| SEO - Links Or How To Save $3,000 |
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - I've come to almost hate that
acronym. Why? SEO seems to consume my business day, is the most
frustrating part of a Webmaster's duties, is confusing at times and
is slow with rewards. What can you do about it? Well, you could hire
a company to do SEO for you. I found one such company on the web
(through a search) that was willing to do this for me on an annual
basis for only $3,000. Yes, that price is correct and it's a
recurring annual rate. WOW!!! You might say to yourself, "Is it
worth it?" This might also cause a light bulb to suddenly turn on -
SEO is time consuming. SEO also requires one to continually
investigate, read and understand the changes taking place with
search engines on how they factor websites rankings. But, you can
save yourself quite a bit of money ($3,000) by learning how to
acquire SEO. Once you understand the basics of SEO and start
implementing them, then the rewards are sweet.
In this article I'll discuss one of the most important elements
included in SEO - links*.
Your ultimate goal is to have your website listed within the first
three pages of a search engines search results. For every page after
three it becomes very unlikely that someone will click on your
website, let alone even look at it. People are less patient - we all
lead busy lives and most of us don't have the time, or want to take
the time to click through page after page of search results. Can you
picture doing this?
Something I've noticed with search results is redundancy. By the
10th page, if not sooner, I see some websites repeated and in some
cases repeated several times. So, imagine yourself as you advance
each new page of your search results and you see some of the same
websites pop up again and again. Will you stop the search at this
point? I do.
What can you do to see your website listed within those first three
pages? One contributing factor to accomplish this is you want links
TO your website from other websites. Why? Because the primary search
engines, specifically Google, include links to a website as part of
their factoring the rank listing for search results. Not just any
link. This is important -- the kind of link the search engines care
about is a link from a highly rated website (it should be listed in
the first three pages).
When I mention links, I'm referring to "hot links." A hot link
allows one to click on the link (can be text or graphic) to be taken
to that website. Any other kind of link won't cut it. How do you get
links to your website? It's really easy -- just a little time
consuming.
Your goal is to get a list of websites (again, within the first
three pages) with relevant subject matter to yours. Conduct your own
search using several of your keywords for your website. Visit the
websites and look at the links they have posted, (make a note of
those because you might want to visit them, too) understand what
products they're selling, check to see if they have a policy on how
they link to other sites, etc. Finally, ask yourself, "Would I want
my website linked from this one?"
Once you decide which websites you prefer to link to yours, you'll
need to contact the website directly. Check to see if there is
a "contact" section on the website you like or if there is an email
address for the Webmaster.
Now, write them a letter or email. Tell them how much you like their
site and why. Make specific references to the things you like.
Mention your website and how theirs and yours relate - again, offer
specifics here. Conclude your note with asking them to add your
website to their links and offer the same for them (we're all in
this together). I recommend you do a follow-up letter if you do not
hear from them in one week.
You can verify links to your website. For Google: type in the search
box - link:intlbusiness-inet.com. Replace intlbusiness-inet.com with
your URL. You'll then receive a list of websites that link back to
yours. Pretty cool! For a general link research go to
linkpopularity.com and follow the directions.
Once you start building a good number of hot links, you'll soon see
your website ranking improve on many of the search engines. Once you
do, don't stop your practice of SEO. You must stay on top of that.
Good luck.
*--There are many factors that contribute to SEO and this is always
evolving. For the purposes of this article I will focus on just one
factor - links.
About the author:
Bob Reece is owner of International Business-INet and Webmaster of
http://www.intlbusiness-inet.com a clutter-free, pop-up ad free website
devoted to helping small business websites succeed. He is Webmaster
for Eric von Schmidt's art at http://www.vonsworks.com Mr. Reece also
serves as President of a non-profit organization.
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