7 Powerful Ways to Get One-Way Inbound Links by Trent Brownrigg

7 Powerful Ways to Get One-Way Inbound Links by Trent Brownrigg

Copyright Trent Brownrigg
www.work-at-home-jobs-iowa.com

I grant permission to publish this article, electronically or in print, as long as the bylines are included, with a live link, and the article is not changed in any way (grammatical corrections accepted).

7 Powerful Ways to Get One-Way Inbound Links

Its no secret that having links pointing to your website is very good for search engine rankings, and gives more ways for human visitors to find your website. So, how do you get one-way inbound links to your website? Well, there are numerous ways, and I am going to focus on seven of the most effective techniques.

You probably already know about link exchanges as great way for getting links to your website. However, with link exchanges, you have to give a reciprocal link back to the website that is linking to you. In this article I am going to show you how to get links to your website without giving a link back.

Ok, here are seven powerful ways for getting one-way inbound links:

1) ContentPacking your website full of useful content is one of the best ways to get inbound links. When you have a lot of content other webmasters will naturally link to you because your site will be valuable to them and their visitors.

Some examples of good content to add to your website would be; free articles, tools, tips, and resources related to your website theme. You could also have a blog that you update regularly with fresh content.

2) TestimonialsA big trend on the internet right now is adding testimonials to websites. The site owners typically get the testimonials from their site visitors and business customers. In exchange for the testimonial they usually give a link back to your website.

Every time you come across a great website, or have a good experience with a purchase, send a testimonial to the website owner. If they decide to publish your testimonial you will get a link to your website. After a while these links will add up to a significant amount.

3) Online DirectoriesThere are hundreds of online directories that accept website submissions. This is a very good technique for getting one way inbound links. Many of the top directories require you to pay for inclusion or provide a link back to their directory. You can give the link back if you want, or pay if you have the extra money. However, there are also numerous directories that will accept your website without payment or a link back.

All you have to do is find the ones that accept free submissions and you will get your one way inbound links. You can find quite a few directories, and some other great information about submitting to directories at http://www.directory-pages.com/

4) ArticlesWriting articles is one of the best techniques for getting one-way inbound links to your website. Many webmasters are looking for more content for their websites and Ezines. You can provide them with that content by writing articles and submitting them to websites, Ezines, and article directories.

In return for your effort you can put a little blurb about yourself and/or your business, with a link to your website, at the end of the article. You will rack up a very high amount of inbound links to your website by utilizing this technique. I have done it many times with a lot of success.

5) Free E-bookYou can write an e-book and offer it for free in exchange for a link to your website. You can also put links to your website and other affiliate links in the e-book. Putting the links in the e-book will increase your website traffic and affiliate profits.

You are probably thinking that you cant write an e-book. Well, yes you can! It doesnt have to be some killer piece of work that you spend months writing. Instead, you can just make it a collection of your favorite articles, resources, and tools related to your website theme. As long as it is useful to your visitors they will gladly link to you in order to get it.

6) BlogsThere are actually a few ways to get one-way inbound links with blogs. The first way is simply to host a blog on your website and update it frequently. People tend to link to blogs because they provide content that is constantly being updated.

The second way you can get one-way inbound links with your blog is to submit it to blog directories. Just like website directories, there are tons of blog directories on the internet that you can submit to for free. Just do a search on Google for blog directory and you will find many of them to submit too.

The third way of getting inbound links with a blog is to host it somewhere other than on your website. Then, provide a link from your blog to your website. After you have done that, you can submit your blog to directories for the extra page rank and added exposure. Use this third technique with as many blogs as you have time to update regularly with quality content.

7) Free Article DirectoryCreate an article directory on your website and allow your visitors to submit articles to it. Ask for a link back to your website in exchange for the article submission. This will build your inbound links and create free content for your website. I have successfully used this technique for quite a while. You can see one of my article directories at http://www.work-at-home-jobs-iowa.com/article

Alright, there you go, you now have seven very effective techniques for getting one-way inbound links to your website. Get started on them right away and you should see your search engine rankings rise, your website traffic increase, and your profits explode. If you have any questions about any of these linking techniques just let me know, I will be happy to help. You can find my contact me link at the bottom of my website.
About the Author
Trent Brownrigg is a successful internet marketer and home business mentor. Visit his website at http://www.work-at-home-jobs-iowa.com and he will personally help you succeed with your own home business. You can subscribe to his Biz Tips Newsletter by sending a blank email to: workathomebiz@aweber.com

All About Google by Courtney Heard

All About Google by Courtney Heard

If you read The Search Engine Showdown at www.abalone.ca/resources/searchenginetest.html, you know Google is my favourite search engine. Why? Google always offers the most results for any given search (they currently have over 8 billion pages indexed), it's faster than the Audi Quattro we test drove this morning, and 9 times out of ten, in my experience, all the front page results are relevant to my search. In fact, I usually find what I'm looking for within the first few sites listed. I also really respect the fact that two college kids started it (kinda like Abalone!) and that those two college kids seem not to have forgotten where they came from. If you check out the images at Google's press center (http://www.google.com/press/images.html) and scroll down to the Everyday Life Inside Google section, you'll get a feeling that life at Google is fun.

