Search Engine Optimisation Articles
Getting people to link to you
OK, so you have just designed an all-singing, all-dancing, content rich, non-spammy website that is easy to navigate?
“Ah good”, you think, “I can sit back and relax and watch the visitors roll in”.
I’m afraid not!
The hard work has only just started!
You have to spend a lot of time trying to get people to link to you, which is not as easy as you’d first think (as I’m sure you realise).
Link Popularity
The main reason that it is beneficial for you to have lots of sites linking to you is not for the traffic you will gain (it’s pretty insignificant compared to what the search engines send your way), although if you operate in a niche market, then niche directories may send plenty of qualified visitors your way.
Most search engines base your sites rankings on how many links you have pointing to your site (known as link popularity). Therefore it is entirely beneficial for you to have as many inbound links as possible.
Your link popularity campaign should be an ongoing process of contacting webmasters of sites who are likely to link to you.
From a marketing perspective, think of it has having your flyers left in more and more locations each month. The search engines (in particular Google – where most of your traffic will come from) view more links to you site as “votes” for your site. The more the links you have pointing to your site, the more webmasters deem your site to be of good value to their users.
Link farms
A link farm is a site that trades links (ie, you link to me and I’ll link to you) with other sites indiscriminately in order to raise link popularity. Usually these sites have some form of income generation that requires a large amount of traffic to be profitable (ie, affiliate advertising).
Please note the difference between link farms and directories.
A directory will have sites listed by category and will not require that you link back to them. A link farm will require a reciprocal link.
The search engines do not like link farms and by exchanging links with a link farm, you could be facing a penalty.
From a marketing point of view, links farms hold little benefit for your site and could even have a negative impact on its rankings.
There are very few surfers will use a link farm to find your site (most will use a search engine or directory) and the link popularity effect from the inbound link to your site is negligible.
Rule of thumb – if a site requires a reciprocal link in order to link to your site, then consider the following points:
Is the content of their site related to yours (ie same industry or market)? If so, then it may be a good source of pre-qualified traffic.
Does their site have quality content that would be of use to your users? If so then a link to their site is justified.
Is their site just a big collection of links? Then it’s a link farm. Stay away from it.
Themes
The main problem with using search engines to market your site is that no-one really knows how they do it. We can experiment and speculate on what works and what doesn’t, and some search engines even tell us what practices to avoid.
One such uncertainty is Google’s use of themes.
It is speculated that Google award a greater importance to links pointing to your site that are “on theme”. That is, the site that is linking to you is related to yours. For example, if you have a travel site, then a link from a tourist board may be considered to be on theme, but a link from a costume hire shop would not.
Whether or not this is the case, the following points should be considered.
Any impact themed links have on your sites ranking would be minimal.
Links from sites that are related to yours are much more likely to send qualified traffic to your site.
General rule of thumb – links from sites that are related to yours (or from related categories in directories) are much more beneficial to your site than those that are not related.
From a marketing point of view, try to find sites that are not in direct competition with your market (would you put up your competitors advert in your shop?). Finding sites that offer related or compatible products or services to link to you is much more beneficial.
Their users are more likely to be interested in what you offer and therefore you can maximise your sales conversion rate.
Getting links
The best approach to contact webmasters personally with a simple, polite message requesting a link.
Personally the approach I take is to firstly say how I found the site in question (what search term I used and in what search engine or directory), ask for a link and briefly explain why you feel their visitors would benefit from a link to your site. At the end include the URL, title and description you would like for your link.
As a webmaster, I am always interested in how people find my site, so a link request that has this information instantly carries more weight.
Any emails sent should be brief and at least appear to be a personal message, as mass mailed messages give the impression of being junk mail.
Directories and search engines usually have a submission form that you can submit.
When writing the description for your sites listings, it should be brief, concise and give an accurate description of what your site offers. Remember to include juicy keywords in your site description! If users are using a site search then good descriptions will help your site appear up top of the results!
The main thing to remember!
A webmaster is more likely to link to your site if it has quality content that is useful for their visitors! Work on this and develop your site.
The better site you have, then better chance you have of people linking to you.
>> Back to Search Engine Optimisation Articles
More SEM Articles
- Adding value to your website
- Inbound link strategies
- Finding good directories
- Keywords - What are they?
- Reciprocal links
- Spam - why to keep your site clean
- What is Google PageRank?
