Ten link building strategies
Great content: The best way to encourage links back to your website is to write great content that other websites are eager to link to. This is called “link bait” and it is an important link building strategy. By constantly updating your website with interesting, unique and original content, you will soon build up a loyal following of websites linking back to you.
Directories: Upgrade your White Pages or Yellow Pages listing to include a link to your website – this not only provides some solid links but it will also drive some qualified traffic back to your website. In addition, list your website in credible directories or web portals that are trustworthy websites and relevant to your industry.
Search Engine business directories: List your business on Search Engine business directories such as Google Places (free), Bing Local (free) and Yahoo Local (free and premium listings). These listings can be optimised to improve your Search Engine ranking and you can also add additional details like your contact details, store hours and product and services.
Blogging and forums: Find relevant and trustworthy websites in your industry where you can become a trusted member of the community. Sign up for sites where it is possible to add a link to your website from your signature block; comment sensibly about your speciality and you will quickly see links starting to appear to your site, on theme and very relevant.
Guest posts: Writing guest blogs on a website related to your industry can also be a great way to generate links back to your website. In turn by positioning yourself as an expert, you will also increase your company’s profile in the industry and obtain an opportunity to promote your website. Look for websites that again are relevant and high quality.
Community groups and suppliers: Ask your suppliers, customers, clients, business networking groups, industry associations and local community groups if they will put a link to your website on their pages. Your suppliers’ websites are relevant, trustworthy and will more than likely be happy to phrase the link text exactly the way you want.
Syndication: Write articles or media releases based on the informative content on your website and post these articles on article or media release distribution websites. Ask whether you can either embed a link (with your keywords in the anchor text) if they allow this or if not, then most allow a link from the ‘Author’ or ‘Resource box’.
Social networking websites: Social media networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are an excellent part of a link building strategy and a good touch point for clients, suppliers and customers to keep them abreast of your activities. You can promote new products and services, blog articles or news about your company via social media.
Video hosting websites: You can create your own channel on online video communities like YouTube with a summary of your business and website URL. You can also supplement your video link building strategy by creating additional links when leaving comments with a link to your company website on other video channels that are important and relevant to your industry.
Internal links: Links from your own pages, whilst possibly of lesser value, are still counted as links. Apart from your standard navigation links, add a link or two from the body of your pages to a couple of your key pages and embed the link in a keyword phrase. Search Engines spiders also use these internal links to crawl through your website and index pages for your site.
All of the above link building strategies will help you nudge your inbound link volume and quality. However to build a natural link profile, links need to be added gradually and the keywords used in the anchor text must be varied. You may arouse suspicion with Search Engines if their spiders crawl a website which has obtained 500 links in one day. You may even be penalised or your Search Engine ranking may drop.
Great content: The best way to encourage links back to your website is to write great content that other websites are eager to link to. This is called “link bait” and it is an important link building strategy. By constantly updating your website with interesting, unique and original content, you will soon build up a loyal following of websites linking back to you.Directories: Upgrade your White Pages or Yellow Pages listing to include a link to your website – this not only provides some solid links but it will also drive some qualified traffic back to your website. In addition, list your website in credible directories or web portals that are trustworthy websites and relevant to your industry.
Search Engine business directories: List your business on Search Engine business directories such as Google Places (free), Bing Local (free) and Yahoo Local (free and premium listings). These listings can be optimised to improve your Search Engine ranking and you can also add additional details like your contact details, store hours and product and services.
Blogging and forums: Find relevant and trustworthy websites in your industry where you can become a trusted member of the community. Sign up for sites where it is possible to add a link to your website from your signature block; comment sensibly about your speciality and you will quickly see links starting to appear to your site, on theme and very relevant.
Guest posts: Writing guest blogs on a website related to your industry can also be a great way to generate links back to your website. In turn by positioning yourself as an expert, you will also increase your company’s profile in the industry and obtain an opportunity to promote your website. Look for websites that again are relevant and high quality.
Community groups and suppliers: Ask your suppliers, customers, clients, business networking groups, industry associations and local community groups if they will put a link to your website on their pages. Your suppliers’ websites are relevant, trustworthy and will more than likely be happy to phrase the link text exactly the way you want.
Syndication: Write articles or media releases based on the informative content on your website and post these articles on article or media release distribution websites. Ask whether you can either embed a link (with your keywords in the anchor text) if they allow this or if not, then most allow a link from the ‘Author’ or ‘Resource box’.
Social networking websites: Social media networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are an excellent part of a link building strategy and a good touch point for clients, suppliers and customers to keep them abreast of your activities. You can promote new products and services, blog articles or news about your company via social media.
Video hosting websites: You can create your own channel on online video communities like YouTube with a summary of your business and website URL. You can also supplement your video link building strategy by creating additional links when leaving comments with a link to your company website on other video channels that are important and relevant to your industry.
Internal links: Links from your own pages, whilst possibly of lesser value, are still counted as links. Apart from your standard navigation links, add a link or two from the body of your pages to a couple of your key pages and embed the link in a keyword phrase. Search Engines spiders also use these internal links to crawl through your website and index pages for your site.
All of the above link building strategies will help you nudge your inbound link volume and quality. However to build a natural link profile, links need to be added gradually and the keywords used in the anchor text must be varied. You may arouse suspicion with Search Engines if their spiders crawl a website which has obtained 500 links in one day. You may even be penalised or your Search Engine ranking may drop.
