1.3 Inbound Links
As we saw earlier, one of the external rankng factors not controlled by the website developer is getting inbound links. However, there are actually ways a developer can influence this. One way of attracting inbound links is using a link exchange campaign, going for links from high quality, highly ranked pages with topics relating to your site.
For a successful link exchange campaign follow the following:
- Download the Google toolbar. Do a search using the keywords your own site is optimised for, and in the results look for sites that are complementary to yours, have good page rank, and that also have a links page. The toolbar can be downloaded from http://toolbar.google.com
- Discover who is linking to your competitors. Free tools are available online where you can enter the competitor's URL and a list of sites linking to them will be displayed.
- Create a links page on your site. This is where you will place links to the sites that hopefully will link to you. Provide clear instructions on how they can link to your site, including the HTML code you want them to use.
- Place links on your site's link page to the sites you like.
- Contact these sites and ask for a link exchange. Explain your site, how it relates to theirs, and the benefits of the exchange. Provide the URL of your links page so they can check their link is in place. Also provide the HTML code they should use to link to you, and include your keywords in the link text (good for SEO).
- Record your activities. If your link doesn't appear after a couple of weeks, send a reminder. If it still doesn't appear after another week or so, simply remove the link from your site and try another.
Unfortunately these type of inbound links are still nowhere near as important as one-way inbound links (where someone links to you without you linking to them). As a result, many developers would consider this a waste of time.
