If you run a business website, or plan to start a website for your business, you may know that getting links back to your site is critical to your success. You have probably heard people talk about “reciprocal linking” and “backlinks.” Still, you might not understand exactly what this linking process entails or why it’s so important for your business.
Search engines, especially Google, look at the number of links to your website in determining your ranking in their search engine results pages (SERPS). Google PageRank is based largely on the number of backlinks your site has, and the quality of those links.
Note that the quality of the links is important. Website owners used to submit their sites to Free for All links pages and get lots of links back to their sites. As with many other things that used to work when the web was smaller, this is no longer a reliable way of getting quality links. The search engines look at these “link farms” as junk links, and don’t count them in your backlinks.
It is more important than ever now to create quality links back to your site. Ideally, these links will come from sites that link to you without your having to link back. These are called one-way links, and are the most valuable links your website can have.
Article writing and submission is one good way to get one-way links; the article directories and ezines that use your articles will publish them with your link intact. These are good quality links, and the more articles you create, the more links you can accumulate.
You may also pay for one-way links, but the word is that Google is starting to ignore obviously paid links. Some of the larger companies selling one-way text links are now “flagged” by Google, and links purchased from these companies do not count in Google PageRank.
Not all good links are one-way links. Google also respects reciprocal links, or link trades, if the linking site is a quality site and not a link farm. While one-way links are more valuable in calculating PageRank, reciprocal links are easier to get, and Google does pay attention to them.
One way to get reciprocal links is to visit other websites and ask them for a reciprocal link, or a link exchange. While this is a tedious task, it is a good way to find well-qualified sites to trade links with. It is well worth spending some time finding really good sites to do exchanges with.
You can also use a reputable link exchange directory to find sites that are interested in exchanging links with related sites. When you choose a directory, make sure that it includes the types of sites that you’re looking for, and that the links will come directly from the other sites, rather from the directory. You’re using the directory primarily as a search tool to find related websites that may be interested in exchanging links.
As always, the quality of your website still matters, of course, but you can give your site a real boost in search engine rankings by getting good backlinks from related sites.
When you set up your business web site, choosing a domain name is one of the most important steps you’ll take. This domain name will “go on your permanent record,” so to speak; this is how people will find your web site, now and in the future. You want to make sure that you choose a domain name that will help you build your business. While it may seem like a minor detail, this is a very important decision.
The following tips will help you choose your domain name well:
1. Know what you want your domain name to do. Many people use their domain names primarily to introduce themselves, especially when they’re networking locally. For instance, a photographer might have a domain name such as JudyTaylorPhotography.com. That works well as an introduction, but if her goal is to market herself on the web as a baby photographer, she might do better with Philadelphia-Baby-Photograpy.com.
2. Use keywords in your domain name to market your business. If you intend for your domain name to be more than an electronic business card, you should research and include keywords that people will search for to find you. For instance, if you sell vintage Mustangs in Waco, Texas, you might use a domain name such as Texas-Vintage-Mustangs.com or Waco-Vintage-Mustangs.com.
3. Use hyphens to make your domain name more search engine friendly. While your customers might remember TexasVintageMustangs.com just fine, or even more easily, search engines may not see all the keywords unless you use hyphens. Keep this in mind when you’re choosing a domain name for marketing purposes.
4. Use a reputable domain registrar. There are a few big companies selling domains, and some smaller companies reselling for those companies. There are also a few low-end, independent companies selling domains. Watch out for these small registrars; not too long ago one of them went out of business and refused to release their records to another registrar until a court intervened. Their customers’ domains were unreachable for several days. Many of the large, reputable companies are very competitive in price. Make sure you’re working with a company you can trust.
5. Get a dot-com name if possible. It may be harder to find your chosen name with a dot-com extension, but it is well worth the effort to brainstorm and research possible names that are available with a dot-com extension. People tend to memorize your domain name, or try to. If they think it’s JoesPlumbing.com and your address is actually JoesPlumbing.net, you may lose business to another Joe.
6. Research similar domain names. If you intend to register The-Online-Golf-Store.com, keep in mind that you may lose business to Online-Golf-Store.com, just because people forget the “the.” Know what similar domains are registered, and to whom, and make sure you choose a unique name.
7. Remember you can direct two or more domains to the same website. If you are not sure which domain name serves your business better, or if you would like to market yourself with multiple domain names, you can point each name to your main website and use all the domains you want.
If the nuts and bolts of SEO seem too technical and frighteningly mathematical for you, rest easy. This post provides you with the known and established ways to boost your search engine ranking without delving too deeply into the “whys”.
Link Love
Keywords are Key
Code ‘n stuff (Sorry, but you can’t completely escape technicalities.)
SEO Myths