Links from Other Web Sites

Links from Other Web Sites
One of the least expensive online marketing techniques, but perhaps one of the most effective, is getting links from other Web sites. Contact suppliers and manufacturers you work with to see if they will link from their Web sites to yours. Why is this important? Customers often visit the Web sites of manufacturers or suppliers when they are researching a purchase. If the manufacturer provides a

HitBox www.hitbox.com
Omniture www.omniture.com
WebTrends www.webtrends.com
link from their Web site to yours, the customer may end up making the purchase online from you.
This manufacturer benefits from the sale as well, given that you are selling more product, so it’s in the manufacturer’s best interest to link to you. You should also contact any industry associations you belong to and ask if they will link to you. The idea is to try and get as many Web sites to link to you as possible. As noted earlier, this can even help you with your placement on search engines since many search engines take a site’s links into account when they decide where to rank it.
If you want to see how many other Web sites are linking to you, a really useful resource is a Web site called LinkPopularity.com (www.linkpopularity.com). Just enter your Web site address into the box on the LinkPopularity.com Web site. The site will generate a free report listing all of the Web sites linked to yours. You can also use the LinkPopularity.com site to monitor how many Web sites are linking to your competitors’ Web sites. If appropriate, you can contact these Web sites directly and ask that they link to your online store, too!