Requesting
links from sites
with a similar
customer base
as yours - 'link
swapping'
In
‘link
swapping’
you put a
link in your
website to
another site
and they in
exchange,
put a link
to yours.
This is an
extremely
important
technique
for promoting
your website,
so don’t
disregard
it.
Find
all the sites
that have
information,
products,
or services
which in some
way or another
can complement
or relate
to your business
and e-mail
them requesting
a link swapping.
Don’t
forget to
ask any organisations
or associations
in your industry,
local on-line
business directories,
specialised
directories
(these sometimes
may charge
a fee), your
suppliers,
and even your
customers.
Some
people may
not be willing
to do the
swap, for
various reasons,
but you will
find that
at least 25%
won’t
have any problem,
as you also
will be promoting
their sites.
By
exchanging
links you
will increase
the traffic
to your website,
as people
browsing these
other sites
may need additional
information
and click
on your link.
When
you send your
website link,
send also
a brief description
of what your
site is about,
this will
be more informative
than just
the website
address and
it will more
readily capture
the user’s
attention.
Sometimes
they may be
happy to even
include your
logo, just
ask.
The
best part
about swapping
links is that
it will also
increase your
‘Search
Engine Ranking’.
Why is it
so? With the
exponential
increase in
published
websites,
Search Engines
are becoming
smarter every
day. They
need to discriminate
between quality,
relevant sites,
and junk.
To do so,
one of the
tricks they
use is the
counting of
relevant links
other sites
have to your
site. Relevant
links are
links from
related sites.
For example,
if you have
a beauty salon
and a wholesaler
of beauty
products has
a link to
your site,
this will
count as a
relevant link.
However, a
link to your
site from
a Computer
shop’s
site will
not count
as relevant.
Search
Engines assume
that if your
site has good,
useful information,
many other
related sites
will want
to link to
it, and on
this basis
they assess
your site’s
ranking.
It
is also important
to include
relevant keywords
as part of
the link,
not just the
website address
or the business
name. For
example, if
your business
name is ABC
Services and
you have an
Accountancy
Practice,
the hypertext
(link) to
your site
should be
something
like this:
ABC
Services
provides
Accounting
and Financial
advice
So
don’t
leave it for
tomorrow,
start swapping
today!
In
our next newsletter
we will be
looking at
the advantages
of Having
a ‘Links’
page
|