Looking for Links in all the Right Places

Today’s Y!Store blog is another guest column by long-time Yahoo! Store owner and developer Rob Snell of Snell Brothers, still located in sleepy Starkville, Mississippi. Rob blogs about Yahoo! Store, speaks at search conferences about Yahoo! Store, is the author of a not so new book on Yahoo! Store: Starting a Yahoo! Business For Dummies, and is fixing to go ask for some more links. You should, too!

Howdy! Let’s talk about SEO, specifically links and how to get more of them. It must be that time of the year again, because I’ve started my annual obsession with links. Links to your Yahoo! Store are more important than ever. You need links. Lots and lots of links. Beg, borrow, buy, barter, swap, sponsor — whatever it takes, get ‘em, you need links. Why? I’ll tell you…

Nowadays, quality links are a valuable commodity. Links from other Web sites send shoppers to your online store. Quality links also pass link popularity and PageRank which helps increase your search engine rankings for your best converting keywords, which drives more folks to your store. Good links are hard to get, because lots of Web site owners know the value of a link ($$$), and they don’t want to give you something for nothing.

This post is about using free browser tools (bookmarklets) to save you time and aggravation when you’re hunting links. Less hassle means I’ll have the patience to stay on target and get more links. I didn’t invent search bookmarklets, but I hacked these bookmarklets together from some existing ones to make checking your backlinks so much easier. I have about 20 search bookmarklets I use on a regular basis. If you like this one, comment and I’ll share more…

First, Who Links To Me (And Who Should)

First thing I do when I dive into a Vendors Link project is to take a link inventory. I make a list of all my vendors, and then I make sure they link to me. One of the easiest ways to get free, on-topic, and relevant links to your Yahoo! Store is to ask your vendors for a link. I covered this in great detail in another guest post about link-building strategies.

To see who links to your Yahoo! Store, ask the search engines. Google will show you some of your backlinks (but not all) when you search for link:domain.com, but Yahoo! shows you all the backlinks Y! knows about with Yahoo! Site Explorer. Yahoo! will also let you combine multiple operators into a single search. This rocks! Here are some sample searches. When searching for your own site, replace yourdomain.com with your domain name.

Show all pages with links to this specific page url
link:http://www.yourdomain.com/page.html

View Yahoo! Site Explorer results

Show all pages with links to your domain (from any site)
linkdomain:yourdomain.com

View Yahoo! Site Explorer results

Show all pages with links to your domain (except from your site)
linkdomain:yourdomain.com -site:yourdomain.com

View Yahoo! Site Explorer results

Typing in these operators every time I want to see if a site links to me can be a pain. This is where Bookmarklets come in.

All About Bookmarklets

Bookmarklets are smart little “links” that you can bookmark and use an itty bitty bit of javascript to do a neat trick on the page when you click it. Almost anything javascript can do, a bookmarklet can do. Bookmarklets work better in some browsers than others, and I recommend Firefox for folks doing SEO.

For example, I stick my favorite bookmarklets on my Firefox Bookmarks Toolbar, so when I’m on a page I can highlight some keywords in the text on the page and search Yahoo! for those words, or see all the pages a domain has in the search engines, or see who owns the domain (WHOIS database) of the page you’re currently on or 100 other things. Check out http://www.bookmarklets.com if you want to learn more.

Firefox

First, you need to make sure your Firefox browser is displaying the Bookmarks Toolbar. Right-click on the green arrow to the right of the address bar. A window appears displaying all your installed toolbars. If a check appears to the left of the Bookmarks Toolbar, you’re fine. If not, click the “Bookmarks Toolbar” and the menu disappears and your browser now displays the Bookmarks Toolbar.

Here are two ways to create a bookmarklet in Firefox: Click and drag a pre-made bookmarklet/link to your Bookmarks toolbar or hand-edit an existing bookmark.

