Improve search engine rankings with Natural Links

One of the main factors to improve search engine rankings is the number of links pointing back to your web site from other sites (backlinks). However if the links are not from related sites this could jeopardize your rankings. The best links are natural links.

What are natural links?

These are links that relate to the subject matter on your web site. For example, I build a site all about camping showing why, where and how to camp. If a national state park web site links to my camping site it would called a natural link because it expands the locations where to camp and my camping site would provide valuable camping knowledge for their visitors.

What are unnatural links?

These are links that are unrelated to the content on your web site. Google can detect these types of links which may decrease your rankings.

Types of unnatural links

Automated link building systems

There is software and scripts that can automatically generate links. The problem with this system is that you have no control over the quality of the links. For example if you receive links from gambling sites Google may penalize your site by lowering its rankings.

Paid links

Paid links can also lower your rankings because it’s seen as gaming the system. To read more information on paid links visit:

http://searchengineland.com/official-selling-paid-links-can-hurt-your-pagerank-or-rankings-on-google-12360

Here’s a quote from Google webmaster guidelines:

“Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site’s ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or “bad neighborhoods” on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.”

How to generate natural links

1. Write good content

When writing content try to place yourself in your visitors shoes. Address their wants, needs and problems. If the content helps solve their problems they will want to link to it. If you create well written content other sites such as search engine directories, blogs, social marketing services will naturally want to link to you.

2. Optimize your content

Search engines index content that contains keywords people are searching on. Before you begin writing content use the free wordtracker tool to determine how many searches your keyword receives. It will generate a list of related keywords you can weave throughout your content. This will make it easier for search engines to find the content and send visitors to your web site.

3. Participate in related blogs and forums

Visit forums and blogs by offering to answer questions or participate in conversations. If you provide valuable content readers will want check out your web site. Most forums and blogs allow you to place a link back to your web site.

4. Become a guest writer

Web site owners constantly need to produce new content. You can help them out by writing a unique article. Include your web site link in the bio at the end of the article. If it’s a high traffic web site you’ll receive many new visitors.

5. Write and submit content to article directories

The top article directories receive millions of visitors every month. You can tap into this traffic by writing an article that addresses your visitors’ problems then submit it to these high traffic directories.

For example you could write “how to” or “7 tips” articles. You can include 2 links back to your web site in the resource box at the end of the article, the first one your full URL, the second a text link.

6. Submit to related directories

This is fast way to obtain incoming links. Enter keyword+directory in Google to find directories related to your keyword then submit your site to them. Research the backlinks of competing sites. Often you’ll find a flood of web sites they have obtained links from. You can contact these same sites to get links to your own site.

7. Provide content for social marketing sites

Social marketing sites receive millions of visitors. Examples of these types of sites include Youtube, iTunes, mySpace, etc. If you create valuable content and submit it to these sites in the form of text, video or audio you’ll receive many natural links.

If you have a blog make it easy to bookmark the content by placing bookmarking icons at the end of your post. If a reader likes what you wrote they will be inclined to bookmark it.

8. Practice deep linking

Most website owners only get links to point to their home page. If all your backlinks use exactly the same text to link to your home page, this will look unnatural. Try to vary the pages you link to plus vary the link text pointing to those pages. Getting links to many of your internal pages help boosts the overall rankings o your website.

Conclusion

Creating well written, optimized content will greatly your improve search engine rankings. The more content you write and publish the more traffic you’ll generate. With more traffic you’ll make more sales.

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