Make a Website Great

Getting lots of incoming links (and specifically one way links) is certainly one of the holy grails of Internet Web site promotion. This is not only because sites with plenty of “link juice” are considered more important by search engines, but also because of the referral traffic incoming links bring.

Link building methods are abound. Those include distributing articles with embedded links, link directory submission, posting in forums and blogs, etc. If repeated ad nauseam most of those methods result in a large quantity of low quality links from pages at the dark fringes of the Web.

In this post I’d like to explore three interesting link building and online Web promotion methods that result in high quality links, and hopefully get you to think about other creative ways you can promote your Web site. But these methods are not for the faint of heart because they require a good investment in either time or money or both. But, hey, you usually get what you pay for. Therefore I would say that the methods I’m about to discussed (except for maybe the 1st one) are primarily suitable for Web sites and businesses that are already somewhat established, or have cash to spend on initial promotion, and want to get to the next level.

The secret of high quality links is to give people who own high quality, high ranking sites a real reason to mention and link to your site. Of course, this is easier said than done. So here are some interesting possibilities for you to consider:

1. Bribe friends to give you a link: Of course, for this to work you must have friends with high quality Web sites. But if you do, getting a friend to link to your new site will require a “bribe” that’s a lot smaller than what you’ll have to do to convince a stranger to give your new site a one way link. This is actually the only strategy I’m using to launch this Web site. I’m offering some Web development and consulting in exchange for some links.
2. Develop and advertise an iPhone app: Commission an iPhone game or utility relevant to your targeted audience and put it up for sale on Apple’s App Store. Make a section of the site you want to promote the app’s info and support center. The point here is not only the money you can make from selling an iPhone application, but also the links you’ll get from it.

   I have a friend who developed an iPhone application and put it up for sale. The application wasn’t a blockbuster, but it made steady sales. Without doing any intentional link building, within a few months his Web site gained a Google Page rank of 4, and Yahoo says it has over 1800 incoming links.

   The back links to the site come from three primary types of sources, which are listed in order of prevalence:

   1. Sites on which the application is advertised through banner ads.
   2. iPhone application review sites.
   3. People who just liked the application and linked to the site for some reason other than a review.

   Banner ads are a major source of link power in this scheme. Banner ads that transfers page rank, i.e. they don’t use the nofollow directive, are effectively purchased links that are totally legitimate and are subsidized by the sales of whatever is being advertised.

   In the iPhone market there are many Web sites run by single individuals that sell advertising. To find those you need only search Google for “iphone app advertise” or similar phrases.

3. Run a contest: Run a prize drawing contest for your site visitors. For extra credit run a competition that requires a submission, such as a video, and award 1st, 2nd, 3rd prizes, etc. For extra, extra credit, post the video submissions onto multiple video sharing sites.

   Don’t forget to include a link to your site in the videos’ descriptions, and use video editing software to embed your URL at the bottom of each clip. You may have to include the right legal language in the competition rules to do this. And also, since prize contest and competitions have all kinds of legal ramifications, which are different in each country and state, consult a lawyer anyway.

   Make the prize something substantial… not $5 gift certificate to Starbucks. Make it either a substantial sum of money or a nice prize relevant to your target audience. The idea is to give away something that people care enough about to link, talk, and blog about.

If you thought about or actually used any other creative link building methods or Web site promotions, and are willing to share, a comment would be greatly appreciated.