It's All About Linking

Why are links important?
* People will click on them and discover your site.
* Search engines follow them to locate pages and content within your website.
* Search engines consider the number & quality of links to your webpages to be an good indicator of your pages' importance.
* Search engines also consider the link text (the words you click on) to be important in determining what your website's relevancy.

Without links, people won't be able to find your website and search engines won't consider your content valuable.

The importance of relevant links
Search Engines give the most weight to links from webpages that contain content which is closely related to your own. These are called "relevant links." For example, if you're a plumber, it would be beneficial to get a link from a webpage about plumbing, plumbing supplies, or even construction. However, a link to your plumbing site from a dentist or a shoe store would be irrelevant. The search engines consider relevant links to be very important, and carry more weight than links from websites unrelated to your own.

Types of links


One-way links
One way links are just from website A to website B. Website B doesn't link to website A. Most web links probably fall into this category. And, they are the most desirable type of links. The search engines also consider one-way links more important than reciprocal links.

Reciprocal links
When you exchange links with another website - preferably one with a subject related to yours - that's a reciprocal link. Find other sites in your field - even competitors - to offer an exchange of links. For best success, link to the site in question before you email them to ask for a reciprocal link. In your email, tell them where to find their link. If you don't hear back from them after a reasonable amount of time (perhaps a month), you can remove the link from your page. Reciprocal links are less desirable than one-way links (those where you don't link back); they're given somewhat less weight by the search engines. However, though they carry less weight, it's still worthwhile to exchange links with sites related to your own, which may be of interest to your visitors. Just be cautious about which pages you link to; don't accept every link exchange offer that your receive in your inbox.

Natural links
Over time, people will discover and link to your site because they like it; these "natural links" are very valuable as well. To encourage natural (sometimes called "organic") links to your site, present content that is very useful to your visitors, and add new content on a regular basis. It can also be helpful to present a "link to us" page with ready-to-use link code & perhaps some graphics, to make it easy for people to link to your site.

Paid links
It is possible to pay for a link in a web directory or on another site. Though it's usually not necessary to buy links (and Google frowns upon some types of link buying and selling), if you're going to do it, make sure to buy your link from a quality site somehow related to your own.

How to get links!
So, how do you get links?
Submit your site to web directories. Directory links are great. They'll have your keywords in the link text & description, on a page with a topic relevant to yours. People browsing through the directory can find your site as well. Read our tips for directory submissions for best results. We'll explain how to write an effective title & description, and how to identify worthy directories. Then, submit your site to the best general directories & specialized topic directories. Don't want to do it yourself? We offer a directory submission service. Standard & custom submission packages are available. (We do this for free for all of our web development clients.)

Sites in your field
When you find a website similar to yours, or on a related topic, consider asking them for a link. Don't forget informational sites, professional organizations, & forums.

Go local
Your place of employment, friends, clients, school, local organizations, or businesses you deal with may link to you. If you're an artist, ask local galleries, other artists & art supply shops. Musicians, ask local venues, music stores, gear manufacturers, bandmates. Writers can get links from their publishers & fellow writers. And so on. You know more likely places to get links than you think you do! A little brainstorming will turn them up.

Forums & Emails
If you participate in online forums or discussion boards, put a link to your website in your signature (if it's permitted). Every post you make will give you a link (albeit one that may not carry a lot of weight). It will happen naturally. If your site offers something of value, folks will begin to link to it because they want to. And, some of these links will be from relevant sites.

You can encourage your visitors to link to you by including a "link to us" page that provides link code & some graphics. The links page here at Logicshift is an example of how this can be done.

Good luck with your site! Please let us know if you'd like to use our services, or if you have any questions.
We're always glad to help & would be delighted to hear from you.