By: Ken McGaffin

March 21st, 2003

Reader Rating: 8.5

Increasing link popularity is important in search engine optimization, and effective linking can give a real boost to your search result rankings.

But there are other important benefits to link popularity that rarely get mentioned. As a result, they're not often incorporated into the planning of link campaigns, but they should be! This article will explore the reasons why.

Some benefits may seem obvious, others not. But put them together and you'll be able to create a comprehensive linking strategy that's focused on delivering business results.

You'll be able to make a compelling business case for all the hard work and effort that has to go into a successful link campaign, and you'll have a much higher likelihood of success.

So what are these "other benefits"? An effective linking strategy can:

1. Create a detailed map of your industry online
   
2. Create trust in your brand
   
3. Attract qualified leads
   
4. Create value for your customers
   
5. Attract even more links
   
6. Establish your company in a virtual community

Let's look at each of these in more detail.

Create a Detailed Map of your Industry Online

Understanding the business environment in which you work is fundamental to your success, yet how many of us have a true picture of our industry's online representation?

Rather than conducting research to 'find potential link targets', conduct research in order to understand the online marketplace -- and your place within it. This knowledge in itself can bring substantial benefit to your business.

For instance, if you sell environmental services, you need to know where to find out about existing and proposed legislation, you need to know about the latest research, the hot topics, and the debates that may be raging. If, on the other hand, you sell luxury chocolates, you'll need to know the sites were quality gifts are reviewed and recommended, as well as the sites that chocoholics visit.

Understanding the marketplace means gathering information and resources, sifting through them and drawing sound conclusions. Within your industry online, you need to first identify:

• the major portals - what resources do they have? Do they publish breaking news? Do they carry feature articles on companies like yours? Do they have a directory of suppliers? How much traffic do they get? How often are they updated?
• email newsletters - many of the portals will either provide email newsletters themselves, or carry lists of other newsletters. Sign up for them and scan the content. What opportunities exist for your company or service?
• ezines - these may be independent online magazines or affiliated with a print magazine. What type of content do they carry? Do they have searchable archives?
• business blogs - a blog or 'Weblog' is a frequently updated Web journal. The best are great sources of breaking news and links to great material. Google has just purchased Blogger.com [1], a move that's sure to herald a growth in business blogging during 2003 (see Blogs4business [2] for more).
• forums and discussion groups - what forums exist in your industry? How active are they? Who takes part? And what issues are discussed? Spend a few weeks trawling these sites, reading the newsletters, and watching or taking part in discussions. You'll quickly get a picture of the important sites, the type of content they carry, how often they're updated, and which are first for breaking news.

Next step: classify the sites you've identified. Some will be great sources of industry knowledge, some may be great for recruitment, others great for customers to find out about products. Draw up a full list, together with brief comments about each. This will be a very important document to share with your staff or Web developers -- they will find it useful for all sorts of reasons!

Now, look at your own position within the online marketplace. How often is your business or site mentioned? How often are your competitors mentioned? What could you do to improve your visibility? And what business objectives could you achieve if you were more active?

Create Trust in your Brand

Creating trust in a brand can be a major problem for sites that have just been launched, and for small to medium sized companies who have little budget for brand building.

But a business is often known by the company it keeps, and a well-linked site builds trust.

If respected industry portals or newsletters carry a link to your site, they pass on a degree of status. If you are mentioned in all the right places, prospects will come across your name again and again. This repeated exposure builds awareness and strengthens your brand.

Attract Qualified Leads

Following links is one of the most popular ways for people to find new sites.

According to research from Georgia Tech [3], 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 [4]).

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?