Free traffic does NOT come free. You have to take very informed steps if you’ll enjoy high quality traffic from the search engines and other sources. This brings us to the question of the “how” of doing it.
There are onsite and offsite factors that determine whether you’ll rank high for the keyphrases you target or not. But of them all (those that we are sure of), getting high quality links to your site happens to be the surest way of ranking high for your chosen keywords. Let’s look at some ways to get those links…
1. Write and submit high quality articles to article directories. This is certainly the most cost effective way of building link popularity.
The strongest advantage of article submission, from a link-building point of view, is that you determine your anchor text. You decide what your anchor text says and this means that you decide which keywords you get ranked for.
Don’t just submit one article to one directory and think you’re done. Keep submitting articles at least once a week to as many article sites as you can find.
Bear in mind that you need to ensure you use the right tools and strategy if you want to get the most from this. For example, you need to ensure that each instance of your article on each article directory is unique. There are tools and services that take care of this and your article submissions.
2. Start blogging on similar themes to your main website niche. All you’ll then do is link to your site each time you make a post.
This is a good way for you to have as many webpages as you can without spending much. It will only take you just a few minutes to start your own blog. Visit sites like wordpress.com or blogger.com to start yours for free.
If you do NOT have the time or inclination to start a blog, you can still build great links from other people’s blogs. All you have to do is look for blogs that “DO FOLLOW” and post useful comments with a link back to your site.
3. Unless you’ve been in another planet, you must have heard of sites like del.icio.us and digg.com. They are social bookmarking sites. When you bookmark your articles on these sites you get a link back to your site.
What happens when others see your pages on their bookmarks and visit? They might also add you to their bookmarks if they like what they read. These will go a long way in getting you high quality links from these highly respected sites.
4. Submit your site to web directories. Some will review your site for free and include you if you meet their standards. Others will charge a fee.
Although Dmoz takes such a long time to review and include a site, don’t miss it. But while you wait, remember that there are other directories that will help your link popularity.
Search for other directories and submit to them. Submit both to big general directories and smaller niche directories. Just remember that these sites are highly respected and links from them are worth a lot.
There are services and software that will help you submit your site to many directories. Depending on the demand on your time, this may be a very viable option.
5. Most forums allow you to link back to your site. So look for high PR forums and post helpful comments. Spamming is NOT a viable strategy as it will hurt you on the long run.
Although we’ve touched many ways to build links to your site, they are NOT the only ways. But just bear in mind why you’re building links: It’s to drive massive free and residual targeted traffic to your site.
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