Get Links

The final step of the search engine optimization is to get links from other web sites.  The reason this step is so important is that you can tell Google what your website is about through on page optimization and what we covered in Steps 1-3, but the search engines also look to see what other websites say your website is about.

About Getting Links

How to Get Links

About Getting Links

Getting links isn't easy but if you spend 30 minutes a week at it you can build up your link count. 

Most people aren't going to link to you unless you also link to them so you will need to create a Links page on your website.  On this page you will put the links of the people linking to you.

When you give another webmaster your link MAKE SURE that the keyword you are targeting for your web page is the link title.

For example, for this page the keyword is Get Links.  If I were doing a link for this page I would want my link to look like this on another website:

Get Links - short tutorial on how to get links to your website.

How to Get Links

The easiest way to get links is to ask for them.  You can send an email to websites that are on a similar topic to your own website.  Don't send emails to just random websites that aren't related to your topic.  You will get more credit with the search engines if the link is on a related topic.

For example, if you sell dog toys, then a link from any dog related website will carry more weight than a link from a website about boats.

Some websites have "Link to this Site" text on their website which means that they are interested in exchanging links. 

Using the dog toy example above, I would type "dog link to site" (without the quotes) into a search engine and then contact the webmasters of the websites that search brings up.

It's a lot easier to exchange links with people who have said they are open to a link exchange than people who aren't.

Don't be discouraged if it takes you a while to get some links.  This is an ongoing process and one that takes a while.  I suggest devoting 30 minutes to an hour each week to the process.  Over time you will develop some good links for your website. 

That's the short version of how to get links.  For more specific information on choosing the right keyword, how to analyze your competition and how to optimize your website, you may find my ebook on How to Start and Grow your Internet Business helpful.  I go into a lot more detail there. 

Just to recap this search engine optimization tutorial, the main steps involved in ranking higher in the search engines are:

Step 1:  SEO Keywords

Step 2:  SEO Meta Tags

Step 3:  SEO Optimize

Step 4:  Get Links