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Services: SEO Information & Articles
Strategic Link Building & Competitive Intelligence
by -JD
Many webmasters spend a lot of time tweaking their sites for the
search engines because they think that search engines will bring
them the most traffic for the time and money spent. It is a good
use of time but combined with a link building campaign and some
competitive intelligence work, any webmaster can triple the traffic
created or better.
Strategic Link Building
Link building is directly related to search engine optimization.
Because of this many webmasters fail to think about link building
as a strategy of its own separate from the search engine optimization
aspect. Strategic link building can bring in a lot of targeted high
quality traffic to your website. There are three good methods for
obtaining quality links. Each method becomes more powerful.
The first method is simple and easily implemented. You go surfing
for sites that you like, and would appeal to your visitors, and
you ask for a link. It helps to offer a reciprocal link in exchange
but it is not always necessary.
To get results, you’ll need to send your request to about
ten sites for every one positive response you get. Once you get
some experience, these odds will improve. So, expect to do a little
work. The results will be worth it.
Please Note: In approaching the prospective website’s webmaster,
make sure you are sending them a relevant link request and make
it personal. Let them know you visited their site and why a link
would be valuable. There are a few link building software programs
that send spam to webmasters. You want to make sure that the email
you send is sincere. Link building is a legitimate marketing strategy
and approached ethically it can have significant impact on your
bottom line. It’s worth taking the time to do it right.
The second link strategy is also very powerful. It is also simple.
Submit articles to free content sites and to be included in other
site’s ezines. These free content sites will post your articles
on their websites and offer your article to webmasters to reprint
on their sites and newsletters. This is a great strategy. You don’t
even have to write the articles, you just need to obtain one. You
can hire a ghostwriter or a guest writer. The key is that each article
has a resource box that contains your website name and a link. The
article can be reprinted only as long as it also contains the resource
box. If you have a popular subject, your article and link can get
published on thousands of websites this way.
And talk about targeted traffic. If you’re selling fly fishing
rods to an upscale audience you can write an article for that audience
and by the very nature of the article it will get picked up by websites
that attract your clientele. They will read your article and click
over to your site. This is high quality targeted traffic.
As you are have probably already thought about, the links are also
great for your search engine rankings. The link in your article
is surrounded by your site keywords. The article itself will populate
the search engines and the links to your site will support higher
page rank. It’s all good.
The third strategy has been around since the internet began. It
is to post to forums and news groups. It’s easy and fun plus
the links are valid and hold a lot of weight. The search engines
like forum post links a lot. In fact, the best way to submit your
site to the search engines is to post your website link in a popular
forum. The forum will be spidered within 72 hours and your site
will begin the submission process on it’s own.
Here too, stay on topic and be honest about your posts. You can
buy a spam poster and post to ten thousand forums automatically
but, being about the oldest trick in the book, it will get you in
a lot of trouble. It’s not good business. Seek out forums
you like and get involved. That’s all there is to it.
If you want to learn more about article distribution here are two
links that will help. The first one is for an ezine article submission
program and the second link is for submitting article to article
directories.
Ezine Submission Program:
http://www.BlogAboutRetail.com/newsletterannouncer.htm
Article Submission Program:
http://www.BlogAboutRetail.com/articleannouncer.htm
Competitive Intelligence
Competitive Intelligence will supercharge your link building campaign.
Wouldn’t it be great to know what links are sending traffic
to your competitor’s website? Wouldn’t it be great to
know which sites were sending the most traffic to your competition?
How about what keywords drive the traffic to your competitor’s
websites? There are ways to know.
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. A lot of knowledge can
be explosive. You can take your pick here. There are two methods.
Both methods work to identify the links that exist for other websites
and allow you to target them. The first method will get you going
and the second method will give you a mighty edge.
The first method is free and easy. Download and install the Google
toolbar. Once installed, you will see a link called “Backward
Links”. Now, go to a website that appeals to your target market
and use the “Backwards Links” toolbar link. Google will
show you a list of websites that link to the site you’re visiting.
This is a great place to begin your link building campaign.
While you are working this list of websites you can begin another
list. As you visit the websites look for a link directory. Once
in a while you will find a site with an industry directory or a
resource page that has links to related websites. This is another
nice list for you to work. This method will generate a lot of quality
links and bring you visitors that are looking for what you have
to offer. If you’re critical of the sites you send requests
to, you will build a network of quality sites sending you targeted
visitors.
The second method is to employ some competitive intelligence tools.
Would you like to find out which sites are responsible for sending
traffic to your competitor’s pages, including search engines
and the search keywords that were used? Competitive Intelligence
tools provide you with the means to monitor your competitor's web
sites and to identify their major traffic sources. By using these
tools you maximize the use of your time by targeting quality websites.
It is easy to see the value here. Knowing what sites to target is
valuable knowledge indeed.
Here is more information on competitive intelligence including
where to get the tools needed: http://www.BlogAboutRetail.com/competitiveintelligence.htm
Link building using competitive intelligence should be considered
an integral part of your ongoing marketing effort. It should not
be a quick test that is shoved aside because it did not have an
immediate return on investment. It works and it will grow with time.
It is one of the best investments you can make in marketing your
website. Done in earnest, you just might consider it more effective
and more deserving of your time and attention than search engine
optimization or any other online marketing method six months from
now. No overnight success here but many of us will simply settle
for success, even if it’s a whole six months away.
To read JD's blog, go to: http://www.BlogAboutRetail.com.
Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com
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