Website linking strategies are one of the most important parts, if not the most important part of an Internet marketing campaign. Website linking is organic just like the rest of the SEO process. So it should be treated as part of the ongoing web promotion campaign. This is not a quick and easy process, but can have a stronghold in getting and keeping qualified traffic to your website. Having a lot of visitors coming to your website is nice, but if they aren’t the right type of visitors you’re wasting your time, energy and investment dollars. Do it right and step by step, the results will come.

If you didn’t know already, having the right link campaign in place for your website could make the difference between having a “door stop” or a “door opener.” Links can come in many forms, they can come from websites, search engines, search directories, articles, press releases and many other places. Some of these other places could in “bad neighborhoods”, also sometimes referred to as link farms, and could get your website rankings penalized. You could view this kind of linking as “bad association”. Some directories are solely there to cheat not only the system but you too. I have found that working within the system, although it changes frequently, is best working within their guide lines.

Some people have asked me, if they need reciprocal linking in place to get optimum search engine rankings. The short answer is yes you need a link strategy in place. In reality you need high quality links linking to you site. But most people of course will want a link going back to their website, hence the name reciprocal linking. But how might it effect your website if a link is coming in and not going out. If you are planning a reciprocal link strategy, you need to plan on giving a link back to the giver. You will gain better link popularity if you have links coming to your website. The links going out do not effect your link popularity. So what is link popularity and why do I care? It is one of the main determining factors or algorithms search engines use to determine your rankings.

How can I most effectively provide a reciprocal link campaign? The rule of thumb is locate non-competitor, relative type websites. For example if your business provides installation of vinyl siding you might want to share links with a website that installs hardwood flooring. Then contact those websites telling them you want to share links.
Since it’s established that incoming links are more important than links going out to other websites, let’s discuss additional ways to achieve this. There are industry portals or directories, search engine directories like DMOZ and other very important “one way linking” strategies, that should be considered in the overall linking strategy.

Another very effective way in getting those all so important links to your site is by distributing your own expert articles and press releases to specific directories that specialize and accommodate them. You could also distribute them to other non-competitor, relative type websites. This adds value to their webpage content and brings highly effective links back to your website.

What if I have a website with no links coming back? Your website rankings can be penalized. You definitely want to have this part figured out in the SEO planning process. In fact your SEO planning should be completed before you design and build your website (if at all possible), don’t worry most do it after the fact.

So is it OK to get as many links as possible, as fast as possible? Through my experience, I would say NO. You want to grow this area slow and strong, search engines tend view that as a trick or a way to try and beat the system. Quality is key here just as the rest of your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts should be.

What about the “bad neighborhood” linking directories? How can I identify them? Usually they are some type of directory with just lists of any category with no real purpose in mind

So overall the best approach in getting a good solid link campaign started is to first, ask your vendors or industry contacts to share links, people you are already familiar with. Second, write “expert articles” about your business and or industry distribute them to directories, ask to trade a link with industry websites. Third, write and distribute your press releases to PR type directories. Fourth, go ahead and contact those “good fitting” websites to share links with. Fifth and last, stay away from “bad neighborhoods” or link farm type directories.

Tim Frisch is the owner of SEO Help Desk http://www.SEOHelpDesk.com and has been assisting companies build business online since 1998, and offline for over 25 years. SEO Help Desk is a good resource for most aspects of SEO, including linking campaigns, SEO training, SEO coaching, SEO campaigns, SEO consulting and SEO analysis. To see how your website is ranked in the search engines, get a free ranking report at http://www.seohelpdesk.com/free-search-engine-ranking-report/ .