Marketing Thoughts by Domus, Inc.

Inbound links to a website have a substantial impact on search engine optimization (SEO) and a site’s organic ranks for strategically important keywords. The volume of links and their characteristics, such as having relevant keywords in the linked text, can be manipulated by an effective linkage outreach and management program.

However, external sites, even those belonging to business partners, may be resistant to driving visitors away from their own site. So, how does one effectively increase the quantity and quality of inbound links without straining business relationships or wasting a lot of time barking up wrong trees?

Effective tools for increasing linkage may already exist within current marketing campaigns and business materials. A common SEO and linkage practice is to include links and URLs within press releases and other public relations materials so that, when they get picked up by media and news outlets, they link to and drive traffic back to a site. However, this paradigm can be extended to other content which is not normally taken into account.

Medium to large business that have business partners often find their site copy, collateral and trade information picked up and repurposed on others’ sites. While this by itself ensures that messaging remains consistent, it can be leveraged and even encouraged in order to increase inbound linkage and SEO. Including intra-site, inline links in site copy and other materials will increase the likelihood of partner sites linking back without straining relationships or wasting much time. Additionally, businesses can actively encourage partners to use their materials, which cuts development time and costs for these partners, through outreach and trade sections of their website. Practices such as these can increase inbound links and make a company look like a good business partner.

As SEO is a continually evolving field of marketing, at Domus we are always refining our strategies in order to maximize the quantity and quality of links back to our clients' sites.

5/05/2009 11:42:00 AM
Categories: Internet Marketing. Author: Jameson - Internet Marketing