Linking Strategy
Linking Strategies
In this column, we continually emphasize the importance of gaining traffic to your Web site. One trick to help visitors and search engines notice your site is called “linking.” This means having a button or text on one Web site (a hyperlink) that when clicked upon sends the visitor to another Web site. Obviously, if a visitor sees a link to your site that is interesting, they can click on it and visit you. A less-obvious use of inbound links to your site is that search engines use them as a measure of the value and popularity of your site. This is becoming more significant in search engine ranking, so it is important to increase the quality and quantity of inbound links. You may also be penalized by search engines for simply linking to every kind of site with no relevance to yours. The process is rather complicated and may not be within the capabilities of the average site owner. Help from a paid professional may be necessary, but there are certain things you can do yourself and we will note them in the explanations below.
Four styles of linking are used.
1. Reciprocal Linking = Your Site links to Their Site, Their Site links back to Your Site.
Setting up a “links page” on your site can be important to gain additional traffic to your site. You can search the Internet for related sites and contact them to trade links. If you maintain your own Web site, you can update the page yourself or you may need to have your Webmaster post the entries.
Only be associated with high-quality related sites. When you link to poor or unrelated sites, keep in mind what this says to your site visitors and the search engines.
You can recommend text to use in your reciprocal linking instructions that will help your ranking. The text will often be copied and pasted without changes, increasing the likelihood that important keywords are included in your link.
Be sure to have links to other sites on your pages open in a new window so that when the visitor closes the new site they can still find yours. Be sure to have dead outgoing links (links to sites that are no longer in business) removed from your pages on a regular basis.
2. One-Way Linking = Their Site links to Your Site
This is what the search engines call a natural link, and these are given a better value by search engines than a reciprocal link. In this case, links to your site appear within the text of a Web page and appear natural for the reader of that site. Content on the page will likely be related to the keywords in your linking text, so the search engines will give it more weight, making it more beneficial to you.
Different ways exist to get this type link to your site. Paid advertising is the fastest way. You can buy ads with a link on other Web sites either on a pay-per-click basis, for a designated period of time, or in exchange for paying a commission for sales made because of a click on the link.
Another way of drawing one-way traffic to your Web site is if you have content such as articles or photos that other Web sites want to publish in exchange for a link back. Related sites, blogs, article directories, or ezines are places that might be interested in your material.
3. Multi-Site Linking = Site A links to Site B, Site B links to Site C, Site C links back to Site A.
Could be any number of sites involved. This way all the sites get a one-way quality link with out any of them creating a reciprocal link. This is rather complicated and requires a Webmaster with several sites to implement.
4. Directory Linking = A Site Directory links to Your Site
This is also seen as a natural link since most directories don't require a link back. There are thousands of directories on the Internet. You can submit to directories yourself. One trick is for you to search in the major search engines, like Google, Yahoo, or MSN, for an important keyword for your site such as “Wade saddle,” note directories that come up high in the results, and submit your site to as many of them as possible. It requires time and work, but little special expertise. The best strategy is to use all four styles of linking, and to do it naturally. If you only do one kind of linking, you will likely move up in search engine results pages, but the more you can do the more natural it will appear and the more valuable you will appear to search engines.
Make sure your site is "link-worthy."
You can request links, but if your site is a poor one, no one will want to associate with it. Make sure your site is full of useful information and that you have lots of quality content so other sites will naturally refer to it without your even asking and you will get link requests, requests for permission to publish your articles in other sites or newsletters, and will receive more outside links to content pages on your Web site. All of these factors result in more Web site traffic for you.
Link building is important for the success of any Web site and is an on-going, time-consuming, and somewhat technical process, so make sure you put time aside for this on a regular basis or pay some one with experience to do it for you.
In this column, we continually emphasize the importance of gaining traffic to your Web site. One trick to help visitors and search engines notice your site is called “linking.” This means having a button or text on one Web site (a hyperlink) that when clicked upon sends the visitor to another Web site. Obviously, if a visitor sees a link to your site that is interesting, they can click on it and visit you. A less-obvious use of inbound links to your site is that search engines use them as a measure of the value and popularity of your site. This is becoming more significant in search engine ranking, so it is important to increase the quality and quantity of inbound links. You may also be penalized by search engines for simply linking to every kind of site with no relevance to yours. The process is rather complicated and may not be within the capabilities of the average site owner. Help from a paid professional may be necessary, but there are certain things you can do yourself and we will note them in the explanations below.
Four styles of linking are used.
1. Reciprocal Linking = Your Site links to Their Site, Their Site links back to Your Site.
Setting up a “links page” on your site can be important to gain additional traffic to your site. You can search the Internet for related sites and contact them to trade links. If you maintain your own Web site, you can update the page yourself or you may need to have your Webmaster post the entries.
Only be associated with high-quality related sites. When you link to poor or unrelated sites, keep in mind what this says to your site visitors and the search engines.
You can recommend text to use in your reciprocal linking instructions that will help your ranking. The text will often be copied and pasted without changes, increasing the likelihood that important keywords are included in your link.
Be sure to have links to other sites on your pages open in a new window so that when the visitor closes the new site they can still find yours. Be sure to have dead outgoing links (links to sites that are no longer in business) removed from your pages on a regular basis.
2. One-Way Linking = Their Site links to Your Site
This is what the search engines call a natural link, and these are given a better value by search engines than a reciprocal link. In this case, links to your site appear within the text of a Web page and appear natural for the reader of that site. Content on the page will likely be related to the keywords in your linking text, so the search engines will give it more weight, making it more beneficial to you.
Different ways exist to get this type link to your site. Paid advertising is the fastest way. You can buy ads with a link on other Web sites either on a pay-per-click basis, for a designated period of time, or in exchange for paying a commission for sales made because of a click on the link.
Another way of drawing one-way traffic to your Web site is if you have content such as articles or photos that other Web sites want to publish in exchange for a link back. Related sites, blogs, article directories, or ezines are places that might be interested in your material.
3. Multi-Site Linking = Site A links to Site B, Site B links to Site C, Site C links back to Site A.
Could be any number of sites involved. This way all the sites get a one-way quality link with out any of them creating a reciprocal link. This is rather complicated and requires a Webmaster with several sites to implement.
4. Directory Linking = A Site Directory links to Your Site
This is also seen as a natural link since most directories don't require a link back. There are thousands of directories on the Internet. You can submit to directories yourself. One trick is for you to search in the major search engines, like Google, Yahoo, or MSN, for an important keyword for your site such as “Wade saddle,” note directories that come up high in the results, and submit your site to as many of them as possible. It requires time and work, but little special expertise. The best strategy is to use all four styles of linking, and to do it naturally. If you only do one kind of linking, you will likely move up in search engine results pages, but the more you can do the more natural it will appear and the more valuable you will appear to search engines.
Make sure your site is "link-worthy."
You can request links, but if your site is a poor one, no one will want to associate with it. Make sure your site is full of useful information and that you have lots of quality content so other sites will naturally refer to it without your even asking and you will get link requests, requests for permission to publish your articles in other sites or newsletters, and will receive more outside links to content pages on your Web site. All of these factors result in more Web site traffic for you.
Link building is important for the success of any Web site and is an on-going, time-consuming, and somewhat technical process, so make sure you put time aside for this on a regular basis or pay some one with experience to do it for you.