Why have backlinks and what are they?

Backlinks are hypertext (i.e. blue line) links that point to a particular page on your website from another website. These are seen by Google as a vote from the originating site indicating that the destination it is pointing to has some value. Whatever text the link has also tells Google what that page may be about. So if you have ten links pointing at your page that say some variation of “dog training” then your page may appear in the search listings for dog training. Other factors apply here too so don’t get too wrapped up in this explaination, it’s just cursory.

Google loves to use backlinks as a voting mechanism. The more links that say dog training from various sources the more likely it is to rise in the search results page for that search term. As long as the links are of decent value (not from spammy sites) Google will count them, raising your ranking and therefore increasing your amount of visitors to your site.

How do you build links?

The hard way to do it is to ask. You look for other websites that are somewhat related to your topic (not neccessarily compittion mind you) and attempt to contact the webmaster for the site. You offer the webmaster something useful on your site that they might can use such as great content that thier readers might could use or perhaps an application or program that is available. Alternately you can have an article written to give that somehow relates your website’s topic with the other webmaster’s topic and include links back to your site.

The up side to this is that you can come back with some high quality links which are very beneficial. The down side is that it is a huge amount of work involved. Between contacting webmasters that may ignore you to following up ensuring link placement to making sure that the content is relevant and interesting… it can be a daunding task.

Is there an easier way?

There are two ways that can make the effort easier. First is using a service that does it for you. This would be like you hiring someone else to find and create the links for you. This usually can be quite pricey and you have little control over where your links go.

Second is using a software sevice that automates the task for you. There are many versions of software out there that can provide this task, however none of them are equal. There are at least four traits that you need to look for in order to get your money’s worth.

Multiple IP addresses

Google loves variety. The more spread out across the internet the better.

One way links

Even the resembalcne of reciprical linking may hurt the linking power. Make sure that there are no required links back from your site.

Slow growth

Google loves to penalize for unusual activity. Make sure that the addition of links to your site are a few at a time so that it appears more natural

Customized links

Make sure that you can put your keywords in the links to your site. There is little use of backlinking if you can’t tell Google what your page is about through the link pointing back at you.

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Link Building is Highly Recommended

If you’ve done any reading of the business pages lately, you’ve probably found lots of tips on how to survive the recession. The consensus across these articles is that you should not give up on your efforts to market your company. Your competitors will quickly take over any ground you give up in the publicity race.

So, how can you continue to market when you have a limited budget? Try Search Engine Optimization (SEO). A recent article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer provided some great tips on how to use simple SEO techniques to improve your company’s organic search engine results. (Organic indicates that you appear high in search engine rankings naturally, and have not paid to be there.) The article suggests that you improve your Web site content and also build a web of links from other sites.

One thing the article does not mention is that link building is becoming an increasingly important factor in SEO. In fact, writer Ron Callari believes that in 2009, Google will shift its algorithm to 90% links and only 10% page content.

Clearly, link building is the way to go. But how do you get started? A few years ago, a simple link exchange with partners and clients was considered a good way to begin. The situation has changed in the last little while, and link building is considerably more involved than it once was.

Link Building Companies Have the Expertise You Need

A link building company can advise you on the most effective methods for increasing inbound links to your company’s Website. If you have a strict budget, they can tailor the solutions to your finances. They may use a combination of any of the following techniques, outlined in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer article:

Maps – Get a listing in map sites like Google Maps. With Google turning to universal search (listing everything from Web pages to images to news items in its search engine results), a map listing not only provides a link, it may also be included in search results.

Social Media – Use the many social media sites out there to build a profile for your business and create links to your site.

Blogs – Start a blog for your business. Use it to communicate and create links to your site.

Articles – Write content (with links) for online article and press release databases.

Sounds straightforward, so why do you need a link building company? Here are just a few reasons:

The content and links must contain keywords that are relevant to your business. Solid keyword research is needed before you can start building links.

It is not enough to just write an occasional article or blog post. You need a detailed plan for continual generation of content. The more you have, the more often you will be found by search engines. The more you are found, the more relevant you are deemed to be. The more relevant, the higher the search engine ranking.

Some databases require payment. A link building company can advise you which ones are worth paying for so you can avoid the trap of spending money on something that offers little return.

Link building is critical to successful SEO. With a link building company on your side, you can take advantage of this highly targeted and effective marketing method.

