Wednesday, May 14, 2008

The Benefits Of Exchanging Links With Other Online Businesses And The Importance

In the real world, you would never advertise your competitor's store in your own store especially if you are selling your own product. However, on the internet, it's a whole different ball game. Besides getting the best website hosting, trading links is one of the oldest practices found on the internet today. People trade links, not only to exchange traffic, but also to boost ranking in search engines. But you are probably thinking... how is that possible? Why should I trade links with my competitor especially if they will steal my business away.

Trading links with other competitors especially if they are in the same industry as you are helps the search engines understand that your website exists and your website is recognized in that industry. It shows that other competitors know who you are. As a result, search engines tend to give you a boost especially if you trade links with websites which are more popular than you. However, popular sites would less likely trade links with you because they will be giving away more than they are receiving. That is, because your site is less popular, they will get fewer hits coming from your site and also because your site isn't as popular, they will not get a ranking boost as much as they linking to you. When a big competitor links to you, they are not only passing a search engine boost to your website, but they are also allowing their potential clients (visitors) to access your homepage from their website. Every time they do so.. there is a possibility that they will lose a client.

However, many of the webmasters fail to see the bigger picture. Consumers nowadays are more sophisticated than ever. Even when they don't access a competitor's website from your web page, they will some how get to it by using a popular search engine. Online savvy consumers do not just access one website and make their final purchase at that one website. They do plenty of research, and they will bound to access your website in one way or another.

In order to win this business game, you must have a niche product. Do not be the same as the bigger competitors. Offer something unique to the audience so consumers will buy from you. If you offer the same product as any other website, there is less chance they will buy from you. What is the reason they will buy from you? The only reason they got is price. And being in the price war game is not something fun. It is costly and is one of the reasons why many businesses fail. When your profit margins remain negative for too long of a period of time, your business will fail.

When you provide links to your common competitors for your website, not only do tell the search engines that you are part of that industry, but you are also helping your consumers provide a useful resource. So they will come to your site not only for information in the future, but they might even end up making a purchase because of their increase in frequency for accessing your website due to the usefulness of the resources.

All in all, trading links with your competitors isn't as bad as it seems. It helps increase your targeted traffic to your website (because when you exchange links with your competitors and they agreed to put your link on their page, their customers who are looking for similar products to yours) will also access your website. Furthermore, it helps boost your ranking in search engines that are related to the product you sell. In the long run, trading links with other businesses will improve the viability and awareness of your website on the internet, which in the long run will help your business succeed online.

Marion Pollan is a writer at Upperhost Business Web Hosting Reviews. The site provides independent reviews on the best website hosting along with the latest articles and news on the industry.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home