What is link building?
Link building refers to the process of getting as many relevant websites linking into your site as possible. The World Wide Web was designed to make it easy to flit from site to site and more than 90% of website traffic comes from other websites. Link building is pretty important stuff.
Visibility on search engines
Many of the main search engines now decide how far up the visibility scale your site should be, by the number of other sites linking into your site. This isn’t the only distinguishing feature; metatags and good content are still just as important, but quite naturally, some search engines feel that if loads of sites are linking into yours, then yours must be a good site, and therefore worthy of being high up in the listings.
The link building process
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Begin with your local links. Local businesses are often happy to reciprocate links if they are not in direct competition with you. Email them requesting reciprocal links and try to build up a local network.
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Think about your suppliers and customers. Which ones would be happy to put a link in to your site? If you’ve done a good job for a customer, try to get a mention somewhere on their site. The same goes for your suppliers. Do they have a list of clients on their site? If so, get on it. If not, suggest they set one up.
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Now look at industry links. Are there any professional bodies that you are a member of? If so, they should hold a member directory online. Make sure you’re on it. Look at all the unofficial resources for your business sector and try to get links on those. Typing in some relevant keywords into the main search engines will help you find suitable linking partners.
Something for nothing
Whilst some websites make their money from advertising and only exist to be a bigger and better directory, most sites that you contact will not be prepared to add a link to your site for nothing. At the very least, it takes up their time to add you, so why should they?
You have to be prepared to give something back. I don’t suggest you pay for links, but you should have a link page already created on your site and be ready to offer a link in return.
Simple mathematics
A successful link building campaign will make a real difference to your website traffic, which in turn should make a real difference to your level of enquiries through the website, which ultimately should lead to more revenue.
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