Be Selective About The Sites From Which You Request Links

Search engines use sophisticated rules when judging the importance of a link and the popularity of the site linking to you is a key criterion.

One link from bbc.com is worth much more than 100 links from a personal website.

And don’t even think of using a ‘link farm’ because link farms are sites that exist solely to link to other websites. They are nothing more than a blatant attempt to inflate link popularity and search engines take a dim view of them. Google in particular has been known to ban sites found using a link farm.

Try to identify non-competitive sites in the same field as your site. Links from sites that are related to your area carry more weight than sites from Aunt Sue’s fashion site. That doesn’t mean you should refuse a link from Aunt Sue; just be aware it won’t help you much in link quality terms. On the other hand, links from sites within the orbit of your own specialist topic are strong endorsements for your site.

Developing A Relationship With A Site

Before you ask for the link, get to know the website. Establish yourself as a real human first. That way, when you ask for a link, it’s harder for them to say no. Impersonal broadcast emails asking for links are spam. Sure, it’s easier, but it will only result in making another website owner mad at you. Spam link requests do not work and waste everyone’s time. Don’t do it.

Providing The Linking Code

Make it easy for other sites to link to you. Send the prospective linker the exact HTML code you want in the link and suggest which page you want the link from. This ensures the right words are used in the link and reduces the burden in setting up the link. Everybody on the internet is pressed for time and if you don’t make it simple by giving them the exact HTML, you’ve made their job too hard. Make it easy and your success rate will go up.

Get Directory Listings

Jump-start your link campaign by getting directory links first; this is especially important if you have a new site or a site with no inbound links. A shortage of inbound links puts your site at a severe disadvantage because link analysis is an important part of every search engine’s ranking algorithm. The way to overcome this is to get a few quality links. A good way to start is to get listed in as many directories as you can. There are many directories out there, and the more you can get into the better.

A few to target include:

Be aware that most of these directories (except the first one listed) require you to pay for a listing but it’s worth the expense if you can afford it.

Consider Bartering For Links

It’s a good idea to have something to offer in return for a link. Many sites won’t link to you unless you link back to them or otherwise make it worth their while. Create a ‘Resources’ or ‘Partner’ page that allows you to have a place from which you can easily link to them. You might also offer to work a barter arrangement with them. If you have a site popular with their target market they might consider free advertisements in exchange for a link. If the link is of great value to you be prepared to give something back.

Link Building Alternative

If time constraints keep you from link building consider outsourcing your link popularity work. Link building is undoubtedly the most time consuming part of search engine optimisation. You may find it is not cost effective to do it yourself. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it, it just means you hire someone else to do it for you.

Cautionary note: if you do chose to hire a company specialising in link building make sure they follow good link-building practices. Ask them to describe the process they use to request links. Make certain they follow a personalised approach and don’t simply spam sites with requests for links. If they refuse to discuss their link building methods you can assume they use impersonal widespread email drops or link farms – that’s spam. They may give it a sophisticated name, but if the process involves sending out large numbers of form emails, it’s still spam and will only set your campaign backwards and injure your reputation. Go and find a different company or better still, develop the links you need yourself.

I’ve always done it; I’ve never spent a penny on the linking process.

Just Do It!

Link popularity is important and the link-building process needs to be given high priority. Link analysis is only going to get more important to search engines, not less. Search engines have found it highly resistant to manipulation and a legitimate way to measure the importance of a site. Since link building takes time, the sooner you start the better.

So think of link building as a long-term investment in your site. Put in a little time now to improve your linking today to ensure a good search engine ranking in the future.

Reciprocal Linking Increases Website Effectiveness

Here is an example of a mini-site devoted entirely to reciprocal linking. I set it up in one hour some years ago and it still ranks at No.2 out of 10,800,000 competitive pages on Yahoo!

Create A Traffic Virus By Combining Articles With Links

When you submit articles you are in effect setting up valuable links with the submission website centres and every time you submit to a new centre you are gaining a new link. Add to that the fact that the resource box in the articles contains your own website link. Tot it all up and what you have working for you is vital marketing and none of it is costing you anything but a little effort.

How To Get Better Than No.1 On Google

When you can arrange sponsorship tie-in links for your output (like the one below) you rank above No.l on the millions of free listings ...