Firefox: Click and drag a link to Bookmarks Toolbar
Click and hold on the link/bookmarklet (below, the text Domain links to me?). Drag the link/bookmarklet to your Bookmarks Toolbar and let go. The name of the link appears on your toolbar.

Domain links to me?

NOTE: The example link uses yourdomainhere.com. To make this link work for your own site, replace yourdomainhere.com with your own domain.

Firefox: Edit existing bookmark
Right-click on an existing bookmark on your Bookmarks Toolbar. A menu appears. Select “Properties.” A little window opens up. Type something short and sweet into the Name field and paste this code in the Location field:

NOTE: Remember to replace yourdomainhere.com with whatever domain you want to search for. You can always edit this later. Click [OK] and you’re done.

Internet Explorer

Adding a bookmarklet or link to the LINKS tool bar in IE is a little different. Internet Explorer calls bookmarks “favorites.”

Internet Explorer: Right-click and add to Favorites:LINKS folder
Right-click on the link/bookmarklet. A menu appears. Select “Add to Favorites.” A warning message appears (because of the javascript in the link). Click “Yes.” The Add to Favorites window appears. Click the LINKS folder. Click OK. The bookmarklet/link now appears on your LINKS Toolbar.

Now surf over to some domain you know you have a link on, for example, the Yahoo! Directory and click the bookmarklet on your browser’s toolbar. The bookmarklet zips you over to Yahoo!, and does a site:dir.yahoo.com linkdomain:yourdomainhere.com query to see if you have any links in the Yahoo! Search index.

Now what? Organizing Your Link Hunting

Now that you’ve got an easy way to check a site for any links on any page to your site, start getting some link love from your vendors:

1) When you already have a link on a vendor’s site, that’s great! Make sure it’s the link you want.

For example, I had a link on the Tri-tronics dealers page, but it went to my home page, when I thought it would be better to visitors and search engines to point that link straight to my Tri-tronics collars section page. I asked the Webmaster and she changed my link the same day. Awesome!

2) Also, when you have a link, you also want make sure you keep that link.

Company Web sites get redesigned all the time, so you want to periodically check your vendor links to make sure you still have them.

3) If you don’t have a link, you need to ask for one!

Collect all the contact information, and ask your vendor for the link you want. Again, I covered this in great detail in a post last year about asking for links from your vendors and suppliers.

In that post, I recommended using an Excel Spreadsheet to keep up with all your links, but I’ve found a Web-based app which is my new, preferred tool for organizing link hunting. High Rise is a contact management system from 37Signals which makes it easy to stay organized. Think of it as your online Trapper Keeper. I keep tabs on Web sites we have links from, the sites we want links from, and all the contact information and detailed notes that are a part of link hunting. What’s cool is that the free version lets you have up to 250 contacts, so that’s enough to see if you’ll actually use it. Take a look!

Wrapping things up, this year’s link audit has been very productive so far. Not only did I come across broken links and sites that linked to all of my competitors but not to me — I also found over 100 new companies, organizations, new manufacturers, and Web sites that we do business with that should link to me.

I found all these link opportunities by flipping through folders of invoices, reading old email, rummaging through rolodexes, looking at who links to the competition, and even asking my non-Web staff for link ideas. Link hunting may not be the most fun part of SEO and online marketing, but it’ll give you the biggest bang for the buck. Happy link hunting!

Rob Snell
Guest blogger for Yahoo! Small Business

Pimpin’ Your Products: Rob Snell’s PubCon ‘07 Presentation

Long-time Yahoo! merchant and marketing guru Rob Snell recently presented on a panel at PubCon 2007, the WebMasterWorld convention. He graciously provided a copy of his presentation in PDF format for other merchants to read. And while there is no audio, and therefore you’re missing out on all the great “Rob-isms” (and a huge helping of his Southern “gravy”), merchants can still glean the most important points from just viewing the slides.

