How to drive traffic and achieve good search ranking using links

Links, along with website content, are the most important part of search engine optimization (SEO). Without links, permanent good search rankings cannot be achieved.

The Ultimate Goal

To drive maxium traffic to a website for the least amount of money. Traffic sources include organic traffic which is free once the website is opimized (the optimization often includes a significant amount of investment upfront) and paid traffic which generally does not include (much) upfront costs, rather it costs money as traffic is generated.

Organic or Paid Traffic?

It depends on your goals. Want quick results that only last during the ad campaign? Buy PPC (pay per click) traffic. Want permanent, long lasting results that will benefit you long after the marketing campaign is over? Definitely organic. Want both? Do both.

The online marketing cycle for a serious website never ends. In the perfect world everything is planned well ahead of time. SEO is planned, then the website is updated to be more search engine friendly, results are analyzed, lessons learned, new ideas are being added, the website is changed again and concurrent marketing campaigns are running to back up and strengthen the marketing efforts. It is a complicated process that requires a lot of planning and analysis and deep pockets.

How links effect search rankings (traffic)

A large number of links from relevant websites using targeted anchor texts (link text) can make or brake top positions in Google or Yahoo. Other search engines simply don't matter nowdays.

Relevancy is very important. If your website is about home renovation then a single link from Home Depot will be better than 10 links from jewellery stores or other totally irrelevant sits.

Quantity of inbound links (links tha point to your site): More is better:)

Backlinks: (links from your sites to other websites): Less is better:) - but some site won't link to you unless you link to them. This is called reciprocal linking.