Why Your Website Needs Inbound Links

Why Your Website Needs Inbound Links
By Rick Hendershot (c) 2006

Most web-savvy people quickly learn why they need "links" from
other sites pointing at theirs. Your inbound links are one of
the most important ways of getting yourself known in your
field, generating traffic to your website, and influencing the
search engines to notice your site.

"Traffic" is what linking is all about. Without traffic your
website is useless as a tool for selling your products or
communicating your ideas. Getting links from other websites is
not the only way to generate traffic, but it is probably the
most important one.

But how do links generate traffic?

**Direct traffic from links**

First, links generate direct traffic. Links from sites that
share your target audience will be an important source of
traffic to your site. A visitor to the other web site sees the
link to yours, clicks on it, and becomes your visitor. Some
estimates put the percentage of internet traffic resulting from
this kind of link as high as 21% of total traffic.

Why do people click on these links? One reason is they may view
a link to an outside source as an endorsement. They assume the
webmaster is saying "Here is a source you will find interesting
or helpful". They are looking for the kind of service you
provide, so they click on the link to check you out.

But just as important is simple curiosity. Someone sees a text
link with intriguing wording like "Powerful Cheap Advertising"
or "Win a Free iPod" or "See Pamela Anderson Video" and,
depending on their interests, a certain number of people are
likely to click on it.

This suggests at least three things about your links. First,
you should get as many links as possible on pages your target
audience is likely to be visiting. The more people see your
links, the more traffic you are likely to get.

Second, your anchor text (the words that are linked) should be
intriguing. It should be short and sweet, and suggest a benefit
-- a reason for people to click on it.

Third, your links should be on pages that people actually look
at. Having hundreds of links on pages that nobody ever looks at
will not result in traffic -- at least not direct traffic.
Putting your link on a link exchange page containing hundreds
of services similar to yours is not likely to generate very
many clicks. This is why exchanging links with link directories
is such a questionable waste of time. Web visitors rarely look
at these directories.

Finding good pages where you can place your link is not always
easy. One method is to systematically do searches for your most
important keywords -- the search phrases people are likely to
use when looking for your kind of product or service. Many of
the results will be competitors of yours. But one or two may be
secondary sources such as directories or reference pages.
Getting your link on some of these secondary sources is almost
guaranteed to result in traffic, so it is worth the effort --
and sometimes the cost -- of getting listed in the resources
that score high for your keywords.

**Traffic from Search Engines**

The second reason for getting inbound links is to impress the
search engines. Most search engines use the quantity and
quality of your inbound links to evaluate the importance and
relevance of your site to specific keywords. For instance, if
you sell a product like "Full Color Vinyl Banners", or you are
a Real Estate agent servicing "Kitchener Real Estate", one of
your objectives is to rank high for searches done on your
primary search phrase (and other similar ones).

This will result in traffic because when people search for your
important keywords your site is more likely to show up in the
search results. The more inbound links you have that relate
your site to full color vinyl banners or web promotion
services, or "fill in your keyword here", the higher your site
is likely to rank for these terms, and the more search engine
traffic you are likely to receive as a result.

**Using Articles to get traffic and impress the search
engines**

Embedding your links in articles is one of the best methods of
rapidly increasing your inbound links. Many times a
well-written article will show up in hundreds of places on the
web. And if it has your link embedded in it, that will
obviously increase your inbound links. Webmasters pick up these
articles because they want content to enhance the value of their
sites.

Articles will also generate direct traffic because people who
read them are already interested in your subject matter, and
are therefore more likely to click on your link.

This suggests that the most valuable place to publish your
article is in a themed or categorized article resource. For
instance, if your product is "health" related, having it
published on health-oriented sites will be more valuable than
having it published on generic sites.

You can even take this a step further. If your article is about
something more specific like "mesothelioma advice", then getting
it published on sites that focus on "mesothelioma" will get more
"reads", and have a greater influence on the search engines.

Second, when embedding your link, try to use anchor text that
contains one of your important keywords, not just your URL or
web address. Remember that search engines are dumb. One of your
objectives is to have them relate your website to specific
search terms (keywords or key phrases). And the best way to do
that is to use them as your anchor text.

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Rick Hendershot heads Linknet Promotions ==>
http://www.linknet-promotions.com Get links in articles and
blog posts http://www.linknet-news.com/linknet-news.php
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