Introduction To Link Building

Link: A connection from one resource to another. In our case; a connection from one website to another.

Link Popularity: The value made up of the amount, quality, and trustworthiness of links pointing to your website from other sites.

Gaining quality links to your website will be an ongoing process of your SEO campaign. Search engines pay attention and give credit to sites with high inbound link volume. The search engines do this because the websites linking to you are putting their reputation on the line to recommend you. The incoming links are a yes or a supporting vote for your website.

Advertising

Inbound links are an excellent form of free advertising. Your website will be viewable by visitors to sites all across the web that may not find you otherwise.

Anchor text: is the process of using HTML to attach a keyword rich title to your link on a friendly site. You have seen this before; when an anchor text command is in place in the HTML code the title text is displayed. When the title is clicked you are taken to the attached link’s website. Anchor text is important for two reasons: 1. the search engines recognize a link with anchor text as being more relevant, and 2. the anchor text can act as a mini ad for your site.

Effective Link Building

Search engines are known to give closer attention to links that come from websites with content, purpose, and function similar to the site they are providing a link to. Another way to get your links out onto the web is by submitting your website to industry / product related directories.

Link Bait

Link baiting is the process of creating a website with valuable information that will encourage others to link to it.

An important practice to remember is; you get in what you put out. There is nothing wrong with asking a website owner for a link to your site, but by creating quality content and resources you will cause site owners to link to you without an invitation or plea from you. If you have a truly valuable website others will notice and want to offer that value to their visitors. You will gain quality links and quality visitors.

About the author,
Amanda Woodrum is a certified Search Engine Optimizer and the owner of New Tree Design, a Cary, NC Web Design and Marketing firm.