Whether you possess a wealth of knowledge in search engine optimization (SEO) or you’ve just heard about it in passing, you probably know the phrase “link building” and how crucial it is to your website’s success.
If you don’t know about link building don’t sweat it, you’re in the right place.
In general terms, search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of increasing your website’s visibility in a search engine's (such as Google) un-paid ("organic") search results. Search engines such as Google have algorithms that are applied to websites in order to rank them. The higher your page rank, the higher up your site appears in search results. Page rank algorithms heavily favor sites with many inbound links, especially inbound links from other high ranking sights (like a yahoo.com or cnn.com).
(Graphical display of Google Algorithm courtesy Wikipedia)
A popular and effective SEO tactic is to increase the number of inbound links, known as link building, to increase your site’s prominence on the web.
Google recently cracked down and decreased the search engine rankings of websites that violated Google’s Webmaster Guidelines particularly those participating in link schemes. While it is never recommended to pay for your links or to use “black hat” tactics, the very option appears to be off the table for the time being.
Link building in the financial industry is even more difficult because of the constraints of compliance. CFTC and NFA regulations dictate that you are responsible for the content on any outbound link on your website. Therefore, if you link to an outside site that is in violation of regulations, you are also in violation of said regulations. Consider it the felony-murder rule of the financial World Wide Web.
Since you are responsible for content on the outbound sites you link to, link swaps, a popular way to link build, are a lot more difficult and very risky. If your company doesn’t have deep pockets to buy online advertising and web directory listings, your site’s search engine visibility doesn’t have to suffer. You just have to roll up your sleeves and work a little harder.
Try these easy ways to build links:
- List your website and blogs on free directories and indexes.
- Create profiles on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube page, LinkedIn, etc. with links back to your site
- Create a blog with links back to your website
- On your social media pages, have your posts include links back to blog and website
- Guest blogging and link swaps (Remember to check with your compliance officer)
- Create good, original content on your blog that others will share and spread across the internet
- Incorporate anchor text into your webpages and blog posts
