Hotel Website optimization

55 Link Building Tips

I've used this very list to beat the stuffing out of my fortune 500 competitors so many times and they could never figure out how I did it. The truth is there's a lot of things you can accomplish with this list it just depends on what you're using it for. Today We're gonna use it for link building. More on what else you can do with this list in a future article

The best of the insiders list:

1. Build a "101 list". These lists are great link-bait and they have a tendency to become "authority pages". People can't resist linking to them.

-Hint, 101 best things to do in Orlando, or 101 most popular nightspots in Orlando.

2. Create a 10 easy tips list. For example 10 easy tips to help you [Insert topic here] articles. Again, these are extremely popular and easy for people to link to.

-Hint, 10 tips to having more fun in Central Florida.

3. Assemble a extensive resource list for a specific topic.

-Hint, The most inexpensive and fun things to do in Orlando.

4. Assemble a list of the top 10 myths for a specific category.

-Hint, Myths about Central Florida and the Parks.

5. Assemble a list of experts -- If you write complimentary reviews most often the people listed, may end up linking to your site or saying thanks.

-Hint Sometimes flattery is the easiest way to strike up a good relationship with an expert.

6. Have your hotels privacy policy and about section easily found and accessed so your site seems more trustworthy. Including a picture of yourself may also help build your authority.

7. Have your hotel submit an article at EzineArticles, GoArticles, iSnare, etc. The great thing about good article sites is that their article pages actually rank highly and therefore send highly qualified traffic back to your hotel site.

-Hint Right about the Central Florida strawberry festival, or right about the Orlando gay day parade. You get the idea.

8. Submit an article to industry news sites. Write an article and submit to Internet MarketingProNews.

-Hint Write about how to pick a hotel for group of convention visitors.

9. Syndicate a press release. Take the time to really make a good one, you know compelling and newsworthy. Then e-mail it to your favorite journalists and bloggers. Make sure you personalize each e-mail and then for good measure send it to PRInternet Marketing, PRLeap, etc.

-Hint Be the hotel that first announces the strawberry festival next year), or (Or how good the strawberry crop is this year.

10. Track who picks up your articles or press releases. Offer them exclusive news or content.

-Hint If a major newspaper or magazine picks up your press release and mentions your hotel as one of the places to stay, what would that do?

11. Trade articles with other hoteliers, and Internet Marketing masters. -Hint Start a industry specific link page.

12. Email a few friends, colleagues and employees when you have important relevant news asking them for their feedback and or if they would mind referencing it if they find your information useful.

-Hint This works really well for properties that have convention traffic.

13. Perform surveys and studies that make people feel good and important. If you can make other people feel important they will help and do your marketing for you for free. Salary.com did a study on underpaid mothers, and they got many high quality links.

-Hint Do an online survey for the best hotels in Orlando or restaurants or just about anything.

14. Submit your site to paid directories. Just remember that quality matters.

15. Create your own topical directory about the attraction's Around your hotel. -Hint(I'm not talking about the major attractions I'm speaking about the smaller ones, Gaidar Land, fund spot and so on) Obviously link to your own site, deeplinking to important content where possible. Of course, if you make it into a truly useful resource, it will attract links on its own.

16. Tag related sites on sites like Del.icio.us. If people find the sites you tag to be interesting, emotionally engaging, or timely they may follow the trail back to your site.

-Hint I often do this!

17. If you create something that is of great quality make sure you ask a few friends, family members, employees to tag it for you. If your site gets on the front page of Digg or on the Del.icio.us popular list, hundreds more bloggers will see your site, and potentially link to it.

18. Look at meme trackers to see what ideas are spreading.

-Hint If you write about some popular Orlando attractions spreading plenty of original content (and link to some of the original resources), your hotel site may get listed as a source on the meme tracker site.

19. Join the Orlando Better Business Bureau.

20. Get a link from the Orlando chamber of commerce.

21. Joined So Social networking happy hour.

22. Git a link from Orlando So Social networking.

23. Submit your link to relevant city and state governmental resources. -Hint It increases link popularity and the search engines consider them highly relevant.

24. List your site at the local library's Internet Marketing site. -Hint Once again it increases link popularity.

25. See if your retailers or suppliers or other business partners might be willing to link to your site.

-Hint Once again it increases link popularity.

26. Develop business relationships with non-competing businesses in the same field. Leverage these relationships online and off, by recommending each other via links and distributing each other's business cards.

-Hint Your retailers or suppliers or other business partners is a good source.

27. Depending on your category and offer, you will find Craigslist to be a cheap or free classified service. -Hint Didn't think of that one did you?

