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How to Build Links and Boost your Ranking

OK so you have optimised your site, written great content and checked your keywords. But you need to do one more thing to make sure the search engines give you ranking you deserve which will attract new visitors which if all goes well should convert into customers.

This final step is called link building.

You may have read elsewhere that link building is the key to getting a number one spot but it's far more important to build an interesting and informative website. On the other hand, there is no point in having a killer site if nobody can find you. As in all thing webby, you need balance.

There are three types of link associated with websites: Internal, Outbound and Inbound (AKA backlinks).

Internal Links

Internal links are those that link your pages together. Lots of ways to do this but the most important is to make sure you use text links and not leave any orphan pages. The search engines are pretty clever but unless they can get to all your pages they can't add them to the index.

You will get a little bit of link juice from your internal ranking but this part of your link building strategy is more about ensuring every page on your site is accessible.

There is of course a secondary advantage - great internal linking means effective navigation for your visitors. Here are a few navigation tips.

Outbound Links

Outbound links are those that lead to other websites. Many blogs, forums and information sites use outbound links to refer to related material. Other outbound links come from advertising boxes and banners.

Outbound links can take customers away from your website but they do form part of a good link building strategy as long as the links are relevant. Linking from a cooking site to a plumber does nothing for your credibility and the search engines certainly won't be impressed.

I've put most of my outbound links in a resources page. If you do the same make sure you provide additional text to provide value. This means put this:

Here's a great set of useful resources.

rather than just:

resources.

A link without a reason for its existence won't help your visitors or your ranking.

Inbound Links

Inbound links are those where other websites link to you. These are the absolute best type of link to have if you want to improve your search engine ranking. But there are a whole load of pitfalls to gaining inbound links that can seriously harm your website. So here's a breakdown of the types on inbound links and what to do and what to avoid.

The Natural Link

The crème de la crème of inbound links is from a popular, high ranking site. They are not easy to get but well worth the effort. Building an content-rich site full of material that people want to visit is a sure fire way to get noticed. Make yourself known to the super-site and if they like what they see will link to you. But do not ever self promote. An email or comment like:

Hey, just found your site - awesome. I sell watches, link to www.cheapwatch.com and maybe I help you keep time!

It's no better than spam and won't achieve anything.

Far better to let them find you - and they will, just don't expect it to happen overnight. Scroll down to the bottom of the page for some ideas on how to promote your site.

Organic Search Engine Links

The main problem with search engines is that unless you are prepared to spend money on sponsored links you have no automatic right to be listed. But what you can do is provide a helping hand.

Find yourself a niche and promote the keywords that relate to that particular field of interest and you will eventually get visitors via the search engines. Remember though that the more common the keyword the less likely you are to stand out from the crowd.

If your site is sufficiently interesting or informative then the organic links will follow - it just takes time.

The name given to improving your organic ranking is Search Engine Optimization.

Paid for Links

Next up are the paid links. The most common are the sponsored adverts that have infested many websites and the 'adwords' type link you see in most of the search engine results pages.

Nothing wrong with these types of link - except they are not free and have a very limited value unless your site is useful, informative and delivers what the visitors expects. There is little point in paying for a link unless you have a site that people want to visit.

Note also that paid for links will not necessarily improve your ranking - most of the search engines no longer consider paid-for links during the indexing process.

Directory Submission

The next type of inbound link is the directory submission.

Don't rely on most of the free directories to get you lots of traffic. Most of them are rarely visited and are of such low quality that any link is almost worthless. And don't ever link to a directory that demands a reciprocal link (see below).

There are some worthwhile directories. Some require payment for inclusion and some are human edited (so don't expect overnight results).

Things to look out for are listed in this excellent article from SEOmoz.

Reciprocal or Exchange Links

The bottom of the pile is the reciprocal link. This where you swap links with another site. They have zero value. Worse than that, the search engines actively penalize sites that practice link exchanging. Do not swap links. Ever.

Promoting your site.

Lots of ways you can do this. Here are a few example of things you can do (for free):

• Join forums and write useful posts. You may need to wait a while but you will be able to add your URL to your signature. Warning: many forums don't allow signatures to be indexed.
• Build a blog. And write interesting/useful/informative articles.
• Write comments on popular blogs. But be careful, linkdropping won't help and spammy comments will get filtered out and even get you banned.
• Write articles and submit them to article sites (or do it yourself like I do).
• Issue press releases telling the world what you are doing.
• Provide educational material that schools and universities can use (for free).
• Build tools and applications that others find useful.
• Keep adding fresh content to your site with lots of internal and outbound links.

Summary

The key to a successful link building strategy is to start with a website that people will want to visit again and again. If the site is popular you will soon begin to build up links from around the world. But if you concentrate on the easy options you will languish way down the ranking along with everybody else.

Effective link building is not easy - and the search engines aren't going to give you top slot unless you have earned it.

Resources:

Eric Ward Link Moses: netpost.com

The Ultimate Link Building Guide: copyblogger.com

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