Understanding Link Building For Your Small Business

Understanding Link Building in your Small Business is one of the essential parts to get traffic to your site.

The majority of people who use the internet do so for information; it may be on banking, shopping, news, employment or education. Most people's first port of call is the internet.

Businesses with products and services to offer will work hard to ensure that customers find them on the net and that is the heart of their business approach online. It is, therefore not enough to just host a website and hope traffic will get to it. The small business will need to push and direct traffic to the site.

Link building for the small business is one vital element to achieving traffic. Getting good inbound link to your site will help the search engine judge how popular your site is or is becoming. A higher level of popularity will guide the search engine to your site.

All links are important but some are more important than others because of the presence on the web of the site linking to you.

Links from relevant sites in your area that already have a presence online are more valuable to your rise in the search engines.

So where do you get those links from? You need an organized process to build quality backlinks over time. Here are four areas that will help you find the backlinks you will need.

• Directory submissions are one the easiest ways to get backlink. Go on Google and do a search with your keyword with "add url" placed after it. A number of sites where you can add your site will come up. Another way is keyword the "add site" or "add website" and just go through and choose where you want to add your site.

• Article submissions are one of the easiest ways to get contextual backlinks. These back links are embedded in the text of an article and have more weight than text located in other areas of a webpage. Make sure these are submitted to the relative directories online and that a backlink is put either in their resource box or where the directory directs. It is important to make sure that the article is on your blog or site before submitting or Google will see the article as duplicate and punish your efforts.

• Blog marketing is a good way to get backlinks. You need to get "dofollow" links. If the links are "nofollow" then the search engine will not follow the link back to you. You can register with blog directories that will help you get those backlinks by commenting on other blogs in your niche.

• Video marketing posting on different services, not only YouTube as there are hundreds of other site that can be valuable. Posting on the important or popular ones will get links back to your site. Always remember to put a link on the first line on your video pointing to your site or blog

The important thing to remember is some links are weightier than others; the point here is to have a good assortment and to be regular in building those links over time and that will eventually push your site up the search engines and in the eyes of the public.

We understand there is a lot of concern these days about search engines and link building. Above we have covered just a few solid ways of getting good backlinks to your websites. Be sure to continue to research and understand what it takes to acquire good links. Don't allow the changes of search engines to stop you in your track and not continue to effectively grow your business.

Backlink Building: What Are Inbound and Outbound Links?

Many webmasters who are new to Internet marketing don't know the difference between inbound and outbound links. It is important to know exactly how these two types of links work in order to develop a successful marketing campaign and promote your website more effectively. If you want to get higher search engine rankings, you need to get quality inbound links or backlinks.

A backlink is any link received by your website from other site. They were originally important as a primary means of web navigation. Today, webmasters are using link building to boost traffic and get a better position in search results. The number of inbound links is an indication of the popularity or importance of your website. The highest quality backlinks are those that are related to your content and come from authoritative sites. There are various tools that you can use track the results of your link building campaign. Many of these programs are free.

Outbound links are important as well. These links start from your site or blog and lead to an external website. They send your visitors and prospects out of or off your site to another destination. These should be of high quality and authoritative. They also shouldn't link to your competitors. For example, if you have a health related blog, you can use outbound links to physician sites, news sites, or medical journal sites.

When search engines determine the value of a website, they consider the quality and quality of outbound links. If your website allows users to post content, then it is vulnerable to outbound links to poor quality sites. The best way to prevent an association to a bad neighborhood is to make all user-generated links have the no follow tag. The outbound links on your site should point to relevant, original and informative content.

If you decide to start a link building campaign, focus on organic backlinks. If you create original web pages that provide valuable content, people will link to your site and share your posts. Organic backlinks are free. You can also get inbound links by adding your site in web directories, posting on forums, and distributing press releases. Start building relationships with other bloggers and webmasters who have quality sites. Offer to write guests posts for them. A few relevant backlinks are more important and valuable than hundreds or thousands of low quality links. The more genuine backlinks you acquire, the higher will search engine rankings will be.

