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What is strategic linking? It is more than just getting as many links coming into your website as possible. That can be a good start, but the quality of those links matter. It also matters what the "anchor text" of the link says.
There are two basic things that your incoming links do for you. First, they bring you direct traffic from the sites where they are located. Second, they help optimize your website and get it found more often in the search engines.
Strategic Linking - Direct Traffic
When you put a link up anywhere, there is a chance that people will click on it and visit your site. The odds are increased if there is more traffic where that link is. Obviously you want to get your links on high-traffic sites as much as possible then. This is why when you submit your articles to article directories, you want to start with those that are well used. If you exchange links, you want to do so with high-traffic sites when possible.
However, there is more than just traffic in this equation. You also want the right kind of traffic. A link to your website on chess won't get clicked much if it is on a site about boating. More strategic linking would put your links on sites or pages with a closely related theme.
This is one reason that articles are such a great marketing tool for your website. An article on making money at home is read by people who are very likely to click through to your site on home business opportunities. This targeted traffic is also likely to be more valuable once they arrive at your site. Links from the author's resource box in your articles are some of the best possible links you can have.
Strategic Linking - Optimization
The other thing that links do for you is optimize your website. Even if nobody were to click on the links you put out there, the links would help you increase your exposure in the search engines - meaning you'll get more traffic from them. What should you do to get the most "optimization" value from your links? Try the following:
1. Get links from more important pages. If you don't have a Google Toolbar on your browser, you may want to get one and start checking out the "PageRank" (Google's trademarked proprietary system for ranking web sites) of the web sites you put links on. Submit articles to web sites with a PageRank of 4 or higher, and exchange links with higher-ranked sites as well.
2. Have the keyword you want to optimize for in the "anchor text." This is the language of the actual link, and it is used by search engines to decide which sites to display in the results pages. With article submissions, be sure to also have the full URL displayed as well, so those who use your article won't mess up the link. For example, you could have the keyword "strategic linking" used as your link, but then also show the full URL (starting with http://). Of course, if the keyword is in your URL, you are already one step ahead of the competition.
3. Link more slowly - maybe. There is some evidence that the search engines are downgrading the value of links when they occur too quickly. Perhaps their search algorithms assume there is software or "tricks" involved. They may consider a more "natural" or slower growth of incoming links to be indicative of a higher quality site. If you have several web sites, then, you are possibly better off rotating your link-building work between them, so the links to any one site are added more slowly.
Links that bring direct targeted traffic and links that optimize your website - which should you try for? Why not both? Both are valuable, and you can often get both advantages in one link. There is also one other
Steve Gillman lost money on his web sites until he discovered the power of articles. Six months later he was making a good living online. To learn how you can do the same, and to learn more ways to use that resource box, go now and get your free online writing course at: http://www.999articles.com
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You may reprint the above article on your website or in your newsletter, as long as it is unchanged and the link in the author's resource box remains active.