Getting links to you website
Having already invested in a website, you'll want plenty of people to visit your site, especially potential customers.
If you want new customers to find you online, remember that it's not enough that you can be found by searching your business name. They don't know you exist.
Let's assume the search engines have indexed your site. That doesn't necessarily mean it can be easily found.
For example, if you're a Hibiscus nursery on the Gold Coast, you'd want to be ranked well (in top ten, if not number one or two) for phrases such as
» hibiscus nursery Qld
» hisiscus plants Gold Coast
» buy plants Gold Coast
» Gold Coast nurseries
» hibiscus for sale Queensland
... and so on .Ranking well for every possible combination of words might not be feasible, but clearly you'll want to rank well for as many as possible. Think of phrases your target market might be likely to use, and try them for yourself in some search engines. How do you rank?
Links on other websites are important for two main reasons:
Direct traffic
That is, people visiting the website and clicking on your link. This makes you less dependant on the rankings search engines decide to give you. The more popular and/or topical the website linking to you, the better.
Listings at www.calyx.com.au include a link to your own website, so anyone interested in your services can simply can simply click to go to your site for more information. Furthermore, such links could improve the ranking of your own website in search engines that use them as a measure of relevance.
Effect on Rankings
Although the exact methods search engines use at any given time to determine the ranking of websites in their search results are a secret, it is generally acknowledged that many use the number of links to you on other websites as a measure of popularity and authority.
However, quality of links is also important, and obvious attempts to trick the trick or "spam" the search engine may backfire.
At www.calyx.com.au, directory listings are linked to your website with plain html links. Unless otherwise requested, anchor text is chosen for the primary purpose of directing humans to your website. However, your listing will appear on pages with a strong contextual relationship to your business. For example, it would be suggested that the hypothetical Gold Coast hibiscus nursery above be listed on the pages specifically dealing with hibiscus and with gardening on the Gold Coast.
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