“Should I pay for links to my website?”

Q: Ever since I heard that more links will help my position on search engines, I’ve been exchanging links with everyone I could. I recently got an offer from a service that will give me links to my website — for a fee. But should I pay for links to my website?

A: With the exception of pay-per-click (PPC) and banner ads, the answer is NO! Not all links will help you. The SEO benefits are too low or even non-existent from many of those paid links. You also run the risk of being sent to Google Hell… and banished from ALL Google searches.

Instead of wasting your money on paid links, use these 3 tricks for generating dozens of links to your site.

1. Online Press Releases

Internet-based press release services have made it easier to get the word out about your company news and announcements. But they’re also incredible opportunities for quickly establishing quality links to your site.

When you submit your press release to one of the top online press release services, they’ll distribute it to their media channels. They’ll also post in on their various websites — with high-value links pointing to your own site.

The top press release services, such as www.prweb.com and www.marketwire.com, do charge a fee for their distribution services. You could use one of the free press release services available on the net, but they won’t have the reach and online reputation as the top services.

2. Article Marketing

An even better method is to post informative essays on article directories such as www.ezinearticles.com and www.articledashboard.com and www.goarticles.com. When you submit your article to these directories, you can include links to pages on your website.

There are hundreds of these article directories online looking for new postings. You can literally add a hundred inbound links for your site today with just one consumer-friendly article.

Best of all, most of these online article directories are free!

The benefits also don’t stop there. These websites aren’t just a good source of inbound links. They may also be a good source for interesting content for your own website. Many article directories allow you to re-issue their articles on your own website for free — as long as you keep the embedded links.

3. Offsite Blogs

Blogging is no longer a fad. It’s now a growing fact of Internet life, because it offers many online marketing benefits for website owners and publishers.

They’re also free and easy to start. Most Internet users today can set up a personal or business blog in just five minutes on free blogging sites, such as www.wordpress.com or the Google-owned www.blogger.com.

Once you have a site up, you’re then free to add whatever content you want — including multiple links to your site. You can even set up dozens of free blogging sites today with links to your agency website.

However, you shouldn’t take such a limited view about these free blog sites. Yes, you should definitely include links to your site. But you should also include informative articles that consumers will appreciate.

Because search engines love blogs, there’s a good chance they’ll drive traffic to your site through those links. That’s why you should look at blogs as extensions of your online marketing strategy.

- Rey Villar