Rob emphasizes the following:

• how to stand out from the crowd by providing original content for products in the form of videos, additional product images, and product guides.
• how to capitalize on new products entering the market by using any and all manufacturer content and your own to grab search share and press coverage.
• how to increase conversion and win loyal customers by providing product opinions to help shoppers differentiate between products.

| View | Upload your own

I highly recommend reading through the slide deck and seeing what lessons you may be able to apply to your own site.

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business

Interview with Search Marketing Consultant Karl Ribas

I conducted the following interview with Karl Ribas, a search marketing consultant for All Web Promotion. Karl writes about search engine optimization and pay-per-click management issues on his blog at karlribas.com

1. Tell me a bit about yourself and what you do as a search engine marketer? (feel free to include links here)

Hey Paul, no problem! I am the Project Manager here at All Web Promotion, where as you know we specialize in Search Engine Marketing services as well as Yahoo! Store design and development. Currently, I head up our search marketing division as well as handle many of our company’s day-to-day operations. When time allows, you can typically find me doodling with our graphic design team or researching future product and service offerings. I’m set to hit my 4-year mark with the company a little later this month.

In addition to my role at All Web Promotion, I also manage my own personal search engine marketing blog and consulting web site. I first started KarlRibas.com about 3 years ago as a testing ground for new SEO techniques and strategies, but later decided to revamp the site and focus my efforts on providing tools and resources to benefit both veteran search marketers and those new to web site design and marketing. I added my blog, often referred to as the Klog, into the mix shortly after and use it to front additional information and resources in the forms of search engine marketing related news, happenings, commentary, rants, product reviews, interviews, book reviews as well as the occasional post here and there about my personal life.

As both, Project Manager at All Web Promotion and owner of my own website, my job is to provide up-to-date, valuable, and effective search engine marketing and design services to a wide range of small to medium sized online businesses. To do this effectively and to the standards we’ve become accustomed to, this typically means having to constantly remain updated (via conferences, seminars, blogs, forums, newsletters, magazines, and books) on all things search. My day as a search marketer if split up into pie chart would read: 40% reading and researching; 35% integrating search marketing services; 25% client consulting and planning, as well as following up with leads. I would imagine that probably fits for most search marketers.

2. What got you interested in working in this field?

Simply put… All Web Promotion. Before coming to All Web I worked in retail and studied graphic and web site design at a nearby community college. I knew nothing of search engine marketing, and certainly never would have guessed that there was this massive industry just underneath the crust of the search engine results pages. I certainly knew about search engines and how to work them to find the information I was interested in, but I never really thought too much about how one worked or the benefits of getting one’s website to rank ahead of another. I guess the marketing part of my brain was still in its developmental stages at that point during my life.

All Web is responsible for turning this light bulb on, but for me it is the idea of working in an industry as dynamic and diverse as search marketing that has caught and kept my interest. Where else is a person able to play with the latest and greatest technologies the Internet has to offer while finding new and beneficial ways to spam, err… I mean optimize, our way into a search engine’s index. It’s fun!

3. What has been the most surprising thing about SEO/SEM?

Honestly… it has to be how frequently things change. When I arrived at All Web and started learning the SEO trade, I was surprised at how much reading and updating is actually involved. Search marketing is an industry where new products and service offerings are being established each and every day, and the goal for many companies is to just simply try and stay on top of it all. I’m quite confident in saying that very few other industries move and/or change as fast and as often as search marketing does.

4. What is the biggest mistake you see small businesses make in terms of do-it-yourself SEO?

As a search engine marketer, the biggest mistake I see small businesses make in terms of DIY SEO is when companies focus so much of their time and efforts writing and optimizing meta-tags, or on other non-important elements of their website, instead of focusing on what really makes a difference in ranking a web site. A quick tip to all you merchants out there: focus the majority of your optimization efforts improving the quality of optimized content on your website, as well as the relevancy of your inbound links. Doing so will get you so much farther than spending your time updating your description and keywords meta-tags or alt-tags ever will.

