How To Increase Your Web Site Popularity Through One-Way Incoming
Links by Charles Ryder
One of the best ways to get free website traffic, as we all know, is links from
other sites which help improve your site's link popularity. Nothing new
there...however now that Google and friends are cracking down on reciprocal
link exchanges and de-valuing links from non-relevent sites, it's become
vitally important to get 1-way INCOMING links from sites that are related to
your niche.
For example, a travel site would benefit from a incoming-link from a holiday
home rental company or an airline or car hire place, but there would be NO
benefit from getting an incoming link from an online casino service or one of
those ubiquitous Viagra sales sites we all love to receive spam email from
(not!)... :)
Here's what I suggested to one of my client's (who runs a luxury accommodation
site) as a way for him to get quality incoming one-way links:
Ideally, it's MUCH better to have a one-way link coming into your site, rather
than having to reciprocate the link and give them one back. HOWEVER, this is
getting VERY difficult to achieve.
Essentially, you are asking a possible competitor to give you a link to your
website, when they would much rather the searcher just found them instead.
Recipricol links are also starting to lose their value in terms of link
popularity. A one-way link from a RELATED site is better than 5-10 2-way links
from most sites. So, I believe that in order for you to get as many incoming
one-way links as possible, you need to give website owners a REASON to be
prepared to give you that link for free. I believe the best way to achieve this
is to go back to something I suggested in an email recently: As a way to
differentiate yourself from all the other sites out there offering similar
content/services to yours, you need to value-add so that it is compelling for
site visitors to make their bookings through your site in preference to anyone
else's - even the actual accommodation place site itself. As I suggested, one
way is to offer a package of discount vouchers for guests staying at each place
for all the local tourist attractions, and offer them as a free giveaway to
anyone making a booking through you. The more discounts or specials you offer,
the more attractive it will be for someone wanting to make a booking thru you.
Perhaps on occasions, you might even persuade some companies to offer free
giveaways as an incentive to get tourists to visit their premises (free wine
samples or free food samples, etc.) However, rather than call them up and just
ask for discounts for possible clients, why not approach them with a view to
offering to give them FREE advertising to your clients, in exchange for a link
from their website (designed the way we specify, and preferrably placed in a
vaguely decent spot on their site). So, an example might make this clearer...
Let's say you have an accommodation spot in Sydney. You contact all the related
businesses in that region that offer something that may be of value to a
visitor to the area. Say, a winery, a restaurant, a car hire place, a movie
cinema, a chemist/pharmacy, etc. Explain to them that you would like to offer
them free advertising for clients you refer to their business while they are
holidaying in Sydney, in exchange for a link on their website back to your
site. Tell them you will put their details in a PDF document and anytime
someone makes a booking for an accommodation spot in the area, you will email
them a free copy of the document (sort of like a digital voucher system) and
they can print it out and bring it with them for use while in the area. In
fact, if the truth be known, you could probably even put a link to the PDF on
your site so ANYONE can download it. Make them have to fill in a small form to
get it (name & email address) and then add their name to your (upcoming)
:-) email newsletter. That way, even if you don't make a sale so far as a
booking goes, at least you have a good incentive for people to give you their
email address in exchange for downloading the vouchers for the location they
are interested in. Sell it to them on the basis that it WILL give them FREE
advertising. They don't even have to offer any specials (although if they do,
that's obviously a bonus for you and the client), and all you ask for in return
is a one-way link back to your website. I'm not sure what sort of success rate
you would have getting this, but I would be surprised if it was less than 1 in
10, perhaps even 1 in 5 businesses being prepared to say yes. And, you have a
WHOLE country of accommodation hotspots you can call over the next 6-12 months
and put this proposition to, with a view to getting ongoing increasing one-way
links to your site from relevant businesses. Oh, a small but important point.
Get them to provide the text &/or graphics content that goes in your
voucher. Saves you some time & money. I would assume that many of these
places already have some form of brochures & advertising, etc - just get
them to email you the image in a usable format.
If you have to spend time designing the look and content of each ad, it will
chew up your time, so if they see the value of doing this, just explain that
you will NEED them to email you their voucher entry (perhaps specify the size
and format, etc), and you just drop it into a word doc (for example) and turn
that into a pdf when you have filled it up. Also, you will no doubt have some
places being concerned that they are going to be in your voucher "book" with
their competitors, which may (in their minds) devalue it for them, so offer
them exclusivity if they come up with a great special offer for your clients.
Rather than making them pay for exclusivity upfront, get them to pay for it
when someone redeems the voucher, which is good for you AND them. I believe
this will be the best way for you to secure one-way links from related
websites, without having to spend large sums of money. Once your page rank
increases (for both your home page AND individual internal pages), you will
find your site showing up higher in the organic searches across the board,
which is the ultimate goal anyway.
There you have it. Any business (not just accommodation) can take this idea,
mould it to their specifics, and be generating great incoming links from
relevent sites in days.
As a last suggestion, if you want to speed up the process, contact prospective
link partners by direct mail. That way, you can get in touch with 10-100 of
them in a very short period of time, and only deal with the ones who see the
value in what you are offering.
All the best with your link building campaign, and remember that success on the
internet takes time and dedication. You won't get miracle results in 1 week, so
be persistent.
About the Author
Charles Ryder is a Consultant at WCR Internet Marketing, a specialist Australian
Search Engine Marketing company. Get a
free site analysis here.
