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 How to Get High Quality Inbound Links
The amount of
quality inbound links to your site is one of the most important
criteria used by search engines to rank your pages. Therefore, a well
conducted link exchange campaign is one of the most
effective Internet marketing strategies you can follow.
Remember that to search
engines not all links are created equal: some links are more
important and will have more value than
others. The best links are those from high quality,
highly ranked pages with a topic related to
your site.
These are the steps you
must follow for a successful link exchange campaign:
-
Create a Links
page on your site, where you can place links to all the sites
that link to you. Make sure to provide clear instructions on how to
link to you, including the exact HTML code you want your link partners
to use.
-
Download the
Google toolbar: The Google toolbar is an addition to your
Internet Explorer browser that will display the Page Rank
of every page you visit. Page Rank is Google's way of telling you if a
page is important and ranks well. If a page is related to the topic of
your site and has a high Page Rank, you definetely want them to link
to you. To download the Google toolbar, go to
and
follow the instructions.
-
Go to the major search
engines and search for your target keywords (the words you think
people will use to find sites like yours). Click on each of the
results and see if the site:
a. Is
complementary (non-competitive) with your site
b. Has a good
Page Rank
c. Has a links
page.
If it does, put it on
your list of selected sites.
-
Write to the webmasters
of the selected sites and ask them for a link exchange, following
these guidelines:
-
Place a link to them on
your own site before contacting them.
-
Start your letter by
explaining the nature of your site, how does it relate to theirs,
and how both would benefit from the exchange.
-
Give them the
URL of your links page, so they can see their link and make
sure that their link information is OK. The fact that they see their
link on your site will make them more inclined to reciprocate.
-
Give them the
exact HTML code that they should use to link to you. By all
means, include your main keywords in the link text
since that will give you a boost with the search engines. For
example, if you own a pet supplies store called Petmart, and
assuming that your main keywords are "pet supply store", it is
better to make the link text: Petmart - The Pet Supply Super Store,
instead of just Petmart.
-
Keep track of
what you're doing: maintain a spreadsheet where you can write
down the name of each target site, their webmaster's email address,
their URL, the URL of their links page, the date you first contacted
them, and the date when they finally placed the link to your site. If
you don't see your link after a couple of weeks, send them a reminder.
If you don't get a response in another week, remove the link you
originally placed on your site and move on.
Another way to find
suitable link partners is by finding out who is linking to your
competitors. You can use a free tool like the one in
. Just type the URL
of your competitor and you will get a list of sites that link to them.
Write to the webmasters of those sites and ask for a link.
About The Author
Mario Sanchez publishes The Internet Digest (
), an online collection of web design and Internet marketing
articles and resources. You can freely reprint his weekly articles
in your website, ezine, newsletter or ebook. |
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