Inbound links are links on other websites that when clicked bring the web surfer to your site. Inbound links are the fuel that drive your website higher in the search results. While the number of links has some importance in optimizing quality is the key. The best links are from relevant sites meaning sites that are of a similar subject or industry. The more popular (more visitors) these sites are the more powerful your link becomes to the search engines. When your keywords are the actual link it’s better still. If many quality websites link to yours, you will have good rankings on search engines. At Get Noticed we are experts at link building and we will be sharing some excellent methods to build strong links to your website.

Before we get into link building we need to make you aware of the “Sandbox Effect”. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandbox_effect ) It’s a theory that we are convinced is accurate. Basically if you produce to many links too fast your website (most notably new website) will be temporarily held back in ranking placement, around 6 months. At Get Noticed we are experts at not crossing this line while delivering quick results.

1. Give testimonials for materials, supplies, products and services your company uses
   Almost every business has vendors that supply products and services to their business. Email the manufactures, publishers, or vendors and tell them what you feel is so great about their product or service. Many of them will want to publish your testimonial to support their business sighting your business and website as the source. This creates a link from a similar or related industry to your site.
2. List your site in directories Many people are under the impression that directories will bring traffic to their site; nothing could be farther from the truth. Even the very best directories send very few visitors. So why do you want to be in directories? Links of course. You want your link in directories so search engines will find your site more important. Some things to consider:
   • The Open Directory Project: It’s free but takes forever to get listed. Google and other important directories will nly list your site in their directory if it appears in the Open Directory first. Note: The Google Directory ( http://directory.google.com/ ) is completely different from the search results. To submit your site to the Open Directory click here http://www.dmoz.org/add.html
   • The Yahoo Directory: Free to nonprofit sites but $299/year for businesses. Again the Yahoo Directory ( https://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/submit/intro/ ) is different from the Yahoo search results.
   • Regional and niche directories: Getting your site listed in these directories is good because the link is on a more relevant page. We included a few niche directories at the bottom of the link building resource page for your review.
3. Reciprocal Links
   Exchanging links with a similar non-competing web site is good business as long as you are not linked up with a “Bad Neighbor” (a web site the has used lots of spamming methods to create links). Check search engines for your keywords and find related sites. Visit these sites and send them and email requesting to put their link on your site and ask them to do the same for you. It’s always helpful to point thing like a broken link on their site to grab their attention especially when trying to trade with a more established site.
4. Consumer Reviews/Opinions
   These sites are powerful because serious buyers will often investigate how your business has interacted with past customers. Great customer reviews can translate into increased sales. Your listing will have a link to your web site so don’t pass on consumer review sites. It’s important to monitor this feedback and in the event you catch a poor review you will want to address it immediately. Most review sites provide a way for businesses to respond to good and bad reviews. If your business generates enough positive feedback you may want to provide a link on your web site to your reviews as testimonials.
5. Classified Ads
   Placing classified ads is a great way to build links and also bring in some targeted traffic. We will cover this in greater detail with some great free sites to place ads on later.
6. Press Releases
   These are great way to make your audience aware of news worth developments about your business. Examples: hiring a key employee, announcing a new service or covering a new service area – perhaps your restaurant has a new menu. The list is endless but press releases are the best way to create links and bring in traffic when news worthy events happen. Example: Scottsdale Hair Stylist Saves Hair For Use At Oil Spill This press release got one of our clients and interview on ABC news and further branded her as an industry leader.
7. Articles and Blogging
   Writing insightful and useful articles on topics your visitors are interested in can brand you as the expert in your field. Because you will be putting your links in the articles and blogs this will send traffic to your web site. This sharing of information can be anything from a “how to” guide to a list of the best vacation deals, it depends on your industry. Some are as simple as why I love what I do. The main thing is offering a reason to read it and keep it positive.
8. User Genterated Web Pages
   These are great tools for creating elaborate individual web pages that are separate from your web site. Topics will often be similar to blogs and articles but these will include other great features. We will suggest a few options later.
9. Social Book Marking
   Users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share. These bookmarks are usually public, and can be saved privately, shared only with specified people or groups, shared only inside certain networks, or another combination of public and private domains. The allowed people can usually view these bookmarks chronologically, by category or tags, or via a search engine. When search engines crawl these saved bookmarks and discover your links your web site becomes more important them.
10. Social Voting Sites
    These sites are basically book-marking sites where the community votes on the posted website. If your post becomes popular you can be rewarded with enormous spikes of traffic and that greatly helps search engine ranking. Most of these sites have very specific rules that need to be followed. We have included some sites worthy of your review later in this article.

1. Don’t create so-called “resource pages” where you build a page specifically to house all of your reciprocal links.
2. Avoid three-way linking schemes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methods_of_website_linking Search engines are becoming more advanced at discovering and discounting these types of links. Google has started to target and discount three way links.
3. Do not increase your number of inbound links to quickly; it looks like SPAM to the search engines, sometimes referred to as the sandbox effect.
4. When making back-linking decisions don’t just look at Page Rank. Provide reciprocal back links that help your visitors with solutions to their needs.
5. Don’t approve a link request until you have verified that the site has not “faked” its Page Rank. Also, verify the pages current cache date in Google.
6. Don’t just work on getting links to your home page; get links to all pages you want to rank well. This is sometimes referred to as deep linking. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_linking
7. Avoid exchanging links with “bad neighborhoods”.
8. Don’t link out to known spam sites.
9. Do not place hidden links in your page.
10. Do not submit your web to FFA (free for all) link pages and link farms (Web sites that link to all kind of web sites). This doesn't work and is a waste of time and money.