External Link Building

Links from outside of your own web site play a significant role in your search engine optimisation and this link building is not something you can afford to ignore. However it is also outside of your control. You cannot decide which sites link to you or what keywords they use when they link so it can be a frustrating. Fortunatly, because you have built quality content, people will want to link to it.

Bloggers are an easy target for link building. No matter what subject your website is about, there will be someone blogging on it. Send them an email with a couple of paragraphs and a link. As most bloggers are busy people, the chances are they will cut-and-paste your email straight into their blog so make sure you use your major and medium keywords and links in your message.

Once on someone's blog, you get a double benifit as you pick up vistors from the blog's regular readers and secondly you get an additional link to your web site, boosting your ranking in Google's results, which mean more traffic. As a link building stratergy, targeting bloggers is highly recommend.

Link building with non-bloggers is harder. Non-blog sites are more likely to be commerical and tend to be updated less often. These sites don't have the same motivation as a blogger to give you a link but your investment in quality content will once again pay for itself. Web sites for trade association, support groups, schools and similar non-commerical bodies are in the information business. The more meaningful information your site contains, the more likely other web sites will link to you. Send the web master an email and let them know how your content will be of interest to their readers.

Forums and commenting on blogs are another oppurtunity for link building though care must taken not to act like spammer. Only post comments when you have something to say that is worth reading. Logging in and saying “Hi I've got a new web site” looks like spam. Instead, read the forum or blog for a few days to a get a feel of what will appeal to its readers. For forums, check what the rules are because many forbid people promoting their own web sites except in certain places. Do not try to break or bend these rules. They will get you banned, your links removed and make you look like a spammer which is never good for business.