Building Links To Your WebsiteTo build traffic to your website, you need to build incoming links. Follow some or all of these easy tips, and you’ll soon see an increase in hits:
Google dominates the market•Google has the largest market share of U.S.-based web searches at 65.98%
Google will love your website if it has high-quality, relevant links coming into it. The more incoming links your site has, the more traffic you’ll get, not only directly from the sites that have linked to your website, but also from Google.
One-way links are better than reciprocal linksTrading links with other websites might seem politically correct, but reciprocal links hold less sway with search engines than one-way links. Your website, if it has intrinsic value, should attract links from other sites, without having to reciprocate.
Too many reciprocal links can harm youIn fact, too many reciprocal links can concern search engines. Search engines view an inordinate number of links passing back and forth as an attempt to illicitly gain link popularity. Dozens of reciprocal links might be fine, but don’t venture into the hundreds, or you’ll risk sabotaging your search engine optimization efforts.
Some links are worth more than othersGoogle assigns page ranks to websites, indeed to every page of every site. It uses a system of 0-10, with 10 being the perfect score. The page ranks are based primarily on the age of the site, the traffic to the site, and the size, content, and “freshness” of the site.
International conglomerates (such as www.amazon.com) rarely rank above an 8, and most reputable websites for small businesses and organizations score in the 2-5 range. When you’re trying to obtain links from other websites, bear in mind that webpages with high page ranks (5,6,7,8, 9, or 10) are golden! Search engines will assign more weight to links coming into your website if they come from highly-rated websites.
Think quality, not quantity when seeking links. A website with six good inbound links can achieve the same page rank (a 4 or 5, for example) as a website with hundreds of inbound links.
Check out page ranksTo investigate page ranks, use one of these two easy methods:
Ask for links wherever you canPull out your imaginary (or real) Rolodex, and contact websites that “owe” you a link. For example, if you graduated from a training institute, belong to a chamber, are a member of a professional organization, serve on a board, or give workshops at a local library, contact the webmasters for those entities and request a link to your site.
Aim for a mix of linksIdeally, you want a mix of links coming into your website. These could come from: other business sites; personal sites; colleges; universities; trade schools; professional associations; portal sites; web directories; libraries; trade organizations; conferences; trade shows; community centers; social networking sites; media sites; blogs; non-profits; chambers of commerce; community calendars; and more.
Check out who's linking to your website (and your competitor's site)If you want to see who's linking to your website, in the search bar of Google or Yahoo, type in "link:" and the URL of the website you want to investigate. For example: link:www.searchenginecoaching.com. Because Google and Yahoo each acknowledge different links, for the most accurate results, repeat this step with each of them.
|