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There are hundreds, if not thousands of different ways you can acquire links. Every link buildling tactic comes with pros and cons. I have found that the most effective way to build links is by taking the time to build relationships with experts in your industry, than to just dropping a link in a directory or forum. I understand this is a time intensive process and it requires a lot more work, but the end result are highly relevant, authoritative links. Below is a step by step process to effectively approach potential link partners.

Follow this 4 step process:

1. Make a Potential Link Partner List

If you read industry blogs, than you probably have a pretty good idea who the major influencers are in the industry. Start by generating a list of potential experts/bloggers you would like to contact. Take note of their blog (if they have one), what sites they contribute to, and any social media sites they engage in.

2. Start Following Them

Before you even begin contacting anyone, start following them. If they are on Twitter, start following them. Pay attention to what they tweet about, who they tweet about, who they are tweeting with, and pay attention to their style/personality.

If they manage or contribute to a blog, sign up for their RSS feed and being reading recent and upcoming posts. Start to understand their style of writing, how often they blog, and what topics they cover.

If they use social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, start following their bookmarks. See what type of sites interest them. Find out if they have other types of passions besides just the industry you are in. You may be able to connect with someone on a deeper level (similar intersts, location, background, experience).

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photo credit: papalars
Forgive me for going back to SEO 101 on this post, but it’s something that keeps popping up time and time again. There are some out there who still insist on always getting links back to their home page, while the rest of their content has no back links. The main reasons for link building are to increase your online visibility, to improve your site’s relevance for certain keywords, to gain trust from the search engines, and ultimately to have each page on your site rank higher.

Now, how do you expect to accomplish these things if you’re only getting links to your homepage? Sure, your homepage might end up ranking better for its target phrase, but what about all the other pages on your site? After all, those are the bread and butter of your search traffic. It’s these deeper pages on your site where you get to target the specific, niche keywords that will drive highly targeted traffic to your site. And I don’t have to tell you that highly targeted traffic means greater conversion rates (but I will anyway.)

The Benefits of Deep Linking

So, let’s do a quick refresher on the benefits of deep linking.

• Improved Search Ranking for Deep Pages- As I mentioned earlier, the most important benefit of deep linking is that it can help you rank higher for the keywords deeper in your website. That’s one of the main reasons you break down your website into different pages, so you can target different keywords (and of course, to improve the usability of your website.) So, by getting deep links, you’re going to generate more long-tail search traffic, and more traffic overall.

• Page is Easier to Crawl- Deep links also make your site easier to crawl for search spiders. With links pointing to the pages deep within your site, you make certain that they will get crawled and they’re likelier to index quickly.

• Increased Trust- If every link to your website is pointing at your homepage, what does that say about the rest of your site? It sends the message to the search engines that the deep pages on your site aren’t important and perhaps not as trustworthy. The truth is the deep pages on your site are usually the most important, and that’s why it’s so crucial to build links for them.

• Higher Quality Traffic- The whole point of SEO is to improve the quality of your traffic. After all, who cares if a million visitors come to your site each month if none of them stick around? Link building for all the pages on your site helps improve the overall quality of your traffic. This way, people will land exactly on the pages that interest them instead of having to wade through irrelevant content. And of course, this means your conversion rate will be better.

Remember, building deep links is no different than link building for your home page. The same strategies apply, and over time, you’ll find this to be far more effective for increasing your online visibility than just getting links for your home page. So, start getting those deep links!