<
back to articles
How Exchanging Links With Other Sites
Improves Your Own
Business websites are a necessity in today's society and the
internet is only as good as its links. Without links, the internet
simply would not be able to exist. To ensure a quality World Wide
Web continues, you must provide links that your customers might
be interested in. Linking to other sites helps tell the customers
which products you use and trust. It also forms a bond of trust
between you and other sites. Moreover, it can improve your own
site by associating with other products that customers both know
and trust and by giving you an increased level of visibility.
There are two kinds of links you should include in your site.
You should include a general links section for the benefit of
your customers, and you should include a reciprocal links section
to help you and other businesses as well as your customers.
There are several ways to decide which general links to include
in your site. You might start by visiting competitor’s web
sites. Check out their links section to understand what sites
they provide links for. This might help you figure out what your
customers are looking for. It might also provide you with a good
base for a reciprocal linking system, which will be discussed
in the next lesson.
Another way to decide what general links to include in your site
is to consult with your customers. Internet-savvy customers will
be able to tell you what they look for in a professional site
and what they like and do not like about your links. This can
help you control the quality of your links section. You could
do this through a survey or by simply informally interviewing
your clientele.
Be sure to provide general links that have a high page rank with
internet search engines. This will increase your web traffic.
You can do this by typing a key phrase in a search engine and
look at the highest ranked pages that match your results.
General links are great, but reciprocal links are an essential
part to the promotion of your website. You have a strong site
that offers your quality product and you want people to know about
your site. To make sure that you get the traffic you need, you
must have other sites directed toward yours with links.
This process is fairly simply, but there are many ways to engage
in reciprocal linking.
First, research the sites you might want to link to. You might
start this process by making two lists. First, list the sites
you think your customers might be interested in. For now, just
write, you can consider narrowing your list down at a later time.
Next, create a list of sites that would benefit your site. You
can then compare the two lists and see what they have in common.
Compile a list of common subjects, and list out three key words
to fit with each subject.
After the research phase, it is time to go online. Find a Meta
search engine and input all three words for each subject. Any
site that comes back with all three keywords should be high on
your priority list.
Once you've done that, it is time to start sifting through your
results. Bookmark any sites that look promising.
When you've made your final choices, it is time to draft a letter
to the webmaster of each site you're considering. Get to the point
quickly and sell your site to them. Do not follow up if your original
letter was not responded to.
The final step in this process is to negotiate the link and location
in terms of both sites. As soon as possible, get their link on
your site and send them a note letting them now you have a live
link to their site. Check their site frequently to ensure they
are upholding their promise to you as well.
The entire process of choosing links and reciprocal links increases
your visibility to customers. Not only will they be able to find
you through the use of a search engine, they will now be able
to find you through the use of other websites. This can mean nothing
but good things for you and your website.