Inbound links are possibly the most important part of SEO. In this article I’ll define what a good inbound link is and what it takes to get them.
A lot of people focus on metadata when they’re talking about SEO. But metadata is only part of a successful SEO strategy. In fact, I’ve heard stories of horribly optimized sites ranking well for popular keywords solely because they had a lot of inbound links from popular sites.
The right inbound links will make the difference between whether customers will find your site or not.
The Perfect Inbound Link
The perfect link requires two things:
- The right anchor text
- It comes from a page that ranks highly for a keyword relevant to your site.
Anchor text are the words used when a link is made on a website. In the following example, “AspDotNetStorefront Experts” is the anchor text:
<a href="http://www.vortx.com">AspDotNetStorefront Experts</a>
When a search engine crawls a website and hits that link, it thinks “OK, this site believes that www.vortx.com is full of AspDotNetStorefront Experts. I’ll remember that.”
After a long day of crawling, the search engine tallies up all the information it gathered and records how many different sites thought that www.vortx.com were AspDotNetStorefront experts. If there are enough, when someone searches for “AspDotNetStorefront Experts” there’s a chance they’ll show Vortx.com in the search results. It’s a little more complicated than that, but you get the idea.
Now, if the page that links to you also ranks highly for the term “AspDotNetStorefront Experts” it’s worth even more.
Who Should I Get a Link From?
You want a link from sites that rank highly for whatever keyword you want to target.
If you run a pool supply company, and get links from a popular pool filter manufacturer then your chance of ranking highly for that keyword increases. Likewise, if there is a popular pool maintenance blog and you get a link with the words “pool maintenance” in it, that will help your ranking for that term.
The Bottom Line
Inbound link promotion is a lot like real world networking. Join the discussion at popular message boards and on popular blogs; when you leave a comment make sure you leave a link to your site with relevant anchor text.
Other things to try:
- Talk to your clients and customers to see if you can get a link from their websites, Myspace or Facebook pages.
- Offer to write articles for popular blogs in your field.
If you need help managing your inbound links, our Inbound Link Promotion Plan will help.
Written by Craig H.
Tags: e-commerce, inbound links, SEO
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April 7th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Nice post, thanks!
June 16th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Huge help! I appreciate the post!
Pool Service Van Nuys
Would this be the correct way to post a link for a site with enabled html on their forum?
I am guessing so but thought I might get lucky with a confirmation, anyone? Any answers are appreciated.
July 3rd, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Yup Jeremy, that’s it! Thanks for getting involved. Have you been able to get some good inbound links recently?
July 6th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Sorry, I couldn’t ignore the opportunity for a pool-related link even if it doesn’t totally jibe with your advice
Jeremy, I would point out that you may want to avoid placing a link in the comment body, since few webmasters will approve it (unless it’s super relevant). Just my experience.
Good luck.
April 21st, 2010 at 5:18 pm
This is a great information Craig – thanks.
How would you go about getting inbound links – any fast way of doing this?
April 23rd, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Hey Stephen, good question. The “fast way” is to hit every message board and blog about your product space, and leave a comment and a link everywhere you can.
But the people of that blog or message board are a community, and won’t take too kindly to a link bombing like that.
I recommend a long term approach to link building. Go to those exact same message boards once a week for a couple weeks and get to know the people who post. Write comments that help answer questions, and leave a link in your signature.
Also, contact satisfied customers and ask them to review your product on their facebook pages, blogs, Yelp! or forums, and leave a link back to your product.
Hope that helps, Craig.