One of the most important search engine optimisation undertakings website owners can do is getting other website owners to link to their website (called external links). This article by H.E. Muller looks at the importance of external links and how you can get them… For free!
The building of high quality links to your website is the most important part of search engine optimization. Search engines allocate importance to websites based on the amount of high quality links they have from other sites on the Web. High quality links are links from trusted and established websites with a high PageRank.
Various SEO link building methods are available to website owners and new links have to be built on a regular basis in order to maintain the current website keyword rankings. There is software available that can automate the link building process. Search Engines penalise sites that they suspect of using automated link building methods. When a site suddenly acquire thousands of links in a very short period of time, search engines generally downgrade the rankings of the site.
It is very important to build links from sites that have similar but not competing content. The following 5 SEO Link Building methods are essential towards achieving high search engine rankings:
1. Reciprocal Backlinks: Reciprocal backlinks are links that are exchanged between two website. When exchanging links with another site always ensure that the site has a higher PageRank than yours. Never exchange links with adult or gambling sites to prevent the search engines from penalising your site. Make sure that the site that you are linking is established (older than 3 years) and has a good reputation.
2.Links from Blogs or Forums: Post comments on relevant blogs and forums. There are do-follow and no-follow blogs and forums. Do-follow means that the PageRank gets passed on. Post comments on some no-follow blogs or forums as well to prevent the search engines from penalising you. Use your target keywords in the anchor text of the links. Always post a comment that is relevant to the content to prevent your comment from being removed or denied.
3.Social Media and Bookmarking sites: Bookmark your site on Faves, Delicious and the rest to generate high quality one-way links. Use Stumble Upon and Digg to generate links and promote your site. Create profiles on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Post tweets, videos and updates with links to your site. Join relevant community sites and post comments with links to your site.
4.Article Marketing: Write and submit SEO aligned quality articles on article sites with links back to your site. Make effective use of your target keywords in the articles. Use your target keywords in the anchor text of the links back to your site. For the best results use original content.
5.Free Classified Adds: Submit adds promoting your site and using your target keywords on sites that offer free classified adds.
Combining the above methods will ensure an effective SEO Link Building campaign and improved search engine rankings for your target keywords. Remember not to use the same anchor text in all of your links to prevent spamming penalties.
This article was written by H.E.Muller, a website owner assisting people with their Website Optimization and SEO.