You've heard about them. You get emails from your family and friends telling you about them. There are news articles and blog postings about them. People Facebook and “Tweet” about them all the time. It's the web site that has something so interesting, funny or useful that you can't help but tell everyone you know about it. Link building can be a long and tedious process. I often think that people approach it completely backwards. Why not invest time into creating truly compelling and relevant content for your web site instead of “buying” traffic or getting people to list your site in a directory where it will soon be swept away into “pagination purgatory”? We often talk about conversion optimization, but what are you doing about it? Where do you start with these "sticky landing pages"? Here are a few ideas in building show-stopping content that will bring people to your site in droves: (This is in no way meant to be a comprehensive list but something to get your creative juices flowing.)
- Spotlight Lists – Find something interesting related to your web site that you can spotlight every week to keep people coming back. One of my personal favorites is Communication Arts' Webpicks where they highlight a new web site for it's design and usability.
- Comedy/Humor – Nothing spreads like wildfire more than a link to something funny on a web site.
This can be a YouTube video, FLASH game, or comic strip. Get to someone's heart (and pocketbook) through their funny bone.
- Useful or Interesting Tools – How many times have you searched the web for a mortgage calculator or currency converter? Offering someone a useful tool will most likely get you a bookmark and a repeat customer.
- Contests – Organize something that adds an element of competition and you're likely to get an increase in traffic and some good word-of-mouth advertising. Don't forget to offer a good prize for the winner!
- Community – Everyone wants that sense of belonging. Adding community features will add a certain element of “stickiness” to your site. People will most likely add a link to your site on their blogs and web sites.
- Useful Articles/Tutorials – Pick something you''''re passionate about and related to your site and write a good informational or opinion-based article about it. People also love tutorials – especially when they're FREE!
Using these and many other techniques to generate truly useful and interesting content is the best approach to getting relevant links pointing back to your site. Try it out! What other techniques have you used to generate “buzz” (and links) for your site?
