10 ways to build keyword rich inbound links by Rachelle Money, 5 November 2008

Creating keyword rich content goes well beyond writing a few articles for your site. Search engine optimization is a discipline which can be used in every corner of your website, including inbound and outbound links. In this article we show you just how easy it is to boost your search engine rankings simply by building keyword rich links.

To rank well in search engine results you need to score well on both ‘on the page’ and ‘off the page’ factors. On the page factors are about what is on your own pages and therefore within your own control; off the page factors are the links from external websites to your own, and these are much more difficult to control.

Most external links will use your domain name to link to you, but if you can persuade them to link using keyword rich linking text (sometimes called anchor text), then you’ll get a significant search engine boost.

So while AbeBooks.com would be pleased with a link like http://www.abebooks.com, they would be even more pleased with a link like used books from AbeBooks because the linking text contains one of their important keywords, ‘used books’.

For many website managers and owners, getting an external link of any kind is achievement enough, without having to manage the even more difficult task of persuading an external website to link to you using specific keyword phrases of your choice.

So how do you get keyword rich inbound links?

Choosing product and publication names that contain keywords will; and there are other methods to use that, if you persist with them, will bring you many valuable links.

But before we list them, you need to do some preparation:

a. Start by choosing 5-10 of your most popular keywords that you’re going to use in your initial link building campaign.

b. Now write variations of the links that you’d like to use. For example to create the link 'used books from AbeBooks', I’d write the following html:

<a href="http://www.abebooks.com/">used books from AbeBooks</a>

c. You’ll want to create a variety of inbound links using different variations of linking text.

There are simple steps you can take to start getting keyword rich links.

Easy ways to get keyword rich inbound links

• The easiest is of course from other websites that you control. You can interlink your sites if they are relevant, but don’t overdo it – stick to one or two links per site, not hundreds.
• Another easy way is to ask friends and colleagues who control other websites. But the same rules apply – don’t overdo it.
• Buy quality directory links. Do check that the links pass on link power as Google has all but 'disallowed' directory links.
• Tell people how you’d like them to link to you. Write the html, make it available and ask people to copy and paste the code into their own web pages.
• Write newsworthy press releases and use services such as www.prweb.com to distribute them. For a small additional fee they will allow you to embed links into the body of your press release. These in themselves are unlikely to pass on link power but people who read the press releases and then cover the story may do.

More difficult ways to get keyword rich inbound links

• Build contacts and relationships within your industry. Be generous in linking to useful external resources and you’ll find that the people you link to take notice: your generosity will often be rewarded with links back to your own site. If you’ve built a good relationship, people will be glad to use the linking text you suggest.
• Write and publish quality articles and blog posts on your own site. If people like your articles they’ll generally use the article’s title when they link to you, so make sure that you include important keywords in the titles of each article or post.
• Quality news and information sites in your industry will often accept well written articles for publication. When they do, they’ll normally publish a signature box describing what you do and linking to your site in whatever way you specify. If you write well and deliver on your promises, editors will mark you down as reliable and you’ll have little problem getting your articles published in the future.
• Look at people who are already linking to you (use a tool like Yahoo Site Explorer). They’ve already shown their interest in you, so you have a good chance of getting them to link to specific content using keywords of your choice.
• Incorporate keywords into your publication or product names. For example, Wordtracker’s ‘Keyword Research Guide’ contains ‘keyword research’.

We’ve suggested you start building keyword rich inbound links with 5-10 keywords, but once you’ve achieved some success you’ll want to expand on this. Furthermore, you’ll want to get creative in thinking of new ways you can get such links.

Have a quick scan of the ten methods once again and notice how many of them depend on having good relationships within your industry. That really is the secret of success.

For more articles on link building, see our article about Eric Ward, Father Of Link Building, Mark Nunney's How To Count Your Site's Inbound Links and our very own Ken McGaffin's on How To Get Links Without Asking.