Generally speaking, generating quality content for a website isn’t as tough as one might imagine it to be. Merchants should start with reviewing over their current category and product information for clarity and effectiveness, and then moving on to projects that help add more content to their web site. Such projects may include:

• Starting an industry-focused blog
• Writing and publishing articles
• Writing and publishing company press releases
• Creating a “FAQ” page for popular questions regarding their company and products
• Creating a “Glossary” page for their industry’s most used terminology
• Creating an “About Us” page to share additional company information
• Creating an “Affiliates” page to showcase those companies they’re associated with
• Creating a “Photos” page to showcase company photos, events, and the like

Essentially anything goes! Well, as long what is created is original and addresses the needs of their target audiences.

As far as ways for improving the quality of inbound links, Rob Snell introduced a fantastic idea for attaining relevant links on Yahoo! Store blog not too long ago. His idea, while simple, is the perfect starting point for those merchants looking to build-up the number of relevant links pointing to their web site, and it’s something that requires very little to no SEO knowledge. Rob says:

“Almost every Yahoo! Store owner I know knows they need links, but they don’t know how to get them. One of the easiest ways I’ve found to get free, on-topic, relevant links to your Yahoo! Store is to ask all your vendors for back links. Every month you send money to all these folks. They should do you the small favor of linking to your Yahoo! Store.”

Rob is 100% correct on this. Contacting your manufactures, vendors, affiliates, or anyone else you mail a check to on an ongoing basis is the perfect linking partner.

5. When do you think small businesses would be better doing it themselves vs. hiring a professional?

There are actually very few times when I will ever advise a business of any size to do their own search engine marketing. Doing so is quite similar to telling an inexperienced person to do their own taxes or their company’s taxes – in both cases there are extreme consequences to doing them wrong… most of which is in a monetary sense.

However, I am well aware of the financial limitations of smaller companies and so the only times I would recommend a small business to actively pursue their own search engine marketing efforts is if they have the time and inclination needed to really dive into search marketing. Regardless if we’re talking about search engine optimization or pay per click advertising… there is a lot to learn and to stay updated on. Both individuals and their companies must really be committed to putting in the “wrench work” if they expect to be successful.

6. What sites and tools would you recommend for merchants wishing to learn more about SEO?

Great question Paul. I’ve actually got a few resources that I’d be more than happy to share with Yahoo! Store merchants. All but one of these is FREE, and all should provide merchants with additional beginner-to-moderate level SEO information, tips, tricks, techniques, strategies and so forth.

High Rankings Advisor – Jill Whalen’s High Rankings Advisor is an SEO focused newsletter (via email and RSS) that is absolutely perfect for merchants. This FREE weekly newsletter (it’s actually more like monthly these days) was one the first resources I was introduced to when I started 4 years ago, and I can honestly say without doubt that it was the most helpful. SEO is a very diverse and often at times difficult-to-understand industry… Jill’s newsletter helps to make these muddy waters clean, clear, and pure.

Mr. SEO’s SEO Podcast – Joe, Alan, and gang put out one hell of a product. These guys touch on many of today’s SEO-related issues, and offer top-notch advice for improving one’s SEO efforts. I personally enjoy downloading each episode via iTunes and listening to them while I drive (my girlfriend hates this), but merchants can tune in directly from the Mr. SEO website. I recommend that merchants not just check out the most current episodes, but rather digging through the Mr. SEO Podcast vault for past episodes that maybe of interest to them and their marketing efforts.

SE Roundtable Blog – SE Roundtable is an absolutely tremendous resource covering every tidbit of the Search Marketing industry… EVERY. This FREE resource, led by industry renowned blogger Barry Schwartz, is perfect for Yahoo! Store merchants interested in really familiarizing themselves with the SEO industry. SE Roundtable is updated daily and guaranteed to make your head hurt.

