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The art of link building requires that a website owner knows who, where, and what to link to and from. It’s something that seems easy at first, but is actually harder to manage than you would initially think. To stay safe from filters and penalties, only practice white hat methods that are described.

One should always try to network with other businesses in the area. If you happen to run a web development business, you should be linking to friends and others who you have networked with. Ask for a link back- it’ll do wonders in the future as search engines see that you have friends on the Internet. It also helps because the website is likely to be very relevant to the content of your own website.

Not so long ago, a web directory was the only way to find relevant websites on the Internet. Things have changed since then, as we have Yahoo!, Google, and Bing to thank for easier searching. The fact is that directories are still valuable for finding local services, and search engines still give a lot of “weight” to those who are listed in relevant directories. Find such directories in your locale and get a listing.

If you have competitors in your niche, such as the kid down the road who just started a web development business, you might see how they are ranking. If the result is better than your own ranking, look at what links they have built through free online tools. Make an attempt to gain the same links if at all possible. Many times it may not be, but it’s worth researching.

Asking for a link exchange is perfectly fine, so long as you do it correctly. It helps if you create the link to a website before you send the email, so they know you are serious about inclusion on your website. The link exchange won’t always go as planned, so be sure to remove any links after a week if there is no response from the website owner. Many web owners aren’t open to exchanging them.

You will need a tool that checks the link exchanges you have conducted, so you aren’t wasting time every day doing it yourself. There are plenty of free tools that will attempt to find a link to your website on a certain domain. If it isn’t found, it will alert you via email so that you can mention to the website owner the link is down and that you will remove their own link.

In Conclusion

Although effort should be put forth in building links, it should only be done in a way that is white hat. If you don’t, you can be exposed to penalties enacted by the major search engines. The result could greatly reduce visibility on the web.

Learn more about website marketing and website link building.

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