Link Building

Building incoming links is more important than ever these days. Yes, it's okay to do reciprocal linking but one-way inbound links are better. And avoid linking to so-called bad neighbourhoods, or using link-building software (yuck!).

Link Building

Link building is more important than ever to the success of your website.

Most site owners know that successfully promoting any website is a matter of getting on-page criteria right - whether the page is optimised for search engines, page title you use etc. - as well as getting the off-page criteria right.

And one of the most important off-page criteria is how many websites link to your site, or rather how many important websites link to your site.

What is an important website?

Well, it's a website that the search engines (like Google) trust; a website that belongs to good or even important neighbourhoods.

For example an important website:

• could be a website like Amazon.com, BBC.com or Microsoft.com,
• or it could be a directory site like DMOZ.org
• or it could be a blogger directory like Bloglines.com
• or it could be a site with high Google Page Rank
• or it could be the best freebie site in the world (thefreesite.com)
• or it could be a site belonging to an educational institute like Oxford University.

Note: as important, if not more important than getting a link from an important website is not linking to sites from so-called bad neighbourhoods!)

Link Building Strategies

Why should someone want to link to your website in the first place?

Bear in mind that the best possible way to link building is to create a website with wow!, so that they want to link to your site, then you will not go far wrong. (It is no surprise that Amazon, Microsoft and Myspace are some of the most linked-to web-properties.)

So, having said that, several link building strategies include:

• Using link building services
  This might mean using software or it might mean paying for someone to start a link building campaign. I recommend that you try and get proof that the service works first.
  
  
• Paying for links
  Paying for a link on a directory is sometimes a good idea. (See this search engine submission page). However, there are many websites that allow you to buy links from their sites simply because they have high Google Page Rank. Unfortunately, this is becoming a way to get banned from search engines. Proceed with caution.
  
  
• Article marketing
  Write helpful articles that other site users are glad to put on their website and include a link back to your site in your article resource box - see how to write an article. (It is best not to include this article on your site.)
  
  
• Reciprocal linking or swapping links
  I think it's fine to swap links every now and then, but no longer is this a viable strategy to build incoming links to your website on a large scale (in my humble opinion).

Building links is very important and there are many strategies you can use to do so - see get people to link to your site. Always remember, though, that you must build high-quality links into your site, every week, every month and every year.

Think of inventive ways to get links, and avoid reciprocal linking if at all possible.

And, sometimes, link to a high-quality site without asking for a link back in return.

(No, that was not a hint! ;-) )

Reminder: This page is about using link building to promote your website -- please rate this page