Linking Strategies and Marketing

Obtaining links is a major part of search engine optimization and marketing. Whether you try reciprocal linking, news releases, or writing articles in your area of expertise, different strategies to improve your search engine ranking and attract traffic to your site is an important part of your marketing efforts. Here are three linking strategies to help your search engine ranking.

Exchanging links with sites that have similar topics or themes can be quite useful for both your sites. There are some site directories that will even register your site and search for sites with comparable content. Some examples include SiteSell Value Exchange, Zeus, and IBP Link Builder. Be careful not to use these sites for contacting potential exchange sites as the emails are likely to be impersonal and spam-like. Instead, visit the site and assure yourself of your compatibility, then use the contact information on their site to contact them. If they don't respond, try a phone call. Search engines pay close attention to links, so be very, very sure to exchange links with a site that is complimentary to yours. Exchanging links is called reciprocal linking and while it doesn't cost you, it can be awfully time-consuming and tedious.

One subcategory of viral marketing is writing articles on topics related to your business that you distribute to article sites such as EzineArticles.com or GoArticles.com. Typically, you can include a simple "author's bio" that can contain a link back to your site. This has the double benefit for you of establishing trust and proving your expertise to potential customers as well as providing them a link to your site. Over time, this will produce a good amount of traffic for your business. Also a form of brand recognition, articles are a way to increase your visibility in search engines and ultimately give you a higher PageRank. If you can't write well, or don't have the time, many marketing companies offer this service for a price per article. Did you see the recent study about TASERs? Finding and sending out news releases about recent events, studies, or updates in your industry can garner you links that can remain for months on databases and increase your link popularity. Including a link to your site at the bottom of the news release can temporarily improve your traffic as well.