Top 10 Link Building Tips

In order to achieve any degree of Internet success, you need to make the search engines aware of your website’s presence. One of the best ways to do this is through a process known as ‘link building’. Link building is a means of generating inbound traffic to your website by getting other websites to link to yours. In turn, the search engines will register the presence of your site more readily and you will achieve higher ranking. What are the best ways to achieve this?

The first way is to create content that other websites will want to link to; content that is of quality and interest, which other sites will wish to be associated with. Popular types of content include ‘How to’ articles, and ‘Top 10’ lists.

Press releases and ‘breaking business news’ campaigns are another good way of drawing interest. This system works on two levels: firstly, releasing news about what your business is up to can raise its profile anyway and, secondly, you can continue the link building process through press release syndication. There are many sites that offer this service and it is an effective method of link building.

Adding an industry news section to your site not only draws people in, but it also elevates your profile as a source of credible and up-to-date information within your field.

Ezine articles have been shown to generate quality traffic to websites. By posting a well-researched and informative article here, it shows that you are well informed and your article will be syndicated into Ezine’s database of thousands of articles. As Ezine ranks very highly, those looking for articles about your industry are likely to stop here and search its archives.

DMOZ is a website directory. Its data can be freely downloaded by a website of any size and used. However, when it comes to link building, it helps to know that one of the sites that downloads and uses DMOZ is Google. Whilst it can be hard to do, getting a listing in DMOZ is a great way to achieve links.

It is also worth researching other free websites, blogs and directories. If you can find any of these with a Google PageRank of 4 or higher, then submit your website to them. Take a look at sites such as Squidoo and Yahoo Answers.

Using friends and contacts can reap dividends when it comes to link building. If you are on good terms with another business, link to them. You are then in a position to ask them to do the same for you.

Social Tagging is the process of reading articles and ‘digging’ or ‘tagging’ them. Find articles on sites such as Delicious and Technorati and if you like them, tag them – people just might do the same for you.

Getting your website listed on local government websites and local business websites gathers credibility on your behalf and offers an easy resource for potential traffic.

A blog is an essential part of link building; adding one to your website is a must. Not only are blogs a great way of generating industry-related content, you are also in a position to review, link to and comment on other business blog entries and articles. Again, this is part of the ‘you scratch my back’ tactic, but the hope is that other businesses will link to you.