Having outside links coming in to your website is very important when it comes to increasing your site’s traffic. Think of these links as doors or entry points. The more links you have, the more “open doors” your site has to welcome visitors.

A quick and easy way to increase the number of incoming links to your site is to add these links to your blog. You can add links to articles and other helpful information that you have featured on your site.

You can also add incoming links to your site in the signature lines of forums that you are a member of. Many people will read your posts and click on the links to see what your site is all about.

Writing articles and adding them to article reprint directories will also help you increase the number of your site’s incoming links. When you write an article, you can include a section at the end that tells the reader a bit about yourself and you can include a link to your site. Each time a website owner or blogger publishes one of your articles, an incoming link to your site is added.

If you have a product or service for sale, establishing an affiliate program will add to the amount of incoming links you have. As affiliates join your program, they will be promoting links to your site. If one of the people that come into your site through one of the affiliate links purchases one of your products or services, you will give your affiliate a commission on that sale.

You can also choose to form link exchanges with others. Think of your target market and the other types of sites they may be visiting. For instance, if you have a site that features information about kitchenware, try approaching websites related to cooking, meal planning, recipes, etc and explain the benefit of linking to your site. You can point out articles or other information their readers may find helpful. Perhaps you have a “how-to” article on your site about storing recipes that people have printed off websites. The recipe website owner can see why their visitors would find this information helpful, and will agree to post a link on their site to the page on your website that features this article (or post your article with a link back to your site).

The website owners that agree to add your links may want you to add a reciprocal link to their site in exchange. When adding links to your site, it is okay to be picky. If a site doesn’t offer anything of value to your audience, pass on that exchange and form a partnership with a site that does offer some type of information your readers would find helpful.