A big part of your search engine optimisation strategy needs to be inbound link building. The search engines see inbound links from quality websites as a tick of approval for your site.
Getting a link from a good site is a vote of confidence that your website is equally good, and your search engine ranking will improve accordingly. Links from thematically-similar sites and high credibility sites, such as government or educational institutions, will normally hold more credence than other links.
So how do you go about getting inbound links. Here are some suggestions:
1. Offer something in return
You can offer a link in return, but sometimes webmasters don’t want to do this. Alternatively, you could provide discounts or an advertising slot. Be careful about paying for links – Google will penalise you if it suspects that links are paid for.
If you are selling something, you might provide your buyers with a discounted price if they install a link back to your website. This has been our strategy with CapitalJobs.com.au – we have provided discounted rates to recruitment companies who have installed a ‘Find our jobs on CapitalJobs.com.au’ link button on their websites.
2. Ask your current link partners
If another website already links to you then they might be willing to add further links to your website on other pages.
3. Network with people in your industry
Networking with like-minded professionals in the same industry can help you to get links to your website. A great way to exchange links with these people is via blogs. If you write an article on your blog, then you might ask a colleague to link to it, and vice versa.
4. Demonstrate that others have linked to your site
If you have existing links from well-known websites, then this fact might heighten the chances of you getting further links from other sites. You will need to advise prospective link partners of your existing links to prove your credibility.
5. Produce fantastic content
The search engines use inbound linking as a major measure of your site’s importance, because they expect that sites with good content will naturally be linked to from other places on the internet. So the best strategy for obtaining inbound links is to produce fantastic content.
Getting links from other websites isn’t difficult if you know how to do it. It can be time consuming, but well worth it in the long run.
A successful website requires constant oversight. It’s important that your site is checked regularly to ensure that it is performing optimally. If you just ‘let your site go’, then it’s likely that the site will come undone over time. A regular ‘health check’ – preferably weekly - will keep your site on track.
Whilst much is said about the requirement for inbound links from external websites in search engine optimisation circles, the requirement for good internal links is often overlooked and underestimated.
