
You can start by
visiting our homenotion
forum: Introduce yourself, make
comments and submit your
articles. No blatant advertising
please.
___Make Blog Comments
Finding blogs that relate to your site's topic and leave comments on relevant posts.
Most blog posts allow you to
add your name and website when making a post.
What I do Instead of using my name I
often use my site's best keyword or keyword
phrase, doing this can help you move higher up
the search engines for your desired keywords,
however this strategy works best for blogs that
don't use the nofollow tag, however simply
making comments to relevant blogs even if they
do use the nofollow tags is still beneficial,
after all there are humans that read them and
human traffic is good too!
___Write
Product Endorsements
If you purchase a product and
find it useful write an endorsement and send it
to the author.
Ask them to
publicize your endorsement on their website
with your name along with a
live link to your website
address. If your endorsement is a flattering
one, most merchants will be more
than happy to post it.
Next time we'll discuss
getting tons of relevant traffic to your
site.
Your Partner In
Success
Elizabeth
