• Section: Increase Traffic - Category: Link Building
• Written by Al Bert

How to Link In the first part I looked at Link Exchangegenerally. Now I'll take you through the fun part of actuallyobtaining useful relevant backlinks. If you are convinced aboutthe benefits of linking, the question in your mind must be -"Yes, but how do I go about obtaining incoming or backlinks?".There are various ways you can go about this, depending onwhether you are seeking pure backlinks - the best kind; orwhether you are prepared to settle for reciprocal links - themost common; or whether you want to do someone a favor and givethem free publicity by unilaterally placing an outbound link onyour site without one in return - the easiest to do - just toit.

One Way Backlinks

A backlink can only be obtained if there is website that carriesyour link without one in return. This happens when your site islinked in an article, directory, by request, or cited as anauthority or resource site by another due to its superiorcontent.

Content

When a website has fre

sh, unique, informative and interestingcontent, when it is a recognized resource in as given area,other sites will naturally link to it if only to raise theprofile of their own. For you as the webmaster, there is thedouble bonus of not having to communicate with the linking site.In practice, the context in which your link is carried would inall likelihood be complimentary to you further raising yourprofile.

The search engines in order to improve the relevance of theirSERPs are constantly on the lookout for such sites. Websitesthat achieve consistently high search positions do so because ofthe content aspect of their sites.

Articles

Writing and syndicating articles is probably the most effectiveway to obtain one way inbound links. In recent months this hasbecome all the rage as blogging has taken on force of its own.The idea behind all this frenzied literary activity is not a newenlightenment, but the opportunity for people like you toplaster their website links in as many places as possible. Oneguy claimed to have had an article he wrote carried by 17000websites, ezines, article directories etc. This would havegreatly boosted his "link popularity", organic targeted traffic,and overall business prospects - assume just 1% of the visitorsand readers of all those websites and ezines clicked on his link- lots of traffic!

Directories

These days there are lots and lots of website directories onevery theme imaginable. While they vary in the way they operate,they all have the effect of creating one way incoming links toyour site, which as we have seen is both a source of directorganic traffic as well as a boon to your search engine definedlink popularity.

The more significant the directory the more beneficial the linkfrom them will be. A basic objective for seasoned webmasters isto get their sites indexed by and included in the DMOZ, andYahoo! directories. These are the two major online websitedirectories, and inclusion in either would be of greater benefitthan inclusion in many of the smaller ones.

Request

These days, most webmasters will only consider a reciprocal linkexchange. However, there are still a few webmasters who wouldconsider a one way outbound link if they considered itbeneficial to their own visitors, depending on the nature oftheir website. These will typically be personalized sites,intranets, or non- directory information sources.

Peruse such sites carefully to assess fit, and if satisfied thatthe website complements your own, contact the webmaster aspolitely as possible and request that they carry your link aswell. Invite them to visit your site to make their ownassessment, and do not be put off if they request a reciprocallink in return. However you will get the occasional webmasterwho will not object to a one way link. Give it a shot - what'sto lose?

Reciprocal Links

As the term suggests, reciprocal links are a mutual exchange oflinks with another website. They constitute the vast majority oflinks found on the internet, and are established by mutualarrangement.

So ho

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