Why is Link Building Important?

Why is the sky blue?  Why is the grass green?  Why do 24-hour convenience stores have locks on their doors?  We could be here all day trying to answer the mysteries of the universe; lucky for you, we can describe in about 3 minutes why link building is pivotal to your Search Engine Marketing campaign.

Reason #3:  So the Search Engines can find your site... Why slap the hand that feeds you?

Search Engine "bots", also called spiders (it is the World Wide Web, after all), rely on links to find new Web pages.  Essentially, these "bots" use links to crawl from page to page to find web content, and then use this information to index what they find in what we know as Search Engine Results Pages.  Without incoming links, it becomes increasingly difficult for the Search Engines to find your content, and therefore rank your site.  Bottom line: Search Engines like links.

Reason #2:  Ranking your site...Higher and higher.

Okay, so your site is indexed.  Now you're good to go, right?  Not so fast.  Yes, incoming links perform indexing wonders, but the right kinds of links perform ranking magic.  Search Engines are judgmental little things, right down to the type of sites your site is linked to; authoritative and topical sites will grant you higher rankings, while something like your Nephew Marvin's site won't bear much weight.

Reason #1:  Finding your site...One link leads to another.

Links don't just direct the Search Engines when traveling through the Internet; they direct those much sought after Web surfers, too.  It stands to reason that if more links are pointed at your site, more users will be visiting, more sales will occur, which means your business does better, your job gets easier, you finally take that vacation you've been planning...