If you have a website or blog, you most likely want to increase the numbers of visitors to your site. In order to do this, you may have looked into the search engine optimization (or SEO) to find ways for your website to be found in searches.

That is a good start, but as you have most likely already discovered, there are numerous techniques involved in SEO. Some of the most important factors involved in getting your site found in search results include:

• Original, well-written content
• Proper use of meta tags (especially the title tag)
• Domain age
• Website structure and code
• Link popularity

There are additional components affecting a website's performance in search engines, but the above list is a good place to start. In this post, I will discuss some tips on link building.

Why Links Are Important

Links from other websites help people find your website. For example, if a person is researching a product or procedure and finds a link to your website from another site on the same topic, there is a good chance that he or she would follow the link and become a potential buyer.

The top search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN/Microsoft Live, and Ask) also use links from other sites to find your website, allowing the search engine to include your website in its index. However, the search engines also use links to help judge your website's importance. The search engines view each link as a "vote" for your website. In theory, the more "votes" you get, the more important your website must be.

Don't Fall into the "Link Farm" Trap

Before you go out in search of cheap, easy links from just any website, wait! Not all links are viewed the same way by search engines. Some links to your website could actually hurt your website. A single link from a well-respected website, like The New York Times website, is considered more valuable than several links from low-ranking websites and link farms. (A "link farm" is a website that sells links for no real purpose except to establish a link. These sites do not provide any use to users so Google and other search engines tend to devalue these links.) Also, blatantly buying links could get your website removed from Google's index.

It is important to try to get link from websites that provide use to the website visitor and not sites that are out to "game" Google. You can start with websites of organizations of which you are a member (local chamber, college alumni association, etc.) and the "local" search sites (creating a profile on Google Maps and Yahoo Local). Once you secure those links, you can submit articles with links to various article submission websites. Another good tactic is to become involved in blogs and social communities relating to your website and include links when relevant. It is important to note that you should be an active participant in the community, not just try to get links to your website (this is seen as spam).

Getting the Most from Your Link

Not only do you want to get links to your website, but you want to try to get key-word rich links to your website. Google can determine what words people are using in their links to your website and can factor those terms into the way it sees your website. For example, if I wanted to give a link to the maid service that I use, instead of linking "click here" or the website's URL, I would be better helping the website by linking "San Diego maid" or "San Diego housekeeping" to the website. That way, when Google sees the link, it not only recognizes the link, but also gets an idea that I consider this website to be about housekeeping services in San Diego.

In a similar way, you also want to include deep links to the website. Not only do you want Google to see the relevance of your home page, but you also want the search engine to see the rest of your website. Although Google can crawl your site from your home page to find the rest of the website, you can help Google not only locate, but also understand the relevance of inside, or deeper, pages. Using the same housekeeping website, instead of linking only to the home page of the website, it may be more relevant to direct people to the services the company offers to businesses so I might link "San Diego janitorial services" to its commercial cleaning page. Or, perhaps I want to point out that the company provides services to other parts of the county. In that case, I would link "maids throughout San Diego County" to the areas served page.

If You Make It Interesting, They Will Come

Finally, be sure to include information and articles on your website to which people want to link. If you build a reputation in an online community and people check your website, give them a reason to not only stay and look around, but also to link to your site. If you provide a useful or even humorous website, others will link to you.

Good luck and happy linking!