We want traffic...and we want it now! Beware of taking the “easy route” and simply joining a link network. Google has recently been shutting down multiple link networks that ask website owners to pay a fee to receive large numbers of links. These types of networks are not in compliance to Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and are considered a quick marketing solution. Using these types of link networks may be too good to be true.
Of late, Google has been searching out these link networks and forcing them to close. What happens to the customers? People who have invested in them are losing their links and money. What seemed like a great idea to e-commerce owners initially may leave them empty handed. If it is all so risky, why are people using them in the first place? Many people pay to become part of these networks because they are promised hundreds of links to their site in as soon as the next day. Owners of these programs use their large networks to drive traffic to subscribers’ sites. However, we have seen how generating traffic this way is frowned upon.
But we still want traffic and referrers, what should we do? Don’t worry! There are many different ways that allow you to drive traffic to your own site without subscribing to one of the aforementioned networks. Outside of placing ads, one of the most fruitful avenues is analyzing the sites that are currently referring to your site. Using the information you have from your page referrers and building your own legitimate network and relationships for your website is a much more accepted route to generating traffic (Joyce, 2013).
We understand how important the page referrer is to our website but do we really take full advantage of these referrers? We should value these referrers and build strong, valuable relationships through honest networking. So what should we be looking at exactly?
There are three essential factors to look at when evaluating referrers (Davies, 2013):
- What sites are directing traffic to you?
These referrers might be review sites, blogs or even another retailer.
- What are they linking to?
Are they linking to a specific product? What are they saying about your product(s) that are encouraging people to go to your site? Try contacting them about your business and start building a relationship.
- Who are they influential with?
Does this referrer have a good following? Do they have a popular blog that gets hundreds of hits per post? If so, reach out to the referrer and their connections!
And now for the last important question: how can I find out how many people are linking to my site? If you run a small business, or are the sole contributor to your site, you will probably want to find the answer to this question without breaking the bank. In that case, there are a number of free tools online that allow us to check exactly how many links are pointing to your website. Tools like LinkDiagnosis.com and Majestic SEO are helpful in discovering how many backlinks your site has (Parmley, 2013). However, it’s always important to remember that these types of free tools are often not 100% accurate.
Happy Connecting!
References:
Davies, D. (2013). The value of referrer data in link building. Search Engine Watch. Retrieved from: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2302666/The-Value-of-Referrer-Data-in-Link-Building
Joyce, J. (2013). Link networks: don’t build your SEO strategy on a house of cards. Search Engine Watch. Retrieved from: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2261642/Link-Networks-Dont-Build-Your-SEO-Strategy-on-a-House-of-Cards
Parmley, L. (2013). How to check how many backlinks your site has. Business Bolts. Retrieved from: http://www.businessbolts.com/check-how-many-backlinks.html
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