Link Ability – The Life Blood of A Website

When it comes to developing and marketing a successful web asset, one of the most difficult aspects is identifying the link ability of the site. Business owners want to know if the site will make them money. Will the investment result in expanded business and higher ROI? Link Ability is one of the most important elements that will determine a website’s opportunity for success, one of the most difficult to assess, and almost always the last thing considered by web developers. When we make changes to an existing site, or are retained to redesign a website, you can bet Link Ability was the core cause of the revisions.

Frankly, I’m not ashamed to admit that I don’t know everything. We can do all the competition comparison we want, we can try to identify what we believe works and what we believe doesn’t for a particular market, and we can even go so far as to do limited market testing, but in the end, the prospect/visitors will determine whether they like your presentation or they don’t. If you don’t do full blown marketing testing, you’re just guessing with any web project based upon what has worked in the past, what has flopped in the past, and what you believe will work for the project today.

So, What Is Link Ability?

In its simplest form, it is the probability that someone will like a website enough to actually link to it. These links can be solicited (a standard technique for Internet marketing that makes other related website owners aware of a resource) or simply added by other website owners without anyone asking.

You say, “What does this have to do with prospect retention and conversion?” Well, the answer is everything! If your prospect sticks on arrival, if your prospect takes the action you want, and they do it month in and month out, you have a site that has “Link Ability.” It is a reason for people to both share (think natural social marketing) and link to your website.

Today, organic search engine rankings are usually a process of years of ongoing targeted marketing. Links age and mature, and new links must be acquired, and again…age and mature. Document relevance plays a very important role combined with topical authority. Link churn plays a role and your website trust plays a roll.

So many factors are at play algorithmically today. Link ability is the one factor you have control over at the core development level. It is what determines how successful your Internet marketing campaign will be; plus, it impacts the overall success of your site’s organic rankings.

What Makes a Site Linkable?

It certainly doesn’t have to mean “pretty.” Two of my favorite examples of successful sites include craigslist.org and plentyoffish.com. Their success really is as easy as 1-2-3.

Visually, both are far from being stunningly beautiful. Frankly, I find them both quite unattractive. Yet month-in and month-out, these websites attract millions of visitors and plenty of links (to play on plentyoffish.com). The simplicity of their models should really be admired and give any website owner hope.

Keep in mind that achieving this type of success takes years and years of hard work, and for every “craigslist.org” that succeeds, tens of thousands have died a slow, and usually, financially painful death. You need to know what you’re doing and get really lucky (most probably, a lot of both)! It’s why many site owners eventually hire an experienced professional.

What are the most important elements that each offers to make them so successful?

Each easily answers the age-old question that we all have when considering anything: “What’s in it for me!”

Whether it’s, “I’m going to feel good about myself for making this charitable donation” or “I’m going to look good in this dress,” with virtually every decision we make, it’s a subconscious mindset of what am I going to get out of it. In many instances, the bottom line answer for the consumer is “I am going to feel good!”

Regardless – and this is in my professional opinion – the fundamental element to marketing in a nutshell comes to delivering the right answer to this question:

“I have a product/service; I have a target audience; how do I package my product or service so my target audience has an uncontrollable desire to take the action I need them to take?”

The Answer Revolves Around “Buy Me! Hire Me! Send Me Your Money!”

* With craigslist.org, you can buy or sell virtually anything you’d like for free. Now granted, this approach has matured over time to certain areas requiring payment for posting; but for the typical consumer, it’s entirely free and you can certainly find what you’re looking for at a very good value.

* With plentyoffish.com, the need for human interaction and intimacy comes to mind. As a species, we have evolved in a way that we have a natural need and desire to be with someone special. It makes us “feel good” to be needed, wanted, and loved by someone else. Plentyoffish.com does that for free – offering many of the same extensive tools that many consumers have had to pay for with other online dating websites.

Usability and Consistency

If you don’t make a website that is built with your visitors in mind, you’re going to lose them…end of story! Over the last three and half years of running this company, that is without question the biggest obstacle I have had to deal with when it comes to clients. Business owners – both small and large – go from customer-focused to “what I like” pretty quickly. Don’t misunderstand me…there is nothing wrong with “what I like” until it begins impacting the end goal of getting customers to take a specific action.

With both craigslist.org and plentyoffish.com, navigation is down to the bare basics:

* Easy to use tree structure.
* Consistent link placement.
* So easy to navigate, it doesn’t matter what your level of “surfing” experience is.
* No flashy buttons with cool rollover affects.
* No splash, dash, or flash.
* Fast loading pages that are not loaded down with ten thousand images built into the design.

I mean, these sites have built only the bare basics in terms of presentation, but simplicity is usability. Yes, they lack the visually appealing elements we website builders like to see; however, you build a website to your market, not to your taste. If you’re dealing with CEOs and corporate executives, you need a professional and visually appealing presentation to wrap around your sales pitch – but I digress…

Constantly Updated Content (or a Reason to Come Back)

Now, don’t go into this believing your website has to constantly change and update with new content to bring visitors back. That’s simply nonsense and something SEO’s spout around as just one more technique to ranking your site. Most likely, it’s something they read in a community forum or article.

New content will expand your reach and relevance, but is far from necessary to make your website successful. You could have tools (calculators, etc.) on your website. You could add new products to your website. For a typical service-based website, your clients will come back, so it’s by retaining them as clients.

It’s all about understanding your market, understanding your prospect, and keeping your website current as it relates to your industry, products, and services. Changing and updating content is all about the market your website serves and what it’s built for – not about adding content for the sake of adding fresh content.

* With craigslist.org, you have a constant stream of new postings selling everything from watches, homes, and vehicles, to job opportunities and business opportunities…just to name a few. These constantly changing advertisements attract local area people to come and look for what they need at a price they’re willing to pay. It’s really simple stuff.

* With plentyoffish.com, again, you have a constant stream of new user profiles – or opportunities – people meeting, not working out, and coming back. And of course, the members that make multiple profiles to “repackage” themselves…Ah, the dating scene.

As you can see, link ability really is as easy as 1-2-3. It’s about the core fundamentals of a website. While the inner core of development is much more complicated in what goes into creating the web asset, the core fundamentals are pretty basic.

* What reason are you providing your visitors, or those you solicit, to link to your website?
* What makes your site stand out above and beyond your competitors?

The really valuable links will go to the sites that actually have that “something special.” It’s called Link Ability! It never hurts to look hard at what we’ve done and consider that “old school” is really “new school” when it comes to developing a successful website.

Source - SEO King, Inc.