Location and Direction

International online business depends upon effective marketing links to generate the highest rankings on search engines and the most traffic to websites. Online positioning can be compared to expensive real estate for a traditional business.

If the building on the beach near the airport is like gold for attracting clients, then every block away, every traffic light further from the center of commerce, means drawing clients becomes more difficult.

The Missing Link

Obtaining prime real estate to setup business is usually a matter of timing and money. Once the property is established, the competition can no longer compete for business on that spot. Marketing links from these locations are very helpful but hard to get.

With enough money the same principle holds true online. Spots near the top left hand of the page (beach and airport) can be purchased and held indefinitely. Everyone else has to set up shop at least a block away.

When attempting to establish a position near the elite sites, one missing link can push you onto the next page. Here nothing is fixed or permanent. Marketing online requires true professionals, with specific skills and an eye for details.

Only The SEO Knows

Not every marketer has the same opinion on the best search engine optimization strategy, but then not every search engine is the same. They don’t publish exactly how they rank websites and pages. They do tell everyone exactly what they expect.

Your activity can become paralyzed by sifting for an exact formula that will work. Many people are still looking for an exact plan while the search engines keep modifying their guidelines.

If we look at the search engines like any other business, what they’ll be doing in the future is determined largely by what they’re studying in the present. If a company isn’t continually looking to improve their product or service, they’ll end up losing business to someone else.

It seems almost too simple, but if we use search engines, we help determine what they’ll become. Paying attention to our own experience can give us insight, because the search engine wants to improve our experience.

Good Ideas Don’t Go Away

If a link from an article or a directory brings us to where we ultimately want to be, it will be obvious to everyone who sees that activity. Likewise if a link sends us down the wrong path, we go backwards.

If we came across a crowd of people going forward, backward, turning to the left then turning to the right, we’d either suspect they belonged to a dance company or they were all lost. So either the choreographer yells stop, or the civil engineer checks the street signs to see what all the confusion is about.

Links that don’t do what they’re supposed to do stand out just as much as links that serve their intended purpose. If the system is working correctly then properly functioning links will gain prominence (the sites on either end move closer to the beach and airport) while faulty links will become increasingly hard to find.

Disconnected From The Flow

Business thrives from traffic flow, which is why metropolitan areas have more business. Zoning becomes a chess game because any alteration in the traffic flow directly affects the advantage one business has over another.

Effective online marketing links serve two purposes.

1.    They keep the flow of traffic moving toward a desired destination.
2.    They bring attention to that destination.

From the search engine’s perspective this is exactly what they want. They rightly reward the source that supplied the link, as well as the site that keeps receiving happy traffic.

Online marketers do their best to ensure they never give inaccurate or misleading directions. They know that such activity attracts negative attention. Eventually the flow of traffic stops and the site’s visitors go missing.

What If It Was Us?

When we’re setting up marketing links from an article, a blog or another website, we need to imagine that it is intended for us. We need set aside for a moment the fact that we know where we’re going. We should know, but what if we didn’t?

Usually the link destination has more than one option. Perhaps one page on the site is more accurately connected with the source keyword.

If for instance I’m linking from tropical fish eating habits to a page that explains three things tropical fish like to eat, I’ll be done in a second. If I exit from there or go backwards, the system doesn’t know that I’ve found something useful.

However if I land on a page that gives detailed pictures, videos and lengthy explanations about ways to improve the health of tropical fish through diet, people will spend longer at the destination. The system then likes the link and the website.

Even if both the page with the three favorite foods for tropical fish, and the in depth page full of movies and pictures are on the same site, it won’t matter. Online marketers should knowingly connect people to what they’re looking for with accurate marketing links.