SocMedSean.com

Driving Inbound Links To Your Website Or Blog

Sean R. NicholsonTwitter: @socmedseanLinkedIn: seanrnicholson

What’s All The Fuss About

Inbound Links?

What Is An Inbound Link, Anyway?

L• Simply put, it’s any incoming hyperlink

from another site that points to content on your site• When the author of sitea.com creates an

article that includes a link to content on siteb.com that says “check out this great article”

• Inbound links can either be high quality, or they can be low-quality spam

• To increase the perceived “authority” or reputation of your site, you want to generate high quality content that people want to link to

Inbound Links Should Be Part Of Your Content Marketing Strategy

L• Incoming links from other reputable sites to

your content sends a signal to Google that your content is valuable enough to link to

• Google can use the context of those inbound links to determine what other content creators think your content is about

• If the linked text on the other site says “great article about developing inbound links”, Google can validate that their keywords match your content

• More links, often leads to more traffic

Can I Just Buy A Bunch Of Links?

L• Sure…you can• The better question is “should you” and the

answer to that question is no• Search engines like Google analyze the

quality of inbound links as part of your site authority

• 10 high quality inbound links are worth more in the eyes of the search engine algorithms than 1000 low-quality links

• Like anything, if you want results in linkbuilding, there are no shortcuts

OK, So I Know I Need To Do The

Work, But Where Do I Start?

Start By Focusing On Your Content

L• Develop high quality content• Create content that people not only want to

read, but also want to share• Create images that are pinnable to

Pinterest• Create videos that people want to embed in

their blog posts• Create “quotable” statements that readers

want to tweet about• Develop infographics and articles that

readers want to share on Facebook

Share And Encourage Sharing

L• When you publish a post, share it across

the appropriate social networks• Add social sharing buttons to your site that

make it easy for others to share to their social networks

• Allow for the sharing of your unique images by expressly providing a Creative Commons license

• For more information, visit http://creativecommons.org

• Provide users with embed code that allows them to easily add your content to their site

Build Relationships And Focus On Celebrating The Talents And Successes Of OthersL• When you celebrate the successes of

others, they tend to share your articles on their social networks

• Write a blog post giving credit to those who you feel are the “unsung” heroes in your area of expertise

• Ask the opinion of your fans and followers and then turn that into a blog post• For an example of this, check out this

blog post about whether we should expect health care professionals to post and tweet

• http://www.socmedsean.com/should-we-expect-health-care-professionals-to-post-and-tweet/

How Soon Should I

Expect Results?

Blogging Is A Combination Of Long and Short-Term Results

L• Once you publish an article, share it across

your social networks, this will generate immediate traffic

• High-quality inbound links, however, may take a while as other bloggers develop a level of trust for the content you create

• Be focused on developing both short-term “shares”, but be patient enough to wait for long-term inbound links

• Remember, this is a long-game focused on delivering high-quality traffic

Where Can I Found Information About The Value Of Inbound Links As Part Of My Content

Marketing Strategy

Some Great Resources

L• The rules are constantly changing when it

comes to the treatment and value of inbound links

• If you always strive to generate traffic from high-quality sources, you’ll likely avoid any search algorithm penalties

• You can keep up with the changes, however, through sites like:• http://moz.com• http://searchengineland.com• http://searchenginewatch.com• http://google.com/ (search inbound links)

Questions?

About Sean

• Author at SocMedSean.com• 15+Years of digital experience• Juris Doctor in Intellectual Property• Author/Co-Author of more than a

dozen books on productivity software and website development

• Keynote speaker about Integrated Marketing

• Connect with me at:• http://socmedsean.com • http://twitter.com/socmedsean • https://www.linkedin.com/in/

seanrnicholson