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Thursday, April 24, 2008 at 10 a.m.

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Link Building 101: The Importance of Earning Inbound Links to your Website

Much has been written and discussed about the strategy of gaining more inbound links pointing to one’s website.

Whatever you want to call it: Link Building, Earning Links, Gaining Links, Publishing Links, Reciprocal Links, Buying Links – links are becoming one of – if not THE – most important factors you should consider and implement when it comes to a strong search engine optimization program.

Basically, link building is the process of having other websites publish a link on their website pointing to your website.

Why is link building important?

First, link building is important because it can improve and increase traffic. Think about it. A popular website or blog publishes a link on their site telling its readers “check out this site”.

Second, links impress search engines. Again, a link on a popular website (especially with a high Google Page Rank) will improve your overall rank in search engines.

Always look for quality links

You want to earn quality links pointing to your website. Not quantity.

Quality always beats quantity.

Take for example, the keyword “baseball gloves.” The No. 1 ranked site in Google has 602 inbound links. The No. 2 ranked site has 7,580 links. While there may be other SEO factors involved in the overall ranking, the number of inbound links had nothing to do with the current ranking.

What is a quality link? It comes from a website that ranks high; has a high Google Page Rank; doesn’t have a long list of outbound links, and doesn’t sell links.

Content is the best way to earn links

Never beg for a link. Don’t send out hundreds or thousands of SPAM e-mails asking for links.

Instead, give your readers, fans or foes something to link to on your website.

Well-written articles, fresh content, white papers, interesting blog entries are an excellent start to earning links.

Don’t write a sales pitch. Offer good advice (like this article). Sometimes, a controversial article or blog post will get some attention. Helpful and interesting articles have a better opportunity of getting attention from other websites.

Also, consider writing informative articles about your industry for other websites. A lawn care website could write an article for a landscaper; a software consultant could write an article for a computer website, etc. Of course, always ask for a byline and a link with the published article.

Consider Directories

You should also submit your website to quality directories, especially industry-specific directories.

While a few directories charge for a submission (Yahoo is $299), many directories are free. Again, always look for quality directories for submission.

In most cases, organization and chamber memberships also come with a link to your website. Check your memberships for details and always make sure your link and company description is accurate.

Write a Blog

If you do not have a blog, you need to start one today.

Not only will a blog create fresh content (which visitors appreciate), but a blog will eventually earn traffic and links as other bloggers will write about your blog.

Write Press Releases

While should always publish your company’s own press releases on your website, you should also submit press releases to other industry-specific websites.

Not only will the press release earn you some publicity (and potential traffic to your website), but most sites will published your company’s URL with the release.

Make sure the press release is truly news and not just a sales attempt.

Participate, participate, participate

Join and participate in an industry-specific community and/or bulletin board. Ask questions. Answer other questions and posts. Include your URL in your signature block.

Make sure you are really contributing. Don’t post “I agree” to someone else’s comment for the sake of earning a link. Chances are good your post won’t be published and may draw some unwanted attention by the blog’s editor.

Investigate social media opportunities

Social media and social bookmarking is still going strong. Check out MySpace, Facebook, Squidoo and others for your business. Bookmark your website to Delicious (http://del.icio.us/) and other quality bookmarking websites.

Reciprocal Links

Do not go overboard on trading links with other websites and only consider a few reciprocal links if you website is new.

According to Google, “excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging” is considered a link scheme and is not helpful in developing a strong link building program.

Only trade a few links to gain traffic and to present your business to a new audience on the Internet. There’s nothing wrong with trading links with good link partners.

What about purchasing links?

Be very careful about buying links. According to Google:

“Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site’s rankings or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or ‘bad neighborhoods’ on the web, as your own ranking may be effected adversely by those links.”

According to Google, a link scheme is:

* Links intended to manipulate PageRank
* Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web
* Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging (“link to me and I’ll link to you”)
* Buying or selling links that pass PageRank

SEO gurus have argued the point of paid links for awhile now. If you want to be listed in the Yahoo Directory, you have to pay $299, so is that a paid link? Yes, technically, you paid for it, but it is a good link and well worth the investment.

A good linking strategy

Links don’t – and shouldn’t – have to point to your website’s home page. Try to gain links pointing to other pages in your website, such as the article page, podcast page, press release page, etc.

Link Building never ends

True link building – like true search engine optimization – never ends. It’s a continuous process which grows every day. If your site were to gain just one quality link per day it would grow to 30 inbound links per month.

Make sure your SEO strategy includes an ongoing link building strategy.