Building Links is Like Shaving – If You Don’t do it Every Day You Look Like a Bum

For years, you have probably had a daily routine for shaving. But have you developed a system of building links?

No one pops out of bed each morning and races to the sink to shave. It is a tedious and potentially dangerous daily necessity. But without a daily shave, our appearance begins to get a little shabby.

Linking is the same way. Rare is the webmaster who jumps out of bed, races to his/her computer excited to find inbound links. Yet, no matter how optimized a site is, without inbound links it is never going to be found in the search engine results pages. Even established sites that buy traffic but don’t have something the visitors find worth while to link to are in the same boat.

Chances are good that you are like most people who build a few links here and there, but don’t really have an overall link building strategy.

When it comes to shaving you can almost automate the process by using an electric razor. Of course the shave is not as good as using a blade. Building links using an automated system is not as good as getting links manually either. No automated system can generate quality naturally built links that are on topic, vary the text, vary the source of the links or incorporate the dynamic aspects of social media.

There are also dangers involved in both shaving and linking. You would never think about taking an electric razor that’s plugged into an electrical outlet, into the shower. But you may not even know the dangers of linking to bad sites or what can happen when you try building your link base by cutting corners. Links to the wrong sites, using only one technique like reciprocal links, building links too quickly or getting caught buying links – can do damage to your sites reputation with the search engines.

Although there are new technologies like waterproof, electric razors that give a good shave, the best shave still comes from a hot towel and a straight razor in a professionals hand. This is also true about links. There are auto submission sites for articles, mass social book marking tools, link farms and link exchanges. But the best link base a site can have is consistently built one link at a time by people who understand their industry, their business, their customers and make common sense decisions about how and where to get links.

A good link building strategy involves two things. Time and consistency. The more time you consistently put into generating links and cultivating relationships on line the better off your site will be in the long run.

Here are ten steps to get you started.

1. Buy a listing in a couple of the best directories. Yahoo, Business.com (B2B sites only), Best of the web and submit to DMOZ. This will cost you almost $600.00 but you will gain at least 10 permanent links spread out over several domains.
2. Search Google for the top 100 ranking sites for your most important keyword. Do some research and create n article that you can offer in trade for a link. Get a link even if you have to buy it. If you do have to buy a link deal directly with the web site and not from a link broker. Google has been cracking down on sites that buy/sell links. Work this strategy and set a goal of getting one new link this way per week.
3. Create a blog and create links from your posts back to your site. Try to post 2-3 times each week.
4. Submit your blog to Blog. Directories like blogcatalog.com, eatonweb.com ($34.95 to add your blog) blogflux.com etc. Google “blog directory” for more places to submit to.
5. Write and submit an article to a couple of the major article directories. Start with EzineArticles.com, articlecity.com and amazines.com. Google “article directory” for more places to submit to.
6. Find something exciting about your business to write about. Write a press release and send it out through PRweb.com. Spend at least $220.00 and you will get at least 2 links but more than likely 10’s if not hundreds.
7. Create a profile at exact solutionz the field “websites” use the search term that you want your site to be found under instead of the default “my website” You can add up to three links.
8. Set up a lens at squidoo.com. Your lens will allow you to create links to your profiles and sites.
9. Every time you establish a new link set a social book mark to the page it is on. There are hundreds of social book marking sites. Start with delic.io.us, backflip.com, furl.com and ma.gnolia.com Google “social bookmarks” for more. Spend some time searching for people to connect with.
10. Ask everyone you are connected with at exact solutionz to comment on your latest blog post.

The daily ritual of shaving only takes a few minutes each day. Linking will eat up as much time as you will dedicate to it. But if you skip shaving or link building for very long you will start to look like a bum.

What is a great and legal way to advertise my website link?

You need to focus on two important things:

- get TARGETED traffic to your site – not just any visitors, but visitors who are likely to be interested in your products (so avoid those 100,000-hits-for-$29.99 types of schemes)
- CONVERT those visitors into buyers – given that you worked so hard to get those visitors, make sure that they buy

You can use pay per click advertising in the search engines to reach audiences looking for your products. You can use Google Adwords or Yahoo

Here are some shoestring marketing ideas that can help you get the visitors you need at the least cost possible:

1. Create the best content you can with the best products you can possibly offer. Your content is your best advertisement – if visitors love your content, then they will go back and spread the word to others.

2. Make it easy for users to recommend your site. Viral marketing is very important — and easy to tap on the Web. But give your users the tools. Get a Recommend this Site script from websites such as cgiscripts.com and similar directories of scripts. Some even go as far as giving incentives to those who recommend the site to their friends. If only 10 people go to your site, but these 10 people invite 10 more – that’s additional traffic that you get for FREE!

Recommend Site Scripts (various)
Big Nose Bird Recommend this Site
CGI Resource Index
Hostscripts

3. Rank well in the search engines (organic search results, not the pay per click). SEs can be a big source of traffic. The key is to create the best content in your niche. If you have good content, other websites will gladly link to you and offer your site as a resource to their audience. Check the on-page factors and be sure to get linked from authority sites in your topic area.

If you are going to read only one piece on search engine optimization, I suggest you read Brett Tabke of WebmasterWorld.com’s “Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone: 26 steps to 15k a day.”

4. Send out press releases. While outfits charge as much as $650 per release, there are free press release submission places on the Web. Press releases allow you to (a) attract media attention; (b) get more back links to your website without sending each website an email request; and (c) get more visibility especially if your press release gets in Google News or Yahoo News.

5. Submit articles. Write articles and submit them to websites accepting author submissions. You get exposure for your business; establishes you as an authority in your field, and allows you to get backlinks for your website. If 50 websites publish your article and it contains a link back to your website, then you easily get 50 links from a single article. The more links you have, the greater your chances for increasing your search engine rankings.

Here is a comprehensive list of where to submit your articles

6. Improve your conversion. Getting visitors is one thing; getting them to buy your products is a whole different story. Read the article ” How To Sell More on the Web: 30 Tips To Increase Conversion Rates For An Ecommerce Site ” for tips on how to improve your conversion rates.

7. Post a link to your site for free where it is allowed (always read the Terms of Use). Examples are:

Craigslist
Google Base
Classifieds for Free…
Text Link Exchange
Recycler.com
Yahoo Classifieds
US Free Ads

Link Building Tips – 5 Easy Link Building Steps You Can Take to Increase Your Traffic

Want to make links that work and draw business to your site? Here is how to do just that and to be able to do it right.

Here are 5 easy link building steps:

1. Building Your Link Campaign

Remember that when link building that it is going to take time and commitment on your part. Taking the time to learn how to do this will result in a high quality campaign that will bring success to your.

2. It’s About Quality, Not Quantity!

This is important information to remember when link building. It is not how many links that you have on your site, it is how many high quality links that you have on there. One quality link makes up for 17 subpar quantity links.

3. Content Needs To Sparkle!

Writing an link needs to have quality content linked to it in order to be believable. This quality content will help you to build a quality link with a good connector to a quality website. This is another example of a wonderful link building.

4. A Quality Link Is Not Just A Link From A High Quality Site

Bear in mind that a quality link is not always a link from a high quality site. See if you can get a link from a website that has your keywords in it. Link always to external sites that pertain to the subject in question.

5. Choose A Website That Is Built Around Your Keywords

A link built around say business will not be promoted like one that is a doctor’s office. They are two different things and will be promoted differently. This is why choosing one around your keywords pays off. This is another link building technique to know.