7 Ways to Get Inbound Links
I still get asked constantly how to get inbound links for a new blog or site. Well it’s not rocket science and most of the information is out there in the public domain with a little looking, but here are the main ways you should be going about it.
1) Produce Killer Content - This is pretty clearly the king of the mountain when it comes to getting people to link to you. If you have really good content then people will naturally link to your site or posts as a service to their own readers. If you continually produce good content, then you will find that people continue to do this over the long term.
2) Make Online Friends and Ask Them to Link - Blogging is very much a social sport. You should be networking constantly with other bloggers and you will find that within a matter a weeks you will be forming relationships with them. Don’t be afraid to contact them and ask them for a link or a mention on their site when you have posted something worthwhile. Also be open to the possiblity of doing the same for them.
3) Post on Blogs and Forums - This is a pretty easy one. If you post on forums and blogs with a link to your blog then people will visit. As usual, you need to respond with useful information on those blogs and forums - avoid spamming other’s sites or you will destroy your own reputation and get your link deleted anyway.
4) Email Relevant Bloggers - You will no doubt know who the big boys are in your niche. If you produce something of quality then don’t be afraid to contact them and ask for a link. Most of the time they will ignore you, but occassionally you will snag a link from them and they will send you a ton of targeted visitors, some of whom may even keep retruning to your blog.
5) Submit an Article - Submitting articles to directories is a good way to get a few backlinks for your site. There are tons of free article directories that will accept almost any rubbish. But if you actually produce something of quality then it has a much better chance of being picked up by other sites who will post the article along with a link to your site. I usually don’t post the articles that I submit to directories on my own sites so as to avoid any duplicate content penalty with Google. At the moment I seem to be seeing most success with this technique through the paid service at iSnare, though there are plenty of free services such as EzineArticles and ArticleCity.
6) Submit a Press Release - This is another technique that is similar to the article submissions strategy. By submitting press releases to several of the online Press Agencies such as PRWeb and PressBox, you will get a bit of link love as well as getting the chance to get in the mainstream media which brings a lot of traffic and cred. Remember to make your press releases newsworthy to increase the chances that they get picked up. Don’t be intimidated into thinking only big companies can submit releases - plenty of the little guys use this technique to generate business.
7) Join a Link Exchange - Link exchanges are pretty standard fare for getting reciprocal links. Don’t go overboard with this method as getting hundreds of link exchanges in a small amount of time may get you penalised by the search engines, but certainly getting highly targeted, relevant reciprocal exchanges will benefit your site. I have been using LinkMetro for reciprocal though a new service, iCrawl, offers both reciprocal and three way link exchanges which may be worth a look.
Now these are not magic remedies. They are strategies that you should be included in moderation in your long term link building plan by devoting a set amount of time per week to doing. Over time they will build your incoming links and hopefully your page rank and the popularity of your site.
[...] By now, you’ve probably figured out that links are the lifeblood of your blog but I still constantly hear the question of how to get backlinks. Getting links pointing to your blog affects everything from search engine spidering through to referral traffic and Google Page Rank. In fact, it’s pretty difficult to understate the importance of links when you are developing a site. I have mentioned a few of these tips before, but I thought it might be time to reiterate what still works. [...]
June 29th, 2006 at 2:31 am