Search Engine Optimization:
The Value Of Links
Besides content creation, there is one other factor that you can address directly with some effort: links. Links are seen by the search engine robots as votes for your site. It's not the links you put on your site, but links that come from others, links that point to you. And it's not all links. What count are links from text, preferably text containing the targeted keyword sets.
Opportunities
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How do I get links?
This is work. First you have to have a reason for others to link to you. It could be merely that you share an industry, supplier, etc. Better yet is to have content that others WANT to link to. So if you can create such content, you're in a better position to get incoming links. Once you have the content, email other sites with an invitation to exchange links. Many other merchants recognize the value of links so if you target link partners accurately, you can be very successful. There are other, more important kinds of incoming links that you can influence with knowledge and effort. I suggest you try to establish a link magnet in the form of a resource, a collection of relevant content, centered on your keywords. If it's valuable, others will link to it for the content. It's called a "natural" link.
Links into your site are rank improving votes of confidence if they are natural and relevant. It used to be that links from other sites were genuine votes of approval, and so became a standard way for search engines to rank. But as rank hungry siteowners realized that search engines valued links highly, people started selling them, making link farms, and generally tried to beat the system by getting any kind of link. However this is resolved, the index will always value highly relevant, natural links.
Systems for garnering nonreciprocated incoming links
Automated link harvesting
Bob Sakayama, SEO
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