Web marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be dizzying subjects for many business owners and marketing companies. In this article, I am going to discuss inbound links.
Inbound links are a great way to market a website online. An inbound link is a link from an internet website to the website you are trying to promote. It is important to note that not all inbound links are created equal and your link building campaign should be carefully planned. If the website linking to your target site is in a relevant field, you will see a greater benefit than one from an unrelated field. As an example, if a manufacturer of widget x links to a website selling widget x, this is the perfect “authority” link and these are your best types of inbound links.
The important thing here is not to get carried away. I have seen people go overboard and scour the internet looking for Forums, Guest Books, Blogs and Directory sites to add their links too, only to find that their target website loses credibility in the search engines. Too many poor quality inbound links, especially paid links can be counter-productive so, choose your links carefully. One method to determine a good inbound link is to check the Google® PageRank™ of the referring website. If the PageRank is 5 or above and the website is in the same field as you or, even better, the website is the #1 resource for information related to your industry, that is a perfect inbound link opportunity.
Why do inbound links matter?
Inbound links from authority websites can make your website more credible for a subject that search engine users are typing in to a search engine. In this example, I will use the Google search engine. If a Google search engine user types the term widget x into the search field and Google determines that 18 websites have linked to your website as a resource for widget x, Google will reward you and list your website in their search results.
Sounds too easy, right?
Well, there are challenges to this practice, one of which is how do you ask for a link? The most common way to ask for an inbound link from a website is to send an email to the company in which you would like a link from. You might start by providing information about your company such as length of time in business, some sample clients, testimonials and as an added benefit, tell them that you will provide a link to their website in exchange for a link to yours. This practice is known as building reciprocal links. Reciprocal links are often the best form of linking campaigns and most definitely a topic for another blog post…stay tuned for that one in the next few days.
