The term ‘inbound links’ is becoming quite the buzz in the search engine optimization industry, and it’s clear why. Inbound links have been found to make significant and positive contributions to the overall range, popularity and traffic of a website that uses it. What exactly are inbound links and how can you use them to improve your own site? Read on to understand.

Inbound links defined

‘Inbound links,’ sometimes also called ‘back links,’ are simply links in other sites which when clicked lead back to your site. It has long been used in promoting and improving the search engine rankings of websites, but it is only lately that more scientific ways of generating inbound links have been put into writing.

How inbound links work

Inbound links can improve your search engine rankings dramatically in a number of ways.

1. Inbound links from popular sites make your website easier to ‘spider.’ If the site that links to you is relevant and regularly crawled by major search engines such as Google, for example, then search engines would be able to find you faster.

Search engines also count the valid inbound links to our site, and use this figure to determine your site’s relevance for certain search terms. The higher your relevance, the higher your rank, and the more likely your potential buyers will visit your site. Remember that 85 percent of internet users go to search engines when looking for particular products and services. Improve your search engine ranking through inbound links, and you will surely be able to reach a bigger market in no time.

2. Inbound links can generate significant traffic into your site. Some of your potential buyers may not even find you from search engines, but from the websites that gave you inbound links. This is why it is important to network with the webmasters of websites that cater to your niche because these types of sites carry news and information that are relevant to the content of your site. You should also try to procure inbound links from your business partners and suppliers. They will most likely grant you inbound links because they already know you and have had some business history with you.

The don’ts in inbound links

Remember never to make the mistake of over-linking and reciprocal linking, though, because (a) search engines still prefer one-way inbound links, and (b) search engines usually interpret over-linking as ‘link farms,’ which are considered illegal and punishable. Maintaining a healthy, sensible level of inbound links is still the best tool for improving both your website traffic and search engine ranking.

Good Luck with Your link Hunting.