SEO 101: Inbound Links

A guest article from DPACC Member, Chris Schmitz at Perception LLC, from their blog on tips to improve YOUR website.   This has great information and I’m working on putting it into practice myself.  In that vein, wanna link?  Comment and we’ll connect – helps us both!  But, on to the advice from Chris:

There is one major element of SEO that is somewhat out of your control as a website owner.  Unfortunately, it happens to be one of the most important elements and is capable of massively increasing the amount of traffic to your site in a matter of days, sometimes even minutes.  In case you hadn’t guessed by the title, this element is inbound links.  In other words, links from other sites to yours.

Why are inbound links important?

Inbound links are great for SEO for 2 main reasons:

1. They bring traffic to your site whenever someone clicks the link
2. Search engines pay attention to inbound links to determine how important a page is and where it is placed in their search results

Aside from search engine results, links from other sites are the only way that people will be able to find your site.  To put it in business terms, inbound links are essentially referrals to your site from other sites.  The more referrals you have, the more business, or at least inquiries, you will get.  If someone is referred to you through a friend to buy your products or services, but upon further investigation they find that your office is in the basement closet with a leaky ceiling, they will most likely take their business elsewhere.  The same goes for websites.  If someone is referred to your site (through an inbound link) but is immediately turned off by the design of your site or content that doesn’t apply to them, they will leave immediately, and most likely never return.  On the other hand, if you have a design that is, at the minimum, easy on the eyes, and content that is applicable to them, you can be fairly confident that they will return again at some point in the future.

Inbound links and PageRank

When search engines are deciding which pages would be relevant to a user’s search, they take into account not only the content on the page, but also how many other sites around the web link to that page.  The more sites that link to a page, the more popular it is perceived by search engines. Google, the largest of all search engines, refers to this perceived importance as PageRank.

PageRank is essentially a popularity contest.  If you have a lot of readers and friends around the web, it becomes easier to find people to link to your site, thus getting you more traffic and potential people to link to your site.  Each link to your site is a vote saying that you think this page or site is important, and the importance of each vote is determined by a site’s PageRank.  As you can see, search engine optimization has the potential to grow exponentially over time, you just need to make an honest effort to get started and continue improving even after you have some success.

For more information on PageRank, check out Google’s Technology Overview page.

Obtaining inbound links

Many people think that once they have a well-designed and coded site, it is up to the rest of the site owners on the web to make their site popular by linking to them.  After all, you can’t force anyone to put up a link to your site.  However, there are some ways things you can do that will almost always result in increased traffic to your site.

Submit your site to directories

In almost every industry, there are directories of sites that simply list product or service providers specific to that area or industry.  Sometimes you will be listed in them automatically, and other times you will need to sign up manually.  Chambers of Commerce almost always have a member directory with links to each business’s site.  If your site is well-designed, consider submitting it to web design galleries.  Look for any opportunity possible to submit your site and you can be certain to get at least a few links and some additional traffic to your site.

Get linked to by your peers

Have some family/friends/other businesses with their own sites that would be willing to promote you?  Ask them to post a link or write an article about you to help improve your SEO.  It may not be worth paying much for this service, but there is always something that can be done to return the favor.

If there are blogs focusing on your area or industry, try emailing some of the writers to see if they would be interested in doing an article or interview on you or your business. Authors love getting feedback on their content.  Quality feedback and questions in an article’s comments are guaranteed to get the author’s attention.

Write guest articles in online or print publications

Blogs and online magazines are popping up all over the web, and many of them will allow you to write guest posts for them.  Almost all of these sites will provide a link back to your site as well as a picture and short biography about you (just as you see at the bottom of this article).  Some sites will even offer compensation in addition to the link and bio.  Take a look around at some blogs/online magazines on topics relevant to your industry and see if there is a way to contribute.

Get creative

This list is by no means exhaustive of all the ways you could potentially obtain inbound links.  Take some time to make a plan to market your website and obtain some links. Whatever method you choose, just remember that there is no way to obtain these links without putting in some effort.

Caution: Any site that promises inbound links and improved PageRank for free, or a fee, is most likely going to end up hurting you in the long run and could potentially get your site blacklisted.

Building inbound links takes time, and obtaining quality links is even harder. Be persistent and make sure that your site has quality content and is well-coded before trying to market your site.