Increase Inbound Web links = Increased Traffic
Link Building Strategies
With so many elements involved in the development of a successful SEO program it is not always easy to determine which tasks are the most difficult to achieve.
As I have repeatedly stated, SEO is not about one major element leading to the success of the overall program. However, having said that, with top results on Google being the Holy Grail of SEO and Google putting significant importance on the linking structure of the site it can be concluded that link strategies may out weigh other important SEO factors.
Do however remember, content is king and the site must be made for the user. The web site owner does have significant control over the content, research can be undertaken to assist with the production of top quality content, images, video and products can all be compiled to develop overall compelling content.
Web site owners do have significant control over many aspects of the web site’s linking strategy . Internal linking structure and outbound links are under total control of the web site owner / developer.
This is not the case with inbound links, which must be noted, are what Google pays particular attention to when determining the search results for web sites with similar relevant content. In most cases given two identical sites (which would never be the case) the web site with the highest quality and quantity of inbound links will obtain better results in Google’s Search Engine Results Pages SERPs.
What Inbound Linking Options Exist
Before we can delve deeper into inbound linking a brief explanation of Google’s Page Rank is necessary.
Google’s Page Rank calculates the relevance of a web page to the search keywords used and examines the number of incoming links and the quality (determined by Google) of the referring web page to provide a ranking measurement between 0 low and 10 high.
Reciprocal Linking
Reciprocal linking is a simple link exchange. An agreement is made between web site owners to put a link leading to the others page. This is an effective method although difficult to manage method to increase the number of inbound links. As with most things there is a “however”. Search Engine are both aware of reciprocal linking and have the technology to monitor this practice, therefore reducing the effectiveness of reciprocal linking. Again “however” as I have stated previously SEO is primarily about many small steps leading to success. Therefore, Reciprocal linking should be part of your Link Building Strategy.
Directory Submission
Honestly, I feel directories have little value apart from increasing the number in inbound links to your site which is important, therefore Web Directories should not be ignored.
But do you really think that anyone actually uses these directories? They are not easy to use, they are not visually attractive often cluttered with banner ads, and again Search Engines have the ability to know where your inbound links are coming from so do Directories really have any value?
As part of the overall SEO plan careful selection and submission of Web Directories do have value in increasing the number of inbound links. But do select your directories carefully to ensure they are relevant, reputable and not just link farms
Social Bookmaking
Social Bookmaking is an excellent way to increase inbound links and traffic for web sites with high quality content. Social book marking sites such as Stumbleupon give power to the users enabling enabling visitors to give a thumbs up or a thumbs down for web sites visited. Many positive votes from users ensures your web site address will be presented to other users with similar interests thus increasing traffic.
Some Social Book marking site use the HTML tag <nofollow> which tells Search Engine crawlers not to follow the link and therefore credit is not given to the web site as an additional inbound link. However, humans do see and use these links brining additional web site traffic.
Article / Press Release Publication
Posting articles and press releases online is an excellent method to increase inbound links and is one of the best opportunities to gain high value inbound links. There are numerous web sites available enabling your to post your content.
A similar method to this is to make your content available to other web sites with the condition that a link be included back to your web site in return for allowing them to post your content.
With this in mind if you would like to publish any of the SEO Wizardry blog posts on your site please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it HTML versions are available all we ask is of course that you provide a link back to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it as all content on this site is covered by copyright.
Obtaining one way inbound links is difficult but well worth the effort involved. So try some of these suggestions, links to some social bookmaking sites are available on this blog so try it you will see results.
