Everything (Almost) That You Need To Know About Linking

There is enough information about linking on the Internet to fill up a library.

What I've read makes me dizzy. Today I'll try to save you the vertigo, here's what you need to know:

Linking is smart online marketing and you should be actively seeking linking opportunities at all times.

But like most things on the Internet, if you don't know what you're doing you'll probably see little, if any, valuable results.

Ask friends, associates, others you have met and networked with in the industry to link to your website.

Putting links on your home page is probably a pretty silly idea - unless - you're home page copy is very strong and you give absolutely NO reason for a bride to leave your website.

Even if it is, I recommend you put links on a sub-page off your home page.

Inbound links are links that point TO your website FROM others.

Outbound links are links that point AWAY from your website.

Google, and other search engines, see both types of links at your website.

Google likes to see a lot of QUALITY inbound links to your website. Think of it as dozens, or hundreds, of "votes of confidence" for your website.

Page Rank is one way to guage what Google thinks about your website. "Google Love" is an even better way. Use both to gain an understanding of what Google thinks about your website.

It is not about the quantity of websites linking to you that matters most. It's the quality of those websites that has the most value.

Link "farms" are huge websites of links created just to manipulate search engine rankings.

Google knows this, has probably identified most of them, and may actually penalized your website for participating in such a scheme.

Yes, penalize - as in get blacklisted.

Link exchanges have some value too, but not as much as a link to your website from another - without an exchange. Google can tell the difference between an inbound (only) link, outbound (only) link, and link exchange.

When you get link exchange offers in the email throw them away. I haven't come across one in ten years that was a fair exchange of value.

Links are not only an important piece of your overall search engine optimization strategy, but they're also part of your overall traffic building strategy.

You'll find it difficult to achieve any valuable top search engine ranking without a carefully crafted link building strategy for your website.

If one of your competitors develops more inbound links than your website has, and you currently have better search engine positioning, it is likely they will be able to "bump you out" of your top ranking.

Chris Jaeger
Book More Weddings
http://www.bookmoreweddings.com

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