You heard about the thousands, perhaps millions, of potential customers surfing the Internet, so you worked hard building an attractive, informative web site which reflects your business. Now, the site is up and ready for business. But where are the customers who should be emailing you orders, calling you with inquiries, and making your business the success it could be? The adage, "If you build it, they will come," just does not work on the Web.

    With all the places to go and information to browse, websurfers must have a reason for visiting your site. You cannot rely on your potential customers stumbling onto your business, you must draw them to your site. Remember, the Internet only provides a way to do business, not a guaranteed client base. You have to use proven marketing techniques to develop your web presence.

    The faster the Web grows, the more important it is to use every marketing technique available. News releases to e-zines and newspapers, direct e-mail, and mailing lists are all effective techniques.

    Listing your site with the major search engines is almost mandatory; every site begins with this element of promotion. However, search engine listings alone do not mean customers will find their way to your business. The internet is growing rapidly; some of the larger search engines have 30-40 million pages listed! Therefore, if your site does not appear in the top 20 of your category, chances are most visitors will not move far enough through the returned listing to locate you. A listing on a search engine also lacks the appeal of an advertisement to pull a visitor to your site. Strategic linking addresses the "appeal" issue, offering the allure of an advertisement at key locations your client base frequents.

    Don't hide under your computer table! It's not as bad as it sounds. Strategic linking is basically the Internet equivalent to target marketing; it is one of the most productive ways to spread the word about your new web site. Strategic linking gets your message out to customers already interested in what you are selling, helps you find them and helps them find you!

    So, how do you incorporate strategic linking into your marketing plan? You follow a three-step process:

            1. Search the net for sites that complement yours
            2. Contact the webmasters of these sites to negotiate links
            3. List your site in the best possible way to enhance your web presence.
                Usually, a reciprocal link from your site is  requested, or a
                commercial site may charge a fee.


    How do you find the right sites to lure customers interested in what you are selling?  A web search using key words relating to the products or services you sell should yield a large number of sites to contact. Many of these sites will have a list of related sites which could prove good leads. Contact these sites, too.

    The goal of strategic linking is to provide as many references or links to your web site from related sites as possible. This marketing campaign will bring prospective  customers to your site, not just net surfers who may or may not be interested in what you are selling.

    The long-term advantages of strategic linking are immeasurable. The more often a potential customer sees a reference or link to your business name, the more likely that person is to visit. Strategic linking, like a good television marketing plan, increases name recognition and enhances business credibility. By investing in time for strategic linking, you will reap the long-term benefits of ensured traffic to your site for months and years to come.

    However, before rushing forward to set up links to your site anywhere and      everywhere, plan a strategy. Thousands of sites offer links, some are free, some      fee-based, but do they attract the persons you need. Hundreds of visitors will not do you much good, if they are not interested in your products or services. Strategic linking is important but time consuming. You must investigate and analyze the kind of traffic drawn to the sites. In other words, for strategic linking to produce the responses you want, you must know the Web.