Web marketers understand today that though keywording is important, it’s critical to build great quality links if you want your site to rank well on Google. The big mistake most marketers make, however, is taking quantity over quality, assuming that it’s more the number of links back to your site that determine Google’s ranking.
The truth is, your link quality will make an enormous difference in how your page is ranked. Links are ranked higher if they’re from pages with similar keywording, or if they come from sites with good Google ranking, or if they’re one-way links. You’ll get more relevance, and thus higher rankings, if you use the right anchor text. And all these things take more work than just writing a bunch of articles for free directories, or trading links on a link exchange.
Start with getting the right links. You need great content or something else that draws traffic to your site, like a widget. Some of the best linked-to sites online provide a free tool: a keyword optimization tool, for instance, or a retirement income calculator. You want to provide a tool that others can use to build value for their own visitors, making it worth their while to send traffic your way.
You can always buy links back from higher-ranked sites, but because you’re siphoning off a little of their Google mojo, this can get expensive. Don’t do it unless you know you aren’t going to need the boost very long.
By far, the most common method of getting good links back to your site is simply by asking other webmasters to link to you. Unless you have a widget as mentioned above, you’ll have to offer them something for their little piece of mojo. Most people offer to provide a little content: a great blog, a unique article, or an image.
If you get a link back to your page, you need to make sure that the anchor text is properly keyworded to your site SEO. Anchor text consists of the words you use as the active link back to you. If your website is kittencove.com and you sell kittens and cat accessories, just using the site name is acceptable, though not perfect. If ,on the other hand, your site name is kittencove.com and you actually sell vintage pinup art, your link back should be anchored to text like “vintage pinup art”: “Matt is the proprietor of Kittencove.com, the home of the best vintage pinup art in the world.”
Contacting webmasters about this is simple; after identifying the owner of the site, just email them with a note something like this: Dear [webmaster], I’m soandso and I run the website kittencove.com, home of excellent vintage pinup art. I’m looking for good sites willing to link back to me, and I’m hoping you’ll do me the favor. In return, I’d love to write a blog for you about Betty Grable’s untold childhood first kiss, a moment she shared with my great-grandfather. Thanks for the consideration, and I hope to hear from you soon.”
If you don’t hear within two or three days from the first webmaster, try another . Make sure any articles you offer are unique (widgets, which you can offer instead, can be the same thing every time), and make sure the content on your site is good enough that any visitors will stick around and read you after the mojo is gone.
Here is another post that might interest you: 7 Backlinking tips for Webmasters.
