Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Link Building and SEO: A Business Perspective

By Steve Nicel


With many businesses engaging in advertising wars in order to win over the majority of the Internet's viable market, it's easy to deduce the intensity of the competition. After all, the Internet and its network of information grow exponentially by the minute, while the increase in the number of users more or less takes a little slower.

In the hopes of gaining a steady traffic flow to your company Web site, some businesses utilise paid advertising on high exposure commercial portals of the Internet. If traffic volume is already established on these large portals with a proven advertising model, this can be a great way to launch your Web site and start getting traffic immediately. Pay per click (PPC) is another great way of getting instant traffic to your website because this requires no start-up costs at all. The big advantage of this model is that you only pay for the traffic that is generated from the advertisers Web site directly to your Web site.

These two methods of advertising are good when you're looking for a quick boost of direct web site traffic in the search engines paid query results. In direct contrast to organic search engine ranking, you are able to expose your website quickly to a potentially huge consumer market without investing long hours and the associated learning curve for more traditional organic search engine ranking.

If you were to think about the volume of existing information online you would be completely overwhelmed. It is this fact what people use search engines to help them sort through the Internet clutter and return relevant search results based on what they are looking for. These search engine tools are becoming more effective for users to access the information they want and most search engines are becoming more effective at returning useful information based on the users keywords.

PPCs may also increase the probability of a website being ranked higher in the overall paid search results. Google Adwords, for instance, already creates an sophisticated ranking system within their advertising system, so that even in prioritizing which advertisements are published in a particular page, the ones with greater relevance is made accessible to the public.

Another technique by which to hike up rankings is by providing quality information that is both highly relevant and targeted towards a particular set of keywords pre-determined by the website. With careful market study and a study of consumer behavior, businesses can study just what keywords yield traffic, and subsequently shape their business website in order to best address the demand.

However, with the Internet being as competitive as it is, it is not enough to employ just one of the many methods to increase traffic. Another means that has been acclaimed in truly delivering increased traffic into the website within the framework of SEO is link-building. Link-building is the process through which one website is advertised in another website dealing with a similar field of interest. Usually, an exchange of links can happen, which can provide mutual benefits to both businesses.

Link building for your website can single-handedly offer the best returns for your SEO program. Over time, the experience gained will make you more effective at choosing potential link partners and other websites to publish your links on. The returns for link building can be twofold, the first is direct page visits from the link on relevant websites, the second is the search engine ranking boost that comes from attaining relevant links.

If the primary reason for attaining back links to your website is to prove to the search engines that you are an authority site, then it stands to reason that you must also create the impression of expertise and knowledge with everything that you do. With this impression comes an increase in perceived value and trust. This trust and increased authority will as a result attract more web sites wishing to be affiliated with you. And so the cycle continues...

Another proven method for developing your linking campaign is to review services products and articles on other companies high authority Web sites. When you provide value to another person or business, you increase the likelihood of that business wanting to use your appraisal in their own advertising strategy. If they do, you stand to gain another back link to your own Web site which further solidifies your position as a site of authority.

Integral to the decision of building links with websites is the determination of the suitability of a particular website to become a link partner. Emphasis is placed on decent linking partners that more or less practice the same brand of ethical SEO as your own. Moreover, targeting possible link partners who will be amenable to the idea of exchanging links is very important. By targeting relevant link-building sites, the business gets a better opportunity to gain real link partners who will eventually link the business to their website.

Relevance, congruence, and even similar reputability are just some factors that can make link-building campaigns more effective. With effective links, a business's search engine ranking will increase.

About the Author:

No comments:

Blog Archive