Linking Basics

I've been a bit more tuned into "linking" recently (when somebody else's website links to yours) and how it can help our business - from a marketing point of view of course.

Some things are so obvious you wonder how you miss them but in case you're like me and walk round with your eyes shut sometimes, here are some of the main ones. Who links to you now? That's a useful starting point and although obvious saves you time trying to target people who have already found you. Then who links to your competitors? This is brilliant! There's your ready made list of people to target for your website, (so long as they're relevant). That saves some legwork and if your competitor has been around for a while you'll have a really good quality list.

Another way to do this if your competitors aren't lurking at the front of your mind, is to type your search terms into Google and see who comes up. Then check to see who's linking to them.

There are a couple of really good sites you can use to check links: www.linkpopularity.com, or Yahoo by typing in: Linkdomain:url.com into the search box on Yahoo's home page, this shows you all of the pages that link to your website. This is quite good fun (well it is if you're easily pleased) as you're often surprised at new links that have appeared.

When you're putting together a marketing plan, linking should now be a key part of your strategy if you have a website. It's critical if you trade online as it ultimately drives more traffic to you.

So, happy link hunting!

Karen McNulty
www.marketingplanwiz.co.uk