How to build links
Useful and Obvious First Links
First think of sites which it would be useful for your visitors to be able to go to from your site. For example, if you are a specialist site, are there some national organisations that promote your sport, hobby or industry? Your first step will be to email these organisations and ask if you can have reciprocal links with them.
Now this may a little bit of a David and Goliath situation, and many people feel put off because they think their new immature website is far too small. You may not get any response to your emails, you may get a response refusing you, but you may find a national organisation with good page ranking agrees to link to you! Be very pleased with this!
Immediately someone agrees to have a reciprocal link with you, put up their link on your website - just in case they decide to check!
Now, think again about your customers or visitors - even if the big organisations have refused to put a link to you on their site, it may still be useful to put a link to them on yours for your visitors information. Always remember the whole goal of getting website traffic is to get and keep loyal customers or visitors - not just to attract search engine bots!
Do your research
Now the hard work starts. Search the web for sites on the same subject matter as yours, but which are obviously NOT competitors. Keeping an eye on the Google Toolbar look for sites which have a better page rank than yours - ideally the websites you are looking for will be ranked about 4 or 5 (higher ranking sites may be a bit snobbish towards novice sites).
What about people who supply goods and services to you - can they link to yours? What about customers? Try and think outside of the box here - if you have a sporting site how about a link to a local photographer?
Sometimes you can do good research away from the computer (yes, you can turn it off sometimes!). Trade magazines are often a good start - write to any email addresses and ask for a reciprocal link. You may find even if they do not have a links page already they may decide to add one! It never hurts to ask!
'Add new link suggest site'
When you are looking at websites check that they have a links page. If they do you may find there is a form on which you can submit the details on your website asking to be added to their links page or a suggest site add new link button so that it is simple to add your site. You may need to email a website if they don't seem to be canvassing links. Don’t be too put off if there isn’t a relevant category for them to list your site in - they can always add more categories. If you don't ask you don't get! If you do ask - you may well succeed!
Reciprocal Linking - Two way link exchanges
So don’t be worried about emailing and asking for reciprocal links - but do make sure you put up the links you promise! This may lead you to think a little about your site - some people don’t want to have their link at the end of a very long page. You should consider rotating banners so you can display more links, but keep the page simple. You make also need to restrict non relevant links.
You have your new website, and your ‘Links’ page is currently blank - how do you go about building those important links?
Forums and Guestbooks
If you know your subject show it! And one of the best ways is to join a forum. When posting or answering a topic on the forum always use a signature with your website address on it - if the forum users like what they read about you they will click on the ljnk to visit your website, and hey presto - you have more links coming into your site! If your hosting company has a user forum such as Vodahost Community, there may well be a section where you can showcase your new site - if so, you will get a number of visits through this. Lovely links for search engines and fodder for the link spiders!
Also, if you visit the Guestbook of a relevant site you can also leave your website address there. BUT PLEASE ONLY IF IT IS A RELEVANT SITE!
NEVER Use Guestbooks or Forums simply to attract traffic or links to your site without considering the relevance in subject matter.
If you have a Guestbook or Forum there is nothing more annoying that people using your site just to get free adverts. You should make it a regular task to go through and delete immediately anyone obviously using your site just for a link. You may find entries on your guestbook such as:
'Your website looks very good. I found it interesting. Now visit mine at XXXXXXX'
This is just spam, and no compliment - they are just trying to get a free link and traffic!
Also, if you have a Forum you may find people join, and then never post an entry. On their user profile they will show their website address. Some of these websites may be totally unsuitable for the type of audience your website is targeted to - for example, a porn website on a forum directed at pre teens and teenagers!
All webmasters should regularly police their sites and stamp out this behaviour - after all, when you have done all the hard work to get your links legitimately, and when you have built up your page rank it should not be able to be stolen in this way!
If you know your subject show it! And one of the best ways is to join a forum. When posting or answering a topic on the forum always use a signature with your website address on it - if the forum users like what they read about you they will click on the ljnk to visit your website, and hey presto - you have more links coming into your site! If your hosting company has a user forum such as Vodahost Community, there may well be a section where you can showcase your new site - if so, you will get a number of visits through this. Lovely links for search engines and fodder for the link spiders!
Also, if you visit the Guestbook of a relevant site you can also leave your website address there. BUT PLEASE ONLY IF IT IS A RELEVANT SITE!
NEVER Use Guestbooks or Forums simply to attract traffic or links to your site without considering the relevance in subject matter.
If you have a Guestbook or Forum there is nothing more annoying that people using your site just to get free adverts. You should make it a regular task to go through and delete immediately anyone obviously using your site just for a link. You may find entries on your guestbook such as:
'Your website looks very good. I found it interesting. Now visit mine at XXXXXXX'
This is just spam, and no compliment - they are just trying to get a free link and traffic!
Also, if you have a Forum you may find people join, and then never post an entry. On their user profile they will show their website address. Some of these websites may be totally unsuitable for the type of audience your website is targeted to - for example, a porn website on a forum directed at pre teens and teenagers!
All webmasters should regularly police their sites and stamp out this behaviour - after all, when you have done all the hard work to get your links legitimately, and when you have built up your page rank it should not be able to be stolen in this way!
