Try This Six Step Plan For Link Building

In order to have a successful online marketing campaign, link building needs to be at center of everything you are doing. Most of the search engines still rank websites by the number of links pointing to a specific website. What this means is link building still rules in the SEO world. The following are six steps you can take for a successful link-building plan.

Niche Directories

You should be submitting your site to niche specific directories. Since these types of sites are more topic related, the anchor text will carry a lot of authority.

General Directories

While the niche directory is still the preferred directory type to submit to, you can still submit to a general directory. Some of these directories cost money, like the Yahoo or Business.com directory, but there are still some free ones like DMOZ. When you submit to a general directory, try to submit to more than one category, plus see if they have a regional section and submit or tag it there as well.

Create Social Media Profiles

This is a must for brand awareness. Your company name is paramount when getting established and trying to build credibility. Even though some of these sites are "no-follow" for the links, you should still be setting them up. Another reason to set up a profile is to reserve your name.

Old Fashioned Search Engine Link Building

This is how it used to work. Do a search in the SE's for a keyword you want to rank for. Then, find the top 20 sites that rank for that keyword phrase. Visit each site and see if they have a links or resources section where you might be able to submit your site. If some of these sites are blogs, then ensure you leave a valuable comment to an article they have on the site. One last way, which does not work near as much as it once did, you can always try to email the webmaster and see if they will exchange that way.

Set Up A Blog

One way I have found that works is to set up a blog on your site. You can add it to a "blog" sub-folder and start making posts. Once you have a few posts on the blog, then you can submit the blog to a few of the blog directories. Just make sure the blog has a link to your top level domain.

Write Articles

Article marketing is still a very good method to get links. There is always a spot where you can add a link to send people to a website of yours. The goal is to do some very good research and write a good article. You should be writing articles to get a following and build some credibility. It is not just for link building. Once people start following you, they will then start linking to your sites.

The best way to make this work is to do it consistently. You might want to set up a schedule where you can address each one of these areas. Remember that SEO is not an over night project. It takes months, anywhere from 9 - 12 months to see the end results. Follow these six steps above and you will be well on your way to climbing in the rankings in the search engines.

Being successful in internet marketing takes a complete plan. If you are not sure exactly where or how to get started, then look to an internet marketing consultant for some simple guidance.