Links From Other Sites

What techniques should I use to get linked to other sites?

[Michael Souder]

Do you have any additional on how to increase the number of links to my site from other sites? Unfortunately, my web business is only a side business/hobby at this time and I do not have a lot of time to email dozens of sites directly to request a link. I read that you can cheat somewhat by getting links to heavily visited sites. Should I seek links in sites that have lots of traffic, regardless of their relevance to my product? If so, any suggestions, or how I might find the best sites to approach?

[paynt]

Welcome Michael_Souder,

I would start with themed portals, related to your site theme. If you are a B2B site then seek out B2B portals to submit to. You can line these up and submit a certain number per day or per week.

Set yourself up with a system that works for you. Spend a few hours one day in research to locate the sites worth going after. Spend another day making submissions.

Research your competitors and see who is linking to them. Give yourself the goal of contacting a comfortable number each month and asking for a link exchange. the effort spent is well worth the time you set aside to do it.

This is all a question of what your priorities are and how important is to get good traffic. If it's a hobby site then bring joy and fun into the hunt for links. Make friends with the site webmasters you're seeking out as link partners.

Good luck.

[Marcia]

Michael, you might also consider having some text links within your own web site that include keywords in the link text. That helps a bit with establishing site relevancy, and sometimes internally linked pages within a site will show up as links.

>Research your competitors

Definitely! And in addition, if it's a "special interest" type of site be creative and think of some types of sites that are related, falling into the same general area, but complementary rather than competing. That can be an avenue for not only increasing link popularity, but sending traffic each others way. It increases relevancy and value to both sites, and may be an attractive arrangement to other site owners.

One way to surf for ideas is to go through related Open Directory Project [dmoz.org] categories.