From
the Outside In: The Importance
of
Inbound Linking
There are many ways to
improve your web site rankings
in the search engines.
One of the most important
methods is through inbound
linking. Inbound links
are those originating from
similar external web sites
pointing over to your site.
With a healthy amount of
inbound links, your search
engine optimization results
will be markedly enhanced.
Let's look at an example
of an inbound linking strategy.
Say "Bob" has
a dental equipment company
based in Texas. As part
of his efforts to produce
a quality web site, he has
personally contacted over
20 dentists in his home
town and asked them to
put links on their web sites
that lead to his company's
site. Many of the dentists
agree since Bob offers
great products and is also
including links back to
these dentists web sites
(since they are using his
equipment). The end result
is Bob has a number of
other web sites with links
over to his web site. So
he has numerous "inbound
links".
How does this example
help with search engine
rankings? The search engines
have algorithms which they
use to analyze how high
to rank web sites. If a
particular site has multiple
inbound links from other
similar (or complimentary)
sites, then the engines
will give that site a higher
ranking. The reasoning
is, if the site is linked
from other sites it probably
has helpful information
on that topic (if it didn't,
then others would not be
linking to it). This does
not hold true if you have
different type web sites
linking to yours (for example,
if you have your cousins
skateboarding sites linking
to your denture business).
The sites linking "in" must
be similar or complimentary
in nature for the linking
to help your search engine
rankings.
To get the most success
out of an inbound linking
effort, it is best to be
as personal as possible
when requesting a link.
Write a real letter to
the target site's owner/webmaster.
Explain the two-way benefit
that comes with cross linking.
Many will not respond,
but if done right, many
will see the win-win benefit
and agree.
As search engines like
Google dominate the landscape,
inbound linking will continue
to be a major part of how
high a web site ranks.
-
Kaufman Web Design™ |
