Building your Search Engine Rankings with inbound links - 4 ways to generate links
In my continuing postings on Search Engine rankings, I'll move into some other ways you can build your search engine rankings. I previously wrote about increasing rankings by trading links, and ultimately, links have one of the highest impacts on your overall ranking. But trading links has it's shortcomings, and unfortunately Google and others are working towards devaluing link trading increasingly as more people do it. What Google are working towards is putting more emphasis on links that come into a site when there is no reciprocal link.
For example, if I post a link to your business on www.iFinity.com.au, and you post a link on your site back to this one, we have traded links. If you consider the number of inbound and outbound links on a site as a ledger - the total links have increased by the inbound to outbound ratio stays the same. Because of mass link trading schemes which are around, Google is devaluing this particular aspect of a site in their rankings. This doesn't mean that you should abandon it - like all aspects of Search Engine Optimisation, it should still be done as much as possible as it does no harm, but the weighting of the reciprocal links has slipped a bit in the last 6-12 months.
The very best type of link you can get is from a well-established, trusted site, where you have no external link to that site. For instance, if you could convince your major state newspaper to place a link to your site on their home page with a good 'anchor text', chances are your site would rocket up the search engine rankings. Not easy to do though, unless you happen to be good friends with a media mogul. But further into this posting, I'll give you my tip for getting just such a link without having to get invited to a Polo match.
This brings me onto my next suggestions - which is gaining links without link trading. This is simply the business of generating inbound links into your site.
Before I get into it, a few jargon-busters. Links we all know is short for hyperlinks, and these are the clickable, (usually) underlined bits of text everywhere on the internet. It's how you browse around. Anchor Text is the actual text that forms the link (not the address of the link). The anchor text is extremely important when generating links back to your own site. PageRank is a Google-specific term which is their measure of the importance of your website pages. It is a measure between zero and ten. I recently asked a Google employee why the Google site gets a 10/10 PageRank - was it programmed that way or did it really achieve a PageRank of 10 naturally. Of course I got an indirect answer that wasn't really an answer at all - such is the way with Google when it comes to talking about their search engine. Only 5 people in the company know how it actually works, and much like the Colonels 11 secret herbs and spices, they aren't letting the cat out of the bag anytime soon.
So - back on the Search Engine rankings - we need to achieve 2 things - (1) lots of inbound links into our site, and (2) the anchor text of those links to mention the keywords we'd like to be found for.
I'm going to recommend four ways to build links into your site:
1. Free Link Directories.
These are everywhere these days. People have set up sites which list businesses in them, sorted by category, region, or both. Some charge for 'premium' listings, some just run advertising on the side of the site. The main thing is that they exist, and a lot will link place a link onto your site for free. Note that these are not 'link farms' as I have written about previously - they are a useful business directory on a particular category or area. They are also dead-easy to find : just type 'free business directory' into Google. It helps to put your region in as well. For me, I just need to type in 'Free Business Directory Sunshine Coast'. Instantly there are about 3 or 4 entries in the first page of results, including mysunshinecoast.com.au as well as others. Microsoft/Ninemsn is also entering the fray with a new service called 'mylocal.com.au'. Newscorp, not to be outdone by those pesky Packers and their Microsoft friends, have started a service called 'truelocal.com.au'. Both of these offer free listings for local businesses. The listing details on mylocal.com.au are here. The details for truelocal.com.au are here. Every business owner should be making an effort to get themselves listed in these services now, because like Car Parking, ATM's and Tomato Sauce, there is the chance it won't be free forever. If you have a website, you should be putting it on your 'to do' list for this week.
The link submission process differs per site, but it is important to try and specify the link text if you can. Often they will ring you back to confirm it is a 'real' listing, and sometimes they will email you back. You should know what keywords you'd like to be found under - if you can specify the link text then do so. If not, any link is better than no link. Just stick with the ones where you don't need to provide a reciprocal link from your site if you can.
Another free link site on the internet which carries a lot of weight is dmoz.org - the open directory project, which is an attempt to index all of the sites on the internet into relevant categories. iFinity clients have already been submitted to this site as part of the installation process - although there is no guarantee of a listing.
2. Articles Submission
Every business owner is an expert in his or her chosen field. This is nearly always true. If you've got a ton of business knowledge stored in your head, and you've got the ability to do a bit of writing, then you should be spreading your knowledge out far and wide, all for the purpose of generating both free marketing for your business and quality links back into your site, of course. Articles can be as brief or as complicated as you like - there is no limit to what you can write about. It doesn't necessarily have to be related to your business, but it works best when it is.
What happens is this : First, you write an article about the topic of choice. About a page's worth works best - 300 to 500 words (I should really make mine shorter!). You then post it to one or more article submission sites - which will list it on their website for free. At the end of the article is normally a short bio about the author - this is where you put in what you do and, most importantly, a link to your site. The free article directories distribute the articles to other websites that wish to publish them. This is where it really kicks in - if your article is picked up and distributed/read widely, you will generate a lot of high quality links back into your website, and this will boost your ranking quite quickly.
This is really the same type of concept as writing editorial for the local newspaper to give your business a plug, but on a much larger scale. It is simple and effective when done well. If you aren't much of a writer then it may not pay off much, but if you think you can write a good little article about something related to your business, then it can be a big payoff.
