One thing is clear. You want more links pointing to your site. However, you do not know how to do that. In my case, I use search engine results to get terms that are important for my site. I conduct a Google search for two or three word phrases that I would prefer to get the ranking for. In addition, instead of thinking of the others sites that show up in the search results as competition, I look at them as potential link partners. This is because not all the sites that you find in the search result are competing with yours. In essence, the competition goes as far as the search terms or phrases you use are concerned and not in relation to the products or services you deal in.
Next, look at the sites that are above yours in the search, which are not in the same line of trade like your business, and they have a link. The main aim is to find out how you can get linked to them. Find out if they have link pages, newsletters you can place your business advertisement or link or you can reciprocate links. You can do this for all the sites in the search results noting the ones that have something that may work to your advantage.
Let us use a practical idea, for instance, a professional fitness trainer selling e-books through a website. One of the search terms that can bring in a good result is ‘lower my body weight’. However, it might be hard to try getting a higher ranking on such a phrase. Therefore, he or she has to look for a more appropriate phrase. This means looking at other sites that show up in the search results. On the contrary, most of them might have nothing that relates to fitness, training or fitness e-books. They might be a list of training centers, vitamin stores and liposuction sites amongst others.
This technique of taking advantage of sites that rank highly is called ‘piggybacking’. The sites have the high ranks you are looking for and they also have the specific search phrase you want your site to be associated with. Instead of trying to compete for rankings with sites that are in your line of trade, seek links that offer you a high ranking but the site will not compete with your products or services. More so, it will offer the users a chance to get something they want that the site cannot offer but you can. The main reason for doing this is to get to the top of the search result using sites that have high profiles, content and hence traffic. The search engines trust them and you will move from the bottom to a visible part on the web. The most important thing is to find out how to convince the sites to link you. It must be a concrete reason. For instance, if you have products, you can request the site to be your affiliate in that trade. You can also barter what they have that you don’t and what you have that they don’t. It is also wise to buy the banner ads or the buttons on these highly ranked sites, in order to boost traffic to yours.
