Aside from having a search engine friendly website the most influential factor to gaining better organic results in search engines is by obtaining in-bound links (IBLs). In other words, we want other relevant websites to link your website. Be prepared for long nights crawling the web in search of websites to approach. Thankfully, there are a few things we can do to make this very important search engine optimisation (SEO) job easier…

First and foremost a bit about how Google works - When deciding how to rank your website Google uses various methods to calculate the importance and relevance of your website. One of these is the amount and, more importantly, quality, of other websites which link to you. If a relevant website links to you Google assumes that your site has good content and ranks your website accordingly. So hopefully you can see why it’s really important to gather these links.

Be prepared to work

Generating links is a tiresome job and takes a long time. It’s not going to change your rankings overnight (and there are no guarantees that it will change at all!) so don’t try to hit all the websites in one go. Spend a few hours a week searching for sites and remember to log all the sites you’ve found so you don’t end up repeating your work (it will happen!).

We recommend that you setup a separate e-mail account for your link exchanges. You’ll be signing up to hundreds of directories and while most will respect your privacy and leave you alone, there may be some which send out unwanted newsletters and mailings. You don’t really want to be giving out your personal e-mail address.

If you’re unsure about a websites credibility leave it and move on. Always check out the privacy statement and terms of use before submitting your website. There’s thousands of websites out there so you can afford to be picky.

It’s a good idea to make a note of your preferred website listing information. Make sure the description and keywords match both your website and the website your placing your link on. Most websites will typically ask for the following information:

• Site Name
• URL
• Description
• Keywords
• Contact Details

Google PageRank™

The Google PageRank system is a ranking (0-10) placed upon a website by Google. This is not the ‘be all and end all’ but gives you a good basis for choosing the websites to target. A website with a higher PageRank is likely to be more effective, providing it’s relevant of course. As a rule, why not target websites with a PageRank of 3 and above?

How do you find out the PageRank of a website?
If you’re using the Google Toolbar you can opt to display the PageRank of the website you’re currently viewing.

Who links to your competition?

The beauty of Google is that it allows you to see which websites link to any website. To see all the websites that link to you (according to Google’s index) enter the following into the search bar:

link:www.mywebsite.com

This is a powerful tool that instantly allows you to see how many websites are linking to you. Why not use this to see who links to your competitors? Go through the results one by one to see if you can add your website to the same page – very sneaky but rest assured for it’s very likely that your competitors are doing the very same thing!

Finding relevant websites

If you’re new to this then you’re probably asking yourself, “how do I find these relevant websites?”. Well, there are various methods from basic to advanced searches. For this example we will pretend you run a website selling electronic equipment.

Directories
There are millions of directory based websites on the Internet which are continually growing. Getting your website listed on these is normally relatively easy. In our example we would search for “electronics directory” on Google and other search engines. If you’re targeting a particular geographic location then try “[location] directory”. Be specific and look for directories relating to actual products or product types, for example, “dvd player directory”.

You may find it difficult to locate details on how to add your website, so look in the footer or the navigation for the words “Add URL”, “Add Site”, “Suggest URL” and so on. This usually takes you to the appropriate page, although you may be asked to pay or add a reciprocal link to your website (see below).

Try searching Google for the terms “”Add URL” electronics directory”. This will not only locate the directories which allow you to add your website but also take you straight to the appropriate page. Swap the words “Add URL” with the other suggestions above and modify the directory type.

You’re probably starting to see how much work is involved in generating these vital in-bound links. Remember to log all websites you look at and make a note of the reason for not adding your website or details of your listing.

Other Websites
When locating other websites it’s important that they are relevant. The majority of websites will require a reciprocal link in return (see below). Creating a link exchange with another website normally involves contacting the site owner directly although some websites do have a link exchange policy, so it’s worthwhile looking for one before making contact. Please bear in mind that the success rate for this is low, unless you’re willing to place a reciprocal link!

Reciprocal links

Around half of all websites and directories you contact will ask for a reciprocal link. This means adding a link to their website on your website. You may not be happy in doing this and choose to ignore these websites. If not, make a links page on your website, but not add it to the main navigation. Add a link to your links page on your site map or perhaps in the footer (you must make sure it is linked in somewhere). Some websites will stipulate the position of the link and the number of clicks it takes to get to the link from the homepage, so bear this in mind. It is possible to make a links page which is tucked away and receives very few actual hits. After all, you don’t want people viewing your links page and then visiting other (relevant!) websites.

Should I pay for links?

Try the free websites and directories first and then if you’re prepared to pay for listings work on those. Don’t pay more than £50 for a listing and make sure you have verified the website first - ask a friend, post on a forum, and check out the PageRank to see if it’s worth investing money. Don’t be influenced by the number of hits a website gets. Website hits are worthless and any site which mentions or boasts about hits should be ignored. A hit includes every page, image, and file requested by a visitor, therefore if you viewed a page with 20 images on – this would actually count as 21 hits. Unique website visits are the crucial factor as this is the actual number of individual people accessing the website.

These tips will help you generate and manage your ongoing link generation campaigns. Every month or so use the “link:www.mywebsite.com” search term on Google to see where your website is appearing. Keep a log and remember that there is plenty of choice and time so don’t worry if you are unable to place a link on a website. Oh, and never stop!

Further information

• Google PageRank on Wikipedia
• More information on SEO
• Google Toolbar

Online Marketing (SEO/SEM)