By: Seomul Evans
Submitted: 2010-02-20 11:03:27 | Word Count: 659
Any SEO expert will tell you that there are a number of ways to build inbound links to your website, an activity known in the SEO world as “link building.” Some are more effective and efficient than others, however. Here are four.
1. Article Marketing. Article marketing is not only a great SEO tool for getting inbound links, but it also serves other purposes as well. First, it helps you create great content for your website. Second, it helps you establish yourself as an authority in your field. But for the purpose of inbound links, article marketing is exceptionally effective. When you write an article and submit it to an article directory, you have the opportunity to fill out what is known as a “resource box.” Within the resource box is a place to enter your business website. And since the search engines reward inbound links from well established, well respected websites with higher results, you increase your ranking simply by submitting your article.
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2. Social Media. Believe it or not, social media sites are a great resource for inbound links. If you are interested in using social media in this way, simply add the AddThis Bookmark to your website. It’s an easy way to notify your readers that you’d like them bookmark your content on the social media sites. This means that your readers are essentially building your inbound links on your behalf, and it doesn’t get much easier than that. Even if you’re not an avid user of social media sites, and you should be if you’re serious about SEO, this is a pretty painless social media tool that can net big results.
3. Google Alerts. Figure out which keywords you’re promoting in your SEO efforts and then sign up to get Google Alerts for each of those keywords. Every time a new page or site is created that has the keywords that you’re optimizing for, go to that page or site and leave a comment with a link back to your own page. The obvious caveat is that you should never do this unless you can appropriately contribute your voice to the conversation. If you act overeager, you’ll turn off the very people you’re hoping to attract. The whole point of using Google Alerts for building inbound links is that you want to find a way to become part of a larger community that’s talking about your product or service. The more you can naturally become part of that community by offering good advice and by listening to what others have to say, the more visitors you’ll attract to your own site. People will be intrigued by your offerings and will want to know more about you. And that’s good for business.
4. Press Releases. Press Releases certainly aren’t the cheapest way to get inbound links, but they certainly are effective. The advantage of press releases for SEO and link building is that you can put your links in body of the release using keyword rich anchor text. When other sites pick up your release, you’re automatically receiving inbound links from authoritative, relevant sources, and this is richly rewarded by the search engines.
Link building is an invaluable SEO tool, and one with which you should familiarize yourself if you haven’t already. Search engines give higher rankings to website that contain both good content as well as inbound links from relevant sites. There are a number of ways to go about getting inbound links, but there are several that stand out as being particularly effective. Spend some time learning more about press releases, Google Alerts, social media, and article marketing, and learn what those activities can do to bolster your SEO efforts and drive more traffic to your site. An SEO expert or internet marketing professional can also help you in your link building efforts, so don’t hesitate to take advantage of their expertise!
