Using Links Can Help Your Search Engine Visibility

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By Rich Brooks
Expert Author
Article Date: 2008-04-11

Rich,

I read somewhere that links help your search engine visibility. I've created plenty of links from my site, but I'm not noticing any better search engine results or increased traffic. What gives?

--Linking in Lisbon

Dear Linking,

Incoming links have a great impact on your search engine visibility, but not outgoing links. The links on your home page (and other places) to offsite resources and professional organizations you belong to are only directing potential away from you.

Your goal is to develop quality, incoming, non-reciprocal links. By that I mean trading links with another site where they link to you and you link to them has little to no search engine benefit... although it does have other benefits.

Here are some quick ideas for getting these prized incoming links:

Professional organizations, such as your local chamber of commerce.

Quality directories, such as Yahoo or DMOZ. Many of these directories have one-time or annual fees for the review of your site.

Create content worth linking to, such as how-to's, quality articles, and movies on your site.

Last year there was a big movement to buy links from other sites; Google now frowns on this practice and punishes both the buyer and seller of these links. In short: don't pay for links with the exception of the review fee associated with many directories.

If you'd like to learn more about search engines or how to build more traffic at your Web site you may be interested in these upcoming Web marketing seminars:

Building Traffic at Your Web Site - 4/1/08, Rockland, Maine

Search Engine Optimization: Rank Higher, Sell More - 4/16/08, Portland, Maine

The seminar requires registration, so register now!

If you're interested in learning some more tips on developing quality incoming links, check out my article Boost Your Search Engine Rank: Proven Methods to Increase Incoming Links.

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About the Author:
Rich Brooks is president of flyte new media, a Web site design and Internet marketing company in Portland, Maine. Flyte works with small businesses to build professional Web sites that often include e-commerce, Flash and content management systems. They promote their clients' sites through search engine optimization, e-mail marketing, business blogs and social media. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/therichbrooks.