You probably know that building links into your site is one of the most important things you can do in your efforts to improve your site's ranking.

A lot of people struggle with this process, especially at the beginning. Many questions also arise as to where the link should be placed on the site you are trying to get linked from, along with what kind of sites should you get links from, and what those links should look like.  Linking is no longer a passing fancy, it is a strategy that is relevant and necessary. Consder the following link building strategies:

Social Media: By submitting your site and content to social media aggregators such as Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon and other niche social news sharing and bookmarking sites, you introduce their audience to your site and build high authority links to your organization.

Advertising: Text Links which are sold or purchased with the intention of advertising a relevant site or service to the audience of the site which is serving the link ads. These links are valued and treated as authority inbound links by the major search engines.

Editorial: Editorial links are links which are earned via relationships with journalists, bloggers or site publishers. By informing writers about your site and services, you persuade them to write about you.

Directory: Web directories classify sites into organized subjects and listings while also sending search traffic to those sites. Directories are a way to increase search rankings and site traffic.

Blogger Reviews: Similar to editorial links, blogger reviews are when you pay bloggers to take the time and write an honest review about your product, business or site - and link to you. Not only will your link be seen by search engines, but also by the readers and subscribers of these high level bloggers.

Privately Solicited Links: Contact site owners and negotiate private linking deals with your business goals in mind.

Blog Comment Participation: By intelligently adding to blog comment conversations, you build your online reputation along with inbound links to your site.

Resources:

• 101 Link Building Tips to Market Your Web Site by Andy Hagans and Aaron Wall
• Link Building - Web Site Resource

Software/Tools:

• Axandra
• Zeus
• Link Assistant

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Wow, this is amazing. For the second year in a row, global news and business publication The Economist took the #1 spot on Adweek’s Top 10 list of consumer magazines with standout track records of advertising revenue and page performance.  

What’s fascinating about The Economist, an authoritative weekly newspaper focusing on international politics and business news and opinion, is how they’ve married their offline print with their online presence.

Offering both print and digital subscriptions, The Economist has nurtured their audience with audio and video, research tools, classifieds and jobs as well as world-wide content. 

Moreover, the organization uses ‘four free trial issues’ to bait print subscribers. If you don’t want to take the plunge into print subscriptions, the web site offers newsletters and topic alerts (RSS or e-mail).

For business professionals, the web site offers a unique knowledge center called “Economist Intelligence Unit” (EIU Online) that offers instant access to a collection of intelligence on 203 countries, eight industries and a range of management topics.

I would strongly recommend that you bookmark or subscribe to the free alerts or take advantage of the four free issues.

This is an amazing print resource and a substantiated business case for a well-developed web advertising presence.

Best

Denice MacDonald