Most search engines, such as Google, Yahoo and Bing, present search results based on the quality of inbound links to your site. Links also drive traffic to your website. Imagine this scenario:
You (the search engine) are vacationing in a distant city (the Internet), and want to find the best place to eat in town (search engine query). Stopping at a convenience store for a map, you ask the clerk where she likes to eat.
“Sunrise Diner is my favorite place,” she says (a link).
Not satisfied, you walk a few doors down to the local chamber of commerce. You ask for a recommendation for lunch. The receptionist hands you a stack of fliers for all the businesses in town (bunch of unrelated links). She winks at you and says “I eat lunch at Sunrise Diner three times a week” (a link).
Thinking you have found the perfect place, you hop in a taxi.
“Sunrise Diner, please”.
The driver turns towards you and smiles.
“Of course — my wife works there. She’s the best cook in town (a link)!”
It’s easy to see how website links are like face-to-face networking to the search engines.
Get your first links today.
Hop on the Internet and look for directories in your niche. For example, OutFishing.com is a directory of fishing related businesses, and SEMPO maintains a list of certified search engine marketing professionals. In addition, based on your budget, consider a link on Business.com and/or the Yahoo! Directory (both $299/year). Directory listings are valuable in a number of ways: they imply credibility, they often have established traffic volumes and most are “human-edited”, meaning your URL is subject to some editorial guidelines (which search engines also appreciate).
Don’t overlook obvious link partners.
Look at the websites of your local chamber of commerce, your business associations, networking or referral groups, etc. for a “links” or “directory” page. Most organizations will gladly list their member businesses. These easy links are very relevant, frequently including local or location based listings, and are often yours for the asking!
Other ways to get links.
There are many other ways to get links.
- Create a short “signature file” that includes your name, URL, and a brief sales message (ex. “Follow me on Twitter”). Then make comments on blogs and forums within your industry, adding your “signature file” to each posting (when permitted). Although these links do not pass along any search engine value, potential clients and prospects may see them, and click through to your website.
- Write and distribute articles, including your website URL and short bio in the footer. There are hundreds of article directories available. I like GoArticles.com and eZineArticles.com.
- Similarly, you can distribute an online tool, offer a free service, or create an award logo (such as “YourWebsite.com’s Site of the Week”). Don’t forget to ask visitors to link to you.
Find out who’s linking to you now.
Want to know who is linking to you now? Use the Yahoo! Site Explorer (https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com; free, requires Yahoo! account). Enter your URL, hit Explore and then filter by InLinks. This should present a list of links. Or try using the tools located on the following websites:
Why inbound links are so important.
Create lots of high quality content for your website, which creates a larger funnel of pages for search engines to find you. If the content is relevant and interesting, webmasters naturally link to it. And since search engines prefer to find your page from links on other websites, link building is a necessity. Just remember, it’s the relevance of the link, not the number of links, that determine your rankings. Link building is like making friendships – best done one at a time.
What are your link building strategies?
Brian Farrell coaches sales professionals to move from the sales pitch to social selling. His clients earn new referrals, attract better prospects and win more business. Get free updates on social selling @ findtheclient.com.
That’s a very interesting article that you have. I found a new one the other day. They look open , but very similar to linkedin.com with more of a social business directory look and feel. Nice thought out interface though. Located at SocialTerrain.com