Want to drive more traffic to your website? It is easy…just add another link in the chain.
At one point or another, most clients ask how they can drive more traffic to their website. As a good web marketing professional should, I provide a sizeable list of various ways to help increase traffic and to optimize their website for search engines. While all of the methods in that list are valuable and effective, I want to focus in on just one item for today’s discussion: in-links.
Search Engines
Links that point to your website (a.k.a. inbound links or in-links) are a very powerful way of increasing your chances of being listed higher on search engines. The Google’s and the Yahoo’s of the world see in-links as personal references from one website to another. This is similar to a person referring a friend or colleague to their “great dentist” or “a quaint little restaurant” that they have found.
The reason search engines place emphasis on in-links is because it is more difficult for a company to add links onto other’s websites. Different from other methods of advertising which are self-driven, a referral (or in-link) is almost solely dependent upon someone else giving their approval and permission.
Exposure
Another positive aspect of having a large number of in-links is increased exposure. Having your website address, company name and other company information on other’s websites increases your visibility. This is a great way of advertising for little cost. Think of in-links as little billboards along the internet highway…a great way to be seen.
Sounds great, but how do I do it
The first way of building in-links is to swap links with friends, partner/sister businesses, and other businesses you may interact with. According to Netcraft, as of April, 2008, there are over 165 million websites on the web. With that many websites around, there has to be someone you know who has a website and would be willing to add an in-link for your company. One thing to note, though, is the increased value of building in-links with websites of a similar nature. Even though having a link on other reputable websites is a good thing, having in-links on websites that are similar is best. A dentist swapping links with an orthodontist is better than a dentist swapping links with a florist because of the similarity of the first two websites. Both in-links are good to have, but one is better.
Another way of building in-links is to get yourself out there. Utilize networking (professional and social) websites. Facebook, MySpace, Xing, and LinkedIn are a few examples of networking sites that you can join to help build more in-links for your company’s/organization’s website. Adding your professional and company information to these networking sites not only assists with adding more inbound links, but they help provide potential exposure as well.
Participating in blogs and online discussions is yet another way of getting yourself out there. Find an industry-related blog or discussion and join in. Some blogs/discussions will allow you to enter your website address; but even if you are not able to do so, you are still getting your name out there. (In doing this, though, make sure you are really participating and not just spamming other’s websites. There is a difference and make sure you do it right.)
A third way of helping your website build inbound links is to have good content on your website. Writing useful, interesting, resourceful, and fresh content keeps people coming back again and again. Good content also makes your site interesting enough to entice others to reference it (in say a blog, for instance). A good example is Hubspot, an internet marketing company. They provide good information and resources related to search engine optimization and marketing. I might refer to them in another blog post or on one of my web pages because the information they provide is useful and interesting enough to me that I think it is worth linking to them. (Oh, by the way, in case you missed it I just gave Hubspot a quick in-link…good for them.)
The Big Finale
If you really desire to increase traffic to your website and you want to utilize some simple solutions, consider building your inbound links. They are a valuable commodity in today’s search engine web world.
A final thought, as important as links are in today’s search engine optimization, perhaps we should consider a new nickname for the Internet: the World Wide Chain-Link Fence. Ten years from now you will be able to say you heard it here first.
Thanks for reading and I hope to see you again at our next article.
–GIIHELSO–
