Don’t Overlook One-Way Links

One of the most important aspects of search engine optimization is to build relevant one-way links.

The best way to describe one-way links are links to your site from sites which do not receive a link from your site.

The search engines love them.. it tells them that your website is so useful that other sites want to share it with their readers.

Search engines like Google place huge importance on link popularity when ranking your site.

Another benefit is that you can receive direct traffic to your site from people who click on the links.

Building one-way links takes time and nurturing. Your first goal should simply be to build up a strong website that people would naturally want to link to. Generate loads of valuable content and you will get inbound links all the time without even trying.

Next you need to analyze your own website and your top competitors’ websites to see how many links they have and who those links are from. One of my favorite tools for doing this is Yahoo Site Explorer. It gives you a relatively accurate reading of inbound links to your own and other sites. You can also get a good idea by using Google Webmaster Central and validating your site to get a sampling of who is linking to you.

The worst way to do a check is by going to Google and putting a command like: links: www.mysite.com as this will only give a small sampling of the number of links you really have. So don’t panic if you’ve been using this method.

Just because your competitor has a link pointing to their website does not mean it is a good link. Do your homework, make sure the site is relevant and complementary to yours and looks like a valuable resource. Check the page rank of the link and make sure it is not grayed — meaning it is a banned site.

Before you contact a website to get a link, have a plan. What can you offer them? Do they have a blog you can write articles for? This can be one of the best ways, as people are always looking for new fresh blog content!

Don’t be shy. Call them and explain the benefits of using your content.

Take advantage of relationships you already have with suppliers, friends and other people that are in your niche market to get build a strong roster of one way links!

Ways to get one-way links from Allan Gardyne

• Create a useful, interesting web site and other sites will naturally link to it. The vast majority of the thousands of links to THIS site were not requested.
• Submit your site to major directories, such as Yahoo! and DMOZ.org, in the appropriate category.
• Write articles and submit them to newsletters which are then archived online.
• Hunt for sites that complement yours and ask them to publish your articles.
• Submit brief, useful hints to newsletters for the same reason.
• Submit articles to article directories. You can speed up this tedious work by using ArticleAnnouncer, the tool professionals use.
• Publish articles on your site and invite other sites to publish them on their sites, with a link to you.
• Write testimonials for products you love. Companies often post testimonials on their site with a link to the submitting site. Joe Vitale has taken this tactic to extraordinary lengths. For examples, trying doing a search on Google for "joe vitale +testimonial".
• Participate helpfully in forums which allow a text link to your site in a signature.
• Read the forum instructions first, or you risk making an ass of yourself.
• Arrange for articles to be published on other sites with a link to your site in them. You may have to use some innovative thinking to achieve this. The results make the effort worth while.
• Buy ads in newsletters on your topic which are archived online.
• Locate industry-specific directories and submit your site to them. For example, if your site is on a health topic, look for health-related directories.
• Give away free ebooks and white papers that contain links to your site.
• Create simple web-based free software. Tell other sites, newsletters and forums about it and ask for a link to it.
• Create downloadable software which contains links to your site.
• Get listed in business directories.
• Create a blog and get it listed in blog directories.
• Join business associations which list their members’ sites online.
• Write regular news releases and submit them to topic-related web sites and Internet news wires such as PRWeb and Business Wire.
• Make arrangements for other sites to archive your newsletters on their sites.
• Get your white papers published on other web sites.
• Submit your free ebooks to ebook directories.
• Submit your downloadable software to software directories, such as Download.com
• Locate a popular site in your niche which would appreciate having you as a regular columnist. Write tips, lively commentary, product reviews, or whatever topics suit your niche.
• Syndicate your material to other sites. Create a content syndication feed (RSS feed) and include a link to your site. Use PHP rather than Javascript to ensure search engines parse your headings and links.
• Do something funny or outrageous or brilliant and people will link to your site without being asked.