The reason it works well is that your link is contained on a page rich with keywords that relate to your business. Yet it isn't your site, so the search engines see this as an endorsement of your site as being relevant to the topic of the page. This isn't search engine tricking or subterfuge - it is simple, good internet marketing. Everyone loves something for 'free', so a good read on an article related to your business establishes yourself as an expert in your line of business, and helps build profile for your business as well.
To find article submission sites, simply type in 'Article Submission' into a search engine and see the results. Those at the top of the list are the best to submit with, because they have the best search engine ranking. Just read the editorial submission guidelines, and sharpen your pencils! (or, I suppose, that should be, keyboard). There is an Australian site called "ArticlePR.com" which works in this space, and they also have some good information about building links through Article Submission.
3. Press Releases
All businesses do things over time, and these need to be announced to the world. New products, changes in branding, shifting location. All should be announced to the world with a press release. Sounds crazy if you aren't a large company, but company size is no restriction to creating press releases. There are two factors to press releases - the first is listing it on your own website, the second is submitting to a news organisation. A press release is a bit more of an advertisement than an article - and contains a lot more information about you business and what you do. Just because you put out a press release doesn't mean it will get printed, but there isn't any harm in trying. Lazy journalists with nothing to print will often pick up and run a press release with little or no modification - and you've just got yourself free advertising. Just about every Newspaper in Australia has online content as well, so if it gets printed in the local paper, chances are it will end up on the internet at a newspaper site - and as I've already stated - getting a link from your newspaper to your site is about as good as you can get!
It's true that Press Releases go stale, but unlike old newspapers, Web Pages tend to hang around for a long time. And they get found an indexed by Search Engines, so not only does a Press Release build profile for your business, it also builds incoming links to your website (remember to put such links in, of course). It's not just your newspaper, of course, most industries have at least one industry journal with a bunch of journalists scratching their head wondering what to put in next month. There are also enthusiast clubs for certain industries, and these always have club newsletters and websites needing content to fill up empty pages.
Writing press releases is pretty easy - just search on 'writing press release' in a search engine and you'll see endless ways to conjure up the right content. Submitting them is just as easy, and there are many firms who will do this for you, or you can simply send them into your local media outlet, such as the local paper, radio station or industry journal. Most publications / websites have a small section devoted to submission of content, and they all have clear instructions.
You should also put Press Releases onto your website. If you have an iFinity website and want a Press Release section, just get in contact with me and I'll put one up for you - it's quick and painless I promise. The writing is up to you, but I'll give you a place to put it.
Press Releases are not only a good link-building strategy, they are also a good marketing strategy.
4. Forum and Blog postings
One step down from PR and Article writing is Forum and Blog posting. If you don't know what a Blog is, you're looking at one. It is a series of posting over time by the author(s). The style is meant to be a personal one-on-one writing, and can contain anything you like. There are several reasons I write this blog, which include disseminating information so that people can answer questions for me by themselves and establishing my knowledge to new clients who may be looking at my website through a referral and wondering if I am worth talking to or not (if that's you, I promise I am!). The other reason is that is good for my search engine rankings - because more content means more keywords to index for the site, and ultimately more on the site for visitors to read.
You don't need your own Blog on your own website though ( but if you'd like one, get in contact ). You can also get a blog on one of many free blogging websites that have sprung up. Just get one going, stick to a theme and keep posting. You can link other people's blogs into yours, and hopefully your blog will be picked up by others. The blog, if on your own website, helps bring in links to your site by having interesting posts to link to, and if not on your site, helps by containing links back to your site. It also rates well with search engines because of the constantly updated content, plus the keyword-rich text within the blog.
Forums are communities of people who post to a common message board on a variety of topics. There is a forum on the internet for just about any topic you care to name. Membership is usually free - you just create a pseudonym (when posting on behalf of your business, something involving your business name works best) and start posting away. A set of postings is called a 'thread', and is normally related to a particular line of discussion within the topic. The trick with forum posting is to keep on-topic, and avoid 'me too' posts, which don't really add anything new. You'll get respect if you add to the conversation going, and the thread is more likely to stay active on the board. You will want to find a forum which allows you to have a posting 'signature' - which is normally a couple of lines of text that goes under each of your postings. A short, snappy line about what your business does and a link to your site works best, and don't forget to create a link with anchor text if you can. If you go onto a particular forum related to your line of business and post one or two posts a week on a thread that interests you, in a short amount of time you'll generate hundreds of links pointing back at your site. Again, it is also good marketing as people reading the thread, if they like your comments, are just as likely to click on the link and read your website as well - generating interest and potentially leads.
Just remember to stick to the topic and follow the rules of the forum, and in no time, you'll not only be generating inbound links and traffic into your site, you'll also be having fun. Personally, I'm a member of about 15-20 different forum sites, and some I post once a week, some once a month, and some once a year. Forum posts hang around for a long time, and it greatly increases your chances of being found by both search engines and potential customers.
Summary
Getting up the search engine rankings can have a massive effect on the amount of sales/enquiries your business generates, and can be the most cost effective way of advertising possible. It does take a lot of effort on the part of the website owner - there is no such thing as a free lunch or free top rankings. However, it can be done with no capital outlay, differentiating search engine rankings from the vast majority of advertising.
The above 4 methods are all ways in which to build your website search engine rankings. There is only so much that the website developer such as myself can do for you - the rest is up to the owner/promoter of the business. It probably seems like a lot of hard work for some, but then so many things are! I'd suggest that most people can do at least one of the above four, and that this will, over time, have an impact on the rankings of the site. Chances are at least one of your competitors are already doing these things, and in some cases you need to work at it just to stay even.