You’ve done all your homework. You’ve performed your keyword research, you’ve checked out the competition to make sure that you rank competitively in your website’s key terms and phrases; and you’ve made sure you’ve established an ideal search engine placement. But there’s more to directing traffic to your website!
Do you know how to build your back link portfolio? Better yet, do you even know what a back link portfolio is?
If you’re like most website owners, the term “back link portfolio” may be foreign to you. Before I explain what a back link portfolio is, let me start by saying that a well-rounded back link portfolio is essential for obtaining long-term website traffic.
Back links are essentially links to your website through the web. How you get acquire back links depends on the strategy you decide to use. The bottom line is that you must explore a number of back links through which users can find you, and you must vary the keywords and anchor text you use in these back links to achieve the greatest traffic to your website.
If you’re looking for ways to build that all-important back link portfolio, there are several tactics you may want to start exploring:
- Article Marketing – There is simply no better way to build your brand awareness than through article marketing. Start writing comprehensive, interesting content that people enjoy reading, and fill it with high-quality back links back to your site and you’re well on your way to increasing the number of visitors to your website. In addition, a quality article, combined with your bio – and even your photo! – can further introduce yourself and your website to readers and get them back to your site.
- Directory Sites – Although it certainly can’t be said enough that quality article marketing should be your first strategy when building your back link portfolio, you shouldn’t ignore other avenues, either. One of your other strategies should be to use directories. Simply submitting your website to web directories can help increase traffic to your website.
- Local Sites – Don’t forget about your local sites, including Yahoo Local, Google Local and Bing Local to increase your credibility. These local listings are sure to help you within these search engines. In other words, it will help establish you as a legitimate business or website.
- Do your homework – Check out other websites, blogs and forums where you notice a presence from your competitors. A thorough back link analysis is a great way to obtain the same links your competitors are using. Your ability to compete in your particular industry largely depends on paying close attention to other companies and websites and how and where they are using their back links.
- Blogs, Blogs, Blogs – Blogs are now a great way to obtain powerful back links. Check out blogs relating to your industry (there are literally dozens popping up on a daily basis) and request links on them. Consider guest blogging on a related blog, as well. This is a great way for other blogs to build their content while you build excellent back links.
