Tips on Increasing The Number of Back Links to Your Website

Proper website promotion results in increased page ranking, greater website traffic and better search engine placement of your website listing. One of the most significant factors to a successful website is incoming links or back links.

Why Back Linking is Important

• Link Popularity: Link popularity is often measured in the number of links that are directed to your website, and to a lesser extent to the number of links going out of your site, a commonly overlooked fact. In addition to the number of sites, search engines such as Google also look at the “quality” of those sites that link to your site – how relevant is the content of their site to yours. Having numerous links that are unrelated will actually hurt your rankings in the search engines.

• Value: The "cost per click" on most search engines is increasing. As more and more websites vie for traffic directed by pay-per-click website, the cost to the advertiser will rise.  Back linking in most instances costs you nothing except the time to submit your url and other details.

• Publicity: The very act of asking for the link from another site is equivalent to an industry-specific press release, but the payoff here can be long term. You never know what will come your way from making your market aware, especially if your product or service is new or unique. In effect, in promoting your website you are indirectly promoting your product/service – a way to promote without spamming!

• Branding: The more back links you have, the greater the "branding" effect for your name. This broad awareness can improve the click-through-ratio for your links. At the very least, it will make surfers curious as to why your site name seems to show up everywhere.

• Limited Time Management: Unlike pay-per-click search engines and banner ads, back links take only limited management time once they are in place. With pay-per-click banners and ads, you are spending money for each click and need to constantly stay on top of both your bids and your volume.

• Asset Value: Back links are assets of the business. Like the bricks of a house, a few don't amount to much, but pile them up, and you have a rock-solid foundation and structure. They can also greatly enhance the equity value of a website.

To be successful today, you have to work at it. Without a quality source of back links the search engines will all but ignore your site. So how should you accumulate these links? Below are a few basic methods to accumulate quality back links.  

Methods to Achieving Quality Back Links

1. Your Own Website

Create a useful, interesting web site and other sites will naturally link to it.

2. Articles

Write articles on topics about your business (for example, if sell holistic pet care products, write about holistic pet care) with a link back to your website and post it to:

• Your own website (visitors to your site may link to your articles on their website)

• Directories, free and paid, in your industry (target pet related and holistic/wellness related websites)

• Sites that complement yours and publish articles

• Ezines

Some examples of holistic/wellness websites and directories that accept articles:

Universal Healing Network - www.universalhealingnetwork.com/
The Holistic Shop - www.theholisticshop.com
Submit Your Article.com - www.submityourarticle.com
Natural Health Web.com - www.naturalhealthweb.com
Web Source - www.web-source.net/articlesub.htm
WorldwideHealth.com- www.worldwidehealth.com
Self Improvement Online - www.selfgrowth.com
Best-Web-Directories - www.best-web-directories.com/

• Forums

  Forums are a great source for additional traffic and links. Many forums allow their users to display signatures in their posts. These signatures can consist of both text and links. When you post a new message on that forum, your website's link will be displayed for everyone to see. This not only helps build valuable back links as you participate in the discussion, but will bring additional traffic to your website.

• Join a Link Co-op

Co-ops are an amazing source of valuable back links and free advertisement. A Co-op network is a network of site owners/webmasters that offers ad space to the network. In return, the ads they define are displayed across the entire network. The best part of ad networks is that they are free. Having your site in a co-op can literally mean thousands of back links for your site.

• Ezine Ads

Buying ezine ads is a paid method of advertising. Search for "ezine directories” and choose ones that are targeted to your market. When you contact an ezine, look for rates for both classified ads and solo ads. The advantage to a solo ad is that your ad goes out by itself in a separate email, but they can be more expensive. Track your results to see which ezines bring you the most and best traffic.

• Ad Swaps

Ad Swaps can be an excellent source of advertising. Search out and email ezines that are in the same category as your business or service, asking if they accept ad swaps. Include your ad in your correspondence so they can see what you are offering. Another way to find ezines is to do a web search for "ezine directories". Look up ezines in your category of business or service. Most listings will tell you if they accept ad swaps and the parameters of the ad such as how many lines and how many characters per line. Don't forget to place your website url in your ad.

• Blogs

Create a blog and get it listed in blog directories. See my article, “Blogs – A New Communication Tool That Is Growing in Popularity” for more information about blogs.

• Ebooks / White Papers

Give away free ebooks and white papers that contain links to your site. Ask other websites to publish your white papers. Submit your free ebooks to ebook directories.

• Syndicate Your Material to Other Sites

Create a content syndication feed (RSS feed) and include a link to your site. Use PHP rather than Javascript to ensure search engines parse your headings and links.

• Testimonials

Write testimonials for products you love, asking them to include your website address in the testimonial. Companies often post testimonials on their site with a link to the submitting site.

• News Releases

Write regular news releases and submit them to topic-related web sites and Internet news wires such as PRWeb and Business Wire. There are a number of wellness/holistic magazines listed at: www.wholeagain.com/healthmagazines.html.

• Business Associations

Join business associations which list their members' sites online.

• Newsletters

Make arrangements for other sites to archive your newsletters on their sites.

• Use Gimmicks

If people see something odd on a website, they'll often tell other people about it. You can also alert newsletter publishers and suggest they mention your gimmick in their newsletter.