Inbound Links
To attract an audience and rank well, you need a stream of inbound links from quality sites in order to get your site indexed and rank well. Google gives preference to one-way links because they’re more likely to be genuine. Google also prefers links from sites that have already proven themselves—the ones with a high page rank—because they are less likely to be part of a link exchange program. Monitor inbound links to ensure that they are appropriate and relevant. Seek to remove undesirable links.
Conduct a linking campaign to secure one-way inbound links: Apply to Yahoo! Directory and submit your URL to solid directories such as Joe Ant, GoGuides, Best of the Web, Ezilon, Rubberstamped and Massive Links. Join a Chamber of Commerce, your industry association and related clubs. Locate the prominent bloggers in your niche and note where they are linking and who’s linking to them. Leave thoughtful, well written comments on the blogs in your niche; get your name known throughout the community.
While some of these tactics have a moderate cost to them, a good many are free. Not only will you gain links, but you’ll also gain the much needed influx of traffic competitive sites need to break into the race.
Reciprocal Linking
Reciprocal linking between complementary sites (linking to them, and asking them for a link in return) provides contextual links that can help you rank higher in the relevant fields. Specify how you want to be linked to (include keyword(s) as well as your business name in the link.) Be sure that the site you are asking to link to yours has complementary content. As appropriate, consider having them link to a specific, relevant page on your site rather than your home page.
Internal Linking
Inbound links aren’t the only links that count. Properly used, internal links can be a useful weapon in your SEO arsenal. Cross-linking to pages with related products or services will ensure that your website gets properly spidered and that all pages are found by the search engines, they can build the relevancy of a page to a keyword phrase and increase the PageRank of an internal page.
