The battle to rank at the top of Google search results is never ending, fierce and mysterious. Nobody can or will unveil all the secrets. Still, search insiders agree that the credibility generated by outside links pointing to your small business site is vital. The more links the merrier, but calibre counts.Classy links - from sites that the search giants respect - can rocket your ranking. Call the hot leads "link juice" - a phrase that went viral after search engine optimisation (SEO) consultant Greg Boser coined it with a little help from his friends in 2005.
"Initially, it was just a phrase we used amongst ourselves hanging out at conferences," Boser says. "I don't remember the exact point it went mainstream. But I think it was after an episode of SEO Rockstars," he adds, referring to the online marketing show.
If you want to become a SEO rockstar with a wealth of juicy incoming links that convey "social proof", the promotional drive that you run must be tactful. Avoid hitting prospective clients remorselessly, advises guerilla marketing consultant Shel Horowitz. "Be polite and not hypey."
Even if you contact prospects "manually", include an unsubscribe link. Ideally, already have established rapport because the familiarity will boost the kind of "multiple-pronged no-cost marketing campaign" that Horowitz favours. Learn how to pursue one and win tons of so-called "Google love".
Juice boost - 10 secrets of making people link to your website
1. Join forces
Partner with a marketing association and a charity. That gives you muscle and an ethical aura.
2. Blitz new media publishers
Write to several hundred bloggers, newsletter publishers, and e-zine publishers - especially any you have a trusting relationship with. Invite them to join in the launch. Offer incentive in the shape of commissions on an upsell membership programme, besides the standard submit-a-bonus-and-get-exposure deal.
3. Exploit social media
Promote your website across a spectrum of social media. Think Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yahoogroups, Groupsites, Plaxo. Encourage contacts to do so as well. On Twitter in particular, you get pick-up - and retweeting.
4. Enrol as rent-a-quote
Sign up as an expert with a database like Profnet or Haro. Focus on a subject like small business loans, and the media may come to you for enlightenment. If your URL (web address) deftly reflects your speciality, it may well feature in any coverage you get.
5. Write stories
Not fairytales but journalistic features on your chosen subject. Submit them, including your URL to article directories like Ezinearticles.com and Articlesbase.com or a hub like about.com or mashablecom. Ensure your story has a killer headline. Make the content compelling - what's in it for the reader?
6. Shoot for the tube
Turn your stories into videos. Google likes YouTube. So, if you set your stories in motion, you will gain - all the more so because video marketing is a mercurial medium worth exploring.
7. Write product testimonials
If you buy and take a shine to a product, leave a testimonial. Embed your URL in your statement and you should win some traffic.
8. Have your say
Slot your thoughts into comment boxes tacked on to blogs. Make your statement meaningful because, for marketing to work, it must have integrity. Merely paste your web address and you may be treated like a spammer.
9. Sign off
Include your URL in your email signature. That way, every email you send spreads it around. Easy.
10. Take 10
Readers are lured by top 10s and subhead formats generally - whether the angle be myths, tips and tricks or whatever. Remember that, whatever you write.
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