One of the major factors in ranking high on Google is inbound links. Inbound Linking strategies are development in many different ways, however one of the most common ways is to submit your company information, including your link, to business directories on the internet. Most business directories offer the ability to have a link point to your website, and once registered by Google, this will then be listed as an inbound link to your site.
Here are a few questions I get often about link building:
- How many links do I need?
- Where can I find directories to add my link to?
- Does the link text matter?
- How often should I submit my link?
These are all great questions! Most SEO Experts will have an opinion on this, and I have mine. We likely won’t all agree on everything SEO, however we will most likely agree on the fact that you need to have the links. The more links you have pointing to your site, with the right text, the better you will rank. Yahoo and Bing seem to give more weight to inbound links than Google, however everyone wants to rank on Google. Focusing some SEO efforts on link building should result in higher rankings on all the major search engines.
To begin building links, simply search on Google for Business Directories, or Free Business Directories. One additional way I would recommend to search is within your industry, for example, Web Design Business Directories. If you make widgets, then search for Widget Business Directories. After you get the list of directories, begin visiting them and adding your site with your link. The text of the link does matter, and if you are given the option, you should use the key term or phrase that you want to show up for as the link text. Most sites won’t offer this option and either use the word website as the link or they will use your company name. I don’t recommend modifying your company name to be the key phrase because the admin for that site, who will review the listing, may not approve it for that reason. You now are aware how to submit the links…but be sure to do this often, as much as weekly if you can, and at least once per month. Adding links to your site is crucial to ensure that you will have good success on the search engine. Using the Directory method is also a very important way to ensure you are getting good links. Links to your site will appear in many other places, but typically not in directories unless you are submitting them there.