The Indextrialist

In this blog post I am going to point out the obvious about linking and the links that you should be obtaining for your website. Link Building has become a major factor in the rankings of your website, and not simply for the increased quality traffic (if you find the right websites for your links) it will generate. Links are seen as a trust vote or vote of confidence by the search engines. The higher quality links are more valuable than tons of low quality links. Remember link building is a form of advertising and you must be smart about where you list your company name. Getting links from irrelevant sites, link farms and other suspect sources will hurt you.

Here are eight simple ways to start obtaining links for your website:

1. Internal Linking – By setting up or improving your internal linking structure, you can see an improvement in the navigation and usability of our website as well help your website rankings. You should start with a text based navigation menu. This can be your primary navigation or supplemental to your primary (like a footer). Then you should also have text based site map. This will list out all your pages for the search engines. The final method is to use keywords in the anchor text of your links within your content. This will emphasize the theme or story of the other page of your website.
2. Organizations or Associations – Most companies belong to at least one organization if not a few including the Better Business Bureau, Local Chamber of Commerce, Dunn & Bradsheet and any of the specific associations to your industry. Almost of all these organizations or associations have a member directory on their website and if you are a member, you should make sure that you are listed.
3. Local Directories – Google, Yahoo, Local.com, Judy’s Book and a number of Internet Yellow Pages offer a free local listing for any business. It should only take you a little time to go through the major ones and get listed.
4. Partners – These can be manufacturers of the products you sell or service, distributors of your products or even companies that you partner with for other reasons. There is no reason to link to these companies.
5. Niche Directories – There are plenty of directories like Thomasnet.com or GlobalSpec that offer a free or paid listing in their directory. Search the web for “your industry + directory” to find these directories.
6. General Web Directories – Yeah they may not be worth a lot to the search engines, but they are simple links that are easy to obtain and most are free. The bigger more valuable ones like the Yahoo Directory and Business.com are paid, but there are thousands of other directories that offer listings for free.
7. Competitor Analysis – Using the various link tools around the internet (like the Indextree Link Popularity tool) you can view the backlinks of your competitors. This is another way to find links.
8. Content – Are you an authority or leading resource in your niche? If so, then you should be writing articles, white papers, case studies or blog posts. This will establish you as a resource for users.

Someone in your company should be undertaking this process on a continuous basis as an extension of your traditional marketing and sales initiatives.

• Three Reasons Why You NEED Link Building?
• Geo-target Your Website
• Off-Page SEO Basics
• Website Navigation Dos and Don’ts
• What Does Google’s New Universal Search Mean to You?

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 7th, 2007 @ 7:40 pm on the category SEO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.