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The very first thing you should do before you even try any of these traffic tips is to carefully inspect your website. Click on each link on the site to confirm that they all work. Having dead links on a site can be catastrophic to your business and to your sales. Double check for misspellings and major grammatical errors. It’s also a good idea to view your site on different web browsers to make sure that it stays intact.

You should also have a tracking code installed on your site so you can see what’s working for you and what parts of your business and marketing need improvement. Google Analytics has a free tracking code you can use to monitor your website traffic. It is critical that you are able to see how much traffic your website receives, where it is coming from and how long your visitors are staying on your site. Once you have completed these tasks, it is time to use some of the following website traffic tips.

Traffic tip number one is something you have likely heard of – article marketing. The idea behind this is that you write articles around specific keywords that pertain to your product or service. Then you submit these articles to some of the many article directories found on the Internet. This is a very powerful technique that can generate lots of website traffic for months to come.

The second traffic tip is to buy your website traffic. An easy way to do this is by using a Google AdWords campaign. It’s the fastest way to get traffic, but it can also be the most expensive. The idea behind this tip is that you develop a Google ad to be placed on the search engine pages. You will be billed every time someone clicks on your ad. But it is very important that you take the time to learn the ins and outs of a Google AdWords campaign. Getting into this particular website traffic generator without intensive research can cost you a lot of money, but it can also pay off in a big way.

Traffic tip number three is blogs. An easy way to generate more traffic is to search for blogs that relate to your product or service. Leave comments on these blogs, making sure you have a link to your site in your comment. Doing this on a significant number of blogs can give you a good amount of traffic to your site for free. You should also start your own blog.

So there you have some great website traffic tips. Keep in mind that building the website is just the first step to having a successful online business, but a crucial one. You have got to have the traffic to make the sales. These traffic tips are just a few in a list of hundreds. By using multiple ways of generating traffic to your sites, you will be well on your way to online success.

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Organic SEO is a slow but lasting process of designing your entire website so that it’ll be ranked highly by search engines all over the net. As in aging cheese, or wine, there’s really no instant way to do it. Unlike cheese or wine though, the process is much faster.

Researching keywords

The first thing that search engine crawlers will detect is the text that’s included in your website. This means that you need to make special efforts to insert significant keywords into articles posted on your web pages. Make sure that you don’t over-optimize your page with this method though. Crowding too many keywords in a single article will make it look unattractive and very spammy. Spammy text leads to permanent exclusion, even banning, from certain search engines.

Looking at domain names

A successful and highly ranked website would always have a well established domain name. This means a domain name which is short and catchy, and something which has all the essential keywords in it. Age is also one of the considerations in page ranking. If you’ve been using a domain name for a long time, it’s bound to be ranked higher than newer domains with similar names. Avoid changing domain names frequently because it’s counterproductive on your part.

Simple layout

Other things you need to avoid overusing are frames and flash animations. Crawlers can’t recognize the text written in a flash animation unless it’s also embedded in the actual code. This makes fancy flash animations pleasing to the human eye but unattractive to search engine crawlers. Frames also “trap” crawlers, which make the keywords you use in your web page articles practically useless.

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Think for a moment. What are you reading at this moment?

That’s right. This article.

Literally vast crowds of people read articles like this one every single day.

Just look at the most popular articles section on article directories. You’ll be amazed at how many readers each article gets. And this is just on one site.

How about in the off-line world. Look at how many people have their heads stuck in newspapers and magazines. Lets face it, nearly everyone loves an article. And what about if they see the link to your website at the end. What happens to your website traffic.

When I look at one of my articles I posted in a test the method I use got me a huge amount of readers on website visits. (I explain this method in my latest guide.)

Nearly all marketers know how effective article marketing is on getting website visitors. Just check out the amount of people on the web shouting about how successful this is.

All you need to do is write one article about the subject of your website. Include a little link to your website in your authors resource box at the bottom. Then just submit it to a few large well-known article directory sites. Then let the magic begin.

The next thing you know you’ll start seeing your article turning up in many other websites.

I wrote an article back in 2005. I just posted it on five article websites. After just two months The article was appearing on over 25 other sites. That’s five times as many in a very short time.

This happens because other websites are looking for ready written content for their website. When they put it on their site they have to include the link to your website.

This means from just a few article sites your article starts spreading all over the web. And your website starts being seen by thousands of people in no time.

So stop wasting your time with other ways of getting traffic. This for way is the top way. Start writing.

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