They Were Delayed Inbound Links But What Counts Is That I Got Them

So the other day I was looking around my analytics and I was surprised to see two new referring Websites. And I really mean pleasantly surprised because the referring sites are very closely related to the niche of my Website and they are both authority Websites in this particular niche. And the best part is that I never intended to get these links because neither of these Websites practice linking out to other sites.

The first link is from a watershed organization Website that sells some outdoor gear to raise money for their organization. So about three years ago I posted a link to their Website from an article I wrote on my own Website, but I never bothered to request a link back from this organization as I didn’t feel it was their model and they do provide a public service that I personally benefit from. But when I converted my Website to a WordPress blog around a month ago I removed the link because I thought it was simply an unnecessary traffic leak. Well, this resulted in them placing a link to my new blog, and when I noticed this I replaced the link to their Website. Why did this happen? I think the link I had in place was driving conversions to their Website, and when I removed it they quickly realized the value of the link, so they linked back to me. It looks like a case were both sites gain value from the linking partnership. I get some link authority and they get my qualified visitors buying their outdoor gear. 

The second link was from an outdoor organization Website that I had written an article about over one year ago, and when I converted my site to a WordPress blog last month I also placed their link in my blogroll. The result was a link back from their organization’s Website – over a year after I wrote the article. With this link partnership I will receive some nice link authority and they’re already getting my qualified visitors.

Many professional SEOs agree a good way to build good inbounds is by writing good things about another Website and then linking to the site. This case is exactly that. Although it’s not a model that fits every Website, it does work when appropriate.  And it did take a while to get the links pointing back, but it was certainly worth the wait because both of these new links are quality.