Links are the building blocks of the web, without the faithful hyperlink, you simply wouldn't be able get from website to website. Its no surprise then that the more website links you have, the more chance that people will visit your site. The following article details some of the places you can visit and some of the tactics you can employ to sucessfully build website traffic.
1). Local directories.
The first step in getting relevant traffic for small businesses which deal locally, is to search for local directories. In Northern Ireland, one of the main directories available to you is 4NI. They have capitalised on the fact that their index is particular good, and have at time of writing started to charge for the priviledge of getting listed. If your business is local, this is money well spent. Browse Ireland is another irish web directory, which is free.
2). Local websites
You may want to search Google or MSN for local websites which are not direct competitors, and who are willing to exchange links with you. Look for link partners, which are as large as possible and who would benefit from your service. Companies who deal with you already, may be more willing to exchange links with you. One way links (links that point to you and you dont reciprocate) are more advantageous to you as they increase your Pagerank (Google technology to determine relevance). Although, you will need a good reason for someone to provide you with one way links. See later detail on link baiting.
3). Paid for website directories.
The web has a few portals which are extremely difficult to get listed in, simply because of their populatity. Dmoz.org - Be prepared for a long wait to get your website listed in here. However DMOZ is extremely useful to get into, a listing in DMOZ will provide you with upwards of 100+ inbound one way links. The reason for this is that DMOZ is syndicated around the web by numerous other websites, and continues to be syndicated. Yahoo directory is also well worth the £200 for a once off listing. Yahoo has a good amount of web traffic, and good pagerank.
4). Other directories.
There are a numerous directories, which allow one way inbound links. Vilesilencer is a list of directories which you can submit to. The excel spreadsheet is a brilliant tool in search engine optimisation arsenal. It is sorted by Pagerank, which allows you to see the worth of a link. The higher the pagerank of the website which links to you the better.
5). Link baiting.
To gain links automagically, you will have to create content on your website that is either useful, interesting, controversial, or extremely funny. For small businesses it's difficult to provide content that falls into these categories, so creating a blog can help. Writing a business blog provides your customers with an update regularly on your business, and allows them to communicate with you direct and providing you comment on other people's blogs, will help to get your website noticed.
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