Google is the most used search engine on the web. In May, 2004, 36.8% of all searches on the web were done using Google. Also during that month, Google powered 54% of all searches done on the web.

Google owes their success to their mind-boggling algorithm. This intricate formula sucks in a web page, considers its keyword density, its link popularity, domain name, how often it is updated, the amount of content in the site, and a myriad of other things that few know and spits out a number called PageRank. There is absolutely no way to be sure how to get your site to number one on Google, but there are a few things that we know can help:

1. Make sure your site is well organized, visitor friendly and useful. Google seems to like sites that are listed in the Open Directory Project, and my theory is that it's because the Open Directory Project is human edited. This means real human eyes have looked at each site that is included in the directory and deemed it useful in some way or another. If your site has a link on The Open Directory Project, you're on the right track.

2. Avoid "spamming". Spamming refers to many different things. If you add keywords to your site that are out of context or hidden from plain view, it's considered spamming. Resubmitting your site to Google can be looked upon as spamming. The basic principal is to make sure every page on your site is professional looking, clean, organized and has its own unique information to offer.

3. Try to trade links with good quality sites that you like, 'cause if you like them, chances are they have something to offer and Google will recognize that. The more good quality sites around the web that have links pointing to your site, the higher your link popularity will be.

4. Stay away from hi-tech sites unless you offer an alternative. ie. If your site has been designed in Flash, try to offer a plain HTML version of the site. Google can index flash but it's not likely that it will be indexed well, and your ranking will suffer. Frames are also a no-no. Although Google can index framed sites as well, again, the ranking can suffer and more importantly, frames are universally recognized in our industry as hideous!

5. Keep the content on each page to a decent level. You don't want too much content, but you definitely do not want too little. A good way to judge what a good content level is, is to search for the #1 ranking site for the keywords you wish to target, and see how much content they have. Make your content keyword-rich, but don't make it so full of keywords that it sounds ridiculous to visitors. You want to keep the visitors you get from Google, right?

Google almost always offers you the best resource for your query due to the fact that all of these things matter to them. They are also always trying to find ways to improve on the Google Algorithm so they can continue to offer us the best service. Every once in a while we hear about this new search engine and that new search engine, but no one seems to have been able to catch up. As long as this remains true, these simple tips will be applicable.
About the Author
Courtney Heard is the founder of Abalone Designs, an Internet Marketing and SEO company in Vancouver, Canada. She has been involved in web development and marketing since 1995 and has helped start several businesses since then in the Vancouver area. More of Courtney's articles are available at www.abalone.ca/resources/

The Meta Tag Myth by Bobby Heard

The Meta Tag Myth by Bobby Heard

The more the better right? Wrong. At least when it comes to meta tags. The history of the meta tag started off as a nice tool that web sites could use to show the search engines what the site was about without the words showing up on the actual page. It seemed like a great idea until people started to abuse the meta tag. They would add highly searched for keywords that were unrelated to their site in their meta tags in hopes of attracting additional traffic. The search engines caught on and lowered the importance of meta tags - they figured out that if they put more emphasis on the visible content of a site, people would have a much more difficult time "cheating". Turns out that they were right.

Now, dont get me wrong, meta tags still do carry some significance. They need to be consistent with the content of your site, but most importantly theyre somewhat of a measure of the legitimacy of your site. The most common myth when it comes to search engine optimization is that the best meta tag is the one packed with the most information. This couldn't be further from the truth.

The keyword meta tag has been abused more than any other meta tag and does not carry as much importance as most of the others because of this reason. Most search engines only read the first few characters of the tag, if they read it at all, because they know that most keyword meta tags are filled with spam - Just the same words repeated over and over. That is why its important to get your most important keywords to the front of your keyword meta tag.

The meta tag that still carries the most importance is the description meta tag. This is because it serves as a description for the particular page of your site that it is included in. Description meta tags should be unique to each page of your site, as search engines frequently use it as the description under your page title that appears in the search results. Obviously, you want your description to be representative of the page being displayed.

So in conclusion, dont use meta tags the way we all have a compulsive urge to - by packing it with everything that we can think of. It seems like a good idea, but it will only help you to fail in your goal of the holy grail: higher rankings.
About the Author
Bobby Heard is the VP at Abalone Designs and is an active writer of SEO articles. More articles he has written are available at www.abalone.ca/resources/