This post is a follow up to my previous article, “Beginners guide: How to build an Affiliate site from scratch using WordPress“.
Most people think their is some dark art voodoo needed to start building traffic to a website, there really isn’t. There are only 2 things you will ever need.
1. Inbound links
2. Regularly updated content
Get those 2 right and that’s all you need. Seriously, there is nothing else, so don’t let any so called SEO expert tell you otherwise.
So, with regard to inbound links, how do you go about getting them to your new site?
1. The old fashioned way - email and ask for them. You need to employ a bit of detective work first of all so go to Google, find out the top 20 or so competitors who are ranking well for your chosen keywords and then see who is in turn linking to them. In my experience the best way to see what sites link to your competitors is to use Yahoo! Site Explorer. If you plug in this blog for example, you will see that at the time of writing it has over 14,000 inbound links.
So, find as many sites as you can that are relevant to your site and then simply emai the webmasters suggesting that your new site may be of interest to their readers and would they be kind enough to place a link. Unfortunately this is a time consuming and tedious process but it has to be done. As your business grows there are companies out there who will link build for you but for the purpose of this article I’m assuming you have no budget. Which is also the reason why I haven’t suggested emailing sites and offering to pay them for a link. Anyway, here are some other methods used to get sites to link to you…
2. Write articles containing links - there are thousands of article submission sites/directories out there who rely on users submitting genuine hand written content. You won’t get paid but you will be allowed to insert a link into your article. Here’s an example of an article that links to UKOffer here.
There is a good list of directories here and here. Have a browse through and pick some that will be relevant to your market. In other words if your site is about sport then don’t go looking for links in a directory devoted to art galleries! Keep on topic. Also, the only directory site I have ever paid to be included in, is BOTW, I can really recommend it.
3. Forums - join a few forums that are relevant to the topic of your website. In each forum create a 1 line signature in plain text, no stupidly big multi-coloured HTML or silly banners, just a simple 1 line sentence that includes a link to your site. The key with forums is to establish yourself as an authority on your subject, and to participate in discussions that allow you to share your knowledge. Don’t just barge in and write stupid posts that “hey I’m new, what do you think of my site?”. Instead join in the debate and don’t even mention your site, people will see it in your signature and visit it if they wish. It’s pretty widely known that links in forum signatures don’t count for much in terms of pure SEO link juice, but they will help you more by people getting to know who you are, and what your site is about. I’ve gained lots of readers to this blog purely from forum links.
4. Press releases - write a press release about your site and submit it to as many relevant sites as you can. Use services like PRWeb and PressBox to distribute it further. Some charge a small fee for this but some also have some element of free service available too.
5. Blog comments - join in discussions on blogs relevant to your niche too. Same rule as forums, don’t spam, just join in the discussion where you can. Also, there is no harm in emailing the blog owners direct and simply introducing yourself. You never know, they may choose to link to you without even asking.
6. FaceBook - chances are you have a FaceBook profile already so simply add your WordPress blog feed into your profile and whever your blog is updated it will be reflected in your FaceBook page too. Easy!
And that’s all there is to it. If you follow the above steps then the bots from the search engines will discover your site and begin to crawl it.
IMPORTANT BIT: The more regularly you write content, the more regularly the search engines will visit and the more regularly your site will be updated and pushed up in the SE’s index.
I simply can’t stress enough how critical it is to write fresh unique content on your new WordPress site as often as you can. This has loads of benefits, the main one being that users will keep coming back to your site for more, repeat business in other words. And because the search engines “know” that you update regularly they will give you better positioning above your competitors in the search engines. Trust me on this, I’ve seen it happen time and time again. Conversely, I’ve also seen my own sites drop like a stone once I’ve stopped adding content regularly.
Of course another reason why keeping your content fresh, unique and relevant is that other sites will start to link to you, negating the need to spend as much time link building yourself. A prime example, is this blog. Of the 14,000+ inbound links I’ve maybe asked for 10 of them. No matter what niche you are in, if you write good content and become well known, people will link to you without asking.
I hope this article has been of use to you, if anybody has any further questions about link building or content then please do leave them in the comments section below.
What I’m listening to right now: Busta Rhymes Feat Teddy Riley - “Lights, Camera, Action”
Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk
Beginners guide: How to get traffic to a new site
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Original post by Kieron
Chris Brucia recently contacted me to let me know about some of Amazon.com’s niche blogs that had slipped under my radar for our roundup of 
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