It is no secret that the more organic traffic you can procure from the search engines, the more successful your online marketing ventures can be. If you are producing a website for the purpose of promoting a product, service, or affiliate venture, you will need a large amount of traffic for it to succeed. Most people realize this which is why they will put a great deal of effort into search engine optimization marketing. And, of course, most people realize that one of the keys to success with search engine marketing would be to boost the number of links pointing to the website. What many people do not realize is that without the proper links in place, the venture is not going to be as successful as it could be. The truth of the matter is that all links have some value but quality links will have more value. That is why it is necessary to center the bulk of your link building plans on amassing links that are considered “high quality”. How can this be done? Here is a brief overview:
First, you need to make sure that the website the links will be pointing to is properly optimized. No matter how expansive your link building strategies are, they will be undermined if your website is improperly optimized. Really, you will not experience much success from a sparse website that has little value or content. The website will need quality text that is rich with the keywords that are commonly keyed into the various search engines. Adding audio and video files as well as a site map would not hurt either. The search engine robots generally favor such websites which is why these added components are so helpful and necessary. If you do not have a quality website designed then your link building strategy is not going to be worth much.
That said let’s take a look at what is needed to get the most out of your link building ventures…
Above all, you will need relevant links. You do not want to haphazardly place links on sites that are not going to deliver much in terms of value. Then again, you could randomly place links as a secondary link building strategy but you do not want it to be a primary strategy. Remember, you will want the search engine robots to smile upon all the links that you put out on the web. The more relevant the links are, the more likely this will occur. For those wondering what relevant links are, these would be links placed on websites that share similar subject matter to your own website. For example, if your website deals with sports memorabilia, any link placed on a site that is related to sports would be considered a relevant link.
You also want to look towards those sites that have high Google page rank. The greater the page rank, the more “search engine juice” your website will receive. Once again, that is not to say sites with low PR are worthless but their value will be limited. Adding links to sites that low in PR may or may not have much impact. Placing links on sites that have high PR will always have a positive impact.
One way links are much better than reciprocal links. When the search engine robots see you are trading links, they will downgrade the value of the links. Sure, they may not seem fair but that is the way the system is devised. By putting more value on one way links, the search engine robots can get a better gauge determination as to how popular your site really is. Hence, they prefer one way links.
Don’t dump a whole slew of links on the internet all at once. Yes, there are some services that can put up a few hundred links on various (low quality) sites and blogs within a week. Such “link spam” may not help your cause. Adding a few links a week for week after week will definitely have a much better impact since it will make a more positive impression on the search engine robots. This, in turn, will boost your site’s rankings and increase the success potential of your marketing venture as a result.
When discussing website promotion, one of the tips always given is to submit to directories and search engines. The reader always thinks that it makes perfect sense and that he pretty much knows how to go about it, but the fact is he does not really understand the logic behind it, how it works, and how one actually goes about it.
What is the difference between a search engine and a directory anyway? A search engine uses a program for searching documents, mostly HTML, based on given keywords. It generates a list from its database put together by two programs, a spider, which fetches corresponding documents, and an indexer, which reads documents and creates the database based on their word and idea content. A directory, on the other hand, is a listing of submitted and approved websites. Basically, the main difference between search engines and directories is that the latter rely on submissions while the former have programs that scan the net for websites to include in their database. Keep in mind that search engines and directories are two different things, so it is best to come up with separate plans for utilizing the two methods for website promotion.
With search engines, it is all about keywords and HTML layout. You can look into discussions about keyword density, prominence, and placement to better equip yourself for targeting high search engine rankings. Remember that search engines can pick up your pages without you ever submitting them, so design your site accordingly.
As for directories, there are several steps you may have to undertake to prepare your website before submission in order for it to have a better chance of being approved. First and foremost, make sure that your website has been up and running for some time before you submit it. If you had recently made changes, again, wait a short while. You must know that some of the qualities of a good site, according to directory standards, are clean and attractive design, useful content, and fast loading pages.
Once you feel confident about your website, you can start the submission process. You usually have to start with picking out the category or categories which your site falls under. Think this through as this could have a great impact on your site’s exposure. Before submitting your URL, thoroughly read instructions, terms, and suggestions from the administration. Since directories depend on the information you give them, be as accurate as possible when asked for a description.
The top directories out there are Yahoo and DMOZ (also known as Open Directory Project or ODP). With ODP, it is not really as tough to get accepted, but there are so many submissions and they are usually short on staff which is comprised of volunteers. This is actually something you can capitalize on by volunteering to be an editor yourself and accepting your own submission. You have to realize that the Open Directory will not bring an amazing amount of traffic to your site, but it has its ways of influencing rankings, especially with Google. Remember, Google is like the godfather of all things SEO. It is always best to do things that are favorable to it.
Directories usually have a lead time after submission, so do not expect your site’s exposure to be magnified immediately. It may be necessary to submit specific web pages that can fall under different categories or to resubmit the actual website especially if you do a lot of tweaking or if you feel that the course of the site did a turn and it can now fall under a different category. However, do not be so aggressive about your submissions that you are practically spamming the directories. This may lead to detrimental consequences with regards to your active listings.
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