If you’ve ever researched link building online you would be forgiven for thinking that it’s an incredibly complicated and confusing business. There are companies offering all manner of services – from link exchanges, to link buying, link baiting, articles submissions, press release submission, directory submission and reciprocal links. The list of different ways in which organisations offer to develop links goes on and on.
Links represent probably the most important aspect of Search Engine Optimisation and are paramount in establishing a successful high profile, Internet presence. Google themselves state, “In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages.”
The importance of links to Google and the other major search engines is that they represent endorsements or reflections of quality. They infer relevance through association; that sites link to others because they offer a quality destination. You could say that links are badges of honour.
Not all links are equal however and it is far more useful to attract fewer high quality links that many links for sites with little or questionable authority. Be aware also that Google especially hates bought links as bought links undermine the concept.
There are numerous ways of going about legitimate link building and establishing authoritative inbound links. It isn’t as hard as you might have thought.
The most profitable and best long term method is to base your link building campaign on high quality content. Make your site a useful resource, a destination for fresh, high quality links through authoritative comment and observation. Engage your visitors in intelligent discussions and share link-worthy content in the form of blog posts. Topical “how to” posts, top tips and other informative articles that advise and share expertise are always popular. Articles, even detailed white papers or essays will all contribute juicy ‘link bait’ (content that other sites consider worthy of linking to).
Essentially it’s about taking your content off site and distributing it through syndicated articles and press releases. There are thousands of websites constantly in need of additional high quality content that would be happy to add your discreetly back-linked content.
Put simply the more interesting, informative, authoritative and topical content your site shares, the more likely people will link to it. What’s more, quality content will inspire links over time and as you enjoy improved rankings so more sites will link to you.
For those who want to take a more active approach there are many ways you can help the process along. You could contact owners of other sites with similar content and subject matter to your own and ask them if they would care for a ‘link exchange’. You could post in forums with content relevant to your website and establish yourself as a knowledgeable member, but don’t forget to add a link back to your site in your forum signature. You could request other sites to review your own and link to your site in the review. How ever you go about link building remember that it is a long term process and you’ll never see #1 in search engines over night!
Tags: Articles, Link Building, Link Exchange
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