Last week I showed you some of Google’s recommendations on how not to optimize your website for being found on search engines. Now it is time to have some fun and learn what Google says about setting up your website the right way.
Google Says: “Get More Links”
In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages.
Google’s Ranking Webmasters/Site Owners Help
How? Participate In Community
For many, a website is just an online business card. They just put some information on the site and then tell people to check it out for contact information and a quick egocentric bio. Unfortunately for those businesses they are missing out on the true power of the web: the community.
Here are a few suggestions on how to increase the number of incoming links. What you should notice is that most of the suggestions center around participating in the online community and building an online presence through active interaction.
- Create good content – Make the information on your website helpful, useful, and informative; entertaining; newsworthy; or funny. In other words, make the content on your website worth talking about.
- Read and comment – Read other people’s blogs and participate in their discussions. The web communities are not one-way streets and it is vital for you to be an active participant. The more you get involved, the more you will find people linking to your site/blog.
- Link to others – Again, the web is a two-way street. Link to other people’s or business’ web pages when you find something worth noting. Does someone have a particularly good blog post? Do they excel at a particular service or have a great product? Link to them. You will find that giving other people links becomes reciprocal over the long term.
- Give something away – People like free stuff… and people like to talk about getting cool, free stuff. Therefore, give something away. Whether it is an e-book or one of your products or services, give a little something away for free and people will want to talk about you and link to your website.
- Use Twitter – Have a good blog post on a particular day? Let the Twitter world know and throw it up on your Twitter feed.
- Add your post’s link on Facebook – This should be done a little more sparingly than Twitter. However, if you have a special article that is worth noting, post it on Facebook for all of your friends to see. Perhaps your friends will also find the post special and add a link themselves.
Remember, for small businesses like us, building links to your site is not about quick-fixes or schemes. It is about participating with those around you.
As a final thought before closing, here is Google’s own recommendation on how to build incoming links:
The best way to get other sites to create relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant content that can quickly gain popularity in the Internet community. The more useful content you have, the greater the chances someone else will find that content valuable to their readers and link to it. Before making any single decision, you should ask yourself the question: Is this going to be beneficial for my page’s visitors?
Google webmaster recommendations, emphasis added
Now, what are you waiting for? Go out there and get involved…
The Lucerne, Switzerland bridge photo is courtesy of Olivier Bruchez on Flickr.
Excellent suggestions Leo! The biggest thing to re-emphasize for small businesses and non-profits is that this is a long-term strategy. It takes time. However, investing the time has great long term payoffs. It is relationship building "web style". The more a business does what you have suggested, the more credibility it builds in its community and with its customers…and ultimately with Google!
Thanks for the Google info Leo! in a few years I will have to say that the secret to my success is you! I keep getting different information about links in my blogs. However, I think I will go with your advice. I'm glad that David mention that this is a long time thing, and that can be frustrating at times. I have been blogging for about a month now and haven't seen much results yet, however, I know it's coming. Thanks again.
Great way to encapsulate what I wrote. I could not have said it any better… and probably did not.
Coincidentally, I have a draft that talks about the long-term strategy of web marketing. This ties in perfectly with your thought. I think I will publish it in the next few days.
Thanks for the comment!
I am glad you like it and I pray that you will find it useful as you utilize Google's recommendations.
I think David is right on the money… it takes time to develop these relationships and there are no easy shortcuts. Keep doing what you are doing and you will see results, just not immediately.
Let me know if you ever need encouragement and I will be happy to support you in your web marketing endeavors!!
Also, I mentioned it in my reply to David, but I already have a draft written talking about time and web marketing. I will try to finish it and publish it this week. It should help reinforce what David mentioned.