April 23rd, 2010 by Dan

When it comes to online marketing, it’s no longer enough to concentrate all your efforts on search engine optimization from within your site. It’s like having a shop with a beautiful storefront – and a firmly locked door. The goods may all look very inspiring, but without proof from the customers, who is to tell what the quality is really like? External links work in the same way – they tell the search engines that you’ve posted quality content that has inspired people to take a look at your product, and maybe buy.

Of course, there’s nothing to stop people using dishonest SEO link building schemes, such as link farming, bulk purchasing of links or posting worthless content – but it tends to backfire. Search engines are getting wise, and generally those who engage in these practices disappear off the page rank radar fairly quickly.

So how can you go about building an internet marketing plan that gets SEO results? Well, getting listed in the big directories is must – you get inbound links for free, and attinsite visibility by the search engines and browsing public. Yahoo, Google and DMOZ are the best known. If you deal in a specialist product, offer a unique service or have a clicks-and-mortar store with a local presence, it’s worth getting into the specialist and local area directories too. Although they have a smaller readership, the take-up rate of links to your site will be higher, plus you won’t have to wait so long for a directory listing.

Another good strategy is to use social media optimization, and post content in blogs and forums. You have to embed anchor text to link to your site page, but this is a simple job that any search engine optimization company or web builder can do. Be aware, though, that getting backlinks this way can be risky. Some forums don’t allow backlinks or self-promotion, and may delete your posts. A few sites have even blocked indexing by the search engines – in which case, it’s pointless posting links there anyway.

Most link building services would probably advise you to submit content to article directories such as e-How, instead. In this case, posting links is generally allowed. It takes longer to pen an article – but the rewards are often worth it. Content exchange is another good way of generating links. Basically, you offer relevant sites RSS feeds to your content for free. When the feed is published, you receive a backlink to your site. This comes down to quality content – you must have an eye-catching title and abstract (which is what will be published on the other site), but potentially you can expect a lot of visitors.

Affiliate programs can be a good way of increasing links to your site – although some have had a bad press. An affiliate site is one that you pay to send you traffic. The affiliate posts links to your site and is paid accordingly. Be careful, though, of sites running pay-to-click scams. Here, people are paid a pittance to click thousands of links in a day, with no intention of buying anything. Getting links in this way will only cause your search engine optimization plan to come crashing downwards.

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