Link Building is a very important part of developing a good ranking position in search engines. It is also an area that many website owners are not aware of or do not fully understand how it works.

In addition to developing links it is important to demonstrate a gradual increase in links over time. Launching a site with hundreds of links or suddenly increasing the link volume can count against you when detected by search engines.

Accordingly this requires a steady investment by you each week to build a solid ranking status over time.

There are four main types of linking you can undertake and all are important being Single Direction Links, Reciprocal Links, Network Site Links & Directory Listings.

Single Direction Links (value index = 5 )

These are valuable links in that the site is seen to ‘vote’ for your site without requiring a link back in exchange. To kick start this approach you can write articles on your specialist area and submit them to article directories with an embedded link to your website. Website editors are always on the lookout for content for their sites, and Article Directories are an easy way for them to acquire appropriate content with out having to it themselves.

Reciprocal Linking (value index = 1)

This is a link from your site to another website with an agreement that they also link back to your website. This can have some value if the website is in a similar content area to you. Reciprocal links to dissimilar sites are probably worthless. Also the value of the link can be influenced by the text that surrounds the link and places a context on it. Pages of raw links are definitely worthless and could lead to you being penalised.

Network Site Links (value index = 5 and upwards)

To participate in this you need a network of 3 or four sites at least. To avoid the reciprocal link problem the sites should link to each other in a ring, a to b, b to c, c to d and d to a.

Directory Listings (20 and upwards)

This is a single link as most directories don’t need you to link to them. Whilst this should be easy, as directories are set up to link to you, you need to invest time to achieve meaningful results. As previously stated this should be a gradual activity over time to build status.

The final point to note is the status of the linking site. If it has no traffic and no links it will not materially improve the status of your sites with the search engines.