Link Building Campaign
Link Building Campaign
How to get referrals and gain credibility on the Web
Is your goal to get more traffic on your Website without
spending a lot of money? Is it important that your Website is
easy for your prospects to find on the Web? Though there are
many things that contribute to a quality, well-positioned
Website, increased link popularity - done properly - will
establish your business as trustworthy on the Internet and bring
more referrals.
Benefits of increasing link popularity Every time you
place a link on your site to another Website, you are referring
business to them. It is likely that your customers will also
check out the businesses that you sponsor on your site and
perhaps do business with them, as well. Visitors to your site
who believe your business is credible, will also be excellent
candidates for those websites on your resources page.
Conversely, a link to your site is a referral from another
business to yours.
Gain credibility with your online market
When a business places a link on their Website to yours, they
are recommending your business as a credible source of
information, and not only that, but it also provides services or
products to their customers and visitors. On the Web, there is
no greater compliment than to be on the receiving end of traffic
referred from thousands of quality business Websites. This is
how a link building
campaign gains credibility for your site.
Gain higher search engine rankings
Because links on the Web establish referrals and credibility,
search engines rank sites with good link popularity higher than
sites with lower link popularity. When a search engine reviews
your Website, it is looking for all kinds of things about your
website that go into its algorithm for ranking. One of these
factors is the number and quality of links from other Websites
to your site. Basically, it considers a link to your site as a
vote. So the more votes a site has, the higher a site can rank
in the search engines. Obviously, there is more to achieving top
rankings than just getting a lot of links, but it is a
significant factor that can move a site's ranking from the top
20 to the top 10 for a particular keyword in major search
engines. In many cases an increase in link popularity can be the
key that puts a site in the coveted first place slot.
How to do a link
building campaign
You may be asking, "So how do I get more quality links to my
Website?" First, get listed in good quality directories such as
Open Directory (Google's directory), the Yahoo! Directory,
About.com, GoGuides.org, and Gimpsy.com. Many of these
directories are free but some of them charge a fee. There may be
specific portals for your industry that will list your site;
check Galaxy.com for some of these. If you sell products on your
site, it may be worth it to be listed in an online mall such as
Shop.com, Yahoo Stores and/or MSN e-shops. If you are more
focused on local business, look for business directories in your
area. For example if you live near the Metro Atlanta area,
Kudzu.com is a great place to list your site.
Link Exchange
After you are listed in some directories, build a resources page
on your site and begin swapping links with other companies you
already work with and others that complement what you do. For
example, it makes sense for a carpeting and rugs retailer to
swap links with a quality carpet cleaning service. Use your
common sense when selecting businesses to recommend; you'll want
to choose companies that offer services and products your
customers are likely to need and vice-versa. The rule of thumb
when link exchanging is to add the link to your site ONLY if it
makes good business sense.
Online Media Placements
Many online audiences are targeted by advertising on websites
that cater to that niche audience. A well-placed banner ad or
media on these niche websites will get the attention of your
audience and a well-designed media ad will get click throughs to
your site. As long as the ad links to your site, online media
placement builds link popularity.
Publish Articles Online
Another great way to increase link popularity is to publish
informative articles on your site and submit them to appropriate
online publications. Many of these online publications will
either link directly to the article on your site - increasing
your site's link popularity -- or post the entire article on
their site with your contact information. A good place to post
articles is FreeSticky.com.
RSS Feeds
Real Simple Syndication Feeds make your articles available
immediately to all websites that want to syndicate your content
on their site. RSS feeds link back to the author's website where
the article is contained, thus a great technique for building
links. One place to register your RSS feed is Syndic8.com.
Online Press Releases
Issuing a newsworthy article to the press is an excellent way to
increase link
popularity. Your press release needs to be optimized for
specific search terms and linked back to your website to get the
greatest return for a link building campaign. I always use a
professional copywriter to write press releases for my company
and for my clients.
Blogs
Blogs have received much attention over the past few years and
it's easy to see why. More and more people use blogs to express
themselves, educate, entertain and connect with others who have
similar interests. A well-managed blog that becomes a great
resource for current info on a topic brings many volunteer
links. Start your own free blog at Blogger.com.
Develop A Link Worthy Site
Your site will gain links without asking for them when your site
is viewed as an industry resource, or a great place to learn
about products in your industry, or has a unique online tool for
the industry. If your site is full of wonderful, useful
information other sites will naturally link to it without you
even asking. This is by far the most effective link building
technique because the search engines are all about favoring "in
demand" content!
Affiliate Programs
Finally if you are serious about your link building campaign,
set up an affiliate/referral program. You may have seen a small
banner ad on a site saying "Buy this book at Amazon.com." When
you click on this message, Amazon.com pays that affiliate a
commission on every sale made from those referrals to their
site. This is the essence of an affiliate/referral program.
Businesses that want to make sales without all the hassles will
sign up for your affiliate program and place a link from their
Website to yours. Of course you have to pay them a commission on
all sales from their Website, but your link popularity will take
off. Make sure the link points directly at your site rather than
the affiliate program's site. And that, my friend, is what we're
talking about here, a good link building campaign is the way to
go!
Things to avoid in your link building campaign
Search engines are becoming more sophisticated, changing their
ranking algorithms frequently to weed out the sites that use
"illegal" or unfavorable means to gain high rankings. To make
the most of your site's good qualities, it's best to avoid:
* Tricks to get you noticed. When a search engine encounters
one of these mal practices, that site will be penalized -- and
possibly even banned -- from the search engine.
* Link farms and Free For All links pages, are nothing more than
long lists of Websites; they do nothing for a site's link
popularity because the vast majority of these pages are not even
found in the search engines. In order to increase link
popularity, the web page that contains the link to your site
must be in the search engine's database and contain a small
number of outbound links.
In conclusion, a link building campaign is a process that
should be ongoing. As your link building campaign grows on the
Web, so will your business.