Inbound Linking Success Tips

Having a disciplined strategy of building inbound links to your website is just like making deposits into the emotional bank account of a loved one.  Google and the other search engines give your  website attention only if you give your website attention.  Putting it another way, by adding content on a regular basis and building inbound links to your site, the search engines spiders will stay interested, visit your site more often to index your pages and consequently reward you with higher rankings.  And we all know that higher rankings leads to more traffic. This can be an important part of your inbound marketing plan

Search Engines Grade on a Curve

Know where to focus your efforts.  In any niche market, you don't always have to be a SEO black belt, just a little bit better than your competition because the search engines grade on a curve.

So now you know that the search engines grade your website on a curve and reward top ranking based upon how you compare to your competition's websites?  So if you're competition is asleep at their SEO wheel it will be very easy for you to rank high for your most important keywords.

 3 Factors for Creating Effective Backlinks

1. Quantity of inbound links - In the eyes of the search engines each link is a vote of confidence for your website
2. "Authority" of the linking pages - Is it a new bloggers website or a highly visited site like CNN, NASA.gov or Harvard.edu. The linking page transfers authority to your page.
3. Use keywords in "Anchor Text" of the inbound links - When the anchor text of the incoming link contains words related to the content on you page it adds additional relevance.

5 Step Blueprint for Building Inbound Links

You are essentially only competing against the 10 websites on the first page of Google.  If you are ranking #7, you should focus on the sites ranking ahead of you.  The best way to do this is to "reverse-engineer" their websites and give particular attention to their inbound link network.

1. Evaluate your own link network
2. Evaluate the link network of your competitors
3. Set a definite goal for building your link network
4. Find backlinking opportunites and create a To Do list (directories, guest blogging, create Web 2.0 properties, niche related blogs and forums)
5. Take Action 

 Conclusion - The Lion and The Hunters

Have you heard the story of the the two hunters who are out in the jungle and encounter a hungry lion.  The first hunter slowly removes his heavy boots and replaces the with light running shoes.  His friend watches him in amazement  and says, " You must be silly, you'll never outrun a lion!". The first hunter looked up, smiled and said, " I don't have to outrun the lion, I only have to outrun you."

Moral of the Story: Research what your online competition is doing and do a little more to stay alive.