by Daniel Xiao Wang

Created on: July 07, 2010

Gaining quality links to your website, also known as back links, is one of the most effective search engine optimization strategies. Having quality links to your website will increase your Google PageRank, help your website be found on search engines, and increase traffic. Fortunately there are ways to encourage quality back links to your website; a focus on quality content and social awareness can help you gain quality links to your website.

Quality Content

One of the most important and effective strategies for encouraging quality links to your website is by having quality content that other websites will want to link to. With the huge focus on keywords and keyword density, this seemingly obvious strategy often takes a back seat and is not given the respect it deserves.

If the content of your website is accurate, knowledgeable, easy to understand, and informative other websites will seek to link to it. This is particularly true of the types websites who will provide you with truly quality links. Websites that have a .edu .org or a .gov domain are particularly helpful for building quality links and are seen as very relevant by search engines.

In order to keep your content relevant and fresh, remember to keep it updated often. Search engines do take into account how often a website is updated and managed when determining relevancy and the quality websites that you want linking to your website also want the content they link to to be fresh and up to date.

Social awareness

It is the age of social media; web 2.0. Websites are interactive and people conduct a strong portion of their social lives on-line. So when you are looking to network and promote your website it is important to be involved in the web's social scene. After all, this is where the people that will be looking for your content are going to be found.

Websites like Facebook, Mixx, Digg, StumbleUpon, Twitter, myspace... these are all places to meet potential clients, people that could be interested in linking to your website. But the focus is not on just anyone linking to your website, you need quality links. Well, the good news is that those websites with the domains you want to target also spend time on these social networks. And many have pages and websites connected to these social networks. Take advantage of this to display your website to them and show them that your website has the relevant content that they should want to be linking to. And then, take it a step further.

Not only should you go to these groups looking for links to your website, but you should link to theirs. Quality links from your site to their site may encourage them to take a better, and more generous, look at your website. Many of these websites are not opposed to linking to relevant content, and if your website links to them and other relevant sources they may be more inclined to send back links to your site.

Social websites are about being social. Sometimes it doesn't hurt to simply ask. This is much more effective a strategy if you have built some manner of relationship with the organization or business that you are trying to receive a link from. But a simple request can sometimes go a long way.

Quality links to your site can increase your page ranking and traffic to your website. Finding these quality links can sometimes be a challenge, but every quality link to your site makes a big difference to your website's SEO efforts. Do what you can to encourage these back links and help people find your website.

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