One of the most effective ways to do this is through “Link Building”! Search engines follow links throughout the internet to find new web pages. They also tend to consider websites with more incoming links as more important and thus rank them higher.
What exactly does this mean?
- Link Building means acquiring incoming links from a variety of websites that point to your website (or interior pages). Have the majority of the links point to your home page, but have a few pointed to important interior pages, such as your download or band’s schedule pages.
- You should try to find link partners that are themselves highly ranked in the SERPs (search engine results pages). This helps to avoid “Bad Neighborhoods”. Make sure the site you are requesting a link from is related to music, bands or your geographical area. Links from directories in an appropriate category will help boost your visibility and might bring in some visitors too. You do not want lots of links from “Car Repair” sites (for example), since your site does not have anything to do with cars. Also get links from newer sites to have a variety of incoming link quality.
- Request that the site that links to you use the “keyword(s)”, in the “anchor text” (yellow highlighted in the example of a link below), you are trying to focus and rank for.
his is an example of the simple html code for a link:
Your Band Name or Keyword
- Use a variety of “anchor text phrases” in your link building. Do not just use the exact name of your band repeatedly. Add a word or two. Use a long version and short version of your name (if possible). Search Engines don’t like “artificial anything” and if you use the same “anchor text” in every link, you will definitely look “artificial”. Variety is the secret to success in link building!
- Have some descriptive text surround your link’s “anchor text”. Make that text “related” to your name or mission.
- Avoid “Link Farms”, “FFA or Free For All Sites” and other “Bad Neighborhoods”. They probably will not help you and if you link back to them, it can harm you. Bad Neighborhoods are websites that use questionable and/or spammer tactics to inflate their rankings, usually only for a short time until the search engines catch them and remove or penalize them. If you link back to them, you might get penalized too, when they are caught.
- Try to get one way (incoming links without having to link back) links when you can.Original Article: webseodesign