Next to having just a plain lousy website, the most common factor we see in clients' Internet failures is the lack of quality inbound links. The number of quality inbound links to your website is one of the most important criteria that search engines use to rank your pages and put you on the www map. Without them, you are barely a bump on the highway - as your website results may already show.
However, not all links are created equal - you may even do more harm than good. So, how do you make links help your company’s results on the web?
Why Do You Need Inbound Links?
Even before Google, link popularity was being used by search engines to determine the value of a website in search results.
The basic concept is simple to understand. If the job of a search engine is to give the most pertinent and best results to any search, determining the importance of a website based upon how it is being used on the web is high on the order of things to consider. The more links that a search engine finds pointing to a specific page indicates the importance of that page, therefore, it deserves a higher ranking than competing pages that do not show such inbound links.
Google took the concept even higher, giving more credit to inbound links that themselves have inbound links. This basically gives a “quality” value of the inbound link relative to other inbound links. Thus, having quality inbound links is the key to better results for your website.
With Google handling around 80% of all web searches worldwide, it is critically important that you do well in Google if you rely on traffic on your website as a measure of success (Yes, there are companies that do NOT want volume traffic, but that’s for another write up). Getting as many quality inbound links as possible pointing to your website is the key.
How Do You Get Inbound Links?
There are a number of ways to make inbound links work for you. Each has a value that may be different depending on your type of business, but should be considered against your specific objectives. Keep in mind, the more links the better, the better the links the best.
Here are a few examples:
Directories
Depending on your industry, there may be several options here. In addition to general directories of businesses, services, etc., you may have options of trade organizations that provide listings and links. Exploiting any industry link is a valuable strategy in that they are usually loaded with other companies which have some level of search results already established. By being associated with such search results you stand to gain results for your website.
Some directories request or require a reciprocal link. If the directory has a meaningful relationship to your company, then it is a no-brainer. For instance, an industry or organization seal with a link is no different than what you may already post in your office lobby. The point is to make sure that it is a quality directory. A link from badchecks.com will probably not be a good idea.
Vertical Portals
There are other search portals, focused on products, industry or technologies that can be excellent vehicles to not only market your website, but also provide quality inbound links via several methods. Usually these portals provide valuable marketing services and are paid services. Because they are already tightly linked with Google and other search engines, these can be powerful additions to your marketing program. Examples of vertical portals for industry include ThomasNet.com, Roadhog.com, MacRae’s Bluebook, Industrial Quick Search, Manufacturers’ News, GlobalSpec, KellySearch and others.
Resource Links
Another focused means to acquire high quality links are through resource pages, a superset of what are called landing pages. Here, instead of creating landing pages for your own website to facilitate key word and pay-per-click (PPC) programs, you participate in established intermediate pages that point from the web to an informational page. These are typically shared among a set of other suppliers, maybe even competitors, but afford you an elevated position for the search result. This, in turn, becomes an inbound link to your site.
Resource links afford a low cost method to buy position as costs of driving key words and other methods are spread among other players. In effect, it works like placing an ad pointing to your website wrapped in search engine friendly format.
Find and join a suitable online forum that has some relation to your industry, product or service. In some specific industries, forums will be available on industry websites. Place links to your site or pages in your signature line (make sure they are text, not art or javascript). Before spending a lot of time posting, check to make sure that forum is searchable by search engine spiders by checking for a robots.txt file in the source. Also, make sure that non-members don’t have session IDs in the URLs. In quality and heavily used forums the links to your website will add up. Periodic posting of questions, answers or comments will add up on busy sites. We have personally found links continuously cropping up from posts to forums.
Suppliers
One excellent but little used method is use of your supplier websites. If you are a distributor or reseller, you should already be in this game. Just make sure your link is well represented - your name and phone number is not enough. Of course, your supplier or vendor controls this potential. Sometimes a reciprocal link can work to advantage.
Let’s say you have a unique process featuring a new piece of equipment. Work with the supplier to feature a writeup of the equipment in your facility. They stand to gain from the publicity, you get a link. Reciprocate with a writeup on your site giving credit (and a link) to the manufacturer and you have a high quality inbound link for the both of you. Of course, you may not want to broadcast the secrets to your success; on the other hand, you may find someone researching the equipment may just decide to farm out the product to you rather than making an investment.
PR/News Releases
We are always amazed at how little industrial companies take advantage of a lot of free publicity that can not only make your phone ring but your website dance. We are talking about press releases about new products, new offices, new business deals, just about anything you can imagine. There are a number of free and pay resources to exploit news releases and you and your marketing team should be exploiting this extensively. Make it a point to broadcast at least one release a month. Hire a consultant if necessary. The value of your name, your branding and search engine results is too important to ignore.
There are a number of websites that handle PR - many free. Our favorite for industrial companies is news.thomasnet.com - it’s free and is a major outlet for industrial news on a worldwide basis.
The above are a sampling of tools available to pump up your inbound links. The important thing is make sure you work the areas you have selected with fresh and up-to-date links. You will be surprised how quickly the inbound link number can build - along with your web presence.
Need help in finding your Missing Links? Contact us for a free preliminary evaluation of your website.
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