Inbound Links:  The Key To Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

It’s the dream of almost every website owner to be acknowledged as the king of the search engines for their respected industry. But when it comes to search engine optimization (Otherwise known as "SEO"), in order to be the king of the search engine hill you must have as many people link your site to theirs…  One Way!

Search engine optimization is a method of preparing a website to gain high ranking in search engine queries. Methods on optimization vary between legitimate "White Hat" ways like continually improving content relevancy and ease of navigation to "Black Hat" tricks like link farming and keyword stuffing.

The term used when other website owners link your site to theirs one-way is to have an inbound link. With search engine giants like Google and Yahoo, it places significant value on the number of inbound links pointed to your website because it is considered a vote of confidence and relevance by that site.

As stated by Google: “In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B.” And a large vote of confidence online not only means high traffic, but also a chance to earn an income too. This is because the relevancy of a site causes it to rank higher in the search engines, attracting more attention from consumers and attracting revenue from companies willing to pay to advertise or appear on the same site.

In other words, one-way inbound links are as good as money in the bank for your website.

So how does a website owner go about acquiring these precious inbound links? 

Here are 4 effective strategies to get you started:

1.  Create great content and wait for offers.

This method is the most ethical of the strategies but also takes the longest to achieve.  This strategy banks on the fact that if your website has great content that is interesting and updated, with a navigation system that doesn't require rocket science, people will love your site. Other websites will simply start linking to you because of the great content and value that you provide.

2.  Apply for inbound links.

Another great strategy is to apply for inbound links. You can submit your site for review at directory websites whose interests run into the subject matter of your site. If these directories find your website relevant, they will link to you.

Think of it this way, if the Internet is the analogy of the earth, a directory can be best described as a small city, where almost everybody knows each other. Any new arrival gets a thorough once-over and the whole city votes to see if you get to stay.

3.  Purchase inbound links.

There are always some high-ranking sites that are willing to sell their outbound links to the highest bidder. Obviously you would only want to pay for a link from a site that is located high in the search engines.

However, the drawback to this is that you have no link-equity other than the amount of money you are willing to spend to keep existing on their site. Search engines such as Yahoo and Google are actively trying to stomp out these efforts as it reduces the quality and relevance of their search engine results.

4.  Distribute quality content for others to use.

Of all the strategies we have discussed so far, this is the most effective way to take matters into your own hands and start climbing up the search engine ranks. It's easy too!

All you need to do is start writing articles and creating content that you distribute to other websites to use. In return for them using your content or articles, they must place a link back to you on their website.

Getting your content out there for others to use is simple. All you need to do is write informational articles that relate to your subject of expertise (and your website). Then distribute those articles on article directories. These article directories make your articles available to others to use as long as they keep your "About the Author" box in place which gives you credit for the content and of course contains a link back to your website!

So there you have it. The top four legitimate strategies for increasing your inbound links and helping your website climb up the search engine ranks. Although it's not an overnight process, just stay diligent and do something to boost your search engine ranks everyday.