Using Relevant Inbound Links

Relevant inbound links or back links to a website act to improve your search engine results page rank. The key to successful use of back links is relevancy. In other words, external links to a website need to be relevant to the content of that site. If your website is about pet care, for example, a back link from a dog holiday resort would be considered relevant while one from restaurant would not. Furthermore, the most valuable relevant links will be one-way, not reciprocal. Relevant linking also involves the rate at which links are created. Creating links too fast can trigger a negative search engine response. It is far better for search engine optimization to grow in a natural organic way.

Successful search engine optimization requires that your inbound links be of high quality. For SEO purposes, quality is more important than quantity. Never use link exchanges or link farms to generate links. Not only are they not relevant, they can cause your site to incur severe penalties from the search engines. Their sole purpose is to deceive the search engines into believing you are building legitimate inbound links. However, newer algorithms can detect the fraud and you will incur a penalty.

It is possible to create relevant, one way links by using the following strategies:

• Make sure your website content is of high quality, relevant to your audience and unique to you (not duplicate or rehashed information). High quality content can encourage other websites to link back to you without any effort on your part. This process can be enhanced by using online syndicated press releases to inform other related websites of your existence.
• Submit your website information to relevant and reputable directories which can provide quality back links within the major search engines. Google actually recommends that you submit your website to quality directories in order to improve search engine position. Submitting your website to the relevant categories of high quality permanent directories can not only improve your inbound links, it can positively impact your exposure and website traffic.
• Use text link advertisements (not banner ads) on related and credible websites in order to create relevant back links. Doing this improves your search engine rank as well as generate a lot of click through traffic.
• Write articles that can be submitted to article directories or published on high traffic, relevant websites and that can include a link back to your site. This strategy is also known as article marketing and involves submitting articles to article directories. The articles can then be taken up by web or ezine publishers who can use your articles for free as long as they leave your resource information and link to your website unchanged. Back links, therefore, come from both the article directories themselves as well as the websites who have published your articles. The risk with this strategy lies in mass article submissions. Having your article duplicated across multiple sites may in the future be detrimental to your website as it is propagating duplicate content across the web. It may be more beneficial to submit articles to the top article directories and also locate some relevant high traffic sites yourself that you can submit your articles to.
• Write and distribute press releases that link back to your website. There are thousands of news related websites who look for press releases within specific industries that can be distributed to their client base. Your company information and website links remain intact at the bottom of your press release.

Most webmasters know the importance of back links for their search engine position. Unfortunately, many do not make a distinction between the quantity of back links and the quality of them. Relevant linking is essential to not only gain a good position in the search engines, but to maintain it. Quality, relevant and one way links that are accumulated naturally will improve your search engine positioning; reciprocal, irrelevant links which are gained too quickly can have the opposite effect.