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Instead of looking for links, try attracting links

by Darren

Search engine marketers spend too much time looking for links. Instead, they should let links come looking for their website. What’s the best way to do this? Give people something to link to, and make it easy for them to do so. What types of web pages do people freely link to:

• Websites that give away something useful for free. An example would be a website that gives away a free counter in exchange for a linkback. The same applies for many scripts which run the “Powered by” link on each page. If you have programming and design skills, you can custom craft a script to give away to get links.
• Websites with high quality and deep content. People link to Wikipedia and its’ articles all the time because of indepth info contributed by volunteers.
• Websites that “do something” tend to get a lot of incoming links. If people can use your website, they’re likely to link to you. Think of how well Google has done by offering a simple website where people do something (search)

What other tactics can you think of for “attracting” links as opposed to looking for them? There’s a big difference in the mindsets between attracting them and longing for them. Indeed, if you desire links too much, you might even drive them away. Lot’s of times it’s better to concentrate on improve the unique selling proposition of your website, and let incoming links come to you at their own pace. It all depends on your SEM goals.

Do you get a lot of natural links? Why?