When it comes to Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, understanding how linking is supposed to be done can be quite confusing. The rules seem to change fairly fast, and what worked last year simply doesn’t work this year. As a home based business owner, with a great deal of competition, you need every advantage that you can get in the search engines, and it is vital that you understand what you need to do in terms of linking.
Let’s start by explaining the linking process for SEO. Many people believe that the idea is to have as many inbound links as possible. The search engines see these inbound links – links pointing to your website from other people’s website – and think that your site is important. This in turn gives your search engine rankings a boost. While this was absolutely true some time ago, it is no longer completely true today.
Linking is still important, but having a lot of links from various websites isn’t going to cut it anymore. Now, you actually need fewer inbound links, and they must come from what the search engines consider to be ‘authority’ sites. An authority site is one that has a great deal of traffic. The site will offer quality, original content, and it will rank very highly in the search engines.
But even this is not enough. Today, the sites that have your inbound links must not only be considered authority sites by the search engines, but the content on those sites must be relevant to the information on your site – or those links don’t count. Having ten inbound links, coming from an authority site that has content relevant to your own is better than having one thousand inbound links on websites that the search engines do not consider authority sites. It is also better than having one hundred inbound links from authority sites that do not have any content that is relevant to your own content.
So, how do you get your link on those sites for your home business? That is easier than imagined. First, look to see if there is a blog in your industry. If so, make sure that you comment on blog posts, and leave your link behind. Do not be a blog spammer. Make sure that your comment is relevant to the post!
Next, look to see if there is a forum. If so, get registered and join in on the topics. Use a signature file at the bottom of each of your posts, and make sure that it includes a hyperlink to your website. If possible, make it a text link. The same rules apply – make sure that your posts are relevant to the topics in the forum. Also see if the website accepts original articles. If so, either write articles or hire a ghostwriter. Include an Author’s Resource box at the bottom of the article that includes a link to your website, and submit your article.
Other options include simply asking for a link or purchasing a link. Check out the websites advertising section to find out who to contact about getting a link on that site. Remember that linking is important for SEO and can yield great results for your business – however, it is a waste of your time if it isn’t done correctly.
