Although there are many factors contributing to your search engine rankings, perhaps the most significant is the number of high quality links pointing to your site.

Google and other search engines see links as votes. Every website that links to your web page is a vote for your authority. Of course a link from a credible site like the New York Times is going to be much more beneficial than a link from a no-name site. Nonetheless, it is important to do what you can to have other sites point in your direction.

Running a link building campaign kills two gigantic birds with one stone. Not only are you increasing your search engine chances, but you are also driving traffic directly from those other sites to yours. Here are a few popular methods for acquiring links:

  1. Linking Partnerships – Find sites that have similar or complementary content to yours. Ask the website owner if they will link to your site if you return the favor.
  2. Directories – Find credible directories in your industry and have your site listed. Be careful to avoid spammy or low-quality directories.
  3. Content Creation – Companies often use blogs, white papers, webinars and other useful content to attract links. If readers truly find your content appealing, there’s a good chance they will share it with friends.

To find out approximately how many links point to your website, navigate to Yahoo.com and type the following into the search bar: ‘linkdomain: www.yoursite.com’.

Yahoo will list all of the links it finds. I recommend spending some time evaluating the types of sites linking to yours. Think about why they are linking to you and how you can find more sites like these. Embrace the power of a link and you will begin to find your web traffic move to new levels.