Do you have a contact form on your web site? Are you getting queries through it? When was the last time you checked it?

It doesn't happen too often, but if your contact forms aren't working for one reason or another then you miss out on valuable contacts and your credibility often suffers.

We've known a few businesses that have not realised for weeks that their form was broken, sometimes after spending thousands on advertising their site.

It only takes a moment to check.

Which Tag is Most Important?

Quick Quiz: what is the most important meta tag on your web pages for increasing search engine ranking?

Keywords tag? Description tag?

It's actually the title tag. Not only is it very important in terms of search engine ranking, but it's what people usually see first when they find you in a search engine.

Of course there are dozens of other important factors too, but the title tag is a crucial one.

12 March 2003

SUGGESTIONS FOR BUILDING LINKS

If you haven't heard it before, increasing the number of links to your web site is absolutely crucial to increasing your search engine ranking and overall traffic. But there are certain ways you should do it.

First of all, if you're not sure why links are important, take a look at our article on The Importance of Web Site Links.

Now that we've got that settled, there are some rules and good ideas about building web site links and increasing your "link popularity". Here's a few of them:

• Just numbers of links alone are not important anymore. Search engines woke up to that a long time ago, and now are quite clever at working out who is linking to your site. The more popular a site is, the more popular your site will be perceived to be. Also, the more relevant a site is to your business, the more relevant your site will be to the search engine when someone searches for your product.
  
  As an example, say you own a site called www.gardening-equipment.com. Good links to your site would include, for example, www.amazon.com (a popular site), or www.gardens.com (a related site), or even better than those two would be www.burkesbackyard.com.au (a popular and related site). In contrast, a site such as www.johns-homepage.com would not count for a lot (small and unrelated).

• Never ever join a "link farm", any kind of linking project, or link with any site that does. If you do, there is a very strong chance you will be penalised by the search engines. For more information about link farms and why they are dangerous, read our article on Beware The Link Farms.

• Looking for sites to approach for links? Here's a couple of ideas to get you started.
  
  First, don't forget all of the industry associations and directories on the web that are related to you. Do a search for associations relating to your business in a major search engine and you're bound to find some sites.
  
  Second, go to a major search engine such as Google and type in your product, or even your product with the word "links" after it (eg. gardening links). You'll often be surprised how many sites will have page somewhere that offers links to sites like yours.
  
  Third, what sites are linking to your competitors? Go to the MarketLeap Link Popularity Checker at www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/. Do a search on your competitor's URL and it will list sites that are linking to them. Scroll through those sites and you'll often find some that you can approach to link to you as well.
  
  Fourth, approach sites that are not competitors to you, but are perhaps related to your business in some way. Do you sell shoes? Approach clothing or makeup sites for links. Do you sell gardening equipment? Approach home improvement sites for links. These kinds of sites will not only be good for your link popularity, but also bring in traffic that are quite likely to be interested in your product.

• Get your site listed in the major directories where possible, such as Yahoo, LookSmart, and the Open Directory Project. Looksmart charges a fee, Yahoo provides a free (but slow) option for Australian businesses, and the Open Directory Project is totally free. They can be found at http://dmoz.org.

• Offer discounts or special deals to your customers, or anyone for that matter, who is willing to place your link on their site.

That should keep you going for a while. If it all sounds like too much work, don't forget to check out our search engine ranking service, which includes finding and building inbound links to your site.

Want any more info on this article? Email us at admin@southwestecommerce.com

Disclaimer: This newsletter is designed to provide information only and is not a substitute for advice that is specific to your business. Before acting on any of the information above it is important you seek further advice from a professional who has taken into consideration the nature and circumstances of your business.