Using Advanced Search Queries To Identify New Linking Opportunities

Link building can be a time consuming activity for webmasters, especially when it comes to building quality links that are considered an authority within the world wide web. The Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) world has established a varied array of link building techniques that can help build quality links such as article writing and submission. Press release distribution and also directory submissions. These provide a large opportunity to help improve and increase a websites backlink profile, whilst bolstering the domains strength.

But a major drawback of carrying out these link building activities can be when one day the search engines decide to de-value links that come from directories, or even from press releases. Although very unlikely the recent Penguin update from Google has penalised many low quality directory websites, including penalising those who have been caught using paid links. Resulting in search engine rankings disappearing after a websites backlinks being swept away. Especially for those who only seek to acquire low quality links from directories and forum posting for example.

This is why professional link builders recommend using many different activities. From linkbait to guest posts are a much more recommend solution to help websites gain higher quality links. Plus giving a website greater diversity and a more natural backlink profile. Demonstrating to the search engines that the site has value to offer.

This is where link prospecting can be used, to help further enhance not only a websites backlink profile but also help identify high quality links. Link prospecting involves many activities but lets focus on one of the main methods that involves carrying out advanced queries within Google, to help identify possible opportunities.

Here are a few examples of the advanced search queries that can be used:

[ inurl:".co.uk" business directory ]

This advanced search using search operator inurl can help identify a vast number of potential business directory opportunities that are located with specific top level domains. This can be changed to help assist localised link building campaigns with .ru, .cl and .nz for example. The inurl can also be changed from domains to keywords that contain a specific search term within the URL.

[ intitle:"Guest Post" boutique hotels ]

The intitle search operator allows us to search for the term directly and to return pages that use this within the page title. As the example above shows this search query returns a range of quality websites that allow guest posts regarding boutique hotels, mainly travel blogs. But this can help display a range of potential targets for reaching out.

Keep in mind though that intitle operator is limited and by mixing this with other operators can help weed out great opportunities.

[ Accounting "Directory" ]

Another search query that can return greater results can be achieved by using quotation marks. This will return exact match results, by using a combination of words with and without quotation marks can help determine specific websites that can as suggested above display accounting webpages that also contain directories. Although the example above is not the greatest the quotation marks are often underestimated and by trial and error will help determine it's best use.

SEO among other activities such as Pay Per Click (PPC) and Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) involves being not only being pro-active but staying ahead of the competition.

Backlink Tool: WordPress Plugins for Link Building

Setting up a website and finding time to build quality links is not an easy task. If you are using WordPress for your site, you should know that this platform has a few great plugins that will help with link building and make your life easier. Many of them are free to use. All you have to do is to visit the developer's website, download the plugin, and install it on your website.

As the name implies, Internal Link Building is a powerful SEO tool that can help you build internal links and improve your internal navigation structure. It also allows users to link multiple keywords to a single URL or a single keyword to multiple URLs.

PingCrawl is a new WordPress plugin designed to help webmasters build deep links automatically on every post. Every time you write content on your blog, this plugin grabs similar articles from other sites and blogs that allow pingbacks using the post tags. This link building tool has about an 80 percent success rate with each pingback.

KB Linker searches for user-defined words and phrases in posts and automatically links them to sites you specify. You can use this plugin for internal cross-linking between your posts, as well as for SEO purposes.

Scribe is a revolutionary plugin that helps you choose the right keywords, analyzes your content, and build inbound links from other websites. With Scribe, you will find the most profitable keywords and optimize your content for search engines. This tool can also identify influential social media users who are likely to share your content.

Cross Linker is an internal linking tool specifically designed for WordPress users. This tool allows you to link any keyword or key phrase in your blog to other pages. It automatically hyperlinks defined terms to defined URLs. You can also use this plugin to link to other websites featuring affiliate products or services.

