There are 1,000’s of ways to build links back to your site and for a variety of reasons. Some will build links to increase rankings while others are looking to increase PageRank. Whatever the case may be, it is necessary that you understand the different types of link building.

Building Links to Increase Total Backlinks
In some industries, depending on the competition link building could entirely just be a popularity contest. For example, you could check the backlinks of your competitors rankings for the terms you are targeting and notice that they have over 100,000 backlinks compared to your 112. Also, for some search engines, having a plethora of links plays a role in your search engine positioning. Furthermore, the more links you have pointing to your site, the more paths you have for bots to find your site and to cache it. Building backlinks to increase your total in-link count in Yahoo or Google is usually done because this is something that can easily be seen by anyone online. Having a site that only has 50 backlinks says a lot. Much can be said about a site with over 40,000 links as well.

A few techniques to increase total backlinks include site-wide link building, blog rolls on blogs with a lot of posts, directory submitting and article distribution.

Building Links to Increase PageRank
Although you want a lot of sites to point to yours, you also want these sites to have high PageRanks. Google uses PageRank as a measure of importance. PageRank is an algorithm that measures how many sites are pointing to you and how many sites are pointing to those sites pointing to you and so on. Google still makes it clear that PageRank is the heart of their search engine algorithm, so getting links from websites with high Page Rank is a must. When you obtain links from sites with a lot of links pointing to them, it shows Google that a trusted domain has linked to you. Another reason you may want to increase your PageRank is because you want to sell advertising placements or blog reviews and noticed that the higher the PR of your site, the more money you can charge.

This form of link building is a very common technique performed by directories. They buy links from pages with a lot of PR to inflate their PR so webmasters will want to pay for inclusion into their directories.

A few techniques to increase PR fast is to get links from sites with a PR4 or better, sitewide/blogroll links, social bookmarking, mass press releasing, text link buying and link baiting.

Building Links that Increase Search Engine Rankings
As mentioned before, backlinks counts as votes. However it is not only the number and type of backlinks that matter, what they say about you could make all the difference in the world when it comes to search engine positioning. The anchor texts of your links are labels that help the search engines bots categorize and rank your site according to relevance. Sometimes getting a few links saying the keywords you’re going after can go a lot further than how many links you may have. So if you are looking to build links to increase search engine visibility, find relevant sites to give you links saying the keywords you’re going after for optimal keyword placement.

A few techniques to increase rankings are niche directory submissions, article distribution, link exchanges, blog reviews, links from sites already ranking for terms you’re targeting, and press releases.

Building Links that Generate traffic
So we can build links to increase PR and we can build links to improve our rankings. However, isn’t the ultimate goal to generate traffic? It’s easy to build links to indirectly generate traffic via the SERP’s and to forget about generating links that send visitors. While some links may increase your PR or even help your search engine positions, links that send relevant traffic directly to your site from a site related to yours could be a better investment than building links in hopes to get some love from the search engines’ proprietary algorithms.

A few ways to generate traffic via backlinks, is through affiliate marketing, paid links, links on pages with top Alexa rankings, reviews from bloggers with a lot of subscribers, forums in your industry, social networking and press releases.

While all of these techniques are valid, the important thing to remember is that major search engines like websites that generate traffic naturally. So not only do you have to figure out which route you want to take (if not all of them), you should also devised strategies that will give your website a natural link building profile.

Related posts:

1. What makes a link builder an “Expert”?
2. If You Build It, They Will Come but a Little Help Doesn’t Hurt
3. Link Exchange for cooperation

There seem to be some common questions about social media marketing which those many businesses who have not yet got involved in social media are seeking answers to, before embarking on a potentially time-consuming and unknown strategy. Here are seven of the top questions we are asked.

The first question has to be “Where do I start?” There is an ever-growing number of social media websites, and you need to research these before you decide which site(s) will be best not just for you, but to track down your target audience. Trying to second guess which social site will be the next big thing or which is going to fall out of favour is a bit like trying to herd cats, so you should spread your actions across more than one site, and keep a weather eye on developing trends.

Question 2 – What tactics should I use? Once you have decided which sites are appropriate for your marketing message, you need to understand which tactics are likely to work best in those places. Once again, this is a matter of not just research but also trial and error. However, don’t dive in to tweeting, for instance, without at the very least understanding the basics, the netiquette, and lurking for a while to see what others are doing, right and wrong.

Question 3 – What is social media netiquette? There is a fine line between communicating or socialising, and marketing, and ensuring you don’t cross that line will take some effort. There are unspoken rules in each of the social media ‘worlds’ but there are many experts who are happy to ensure that the community adheres to those, by educating newbies and so on, so seek out the people who are respected within those communities and ask for advice, or listen to what they are saying.

Question 4 – How do I measure whether it is working? You need to be clear that spending time and money on the tactics required for those sites will not dilute your core marketing message, nor distract from or conflict with other activities. You should ensure that you have processes in place to track effectiveness and return on investment, just as you do with other marketing efforts. Remember: metrics matter!

Question 5 – How much time should I spend? It is clear from the many who are already involved in social media that it can, without careful management, become a major time sink. Understanding this from the outset will mean that you can develop clear processes that do not eat into precious time that could be more profitably be spent elsewhere. This is not to say that marketing via social media cannot reap rewards, just that you should be aware that you can become consumed and even a victim of your own success.

Question 6 – Can things go wrong? The social media world is very viral, and one minor post can go global in hours or even minutes if it captures the imagination. This can lead to servers falling over, out of stock product landing pages, or your email inbox suddenly becoming fuller than your secretary can cope with. Automation and checking that your backend systems are fully functional is worth considering if you don’t want to be overwhelmed. Whilst it is not usual to find these problems happening, other events in the social media world outside of your control can contribute, and it is worth being aware of the potential for social media to make life that little bit harder than you were expecting!
If there are any known problems with your site, ordering systems, stock control etc, or you have been seeing poor conversions from other marketing tactics, then it would be wise to resolve these issues before becoming a social media marketer. If there is already something wrong with your website, you can count on it being pointed out publicly to many in the social media world!

Question 7 – What should I look to achieve? Understanding exactly what you want your social media efforts to lead to is a must. There is no point twittering or updating your profile purely for the sake of it. You should have clearly defined outcomes so that your actions lead to the results you wish for. This means that you also need to make sure that once you have driven your new audience in the direction you wish them to go, your website, newsletter, blog etc is also set up to help you achieve your aims.

Summary:
Social media marketing is definitely a must in the mix of internet marketing and promotion but you should enter the water cautiously. Not so cautiously that you don’t see results, but it is most definitely not a ‘dive in at the deep end’ strategy unless you are very thick skinned and/or ready to start a new business if this one goes down the tubes because of your social media mistakes!

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2. The Dos and Donts of Article Marketing
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