Search Engine Optimization Web Design & Usability Internet Marketing

Why Build Links?

To drive traffic to your site!

Link building can increase your number of visitors by the thousands. There are three main reasons to have links pointing to your site:

  • People see the link and click on it. It's that simple. It's another "door" to your site.
  • Search engines rankings are actually affected by link popularity, meaning your site will show up higher in search results than your competitors with fewer links.
  • Search engines use "Spiders" (a type of software) to crawl the internet and index new and updated websites. The "Spiders" will find your website if you are linked with a high ranking partner, like Search Engine Leap.


In Search Engine Optimization (SEO), factors considered "off page" have become more important as they relate to rankings on popular search engines like Google. It is not an exaggeration that solid link popularity can literally make or break a site.

So what is "link popularity"? In the simplest of terms, link popularity is the number and quality of incoming links to your site. That these other sites consider your site important enough to link to, in the search engine's view, means your site is important enough to be cataloged and ranked.

With this said, one of the most difficult areas of SEO is building link popularity, since search engines don't want "artificially created" links using many of the link exchange programs (and scams out there today). In fact, search engines like Google are so tired of these practices that they will literally boot your site of the rankings. Once this has happened, you may never gain a ranking again.

There are many ways to avoid this rather dire consequence. Hiring a professional web development and design firm familiar with search engine standards and practices is a good idea. But if you do pursue link building on your own, aim for authoritative sites or links from sites that share the same focus as your site.

And remember that in addition to the link popularity you gain linking with other authoritative and similar sites, you are also gaining for your site. The more doors pointing you isn't always a good thing, but by choosing the right doors you can boost your traffic.