Tips to Get Legitimate Links & Traffic to Your Site

Anyone who has a blog or website on the internet today will tell you that links are the key to getting to the top of the search engine rankings, and getting lots of traffic. When someone does a search for your keywords, where do you show up? Are you within the first few listings, way down on the page, or do people have to scroll through four pages to get to your listing?

Now, think about how you use the internet. If you’re looking for customized wine glasses, you input that into your search bar, and probably look at just the first few listings, right? Most people follow exactly that pattern; getting your listing to the first page, and as close to the top as possible, is key to success in internet marketing.

Luckily, there are ways to get legitimate links to your website that will help expose your site to new areas and new people while also raising your search engine ranking in the process.

Here are a few tips on gaining links, traffic, and great PR (page ranking) from the biggest search engines:

• Give your readers good value when they come to your site. Do not make it a hard sell, but rather give them lots of information that is informative and creative, so they will want to spend some time, bookmark your site, and come back often.

• Submit articles to sites like ezinearticles, goarticles, ideamarketers, etc. and always link back to your site. The key here as well is to give people good, solid information so that they will be interested in what else you have to say. Do not sell in the body of your article, but do make it relevant to your website, services, or products. A simple resource box with relevant anchor text should be enough to bring additional readers.

• Directory sites like Yahoo! and DMOZ have very high traffic and can give you lots of exposure. It might cost you some money to sign up, but the traffic, links, and exposure should be well worth the cost.

• Guest posting on similar sites or those which have content that is relevant or complementary to your site is a great way to expand your readership. You can find lots of opportunities to write and submit guest posts by checking out BloggerLinkUp and MyBlogGuest for starters, but there are unlimited opportunities available…often, it is just a matter of asking someone if they’d be interested, and possibly sending them a sample of your work.

• Relevant forums that you regularly post on can be a boon to your website or blog. Establish yourself as an authority figure on your niche by helping others with any difficulties or questions they might have, and they likely will follow your signature links to get more of your insights.

• Blog commenting can be useful if you sincerely find value in something that a blogger has written. Do not just go to blogs and put up comments to get a link. It looks phony and bloggers and others who see it will know exactly what you are doing. Rather, when you read a good post on a blog, tell the blogger that you appreciate the article and information.

• Blogger reviews are great if you have a product on your site. Just send a message to some bloggers that are in your niche and offer it to them free of charge, with the only requirement being a review on their blog. This works wonders for eBooks.

Remember, good things come to those who wait. You may want to see your traffic and page rankings skyrocket, but more likely, they will steadily increase the more work you do. Take your time and work with other sites that are relevant to yours for the best results.