Link building refers to the process of obtaining inbound links from other websites by placing your own link (i.e., your website’s address) with them, with the intention of enhancing the popularity and the search engine page ranking of your own website. Link building can be performed in several ways – submitting links to directories and search engines, exchanging links, joining a webring, submitting articles to reprint directories with a resource box at the bottom that points back at your website, posting messages on bulletin boards with your website’s address included in the signature, etc.  

The result is an instant booster for the website to which the links point to, in terms of increased traffic, higher search engine ranking, a higher Google PR (PageRank), along with many more benefits. Link building is one of the best methods that can catapult your website into a league of its own, and if you haven’t attempted to build link popularity so far, you must start now, and here’s why:

1.         Search engines measure links pointing to a website as a measure of its popularity, provided the links are coming from websites with legitimate content. In fact, Google has instituted a system, Google PR, where it considers each link pointing to a website as a vote in its favor – the higher the number of legitimate links pointing a website, the higher its Google PR. Of course, other search engines too measure links and if a website has a large number of quality links, it moves up on the search engine ranking ladder.

2.         As a website gets linked by other websites, its traffic increases automatically. It also tells a visitor that the website that is carrying your link trusts and appreciates your website’s content.

3.         Links are just like word-of-mouth advertising. Well, advertising is advertising, and when your website’s link is placed on other websites, it translates into free advertisement! Even if you have paid a small one-time fee for the link, it will stay there perpetually or for a very long period, justifying your cost in the long term.

4.         Then there are the all important financial advantages: When your website gets a whole lot of quality links, you get more traffic accumulation, which leads to more clicks on the advertisements you have placed on your website, which in turn makes more money for you. Also, when your PR goes up, so does your bargaining power – so, if you are selling ad space, you will be easily able to command a higher premium and sell ads on your own terms. Oh yes, links sure pack your bank account with more power!

5.         Links automatically increase the trustworthiness of your website. When surfers see your links on many different websites, they begin thinking that there must be something special about your website that is making all these other websites link back to you. Plus, links signify that you have entered into a partnership with the website that’s linking back to you and that sort of increases your reputation.

6.         Finally, links pointing to a website are assets. They increase the intrinsic value of your website, and just in case if you find a buyer for your website, you might even get a stupendous offer from him if your website has a whole lot of links. 

This is how link building goes on to improve the performance, revenue and the value of a website, which is why it is fast catching up an one of the most important SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques. Having said that, it needs to be mentioned that all links that point to your website must come from quality sources. If your website is linked to by bogus websites or by link farms that do not carry any meaningful content, the search engines will blacklist your website. So, be careful on how you go about building your links.

Here’s one nifty tip – There’s this website called inboundlinks.org, where you can submit your website link for free. Well, inboundlinks.org is fast catching up and very soon it will become a two-in-one website – it will accept both articles and links. So, when you are dealing with inboundlinks.org, you are dealing both with an article directory as well as a link-building website. It’s a win-win situation.

So, if you have a website and have not yet attempted link building, what are you waiting for! Go right ahead and build links all over the web and increase your website’s value, Google PR and search engine ranking, and see more traffic and more money! Good luck!