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Links from other sites 

If you have access to your web server logs the referrer information can be extremely useful in determining what sites link to yours.  Many of the referrers will be search engines which we’ll discuss next time, but there will also be links from other sites. 

For this part of our discussion, we’re going to look at 4 different types of links; directories, paid links, reciprocal links, and natural links; plus a few miscellaneous types at the end.

Directories
Directories are the internet version of yellow pages.  Yahoo and Google both have large directories, although you have to pay to get into Yahoo.  DMOZ is excellent if you can get in, it’s up to a editor who may be your competition. 

Of course there are wedding specific directories; wedj.com, wedalert.com, theknot.com all have directory sections.  Some paid, some free.

Paid links
Some popular sites will offer a link in exchange for money.  I’ve never been a fan of this idea; my thought is that if you’re going to spend money for a link you might as well do a banner ad on a local site.

Reciprocal links
You give me a link to my site and I’ll give you a link from my site.  That’s the idea of a reciprocal link or link exchange.  These work really well if the focus is right.  For example, a link from a wedding planner to a wedding photographer can be beneficial for both.  A link from a wedding photographer to a wedding photographer isn’t such a good idea.  A link from a taxidermist to a wedding photographer is almost worthless.

Natural links
A natural link is one in which someone thinks enough of your site that they decide to link from their site to yours without anything in return.  As you can imagine, these are often the most difficult to get, although sometimes you can simply ask for a link and you’ll receive on.

Other types
Sure, there are other types of links.  I focused above on the 4 that are most likely to bring you buying traffic, but there are others. 

Forum signatures – It is typically permissible to put a link to your website in forum signatures.  To use myself as an example, last month 91 people visited my site after clicking on links on this site.  I don’t expect that any of these 91 people are potential clients as they are coming from a pro photography site, so it may not be great traffic, but it’s still traffic.  Sadly, my top 5 referrers are forum sites. 

Free-for-all links – Guestbook scripts are still fairly popular ways to get in touch with a site owner.  But, like everything else on the internet, spammers have taken a toll.  Adding your link to a site with hundreds or thousands of unrelated links can potentially hurt your search engine ranking. 

Blogs – Most of the time blogs have a method for you to leave comments on articles, and most permit you to leave a web address.  This is not an invitation for an advertisement, but if you find an article discussing the merits of digital versus film for wedding photography it is generally acceptable to write a comment along the lines of “When I photograph a wedding I use digital for these reasons…” or that type comment.  “I shoot digitial, hire me” and not making a meaningful comment is generally frowned upon.  These are often spam-havens as well.  Between my two blogs I delete 10-20 spam messages a day, so it’s important to have value to your posting. 

So, why do we care?
Links, if done correctly, can bring very focused traffic to your site.  As an example, a visitor that comes from a link on a wedding planning site is very likely interested in the services of a wedding photographer. 

In theory links increase the weight that a search engine gives you.  The idea is that the more people link to your site the more important it must be.