• Drive traffic, promote your business and improve search engine rankings using only a link strategy.

Link popularity is one of the most important factors in gaining a high search ranking, and it has many other marketing benefits.

In this evening presentation, Ken McGaffin, CEO of McGaffin.com and founder of LinkingMatters.com, gives you the inside story on how to promote your website using only a linking strategy.

Subjects covered include:

• What benefits does link popularity bring? Everyone knows about search engine optimisation but what are the other significant benefits of a high link popularity?
• The Linking Matters Strategy – how LinkingMatters.com planned and implemented a linking strategy – the only marketing technique the site used.
• The Step-by-Step approach to planning a linking strategy. What are the steps involved? What are the pitfalls to avoid? How can results be measured?
• Finding and approaching link targets. How do you find relevant sites and write a compelling link request? How do you follow-up?
• Public Relations Support. How Linking Matters was featured on SearchEngineWatch.com and the lessons that were learned.

About the Linking Matters Report and Website

Linking Matters (www.linkingmatters.com) is a free online resource and downloadable report that helps website owners, managers and consultants to run an effective linking strategy. Written by Ken McGaffin and Archie Binnie, the report contains step-by-step instructions as well as extensive links to articles and resources.

Persuading other web sites to link to your own could be one of the cleverest pieces of marketing you do - it's low cost, highly effective at driving traffic and it can have a dramatic effect on your search engine ranking. Links are one of the most popular ways for people to find new sites and so the higher the number of quality sites that link to you the better.

But is persuading other sites to link to yours a difficult task?

According to Ken McGaffin, "if a linking strategy is carefully planned and implemented, it can be very worthwhile. Amazon started their linking strategy back in 1995 and now has nearly 30 million links to their site - this brings in substantial new business. Links are what make the web work and any site large or small can benefit from more links."

"The core of the web is made up of sites that are interlinked with both inbound and outbound links. These sites have a high link popularity - as a result they attract major traffic," says McGaffin. "An effective linking strategy can boost your link popularity, make you part of the all-important core and bring in new customers. Too many sites ignore linking and find themselves out in the wilderness, isolated and rarely visited."

Does linking work? Linking Matters aims to prove it

The Linking Matters website practices what it preaches, and is promoted with a linking strategy. You can find out for yourself how successful this has been by checking the site every Monday morning and reading an update on its progress.

Praise for the Linking Matters site and report:

• "... probably the most useful, practical, time-saving, no BS roadmap to link popularity (as it's loosely termed) available anywhere online. This is a five-star online marketing tool."
  Mike Grehan, writing in Larry Chase's Web Digest for Marketers
• "High quality content ... a rich resource of information about the importance of links to search engines"
  Chris Sherman, SearchEngineWatch.com
• "Excellent resource"
  Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, Wilsonweb.com
• "Excellent white paper ... a no-nonsense, practical guide."
  Ashley Freidlein, E-consultancy.com

About Ken McGaffin

Ken McGaffin, CEO, McGaffin.com
Ken McGaffin has over 15 years consultancy experience, first in general marketing, then multimedia. Since 1996, he has concentrated exclusively on e-marketing, working with both clients and their agencies. Over the years McGaffin.com has worked with major companies, government agencies and non-profit organisations, including: WWAV Rapp Collins, Pfizer, Novartis, Gala Group, Legal and General, Recruit Media, e-Consultancy.com, e-Hub.com, NMK, British Interactive Multimedia Association, Wired Sussex, Cancer Research, Business Link, Industrial Development Board, Welsh Development Agency and London Chamber of Commerce, as well as scores of small to medium sized companies.