Internet Marketing - Matt Bailey [192]
All of these local search resources, local businesses associations, and directories are excellent ways to build up your base of links for a new business. After you have built up this base, it is time to move on to the next level of finding link partners and resources.
Research Other Websites and Blogs
Using the back-link programs listed for Monday’s assignment, comb through the links to your competitor websites. There may be sites linking to them that are not linking to you. Be sure to familiarize yourself as to why that may be. Your approach will mean everything in a site’s decision to link to you. There could be an established relationship or an advertising arrangement, so be sure to do your research on sites prior to approaching them.
In addition, rate the incoming links to your site and your competitor sites based on your familiarity or the authority of those linking sites. There may be a site with very high authority that could provide your site with very good visibility along with your competitor. The word authority in the context of linking has a few connotations. The first application of authority is based on Google’s PageRank or the number of quality incoming links—the technical or objective measurement of authority. The second application of the term authority is meant as a recognized prominence within an industry, either by reputation, by branding, or by history. This is the subjective measurement, because a link from this type of site would give added credibility to your website.
Searching for resource sites within your market could provide a very good insight as to where certain sites are ranking and the breadth of their visibility in the search rankings. Sometimes, simply searching for other websites can be a good source of linking ideas. Do a search and look for every site that isn’t a competitor of yours. You may find local resources, a blogger, a directory site, or other sites that can be a source of links. Do some digging into the company behind the website, if you can, and find out how they are related to your industry. Are they a source of news or a place for reviews and customer experiences; if it is a regulatory agency, what is their purpose, and would they benefit from having a link to your website as well?
One of the keys to building links is to ask yourself whether this website would benefit by having a link to your site. Will their readers appreciate the link, and will it make sense to them? If so, then the site owner will be more apt to list your website as a resource.
This is why I enjoy using the Blog Search function on Google (search normally and then select Blogs under More) and Bing (www.bing.com/blogs/). Finding the bloggers in a particular topic or market that is the same or similar to your business can be key to developing a very good ally in link partnerships and also in developing a credible resource.
Bloggers need content in order to thrive, so they are always looking for the freshest, most up-to-date content, as well as industry scoops and information. If you can provide the need for bloggers’ content by providing them with significantly important information that their readers will want to read, then you have developed a very good source of both links and visibility.
Earn Quality Links with a Marketing Plan
Although I do consider link development to be a major part of marketing the website, I’ve decided to break out these next two areas specifically. Both can be incredibly useful in developing new streams of traffic and links to your website. However, both require solid investments of time and creativity to develop.
Website