Link building strategies for
search engine traffic consist of
four types of links: in-site links,
inbound, external, and reciprocal
links. Encouraging other sites to
link to yours can result in a higher value placed on your
site's pages. Links are treated as
"votes" for the page that will
raise your site's importance in
search engine logarithms; the
effectiveness depends on quality and relevance of the linking
sites. In-site links are those placed on
the pages using keyword-rich
anchor text linking to the other
relevant pages. These links are
used to extend the navigation
ease and readability of the pages for search engine spiders.
If not done at the time of
design, the SEO may have to re-
word the content so that
keywords for smooth embedding
will be placed in the paragraphs. In order to do away with the
underline and coloring of the
links, the HTML element is used in
the link. Most day-to-day business SEO
programs focus on inbound links
from other sites. Inbound links
also rely on anchor text so that
keywords can stand out to
search engine spiders. Directories, articles, blogs, press
releases, and eZines are places
to publish content containing
links to your pages. When
content is re-published there is
a universal agreement to publish the links as well. This is an
example of Viral Content, where
links multiply as the content is
downloaded and re-published. Outbound links are similar to
reciprocal linking, where you
contact (or are contacted by)
another site to trade links. With
an unsolicited link to a site
however, there would be less work involved. People like to get
free things so they may
volunteer a backlink if they like
your site and its Google page
rank. If a good number of quality
sites are involved in link exchanges this will help
promotion in search engine
rankings. Link-baiting means creating
content that will attract
backlinks naturally. Articles and
blogs are common ways get links
as they are re-published.
Webmasters will download them to add to their sites' content.
There are "share" buttons on
source directories so that the
content can be sent to social
media and bookmarking sites.
Depending on the business, many ideas can be used for link-baiting
- running a newsworthy event,
build a useful tool that links back
to you, give something valuable
for free, become an expert in
your niche, write something controversial, make a theme,
plugin, or a piece of software, be
the first to do something online,
issue a press release, a funny
video or cartoon...anything that
will gain attention enough to encourage relevant sites to link
back to you. Catching the attention of a Web
audience has to be planned
carefully to ensure that there is
a clear goal by which to measure
success. In a press release by PR
expert Ken Lyons, he explains the importance of setting a goal
and create highly interesting
content. He describes how his PR
firm got a link from the New
York Times: "Since our primary
goal was to earn a link from a national publication, we created
link bait with a "news hook," i.e.
content that would leverage hot
and trending topics and tap into
public passion." In 1997, the father of the World
Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee
stated that there is no
copyright infringement making a
link to a publicly viewable
document yet in 2010 Nikkei blocked this free speech issue
and made it a requirement for
anyone linking to their web site
to fill out a written application
requesting permission. This
indicates that Nikkei is recognizing the fact that linking
to them increases the value of
the linking site. Author Pat Boardman originally
posted this Marketing Blog on Suite101.com in his role as a search engine optimization
consultant providing Toronto and
Montreal SEO services as well as
clients in other Canadian cities.