10 Ways to Build Links & Increase Web Site Traffic

Let's face it, getting an increase in web site traffic is the leading task for any Internet Marketing Campaign, and it is also one of the most daunting tasks. While there are several ways to get traffic, including PPC, here I will focus on 10 free and highly effective techniques.

These techniques not only benefit the long term goal of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) but at the same can be a good source of direct traffic. SEO is the process of getting ranked high in search engine results (SERPS) for a respective KW. To land on the first pages in search engine results is the Internet Marketer's dream.

Google Webmaster Tools says that in order to gain SERPS you should have high quality sites linking to yours, which is termed a backlink. So, the most effective way to climb the ranks is to have the most backlinks leading to your site. And some of the backlinks discussed here are also great sources of direct traffic which can lead to sale conversions.

The two most popular types of backlinks are reciprocal and one-way. A reciprocal link is where you exchange links with another site. A one-way link is where you get a link to your site from another site without having to place a link back.

One-way links hold the most juice with search engines. But, a diverse link building campaign is best. Just get lots of different links everyday! There are several ways to build links and all of them should be utilized to optimize your sites for SEO and increasing web site traffic.

1. Relevant/Reciprocal Link Exchange - This is where you exchange links with sites that are relevant to yours. Now there are many webmasters who exchange links with whatever site comes along, but think about this. If you have a website about computers, how helpful is it for your visitors to see a link to a weight loss site? This is just common sense, think about your visitors and build links for them and not for ranks and your site will be rewarded.

Reciprocal link placement on your site can be done in several ways. There is the links/partners page, where links are placed one after the other. But, this technique is not the best option. These days search engines place less value on links pages and in reality, how good is a links page for your site and its visitors?

A better option is to place your links and get the reciprocal site to place links within the content on your site, as a hyperlink (with relevant KW) this looks far better on the site, provides a natural flow of links and gets more link juice with the all mighty Google.

Also home page links and footer links (sitewides) are better options that link pages and this is something that can entice higher page rank sites to want to trade with you when your site rank is lower than theirs. Best Strategy: The key to link building on your sites is to make the link look like a side effect and not the end goal!

2. Directory Listing Links. Another way to get backlinks is by placing a listing of your sites in Internet Directories. These links vary depending on the directory. Sometimes directories require reciprocals, and sometimes they are one-ways. Of course, you want to get the one-ways as much as possible. But overall when your site is new get links in as many good directories as you can, even if, they have a lower page rank.

Some of the more popular higher ranking directories, like Dmoz, have a long wait so it is important to submit to the less popular directories to get the links quicker. Also directory listings are in in of themselves a good source of web site traffic since many people use these directories when searching the net.

4. Links in Relevant Forums/Discussion Groups. A great way to get a backlink and also get relevant targeted traffic is joining forums that are relevant to your sites theme and those that allow a backlink in the signature.

The key to this technique is having a genuine interest and knowledge within the theme. Don't join a forum just to get sales, with this attitude your posts will quickly translate to SPAM and you will get booted faster than you can say boo. Instead, add helpful and meaningful posts, answer other members questions in these forums, participate in a genuine manner and not only will you get a powerful backlink, it will also increase your web site traffic. Plus, highly targeted and relevant traffic that will likely convert into sales since the visitors to those forums have a deep interest in the respective theme.

5. One-way links from Comments on Blogs. A great way to get links to your sites is by leaving comments on blogs relevant to your sites theme. Some blogs use a "no-follow" command for links which is a code attribute value used to instruct some search engines that the link should not influence the link target's ranking in the search engine's index. But if you read high traffic blogs that are of interest to you this often becomes a source of traffic to your site from the other readers of those blogs.

Also there are many blogs that offer "do-follow" links, a simple search for those can definitely optimize your SEO efforts and bring an increase in web site traffic.

6. Link Bait. Another great way to build quality one way backlinks is to use a link bait on your site. This is the method of choice to get get higher page rank sites to link to lower page rank sites. Link Bait is any content or feature within a website that somehow baits viewers to place links to it from other websites. These link baits could be, information hooks, news hooks, humor hooks, tools hooks like a widget or some helpful tool that other sites can use.

7. Write a Press Release. Make sure to educate yourself on how to write a press release, many confuse these with sales ads and that is not what they are. For a complete guide to press releases, including the how-to's you can visit PRWeb.

8. Social/Bookmark Site Links: The social revolution is hot on the web. Social and bookmark sites are growing in huge numbers and have tons of traffic and members. Join sites, like Facebook, Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Delicious, Furl It, just to name a few. Also you can save tons of time with Social Marker where you can add to over 50 of these sites at once from one browser window. Submit your site content to appropriate categories and get a backlink. Plus, these sites can be a great source of direct traffic from readers interested your content.

The key to some of these sites, like Facebook, is the word "social" which means that for optimal traffic you need to participate, make friends, take interest in what others are doing, join relevant groups etc.

9. Create a Squidoo Lens. A Squidoo lens about your site is a great way to advertise your site, get a backlink and traffic. The key to Squidoo is joining lots of Squidoo groups and once again participating with other lensemasters, commenting on their lenses and link to relevant lenses by creating lensrolls and they will do the same for you, this creates lots of cross traffic.

10. Article Marketing. Last but never least, Article Marketing is the BEST way to get quality one way backlinks and at the same time get direct targeted traffic to your sites. There are many benefits to this method, including getting relevant and targeted traffic which converts well into sales if you follow the method of "relevancy" with KW anchor text techniques.