Need Links

So if you don't have a red spotted zebra you may have realized you are in need of some links to your website. Yet just before I head that way let me explain something quickly. When your site is first found and indexed by a Search Engine you will find it does get some organic traffic on it's own merits. This type of traffic will dry up soon enough if you do not get some links to the site unless you have content on your site no one else does and people are looking for that content.

So why do you get traffic originally? This is a guess so take it as such yet there is a term called "the honeymoon stage" which suggests the search engines siphon off a small percentage of traffic to be shared between the new sites to encourage new website developers.

I know it sounds strange, yet when you consider that a Search Engine does not write any content of its own but rather categorizes other websites content to place in their index so they have a mechanism for drawing traffic and showing their paid ads in the sidebar. Not saying that is a bad thing, yet if you look at from that perspective it does make sense they would encourage new content to be created and it may have some credit to it, as a Search Engine after all is basically just an affiliate charging for ads on their site.

Ok lets leave conjecture there and get back to reality.

There are two main ways of getting links to point to your page without paying for them.

You have a great product you give away for free yet can only be downloaded from your site so everyone points to it, such as adobe or winzip. Or your content is in a class of it's own such as a great tutorial or you have something like the red spotted zebra. In which case other people will link to your site on their own.

The other way is you go out and apply for links at other websites or run around and make comments on other peoples blogs. You can also submit your content to RSS feeders and the like yet in general that type of content is short lived as soon as the next site in the list that matches your content is added, as you drop in the list until you are not there anymore. Just ask anyone with a busy blog how many people came from the sites they ping or submit their feeds to.

Most people on the internet will find they are stuck with the second option which is to get their own incoming links themselves. Which is the big dark secret most website software developers will not tell you on their sales page, otherwise you would not have bought their software. After all who wants to spend countless hours applying for link after link at different websites just so they can get some descent organic traffic. I have been there and done that and it is totally boring and a mind numbing experience not to mention a complete sap on ones time.

Another way is to use links that are on your own website, they carry as much weight as another website of equal power will, also that is on page optimization as it is on your own web page and therefore totally under your own control. These can be in the body copy and link to other relevant content on your website. The other way is to use your navigation links to their fullest potential, add that to your other on page elements and you have done as much as you can on your own site and once again you need to seek links from the rest of the internet.

Visualize a Link