“Starting A Yahoo! Business for Dummies” Book – Yes, unfortunately my last offering comes in the form of a plug for Rob Snell’s “Yahoo! Business for Dummies” book… as if he needed it. From what I hear the guy has reached Rock-Star status. Just kidding Rob… you know you’re my favorite Mississippian. In all seriousness, Rob’s book does a superb job of outlining quality tips and advice that are sure to help all search marketers, let alone Yahoo! Store merchants, improve upon their SEO efforts. In just 4 short chapters (16, 17, 18, and 19), Rob provides the blueprints needed to take any Yahoo! Store and up-it to the next level.

7. What’s the one quick tip you can pass along to merchants that would have a surprising impact on their search rankings?

The biggest tip that I could ever pass along to merchants is to write, or hire someone to write, your web site’s content (category and product descriptions). Seriously… this may seem like a simple “no-brainer” these days, but you’d actually be surprised at how many Yahoo! Store merchants still continue to use their manufacture’s images and product descriptions.

The problem is quite simple. When Google, Yahoo!, MSN, or any other search engine worth noting comes to a website it is expecting to read fresh, original content. Instead, search engines are finding the exact or similar groupings of content across multiple web sites which in turn sell the exact same products or services. In most cases, this is attributed to merchants “borrowing” content from their manufactures, and in the end you’ve now got 10 or 20 versions of the same content across multiple web sites. As a merchant, the question to ask oneself is this: “Why should the search engines rank my website higher than my competitors or manufactures when we are essentially offering the exact same pages and information as everyone else? The answer is ultimately “they shouldn’t”.

Search engines like to see a variety of content in their index – not the same content blasted across multiple web sites. Merchants will certainly see a huge impact on their search rankings if they themselves offer fresh, original (not to mentioned optimized) content.

8. If you could borrow Wonder Woman’s magic lasso and compel any SEO guru to spill just one secret, who would you use it on, what would you ask, and what do you think they would say?

Wow… great question, and fun! While I believe having the Incredible Hulk’s repressed anger and fury as a super-power will get me farther than Wonder Woman’s lasso ever could – at least in terms of getting SEO gurus to spill their secrets – I’ll still play along.

Off the top of my head, my pick is Barry Schwartz of RustyBrick. Barry, as I mentioned above, is an industry-renowned blogger and happens to post several times daily and across multiple search engine focused blogs. I’m not even exaggerating when it comes to the sheer number of posts this guy puts out in a given week. In fact, I’d bet if I check my RSS reader now, I’d see 10 – 15 posts sitting there from Barry and that would just be from today alone. (Note: There were only 9 – but it’s still early.)

My question to Barry is quite simple: What’s your secret for being able to shell out so much content daily, and across several blogs and forums, and still find the time to run a company like RustyBrick, stay updated on all things search related, and maintain a personal life? Seriously dude… there aren’t enough hours in a day to do what you do.

I’m guessing Barry’s answer would have to do something with him being a robot that doesn’t need sleep – only 2 hours of recharging via a USB plug, or maybe having the ability to clone himself and make mini-Barrys which do all his blogging for him. I’ve been suspecting both theories for some time now.

Thanks Karl for giving some insights and tips into how merchants can do a better job with search marketing.

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business

Link Building Strategies: Tapping Your Suppliers for a Fresh Supply of In-bound Links

Today’s Y!Store blog is another guest column by long-time Yahoo! Store owner and developer Rob Snell of Snell Brothers, still located in sleepy Starkville, Mississippi. Rob blogs about Yahoo! Store, speaks at search conferences about Yahoo! Store, is the author of a new book on Yahoo! Store: Starting a Yahoo! Business For Dummies, and is about to turn 40 later this month.

Howdy! Just back from speaking at 2007 Search Engine Strategies in San Jose. I did site reviews and we all had a good time! I even got to review a Yahoo! Store or two: Wedding Favors from American Bridal.

In the middle of a site review I was picking on one site that needed some links, so I tossed out Store SEO Tip #79, “How to Get Free Links from your Suppliers.” A little later, Paul asked me to go into a little more detail in a guest blog post, so here goes…

Links are important (well, duh!)

