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Link Popularity - The 'Other' Business Benefits
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Attract Qualified Leads
Following links is one of the most popular ways for people to find new sites.
According to research from Georgia Tech, 85% of people find new sites by following a link -- this compares well against figures of 87% for search engines and 38% for email. Linking can be one of the best ways to attract new business. According to the Seybold Group, 50% of Amazon's new customers arrive through links from other sites.
Every link from an external site is another opportunity for a qualified lead to find and arrive at your site. The more links you have, the more qualified traffic you can attract.
Look at the sites you identified and classified in your research. Which sites offer the best potential for capturing prospects, and what will you have to do to persuade them to link to you? What competitive selling messages are people likely to meet? How can you strengthen the impact of your own message?
The key to this process is to be aware of the value you offer, and to present that value through your link text in a way that attracts customers. It's not an easy task, but it's not impossible, either.
What content do you have on your site? How attractive is that content to potential link targets? How attractive is your content to users of their sites?
If you run an environmental consultancy, a self-assessment tool or a white paper will be attractive. If you sell chocolates, an article on seasonal gifts or daily recipes could be attractive. 'Content' could be an online sales facility, an online service, a self-assessment tool, an instant quotation, a white paper, tips on using your products, a problem solving article - even a comprehensive set of links for your industry.
If you feel your site lacks content, you'll have to create it. Without good content, other worthwhile sites will simply not link to you.
Look at the information and expertise within your company. How much of that could be turned into valuable content? Rework the material for the Web or employ a professional writer to do the work for you (and check out this excellent free writing guide from Kathy Henning).
Look at your most attractive content. Make sure it's easily accessible from your home page. Look at the titles and descriptions. Do they really do a selling job for you? Sites that link to you are likely to use your own titles and descriptions. If these are not benefit-rich and customer focused, you're wasting a major opportunity.
Which of these is the most attractive?
APEX Environmental Consultancy - Company Profile
Welcome to the Website of APEX Environmental Consultancy. This site provides a guide to the wealth of experience we have accumulated over 25 years...APEX - Europe's Leading Environmental Consultancy
Covering risk management, environmental monitoring, planning and design with offices in London, Paris and Düsseldorf.
The second might just get the vote!
Provide Value for your Customers
You can provide value by sharing, guiding and directing your customers to useful resources.
You can't just have inbound links, you must also direct people to valuable external resources. This should not be confused with reciprocal linking -- 'if you link to me, I'll link to you' -- which is worthless. Link to external resources because they are useful, not because they happen to link back to you.
Many sites refuse to provide external links because they feel they will lose customers. But you are much more likely to lose customers if you stand on the sidelines and miss the opportunity to help them. Customers will already be searching online -- much better that they should get information through you than having to search themselves.
You need to be confident enough in your own offering to be able to offer links to external sources. You can, for instance, direct your prospects and customers to content that they'll find to be of value, and which will help them in their buying decisions.
So the environmental consultant may want to link to state regulations, industry debates, published research and reports; the chocolate retailer may choose to link to entertaining articles, reviews of their own products, or shopping guides.
The material you collected in your research of your industry is valuable material. How much of that could you productively share with your prospects or customers?
Attract Even More Links
If your site is well-linked, then the probability of attracting further links increases.
This happens for a number of reasons:
- you'll feature high in search engines rankings, so more people will find your site,
- more webmasters will be exposed to your material and
- your PageRank on Google will be relatively high, making you more attractive to link to.
There is a simple power law at work -- "the rich get richer", or "links attract links".
Of course, the ideal situation is where your content or services are considered so good that people link to you without even being asked. Put an effective linking strategy in place and over time it will gain its own momentum and each new link created will become a source of new prospects for your business.
Such a power law has implications for your competitive standing. If a competitor has more relevant links than you, then the gap between you is sure to grow -- unless you take some affirmative action.
Establish your Company in a Virtual Community
Every industry has a virtual community online. Some may be under-developed, others busy hubs with hundreds or thousands of visitors every day, and lots of business being done. An effective linking strategy helps you become part of that virtual community.
If you're an active member of that community, you'll be able to enjoy all the benefits that I've talked about. You will:
- get to hear industry news as it breaks
- be able to spot trends and opportunities
- build networks and strategic partnerships
- have ready access to customer opinion
- have your company recognized and valued
Reap the Rewards of Your Linking Strategy
A linking strategy is difficult, and demands a lot of work and persistence in order to be successful. Yet, ultimately linking is what the Web is all about. You will come up against obstacles and frustrations, but in the process you'll learn a huge amount.
Companies who recognize the importance of linking and incorporate it into their thinking will be the ones to prosper and survive.