Most savvy Internet experts understand the need for your business to achieve a high ranking on Google. In fact, without coverage on the first page for your chosen search term, you might as well be invisible.
An online public relations program provides one of the best ways to increase the number and quality of inbound links to your Web site, a major parameter used by Google to determine your ranking.
Inbound links may be defined as clickable text on another site taking a visitor to your own. The effectiveness and number of inbound links may be exponentially increased by:
- sending out press releases through key online distributors,
- submitting articles to content provision sites, and
- creating and maintaining a blog.
The strongest links
Online press releases containing an active link back to your Web site should be distributed through PR Newswire, PRWeb and The Open Press. PR Newswire provides the strongest links, often publishing releases on sites such as Forbes.com, Yahoo! Finance and online editions of major big-city newspapers.
To limit the cost, users should choose “New York Metro” distribution and keep the release under 400 words. In addition, PR professionals can generally send out a client”™s release through their own subscription, thus saving on the membership fee. PRWeb is cheaper than PR Newswire, generally less than $100 for basic distribution, and The Open Press is free.
The write stuff
Submitting articles to content provision sites offers a second avenue to increase your inbound links. Content provision sites serve as a clearinghouse of material for other Web sites to publish, but the publishers must include a link and contact information for the author. Most content provision sites also let you include a link to your Web site through a “resource box,” where you can also post a short bio.
The articles you submit should be “vendor-neutral,” without specifically mentioning your company, though they can describe services your company “happens to offer.” The length should be about 500 words, and you should try to write one content provision article per month, or, at the least, per quarter.
Content provision articles may be posted on the following sites (among others): www.amazines.com, www.articlealley.com, www.articlecity.com, www.articledashboard.com, www.articlegold.com, www.buzzle.com, www.ezinearticles.com, www.goarticles.com and www.ideamarketers.com.
Blog, blog, blog
Blogs represent a third source of inbound links. They contain a special section for the author bio, and you should use this area to include an inbound link to your main site. You may also include links back to your site in appropriate entries.
Blogs should be treated like an online diary, and you should feel free to discuss your thoughts on whatever theme you choose. They may be initiated and maintained on sites specifically created for that purpose such as Blogger and WordPress. Most people shudder at the thought of wasting time with daily entries, so I suggest creating a format for once a week, e.g., “This Week in (any topic).”
Each blog entry should also contain an image, and you can find the best and most comprehensive set of royalty-free graphics at Stock.XCHNG.com. The site contains a search box and lets you research topical images by inputting any keyword. The chosen photo may then be downloaded onto your hard drive and inserted into your entry by clicking on the blog”™s “image” icon.
After you have been posting regular entries to your blog for three or four months, you should submit it to blog search engines such as www.blogcatalog.com, www.blogflux.com, www.getblogs.com and www.technorati.com to further increase your visibility.
Other tactics to increase your inbound links involve joining directories such as LinkedIn, Naymz and Plaxo; social media sites such as Facebook, Flickr (photos) and YouTube (videos); recommendation sites such as Yelp (restaurants), Digg (content) and StumbleUpon (web sites); as well as specialty sites such as Twitter (micro-blogging) and Icanlearnanything (expert advice).
Your profile on most of these sites can be linked back to your main site and to each other to create a web of online visibility and inbound links.
Willy Gissen is president of Cut-It-Out Communications, www.cioediting.com a public relations agency in Hartsdale. Reach him at wgissen@cutitoutcommunications.com.
