Link building
OK so your shiny new site is up and running, and no-one is visiting. You need links! Some of the (legal and sensible) ways to get links include:
1. Submit to directories, both free or paid.
Ideally the directories you submit to will be indexed - try site:www.domainname. com in google, where ‘domain name’ is, of course, the name of the directory, and see how many pages are listed. this command has been a bit broken recently but seems to be working again. You should see at least a couple of hundred pages, often many more, listed for a well indexed directory.
See the list at www.directorycritic.com to get started.
But even an unindexed directory will usually become indexed sooner or later, possibly when the directory has become paid, so it is often worth submitting anyway. Especially if the directory looks like one the owner has spent some time and trouble on - if they have, they will almost certainly be promoting it as well, so it will be indexed soon.
2. Have other websites?
This gives you a great opportunity to add deeplinks (links to pages other than your homepage) from highly relevant pages. If necessary you can write the ‘highly relevant’ page just to get somewhere to put the link!
Don’t overdo it with linking between your own sites though - a few well placed relevant links is better than hundreds of irrelevant links.
3. Link exchange.
There are several places where you can find link exchange partners. One good method is to use Backlink builder - you enter your subject or niche and it searches automatically for potential link partners. Hundreds of them!
Spend the time to write a decent email to the webmaster that you want to exchange links with, and preferably add their link to your site first, to increase your chances of being accepted. Actually have a look at their site and make the email personal according to their site.
4. Forums and blogs. Many forums allow you to have a ’signature’ linking to your website, below each post that you make. so get involved on a forum relevant to your niche, and get posting! Only post when you have something sensible to say.
Blogs are similar - most allow comments to be posted, and these usually allow a link to your website. same ‘rules’ as with forums - post on relevant blogs only, and only if you have something useful to contribute.
5. Buying links - you can buy links from various agencies. These will allow you to get your site linked by high ranking pages very quickly. One of the most popular is Text Link Ads
Of course, when your site is successful, you can also sell links through the same company.
6. Other methods
The methods above are the most common, but lots of others are also used. We’ll look at some of these in due course,