Deep Linking Strategy for Content Sites
by Jack Humphrey
http://power-linking-profits.com Linking - what a mess if you don't know what's going on. Either
linking is "IN" or it's "OUT" according to what you read these
days.
Here's the good news: Linking Works.
Here's the bad news: HOW It Works Has Changed!
The good thing is you are going to pick up a linking tip today
that will put you light years ahead of most webmasters who think
a reciprocal link directory is all you need to gain link
popularity in Google and traffic from other sites.
Link directories are still ok, but the key is moderation.
Directories with thousands of links are a dark ages website
promotion tactic.
Today there are many people focusing on content again, thank god.
And that means you have a lot more real estate than just a
home page and a link directory to work with.
People have written to me to completely disagree with me on what
I am about to show you, but believe the expert, it works!
Say you have 500 pages of article and resource content on your
site. If you are publishing articles on several categories you
could have many more pages than that.
But even if you only have a 30 page site right now, it should be
growing all the time and will be large eventually. (If not,
forget about Google staying excited about your site if it never
changes.)
Each of those articles and resource pages is a link to your site
waiting to happen.
There are two ways to get links to your site here:
1) Ask for a link to your main page in exchange for a link on
one of your relevant article pages to the site you are
requesting an exchange with.
2) Deep Linking: Ask for a link right back to the specific
page on your site you are going to link to them on. Again, find
relevant pages of content to the sites you are going after.
People respond well to this, especially if you say you are
limiting your outgoing links to "further resources" to 5 per
page. (The number is up to you.)
What does this do for your site?
1) It gets webmasters WAY more excited about linking with you
because you are putting them ON your site, not in some
cobweb-ridden part of your site that no one ever visits.
2) It lets other site owners know you have ACTUALLY taken the
time to review their site enough to know where they would best
fit on your site according to the topic of the page you want to
link to them on. Again - this is a way different message to
them than the "Let's swap links" letter we all trash these days.
3) You start building link popularity and traffic direct to
pages within your site other than your index. (If you choose to
direct swap with them.)
4) It gives you leverage to ask for a better link from other
sites than just being thrown in their link dump (link directory)
where, again, far fewer people ever visit. You command the
power to ask for a similar link of importance from the pages
their visitors actually see. Win-Win
5) You increase the value of your links page because you are
not loading it down with any and every person who will link with
you. You can go back to old school linking to sites that you
HONESTLY do recommend and that list can be far smaller and
really fit on 1-2 pages. All the sudden you have traffic to
your links page again and can truly reward webmasters who are on
it with some traffic.
6) The links you get this way are going to be some of the first
links you have probably ever gotten that actually send you
significant traffic. The same goes for your link partners.
"But Jack, I don't want to send traffic away from my site!" Yes
you do, in fact. Because you are asking your link partners to
do the same. Links like this are just as profitable in the long
run as Google Adsense ads because you are finally engaging in a
real traffic exchange and leveraging your eproperty for what
it's really worth. Trust me - this works. Send some traffic
out and see what happens to your referrer stats.
Never give more than you get. Many people won't understand this
form of linking for another year or so. They will try to shove
your link in a dark hole on their site. Don't let them do it!
If someone doesn't understand the power of deep linking from
their content pages, send them this article as a last ditch
effort and tell them Jack said so. Otherwise, move on, take
their link down, and find someone smart enough to see where
linking is headed.
Overall, you are going to find it is much easier to get links
this way, even from sites bigger than yours. Telling people "I
want to link to you as a recommended resource on (name of
article) page..." tells them that you are a pro and not some
schmuck who has a linking program that spits out cookie cutter
emails.
Too much work? Hire someone and pay them per link they secure
in your name. Write the letter and have them fill in the blanks
for specific sites. Teach them how to go through your site,
learn the content, and go out and find RELEVANT recommended
resources for each page.
You'd be surprised to find out how cheaply you can get good work
done these days on Elance.com and other "for hire" sites.
Sit back and watch your incoming QUALITY links soar from month
to month!
---
Jack Humphrey is the author of Power Linking 2: Evolution at
http://power-linking-profits.com and marketing consultant for
http://webfoxmedia.com .
