Many webmasters spend a lot of time tweaking their sites for the search engines because they think that search engines will bring them the most traffic for the time and money spent. It is a good use of time but combine a link building campaign and competitive intelligence and any webmaster can triple the traffic they currently have. With good competitive intelligence you may triple your conversion rate as well by bringing very targeted traffic.

Strategic Link Building

Link building is directly related to search engine optimization. Because of this many webmasters fail to think about link building as a strategy of its own separate from search engine optimization. Strategic link building can bring in a lot of targeted traffic to your website. There are four good methods for obtaining quality links. Each method becomes more powerful.

The first method is simple and easily implemented. You go surfing for sites that you like, and would appeal to your visitors, and you ask for a link. It helps to offer a reciprocal link in exchange but it is not always necessary.

To get results, you’ll need to send your request to about ten sites for every one positive response you get. Once you get some experience, these odds will improve. So, expect to do a little work. The results will be worth it.

Please Note: In approaching the prospective website’s webmaster, make sure you are sending them a relevant link request and make it personal. Let them know you visited their site and why a link would be valuable. There are a few link building software programs that send spam to webmasters. You want to make sure that the email you send is sincere. Link building is a legitimate marketing strategy and approached ethically it can have significant impact on your bottom line. It’s worth taking the time to do it right.

The second link strategy is also very powerful. It is also simple. Submit articles to free content sites to be included in other websites and ezines. The free content sites will post your articles on their websites and offer your article to webmasters to reprint on their sites and newsletters. This is a great strategy. The reason it works so well is that each article has a resource box that contains your website name and a link. The article can be reprinted only as long as it also contains the resource box. If you have a popular subject, your article and link can get published on thousands of websites this way.

And talk about targeted traffic. If you’re selling fly fishing rods to an upscale audience you can write an article for that audience and by the very nature of the article it will get picked up by websites that attract your clientele. They will read your article and click over to your site. This is quality targeted traffic.

As you have probably already thought about, the links are also great for your search engine rankings. The link in your article is surrounded by your site keywords. The article itself will populate the search engines and the links to your site will support higher page rank. It’s all good.

The third strategy is very similar and that is to write a press release. If it is newsworthy a good press release can do wonders. It will not only get published on many websites you may get a few interviews and be on TV or in a national magazine.

One relatively sure way to get some publicity is to hand deliver your press release to your local media. They like local stories and if they like you, you are bound to get some good press.

There are two important points on using press releases to promote your business. First, be persistent and keep submitting new press releases. If you are creative there are many newsworthy stories about any business. You just have to find them and promote them. The second point is to be personal. “The Media” sounds big and impersonal. There are thousands of media outlets and getting to all of them is nearly impossible, if not cost prohibitive. Well, that is one of the nice aspects of getting press. The best way to get a national story is to start local and build. The Media prefers to get their news from the news. If you have a story of national interest and it is first published in your local newspaper, you can bet that many astute editors will pick it up and take it national before you know it.

So, get to know your local press. They’re good people.

The fourth strategy has been around since the internet began. It is to post to forums and news groups. It’s easy and fun plus the links are valid and hold a lot of weight. The search engines like forum post links a lot. In fact, the best way to submit your site to the search engines is to post your website link in a popular forum. The forum will be spidered within 72 hours and your site will begin the submission process on it’s own.

Here too, stay on topic and be honest about your posts. You can buy a spam poster and post to ten thousand forums automatically but, being about the oldest trick in the book, it will get you in a lot of trouble. It’s not good business. Seek out forums you like and get involved. That’s all there is to it.

Competitive Intelligence

Competitive Intelligence will supercharge your link building campaign.

Wouldn’t it be great to know what links are sending traffic to your competitor’s website? Wouldn’t it be great to know which sites were sending the most traffic to your competition? How about what keywords drive the traffic to your competitor’s websites? There are ways to know.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. A lot of knowledge can be explosive. You can take your pick here. There are two methods. Both methods work to identify the links that exist for other websites and allow you to target them. The first method will get you going and the second method will give you a mighty edge.

The first method is free and easy. Download and install the Google toolbar. Once installed, you will see a link called “Backward Links”. Now, go to a website that appeals to your target market and use the “Backwards Links” toolbar link. Google will show you a list of websites that link to the site you’re visiting. This is a great place to begin your link building campaign.

While you are working this list of websites you can begin another list. As you visit the websites look for a link directory on the site you’re visiting. Once in a while you will find a site with an industry directory or a resource page that has links to related websites. This is another nice list for you to work. This method will generate a lot of quality links and bring you visitors that are looking for what you have to offer. If you’re critical of the sites you send requests to, you will build a network of quality sites sending you targeted visitors.

The second method is to employ some competitive intelligence tools. Would you like to find out which sites are responsible for sending traffic to your competitor’s pages, including search engines and the search keywords that were used? Competitive Intelligence tools provide you with the means to monitor your competitor's web sites and to identify their major traffic sources. By using these tools you maximize the use of your time by targeting quality websites. It is easy to see the value here. Knowing what sites to target is valuable knowledge indeed.

Enough said about competitive intelligence. I’m sure you’re more than just intrigued.

Link building using competitive intelligence should be considered an integral part of your ongoing marketing effort. It should not be a quick test that is shoved aside because it did not have an immediate return on investment. It works and it will grow with time. It is one of the best investments you can make in marketing your website. Done in earnest, you just might consider it more effective and more deserving of your time and attention than search engine optimization or any other online marketing method six months from now.

Resource Links:
Competitive Intelligence Tools
Digital Point Forums

- JD
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