Long story, short? Links are important for Web traffic and for search engines. Every Yahoo! Store owner needs links, and an easy way to get free links is to ask your suppliers to link to you. A really good way to get a list of all your suppliers is to export all your accounts payable from QuickBooks (or whatever accounting software you use), and start shaking these folks down for some link love.

OK. Links are really, really important to your Yahoo! Store because:

• Links get your store some foot traffic. Other Web sites send human visitors (a.k.a potential customers) to your Yahoo! Store.
• Links get your store pages in the search engines’ databases. When your Yahoo! Store gets a link from a page the search engines already know about, a search engine spider follows that link, crawls and indexes your page, and then follows any links on your page to the next page. And it happens over and over again.
• Links count as votes for your store. Search engines count up all the pages that link to your Yahoo! Store. The more relevant, high-quality links you have, the more important you are to the search engines.

Warning: If you don’t have any links, you don’t get traffic from other sites, you don’t get spidered or indexed by the search engines, and you don’t get free traffic from the search engines because your site must not be important if no one links to you…

Nowadays, most of the search engines place more weight on your reputation with others than on what you have to say about what your page is about. Pretty smart, folks…

Okay, so now you know you need links. Even before finishing this post, I know I’ll get an email from Tom from Surf City, CA, asking “Who do you get links from? What kind of links do you want? How can I get these links?” Well, Tom, great questions as always…

You want what some folks call organic or natural links. These links are from Web sites, somehow related to your site, who would link to your store as a resource for their visitors, without taking into consideration search engine benefits of a link.

Vendor links: An easy way to get free links

Almost every Yahoo! Store owner I know knows they need links, but they don’t know how to get them. One of the easiest ways I’ve found to get free, on-topic, relevant links to your Yahoo! Store is to ask all your vendors for back links. Every month you send money to all these folks. They should do you the small favor of linking to your Yahoo! Store.

Like my momma always says, “If you don’t ask, you don’t get,” so let’s start asking!

Looking at QuickBooks, I have 127 different organizations that our retail company sent money to last year that I think I can shake down, I mean, respectfully ask for some links. I chunk these folks into one of four buckets:

• Product Suppliers: Most of our checks went for “purchases” to product-related vendors like wholesale suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, drop-shippers, book publishers, dog experts/authors, etc. If you’re even halfway on your game, you probably have some links from these folks, but you need to make sure you have all the links you can get! See if they’ll link to the product page or section page rather than the home page. Also, see if they’ll use keyword rich anchor text in the link, like “oversized red widgets from YourCompanyNameHere.com” rather than “YourCompanyNameHere.com”
• Marketing Vendors: The next big group of vendors by $$$ was made up of marketing vendors including magazine publishers, Web site owners, advertising networks, email marketing lists, and so on. You’re buying traffic from these folks, but it doesn’t hurt to ask for (more) links.
• Service Providers: The third group was service providers like Web hosting, e-commerce services, e-mail services, online software, and consulting. Most of these folks have thousands of clients and are “too big” to link to you, but there are some other ways to get links! The best way I’ve found is to write testimonials for these folks or participate in case studies (which works wonders). I won’t sell out for a link, but if I truly believe in a vendor, I’ll write a killer testimonial and snag me a good link…
• Other Vendors: The last group of vendors are folks you don’t spend a lot of money on, but you could if you wanted to! On this list are organizations you support through subscriptions, dues, donations, and membership fees. This is probably your best bet for links you don’t already have. These non-profit groups need your support though cash and/or product donations. I have literally gotten hundreds and hundreds of relatively cheap or free back links. Do not underestimate these sponsorship opportunities.

WARNING: The following may be extremely difficult for big, broad brushstroke folks like myself. This is the part that truly makes my head hurt. It’s tedious and can be mind-numbingly boring. If you’re not a details-oriented person, you might need to delegate this to someone who is.

