Developing Links to Your Website

I'd like to take a moment today to discuss opportunities for building links to your website. We all know the power of inbound links, but many are still struggling with proven methods for building them. I've been marketing for over 7 years online and I have to say that building links can be difficult.

That said, there are some things to do and other things you should not do. Here's a quick list:

TO DO
1. Article marketing. Take time to write unique articles on your area of expertise. Once you've created valuable content, post it to your site. After a week of being posted (enough time to be crawled), distribute your article to article distribution sites.

2. Link exchange. Target other websites that are related to your subject area. Contact the webmaster and ask for a link exchange. You might be surprised with the result.

3. Provide valuable content or tools. If you have something of value on your site, whether its a page rank tool or ebook, others will link to your site. Make your content and tools easily accessible and watch the links build.

NOT TO DO
1. Placing links in forum posts or blog comments. Putting a shameless plug in a forum post or blog comment isn't a good strategy - it provides little or no value to the communities who seek information. Legitimate sites see this type of link plug as SPAM.

2. Paying for links from massive directories. Google is penalizing sites for purchasing links. Invest your time in submitting to the largest free directories like Google and DMOZ. This will ensure that your site is recognized and not penalized!

Follow these tips for getting your website noticed and developing valuable links. Doing so has a favorable impact on your search engine result placements.