Getting Links From Web Sites

Getting links from other web sites to yours is the single most important means of promoting your web site. Indeed, if you have absolutely no other web sites linking to yours then your web site is likely to get no search engine rankings whatsoever.

Snowgoose design web sites to achieve high rankings for relevant searches, but search engines such as Google give higher rankings to web sites that have plenty of other web sites linking to them. So, as well as being effective gateways to your site, getting other web sites to mention your business and include a link to your web site is a very important means of promotion in terms of getting high rankings.

Note: If your web site has not been designed properly for good search engine rankings you could be wasting your time doing the following steps! (E.G. too many graphics, too much javascript/gimmicks, poor meta tags etc. - see Improve your web site)

STEP 1:
Find out who's currently linking to your site

1. Go to www.google.co.uk and search for your domain name (e.g. www.snowgoose.co.uk)
2. Click on the resulting "Find web pages that link to............"

If you get very few results then you drastically need to get more web sites linking to you - you should have links from at least 6 - 10 different web sites to get good rankings in searches on Google.

(Also try the "Find web pages that contain the term.........." to find web sites that mention your domain name but don't have a link to you)

STEP 2:
Find any sites which mention your business
but don't yet link to your site

1. Go to www.google.co.uk and search for your business name - such as snowgoose bird food north east england (only not quite so silly!)
2. Click on the web sites that come up in the search results (click on their underlined links)
3. Check that they do mention your business on the web page.
4. If you are mentioned but there is no link to your web site, get in touch with them by email or by phone and inform them that you would like them to link to your web site.
5. Hopefully the web site owner will get back in touch with you and tell you that they now have a link to your web site, or they might ask for a charge for doing this, or they might agree to link to your site for free as long is you have a link to there web site on yours (known as a 'reciprocal link')

STEP 3:
Find new relevant web sites

1. Try relevant searches on www.google.co.uk, such as bird food england, or, for example, if your business is a self-catering property in Hexham, Northumberland, search for self-catering cottages hexham northumberland or self-catering hadrian's wall northumberland etc.
2. Have a look at resulting sites and if you see some that are appropriate see if the site has information about being listed or get in touch with the web site owner.