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By now you are probably aware of the fact that if you want to increase traffic to your Website, you need to find a way to get to the top of those search engine rankings. Businesses spend millions trying to get that coveted top spot on Google or Yahoo and the is no doubt that being there is vital for your website and your website and – at least the online part – of your business, to succeed.
SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is big business and there are some very clever guys and gals out there making big money helping businesses get to the top of the search engines. SEO is a complex subject and we are not going to dive in at the deep end just now; however, we do want to look at a very important aspect of search engine optimization: Link-Building.
Getting links to your website can be relatively easy but not all links count! You have to be careful and makesure that the links you get are from good sources which are relevant to the theme of your site or business. Just trying to get any old link will actually hurt your rankings on the search engines. So here goes; 10 tips to help you on your way to getting those all important links to your website:
1) Submit your Site to Web Directories – Ok, this is not the most exciting of tasks but its a great way to start getting links back to your site. You’ll find many directories that are free but you might want to consider submitting to a few paid ones too; look for directories that are relevant to your niche and if posible that have high pagerank. If you don’t want to do the submitting yourself, think about outsourcing the task.
2) Submit Articles to Article Directories – Write an interesting and informative article related to your niche and then submit it to an Article Directory ( I recommend www.Ezinearticles.com to get you started). The beauty of these articles is that you can include a link back to your site in the resource box. you could actually get a double boost in links because your article could be picked up and published on another website.
3) Submit Press Releases to Specialised PR Sites – Press Releases are a great way let the world know about what is happening in your business. Have you just revamped your Website? Are you releasing a new product or service? Press Releases are a great way to get this inforamtion out to the masses; it’s also a great way to get links back to your site as you can include the link in the Press Release. One of the best services for distributing your press release is PRWeb.com.
4) Use Social Bookmarking Websites – This one is simple; just sign up to a bookmarking service like www.delicious.com and submit your site; make sure you make use of the keywords to describe your site and what it has to offer. Note: its not a good idea to just bookmark your own sites; make sure you bookmark other interesting sites so that it doesn’t look like you are just trying to promote your own site!
5) Build a Squidoo Lense – Squidoo lenses are great for obtaining anchor text links to your site. They are relatively easy to set up; 15 or 20 minutes should just about do it.
6) Start Commenting on Other Blogs – Search for popular blogs in your niche or market and join the conversation by commenting on specific blog posts. Please do not write something along the lines of “Great post, i really like your style of writing” This is just spam and will not do you any favors. Remember that it is about building relationships and contributing good and informative comments is key to achieving this.
7) Find Forums in Your Niche and Join the Discussions – By signing up to Forums within your particular niche, you will have opportunity to set up a signature; the perfect place to insert a link back to your home page or a deeper link to one of the internal pages of your site.
8.) Guest Post on Related blogs – There will undoubtedly be other blogs within your niche that are looking for good and interesting content to offe their readership; this is your opportunity, Contact the owners and offer to write a guest post on their blog. Most will jump at the opportunity but you have to make sure that the content is special and that it will add value to their readers. The idea is that you will be able to include a direct link back to your site in the resurce box.
9) Use Software to get Links – This one is a little more complicated and unless you are technically savvy, will cost you money to implement; however, it can be a fantastic source of links. The idea is that you hire a programmer or designer to create a tool, application or widget that is related to a social network (eg Facebook) or a specific platform (eg, WordPress) This tool would then have a credit link that would point back to your site.
10) Obtaining Reciprocal Links from Similar Websites – The key here is to make sure that you choose sites that are similar to yours, ie they are highly relevant. Why? because you will have the benefit of the link back to your site as well as the extra traffic from people curious to see what you have to offer.
You now have ten proven ways to get quality links back to your website or Blog. This is obviously just the tip of the iceberg as there are many other ways to obtain links; however, by starting here, you will slowly build a steady stream of links and traffic. Once this is accomplished, focus on producing excellent content and you will see increadible results.
Photo Credit: bludgeoner86