HomeSEO Max™SEO Library PerformanceGuarantee SEO InsightContact us

Working With Your SEO Company to Get the Most From Your Link Building Strategy

Why Are Inbound Links So Important?

A successful plan for reaching and maintaining a winning position in search engines consists of three major components: 1) optimized content, 2) optimized site structure, and 3) high-quality inbound links.

Relevant links pointing to your web site are critical to building a strong presence in the search engines. All other things equal, a site with more links from relevant sites is likely to outrank one with fewer or less-relevant inbound links.

As an experienced SEO provider that works with numerous small and medium-sized businesses, we would like to let you know a few ways you can help to increase the number of links pointing to your site to enhance link popularity as well as increase the value of your site overall.

Making Your Web Site an Authority Site

Building appropriate links gives rise to the potential to create great value for your web site. And when your web site is more valuable to your audiences, you can experience cumulative effects that work together to strengthen your web presence – and your business.

Think of link building as an important form of PR on the Internet. The goal of link building is to make your web site a hub in the “site universe” of your industry, a recognized authority for your target market.

In addition to link building (and also to facilitate link building), the following factors can contribute to your status as an online authority:

You must start with the needs of your target audiences. When your web site meets these basic criteria, it becomes more attractive for other parties to link to it.

How Your In-House Marketing Team Can Contribute To Building Quality Links

The best way to start is by encouraging links with parties you interact with regularly. Your working relationship with your clients and vendors puts you in an influential position – an email request coming from your in-house marketing personnel will carry with it more weight than one coming from your outsourced online marketing team, which has no working relationship with your customers or vendors.

Customers and partners are surprisingly responsive when linking is suggested. You’ll find that people are glad to endorse an organization with which they do business, and they are often flattered that you wish to include them in your “site universe”.

Here are some examples of how you can make linking to your site easy.


You know that happy customers make great referrals for your products or services. If your customers maintain web sites, they may like to mention your products or services on their sites. Just ask them to link to you. Use the opportunity to thank them for their business – customers LOVE it when a company takes the time to communicate with them.

Be sure to make it easy and provide the link to your product page or to your main URL in your e-mail. Here’s a sample email you can customize for your customers:

Subject:

Dear (name),

I just wanted to take a moment to touch base and thank you for doing business with us.

We value having you as a customer. If you have any comments about your product or experience with (insert your company name), please do let me know.

If you have a web site, why not let others know about us with a link to our site? You can simply place this text on your site and link it to (insert company web site URL)

We look forward to continuing to serve you.

Best regards,

(your name)

A brief email like this may even help generate content for testimonials and help build your image in the eyes of your customers, while tapping into any customer evangelists you didn’t know you had!

You can also encourage linking in your standard communications with customers. For example, include a brief request in your newsletters, on product pages, on ‘thank you’ pages after a customer takes an action on your web site, etc.

Following a purchase or transaction with your company is the best time to ask, as customers are usually in a very positive frame of mind then.

Most likely your licensed dealers, distributors, contractors or other representatives that sell your products have web sites. Just ask your product vendors or licensed dealers to provide a link back to your site. They should be happy to oblige due to the halo effect of association with your organization.

This can help standardize and protect your company’s image portrayed on dealer sites,which can help to improve branding efforts for your company.

You can email existing dealers to let them know how to link to you, and make sure you provide liking instructions to every new dealer when they sign on with you. A note as simple as this can do the trick:


We ask all licensed (your company name) dealers to link to our corporate site. Please place the following link on your web site:

Licensed Representative

(include HTML link to your site here, so it only needs to be copied and pasted)

Not only are press releases excellent for media exposure, an optimized press release written by your SEO copywriter will improve your search engine visibility. Your SEO copywriting team at SEO Advantage® can also make recommendations on how you should incorporate links throughout your press releases as well as distribute these press releases online for you. See more details at http://www.seocopymax.com.

You probably already know to include your web site URL in your email signature. Why not also include a line that says “Link to us” above it? Or you could try something like this after your standard contact information:

Enjoying great results? Let others know – mention (your URL) on your website.

Ask Your SEO Company

If you have made a commitment to building and maintaining your company’s position in search engine results, you should draw on all the resources your SEO provider offers.

Thinking of sending an email to customers? Run it by your SEO firm. In fact, if they are service oriented, they may even prepare the email for you complete with linking instructions, so all you have to do is send it. They will help you incorporate the proper keywords for maximum effectiveness.

In fact, it’s a good idea to consult your SEO firm on any of your in-house initiatives that can affect your online performance. For example, any of the following activities can have an effect on your rankings and may even give rise to additional opportunities for maximizing your search engine performance.

Your SEO firm will want to provide you with all the services and resources you need to grow your online performance. Keep in mind that a good SEO copywriting team can provide you with copy that both ranks and sells. Content that meets best practices will motivate people to remember your site or even mention you on their site. 

By Parichatra Reuning, Senior Associate at SEO Advantage®, Inc.

SEO Advantage® is the search engine optimization firm preferred by small and medium-sized businesses seeking to grow their online presence by reaching and converting more customers. The firm's SEO services are conducted by experienced senior associates drawing on expertise in complementary fields such as copywriting, web site design and pay per click campaign management.

SEO-Max™ represents SEO Advantage®'s leading-edge search engine optimization and online marketing technology, offering measurable ROI backed by exceptional customer service and the Web's Best Guarantee(TM). For more information, visit http://www.seo-advantage.com or call 1-800-366-1639.

Secrets of Marketing on the Web for YOUR business. Start learning from the experts now!
Name
Email