Make an Excel Spreadsheet

I open up Microsoft Excel and create the following columns:Vendor Name, $ Spent, Web Site URL, Links Page URL, Dealers Page URL, Links to Me?, Vendor Contact, Vendor Email, Date of Request, Best Relationship, Notes

First, eliminate folks you know won’t link to you. You probably won’t get a back link from Uncle Sam, or the electric department, or VISA, or Yahoo! Search Marketing, Google Adwords, or your state sales tax collector, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

Sort by $$$ Spent last year. Especially with product vendors, how much you spend shows how important the product line is to your Yahoo! Store. And the more you spend, the more leverage you have with that vendor.

Organize your vendors by bucket. I use the Notes field to tag all my product vendors first, and then tag the others as Marketing, Services, or Other.

Start with your product suppliers. Product folks are likely to have a Web page, likely to have a “resources” page if not a dealers/buy online page. Since they’re always adding new products, these folks are also more likely to have a Webmaster on staff. The cool thing about getting links because you sell a certain product is that sometimes you can get two links for the same product: a link from the manufacturer’s dealers page and a link from your distributor’s page. Sweet!

Find each vendors’ Web site. Grab the URL, see if they have a links page or a dealers page. Make sure they don’t already link to you! Nothing more embarrassing than asking for a link you already have.

NOTE: You probably know your top 10 manufacturers’ domains by heart, but when you start seeing how many of your vendors and manufacturers don’t have a Web site (or have a site last updated circa 1997), you’ll swear you’re on the cutting edge of Internet marketing.

Once you have all your vendor information, then it’s time to plan your link request attack!

Prioritize your link requests. Start with links that are easier to get. You’ll get so excited about getting your first links, and that will give you the patience to make it though the long slow, agonizing process that is a link building campaign…

Ask yourself these questions: Does the vendor even have a Web site? If so, does the vendor link to dealers (like your competitors)? Does the vendor have a links page? Does it look like the vendor updates their Web site often?

Figure out who SHOULD ask for a link (at your company) and who TO ask for a link (at the vendor). Who in your company has the best relationship with your vendor? Usually it’s the person who deals with them on a day-to-day basis, either the owner or the buyer. Honestly, a vendor’s salesperson is your best friend in motivating the vendor’s Web guy to hurry up and link to you. Be nice, but firm! Put the squeeze on if you have to. You must have that link!

Know what you want and ask for it. Specificity here is a plus. Make life easy for your vendors. Tell them the URL of the page you want a link from, the URL you want the vendor to link to, and provide them with whatever text, logos, or other information they need to make your link look like everyone else’s link. Sometimes phone calls to your sales rep are better than email requests, but email is better for all the gory details.

Sometimes the link will just be your URL or domain name. Sometimes the link will be your business name. Sometimes the link will be some version of your logo. Have multiple sizes available if they ask. Make it easy for the vendor’s Web monkey to link to you:

Frank — Howdy! Thanks for getting that last order out so fast. Quick question: Can we get a link on your dealers page at http://www.vendorsdomain.com/dealers.asp ?

And can y’all link to my page at http://www.mystoredomain/vendor.html? I noticed you use dealer logos and there’s a pretty good version of my logo here:
http://www.mystoredomain/lib/myaccountname/logo.gif — Thanks and hope to see y’all in Vegas for Pubcon! — Rob

Remember to say thank you. Once you get that link, remember to say thank you. A little “happy” in the mail is a great way to show how much you care, too.

Links are important for both free qualified traffic to your online store and for good SEO. SEO is always changing, but it’s a zero sum game: There are only 10 Web pages listed on the first page of search results. Your competition is always chewing on you, and trying to steal your biscuit. One of the best ways you can fight back is by making sure that you have all the links you can possibly have. Asking the folks you pay month in and month out to link you is a pretty easy way to get some good (and free) back links!

Please reply to this post with your link stories and ideas on how to get more links!

Rob Snell–Somewhere in rural Mississippi
guest blogger for Yahoo! Small Business