This refers to ways to improve your site’s ranking that involve 3rd party
sites, not just your own.
BACKLINKS
Backlinks are simply links from other websites back to your own site.
Backlinking can be an entire marketing strategy in itself and I
recommend that you consistently work on this aspect. The idea is that
in addition to the content of your site, search engines look at who you
are associated with – which, and how many sites are linking to you. If
sites they deem to be high quality are linking to you, this makes your
site look better in their eyes. If low-quality or ‘spammy’ sites are
linking to you, it will have an adverse effect.
So, as with all popularity contests, it’s all about the company you
keep.
Swapping links with blogs and other sites can be a good way to get
backlinks and increase traffic. However, you want to be selective about
your links and choose only relevant sites to link with. Don’t associate
yourself with a site that has a lot of ‘spammy’ links in their link
directory, or that does not have good, regularly updated content. This
is the equivalent of being guilty by association.
You can strategize by Googling the keywords you are targeting and
trying to get the top ranked sites to link to you. If your site is brand
new it might be a struggle to get major sites to link to you because the
big dogs may have nothing much to gain by linking to you, rankingwise,
but if you are providing great content they may want to link to
you as a good resource for their visitors. I would recommend at first
targeting sites within your own ‘social circle’ or just above it until you
increase your own ranking, then you can start to reach out to bigger
sites with more confidence.
sites, not just your own.
BACKLINKS
Backlinks are simply links from other websites back to your own site.
Backlinking can be an entire marketing strategy in itself and I
recommend that you consistently work on this aspect. The idea is that
in addition to the content of your site, search engines look at who you
are associated with – which, and how many sites are linking to you. If
sites they deem to be high quality are linking to you, this makes your
site look better in their eyes. If low-quality or ‘spammy’ sites are
linking to you, it will have an adverse effect.
So, as with all popularity contests, it’s all about the company you
keep.
Swapping links with blogs and other sites can be a good way to get
backlinks and increase traffic. However, you want to be selective about
your links and choose only relevant sites to link with. Don’t associate
yourself with a site that has a lot of ‘spammy’ links in their link
directory, or that does not have good, regularly updated content. This
is the equivalent of being guilty by association.
You can strategize by Googling the keywords you are targeting and
trying to get the top ranked sites to link to you. If your site is brand
new it might be a struggle to get major sites to link to you because the
big dogs may have nothing much to gain by linking to you, rankingwise,
but if you are providing great content they may want to link to
you as a good resource for their visitors. I would recommend at first
targeting sites within your own ‘social circle’ or just above it until you
increase your own ranking, then you can start to reach out to bigger
sites with more confidence.
