Why do I need links ?

It has been widely known for a long time that your position in the search results pages is determined by many, many factors.

Within google it is around 100 factors.

One of the main factors is how many sites link into yours.

This is akin to popularity in that it is assumed that the more sites that link (or vote) for your website then your website must be the right site for that particular search term.

Will any links be OK ?

At the moment it is thought that any site, no matter what the subject of the site, is a good vote for you.

Some links however are better than others.

Links from your signature file in forums are probably not worth too much these days as it is actually you who is voting for your own website!

What goes in my link ?

The text that links into your site is VERY important. If the page that the link is coming into is about "babies" THEN THE TEXT OF THE LINK INTO THAT PAGE SHOULD HAVE "BABIES" IN IT as well.

If a link points to a babies page that says "business plans" it does not say anything to the search engines about that page.

How do I get links ?

You can get links from the following sources:

• Web directories, for example, http://www.smallbusinesspro.co.uk
• Your competitors (yes really!)
• Sponsoring newsletters and other sites
• Websites that link into your competitors
• Write articles and have a link in your bio
• Write to other webmasters

One way to find who links into your competitors is to go to yahoo and type in the following:

linkdomain:www.competitordomain.com

(replacing competitordomain.com with the domain name of your competitors)

This will show you which sites link into your competitor. These sites will likely provide a link to your site as well.

Getting links more easily

Next time I will show you how to find hundreds of links with a unique piece of software, lists and lists of website directories that are free and how to approach other webmasters to link to your site.

All the best for a successful business,

Peter Hale

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