[Show Transcript]

I’m Randy Charach from RandyReport.com and THIS is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!

In this week’s report you’ll learn how to raise the bar by link building to increase your site’s credibility and visibility. You’ll learn about different types of links, and I’ll show you how to attract relevant inbound links, and how to use outbound links and reciprocal links to improve your web rankings and increase traffic to your site.

I’m Randy Charach from RandyReport.com and THIS is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!

Link building is a way to increase your site’s visibility and gain traffic in the dense fog of millions of websites that are all clamouring to be number one. You want your site to be popular don’t you? One of the cool kids…on the A list? While link building can be time consuming and tedious it’s still one of the top ways to get highly ranked in search engines.

In your online recipe for success, link building is one of the main ingredients to get your website high up there in the search engines. Think of a link like a vote for your site. If another website links to your site it’s telling the search engines hey, I like this site, I find it valuable. However, not all votes are created equal. If a high ranking site links to you…their vote is worth more than a site that’s just a landing page full of ads.

When it comes to SEO and search engine algorithms, nobody’s exactly sure how all the elements work. It’s like socks that go missing in the dryer…it’s a bit of a mystery.

One thing we do know for sure…You want to attract inbound links to your site. Inbound linking is when another site links to a page on your site. The best way to get inbound links is to provide something of real value to readers…think diamonds not cubic zirconium. If you write a fun, crazy article on monster trucks for your site, someone who likes what you’ve said may link to it. The search engines count this link as a vote.

In terms of content, Top 10 lists work well, and so do unique, personal insights and opinions, quizzes and online tools. Using creative techniques to get links from other sites is called link baiting, so you can lure in those big fish – the reputable, high quality sites out there.

Be a bit controversial or radical to get your content noticed…be rocky road ice cream, not vanilla. Become the top dog in your niche by providing useful content, or expert advice and tips. People will see you as an authority, and your authority site will get links.

Here’s a solid tip…

Posting in forums and on other blogs is a good way to get inbound links, also called back-links. As long as you’re providing good advice or support in forums using this strategy as a link building tactic will serve you well. Same goes for blogs: gain back-links by posting well thought out answers and comments – no “Nice blog” or “Great post.” Most blogs have a field for you to enter your url when you’re leaving your comment, and nice going…you’ve just gained yourself another backlink.

Directory submissions will also get you link juice. You need to find directories out there that deal with your subject matter, and believe me, there are directories on everything from comic books to Chihuahuas in costumes. Submitting to directories can be a bit dull, but this can really help you land links. Oh, and there are free and paid directories, so submit to the free ones first. There are also submission services that will do it all for you.

Another submission tactic is syndicating your content. This means you submit your articles to article sites. There are a few big ones that rank well and can send you highly qualified traffic. Just do a search for article submission sites….the cream of the crop will be at the top of the results…start there.

When it comes to getting links, do what occurs naturally…think organic not deep fried. Do what’s authentic and real, and don’t try to take shortcuts or find loopholes. Think of what you’d want to see when you’re searching – run down, ugly sites with nothing to help you, or informative content that totally fulfills your every need?

Now let’s talk about outbound links, which you put on your site that lead to other people’s pages. Outbound links help you improve your web community by offering people more resources and if you link to someone else, they may return the favour. Just don’t go crazy with outbound linking, as it could tempt people away from your site, and it’s not as valuable as inbound linking for search engine ranking.

Relevance is key in all online aspects – targeting your niche, identifying your customers, writing content…the whole shebang. Relevance is also essential when it comes to outbound link building. If your site offers wedding planning services, linking to a hardware store is not going to do you any good. Stick to wedding related sites…bakeries, floral shops, photographers, marriage counsellors…

Let’s look at trading links…something called reciprocal link building…an I scratch your back, you scratch my back philosophy. The value of trading links does seem to be a bit lower than those non-reciprocal links…or one-way links as they’re also called, but are still worthwhile. You may get emails from other webmasters asking you to trade links, and you can contact relevant site owners and ask them pretty please to link to you. Avoid trading links with those spammy sites as they won’t help you, and keep all links relevant to your site topic.

Here’s another thing…your anchor text needs to be relevant in both inbound and outbound linking. Anchor text is the text that the user clicks on, the link you see in the content that’s usually blue or red, or even green or pink. It needs to be fine tuned so the keywords in the anchor text are highly relevant…say “Bed and breakfast Ohio,” NOT “click here.”

There’s a theory out there…if you have poor quality links pointing to your site, the search engines will penalize you for that. I don’t buy it. If that was the case, people could get devious and vandalize competitors’ sites by linking junky sites to them.

That said it’s a waste of your valuable time and energy to invest in getting these sites to link to you. Some examples of junky sites are spam sites set up just to get links or ones that are overrun with ads, or give nothing relevant or useful to users.

You may be thinking that the more links you can collect the better. Going on a link gathering rampage to grab any old link is not the answer. Quality is much more important than quantity. If you have a page with 30 links on it and a little sprinkling of content, it’s not going to hold water compared to a page with a few relevant links and a helpful article.

A lot of sites have tried to up their inbound links by joining link programs, sometimes referred to as link farms. Link farmers grow nothing but spam and bad reputations. A link farm is a system where the members link to each other through a set of link pages. By joining a link farm, you’ll instantly have access to tons of other sites that point to your site.

Sounds ideal, but the search engines now penalize those sites who were raking in links artificially…and your site if you link to them. Link farms are as artificial as spray cheese. Stay away from them and your site will live long and prosper.

The best SEO strategy is to mix it up and create a tasty cocktail of inbound, outbound and reciprocal links. Don’t just rely on one tactic to get your site links, and remember that times are always changing, so keep informed. What works today may be oh-so-last-year before you know it.

Our question this week comes from Melanie H. from my hometown Vancouver, Canada who wrote:

I’m trying to launch two sites in the next month or so, and I’m wondering if there’s a way to speed up the link building process. Is there an automated way to do this that won’t get me penalized?

You’ll rarely hear me recommend specific products, but here’s one that I use myself and consider a essential tool in my toolbox. It’s great and I know the people behind it, so I feel totally comfortable recommending it.

It’s a traffic increasing software called Comment Kahuna, it’s 100 percent free, and it works by gathering lots of links from authority niche blogs related to your site to help rocket your rankings. It doesn’t use any risky moves that could jeopardize your reputation either, and it’s easy to use. To instantly download this free software, go to RandyReport dot com, backslash dot ck dot html.

Well, that wraps up this episode of Randy Report. Since company’s websites, prices and quality of service on the Internet change rapidly, for my up-to-date recommendations on resources and for free tools and training, visit me today at RandyReport.com.

Today you learned

How to launch a link building campaign so you can be found in the search engines and attract highly targeted traffic. You learned about inbound, outbound and reciprocal links, what types of sites to avoid linking to, and the importance of providing users something of value so they’ll want to link to your content.

Thanks so much for watching. Remember, if you’d like more free reports, resources and training then visit RandyReport.com and join me again next week where you’ll discover How to create a newsletter campaign that entices customers to visit your website by sending targeted messages to your audience and having the perfect ratio of content to offers. You’ll learn the basics of auto responder software to manage your newsletter mail-outs and client base, and how to make sure you follow the laws on newsletter mail outs.

I’m Randy Charach, and this is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!

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