Link strategy number two. The One Way Directory Link.

As power of link goes up as more and more search engines use it as a method of ranking sites so directories are cashing in on a charge to be listed. What was once a free resource has now become an expensive link gathering exercise.

Still most important free directory entry is http://www.dmoz.org but these days waiting list seems to be forever. Seek out directories and place your links at every opportunity. Industry portals are a great linking source. 

Link strategy number three. The Strategic Article Link.

This type of link packs biggest punch of all.

Writing an article on your favourite subject can give you many benefits not least in credibility and giving you recognition as an authority on your chosen subject. It is by far best way of gaining links and traffic to your site.

The technique is to write an article of five to six hundred words on a subject that you are knowledgeable about. Get several of your trusted friends to proof read and contribute and then refine it into a readable style.

Remember that writing for web is totally different than writing for other media types. Surfing is a solitary experience for most and it’s important that you capture your reader’s attention and imagination.

For this type of article don’t worry about stuffing it with keywords in your page title and headings, you are not writing for search engines. The aim is to make a highly readable piece that will be distributed throughout all of websites related to your subject matter in your industry.

So you can’t write? It’s well worth your while to hunt around and find a good copywriter that you can work with. The return on investment is 1000 times what you would ever get from advertising in your local rag.

Tony Cooper is Internet Marketing Manager at

You need to cultivate and establish your partnerships with other sites to enable growth. Trying to do everything in an insular manner by relying on one method (for example “pay per click”) is certain to end your hopes of building a successful website prematurely. It’s essential that you seek out like minded businesses and work with them to satisfy your customer.

It’s unlikely that you will have all of necessary requirements in place to satisfy every customer, so just as in high street, it makes sense to partner with other businesses that can provide missing components to overall solution.

Viewed in this way it makes complete sense to seek links with related sites.

For example. A site that specialises in tailored suits would be in a particularly niche market. Saville row tailors are much in demand these days but who would they partner with online?

Traditional linking strategies would have you seeking out similar tailors, maybe from other parts of country so that you were not in direct competition.

However, thinking laterally, it makes complete sense that someone doing a search on Google for “tailor” would want to see other tailor related sites so that they could compare services.

So an improved linking strategy would be to provide links to related services. For example, one of most common reasons for getting a new suit is a wedding. So wedding organisers and marquee companies would be good to approach. High class catering services and wedding limousine companies would be other good avenues to explore.

The strategy should be to link with partners who will actually be able to provide a service to your website visitors rather than just linking to a site because you can. As well as value of link in your popularity stakes you will also benefit from increased traffic that related links provide.

In next article I examine some practical methods you can use to gain link popularity and traffic

Tony Cooper is Internet marketing manager at