When it comes to building links, you have more than one option. Articles, blogs, directories, sponsored links on related websites, banner ads on affiliate sites, the list goes on.

Rarely is there just one way to accomplish a goal. Usually, there are multiple ways of ensuring that a particular goal is met. Which one is the right one for you depends on a lot of variables. The same is true for SEO.

The Essence Of Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is largely just ensuring you manage your on-page keywords effectively, build a link structure that works for your website, and networking to get the assistance of others in your industry or elsewhere who can push you up in the rankings. There are artificial means that seem to work for a short time, but the benefits from those don’t last very long. When it comes to building link popularity, a long-term strategy is the best approach.

Too many website owners are impatient, however. They want results right now. When you start an online business, or take your existing brick and mortar business online, you should expect it take 2 or 3 years before you build up a strong enough reputation to really make an impact. It’s not that you won’t get any business while you are building trust. It’s just that building trust takes time.

How Trust Is Built Online And Off Line

Think about it this way. Off line, if you meet someone new today, can you reasonably expect them to trust you enough tomorrow to lend you their car, give you the keys to their house, or have lunch with their wife without you present? Likely not. Maybe you’ll develop that level of trust through nurturing a friendship over the course of months and years or maybe it will never develop at all, but unless you put in the requisite time and energy into building that relationship the trust will never build. Online relationships work pretty much the same way.

You have to build trust. But who are you building trust with? There are primarily four categories of relationships you need to focus on in order to build trust online:

The first, but not necessarily most important, category of relationship you should concern yourself with is the search engine category; you must build trust among the search engines – not just one of them; all of them.
The second category of relationship you must build trust with is the related website category – those websites related to yours in topic that you can benefit and that you can benefit from through link relationships; some of them may actually be competitors.
Thirdly, there are the human visitors to your website – they are potential customers and you have to work hard at building their trust; this is the most important category, by the way.
The fourth category is perhaps the least important because it is a derivative category – the world wide web community; that’s a broad category, I know, but it consists of social media, directories, bloggers, and anyone else who may or may not be associated with your industry or related to your topic in any way but who could benefit you through relationship building and therefore drive traffic to your website by indirect means; in many ways, this category derives is trust factor from the other three.

So What Does All Of This Have To Do With Link Popularity?

Bottom line, if you want people to link to you then you have to get them to trust you. If the search engines trust your content then you will get better rankings. But you’ll also need other website owners to link to you as well and that requires earning their trust. In the related website category that boils down to content – your website must have reliable, factual, original content that provides value. Otherwise, you can kiss links good bye.

The third category, the most important one, has more to do with traditional relationship characteristics than content. Content, to be sure, is a factor, but you must also be able to make commitments and keep them, build trust through integrity, maintain a level of respect in order to be respected, etc. The Golden Rule still applies. Treat others well and they will return the favor.

Finally, you have to make yourself socially acceptable. This hard to do online because you cannot see the people you are interacting with. But interaction with others online is the same as interaction off line. If you want the guy in the chat room to respect you then you have to respect him. If you want the blogger and his readers to respect you with links and traffic then you’ve got to prove yourself socially acceptable.

In essence, doing business online isn’t just a bunch of number crunching, algorithmic lap dancing, and keyword rearranging. There is a human element to SEO. Humans do the linking and humans are the ones we’re linking to. It’s not all just a conglomeration of bytes and bits. There is a human heart at the end of every link and at the beginning of every web page. Keep that in mind and you’ll do much better in the world of e-commerce.

SEO, Content, and Link Building Stategies that work
SEO Service Provider Blog
SEO Articles