28. It is pretty easy to ask and or answer questions on Yahoo! Answers and provide links to relevant resources. It is pretty easy to ask or answer questions on Google Groups and provide links to relevant resources. A few minutes a day can really bring back big returns.

29. It is pretty easy to ask or answer questions on Google Groups and provide links to relevant resources.

-Hint The same as above, it works really well.

30. If you run a fairly reputable hotel, create a page about it in the Wikipedia or in topic specific wikis. If it is hard to list your site directly, try to add links to other pages that link to your site.

-Hint This requires a little bit of knowledge and work but pays off really well.

31. It takes about 15 minutes to set up a topical Squidoo page, which you can use to look like a orlando hotel and attraction expert. Link to expert documents and popular useful tools in your chosen topic, and also create a link back to your site.

32. Submit a story to Digg that links to an article on your hotel Internet Marketingsite. You can also submit other content and have some of its link authority flow back to your hotels profile page.

33. If you publish an RSS feed on Orlando Hotels and attractions and your content is useful and regularly updated, some people will syndicate your RSS content (and some of those will provide links).

34. If you publish an RSS feed on Orlando Hotels and attractions and your content is useful and regularly updated, some people will syndicate your RSS content (and some of those will provide links).

35. Most forums allow members to leave signature links or personal profile links. If you make quality contributions some people will follow these links and potentially read your site, link to your site, and or stay at your hotel.

36. Most hotel brands are not that well established online, so if your site has much authority, your review related content often ranks well.

37. Review relevant products on Amazon.com. I have seen this draw in direct customer enquiries and secondary links.

-Hint There's a lot of books written about travel, Who better to review these books than an experienced hotelier?

38. Create product lists on Amazon.com that reviews top travel info and also mention your background (LINK!).

-Hint When a hotelier creates product lists about hotels it gets attention.

39. Review related travel sites on Alexa to draw in related traffic streams.

40. Review travel products and services on shopping search engines like ePinions to help build your authority.

41. If you buy a product or service you really like and are good at leaving testimonials, many of those turn into links.

-Hint Two testimonial writing tips — make them believable, and be specific where possible.

42. Start a blog. Not just for the sake of having one. Post regularly about Orlando attractions and post great content.

-Hint Good execution is what gets the links.

43. Link to other blogs from your Hotel blog. Outbound links are one of the cheapest forms of marketing available. Many bloggers also track who is linking to them or where their traffic comes from, so linking to them is an easy way to get noticed by some of them.

-Hint Some of the biggest bloggers have thousands of readers and when they mention you it's like getting an endorsement from a major travel magazine.

44. Comment on other Hotel blogs. Most of these comments will not provide much direct search engine value, but if your comments are useful, insightful, and relevant they can drive direct traffic. They also help make the other bloggers become aware of you, and they may start reading your hotel blog and or linking to it.

45. Technorati tag pages rank well in Yahoo! and MSN, and to a lesser extent in Google. Even if your hotel blog is fairly new you can have your posts featured on the Technorati tag pages by tagging your posts with relevant tags.

46. When you create your blogs make sure you list it in a few of the best blog directories.

47. Hire a consultant. Yes, you can outsource link building. Just make sure to go with someone good. I recommend for Orlando or Central Florida hotels, ahem, My self, Franklyn Galusha.

48. Swap some links. What?! Did I really just recommend reciprocal link building? Yes, on a small scale, and with relevant partners that will send you traffic.

-Hint Stay away from the link trading hubs and networks.

49. In case you didn't get the hint — when swapping links, try to get links from within the hotel relevant content pages. Do not try to get links from pages that list hundreds of off topic link partners. Only seek link exchanges that you would consider pursuing even if search engines did not exist.

50. Rent some high quality links from a broker. Text Link Ads is the most reputable firm in this niche.

-Hint Even though it's acceptable today renting or buying links in the future may be punished by google. (google recently applied for a patent that suggests renting links and getting caught may have consequences)

51. Rent some high quality links directly from Internet Marketing sites. Sometimes the most powerful rented links come direct from sites not actively renting links.

-Hint So they're likely safe from Google's new Patten.

52. Become a sponsor. All sorts of charities, contests, and conferences link to their sponsors.

-Hint This can be a great way to gain visibility, links, and a warm feeling in your heart.

53. Sell hotel stays on eBay and offer to donate the profits to a charity.

-Hint Many charities will link both to the eBay auction and to your site.

54. Many search algorithms seem biased toward older established sites.

-Hint It may be faster to buy an old site with a strong link profile, and link it to your own site, than to try to start building authority links from scratch.

55. Hold a contest. Contests make great link bait. A few-hundred-dollar prize can result in thousands of dollars worth of editorial quality links.