SEO Smart Links is a preferred choice among many webmasters and bloggers. This plugin automatically links keywords in your posts and comments with related posts, categories, pages, and tags on your website. It is an excellent option for those who want to add affiliate links to other sites or get their posts interlinked.

Link to Me Textbox WordPress Plugin is a free tool that encourages your website visitors to link to the posts they are reading. This easy to use plugin can help you obtain organic backlinks from your readers.

Directory Submissions Denied? Find Out Why

Don't take it personal when your listing has not been approved. Always keep in mind that website directories are essential to your search engine optimization strategy.

For you to increase your approval rating, the first thing you must do is, pay attention to the guidelines. It does not matter if you have pre-written title or description, because directories come with their own set of guidelines, you must follow each one to help increase your submission approvals. This is one of the key reasons to have more than one title and description. Some short and some a bit longer.

The top reason to change your title and description is; search engines will continue to index your website.

More helpful tips:

1) Website completion - I know once you get your website up, you are ready for the world to see. Some of you forgot that you are still building or creating some inner pages and yes it maybe almost complete, excitement taking over, but you must have a completed website before the world can see.

2) Does your website consist of more ads than information? - If the purpose of your website is strictly for ad revenue purposes, this will increase your rejection rate. Don't get me wrong ads on your homepage or inner pages of your website are ok; it's how you place ads throughout your web pages. Lower the number of ads placed on your website and place ads in places that are appealing to your visitors, advertisers and directory editors.

3) Manual Vs Turbo Submission - For me this is a simple answer, manual directory submission. This process will take time, but worth it in the end. To make sure title, description, category, keyword and email are correct; manual submission is the only way to do it. This will help with proper submissions and help increase the approval of directory submissions.

4) Keywords - Do not over stuff your title and description box with keywords. I repeat do not stuff your title and description box with keywords. This will decrease your approvals; the ones who do approve your website just to have links listed, will not have the chance to be indexed. Not only will the directory be frowned upon but, your website listing will too.

Webmasters, add these tips the next time you visit a search engine optimized directory, that holds weight on your websites link popularity. Being indexed is as simple as following directory guidelines. Before you submit make sure you read the rules first.

Top 5 Methods To Obtain Backlinks

Let's get right to it. Backlinks. You NEED backlinks for your website. Everyone is looking to create them. However, just what exactly are some good ways to create backlinks? Which method of creating backlinks is the best? With this article, I will share my top 5 methods for obtaining backlinks. I have personally used these methods for years, and I highly recommend them.

1. Blog commenting is a highly followed way to get more backlinks. SEO service providers make this possible by creating backlink comments on posts at other sites. This can have two effects. First off, it can help to increase your search engine rankings by increasing your backlink count. Second, the people visiting some of these other blogs can read the comments then follow the link back to your website.

2. Article writing is also a very useful way to create backlinks. With most article directories, you are free to include your website link. Not only are you reaching users that just read your article and may be interested in your website, but you are also placing your link on a relevant page about your niche. This is very important to some when it comes to creating backlinks.

3. Using social networking web sites is becoming a lot more common with webmasters today. These social networking sites likes Facebook, tweeter, etc, are used by millions and millions of people. There are always different communities that can be found and you can often find a community related to your web site. If you provide some useful content with some of your posts, people will often be more than happy to click your link to your website.

4. Guest posting is another important to get backlinks. If you find a website that is similar to yours, you can contact the owner and ask them if you can guest post for them. This is a win-win for both of you. To start, you can include your link in your guest post which will be displayed on their website. For them, they are having a free post written for their blog. It's more content for them, and more visitors for you.

5. Web Directories are another great way of obtaining backlinks. These are websites that encourage your links, so you don't have to worry about them getting removed. In addition, a lot of people visit these directories because they are looking for new sites, and this is the perfect mindset you want to target with any new potential users. Definitely do not overlook this.

I hope this has given you some ideas on how to obtain more backlinks. Good luck!