Track Incoming Links Easily with PrettyLinks
Boosting Website Traffic Through Strategic Advertising and Link Building
Maintaining a thriving blog or website offers significant advantages, and a common strategy for increasing traffic involves utilizing advertising spaces on other platforms or ad networks. Alternatively, securing ad or banner placements on relevant websites across the internet can be highly effective.
Exceptional SEO, compellingly written content, and well-structured formatting are crucial, but their impact is limited without proactive outreach within your industry's online communities and websites.
Leveraging Link Building for Enhanced Visibility
Consider incorporating your banner ad or a link to your site within your forum signature, provided the forum administrators permit it. Similarly, linking to your website from blog comments can be beneficial, contingent on the blog owner's approval.
For those with the financial resources, offering a recurring monthly payment to niche websites or blogs in exchange for banner ad placement is a viable option.
This approach represents a potent method for accumulating valuable backlinks – incoming links from other websites. These links are a key component of the Google algorithm.
Google interprets a higher number of backlinks as an indication of a webpage's value and relevance to the online community. Consequently, pages with strong backlink profiles tend to rank higher in search results.
Tracking Link Performance for Optimal Results
Previously, in 2012, guidance was provided on accurately assessing your website’s ranking as determined by Google. If you actively engage in blog commenting or utilize platforms like Digg or StumbleUpon, you likely already possess a substantial collection of incoming links.
This article will focus on two key aspects: the significance of promoting your site through banner ads and advertisements, and, more importantly, introducing a tool to effectively monitor the incoming links that generate the most traffic.
This allows you to identify which websites provide the greatest return on investment for advertising and to further amplify your traffic generation efforts. While simply obtaining links can improve SEO, "trackable" links offer a more precise understanding of your traffic sources.
Key Takeaways
- Strategic advertising and link building are vital for increasing website traffic.
- Backlinks are a significant ranking factor in the Google algorithm.
- Tracking link performance helps optimize advertising spend and maximize traffic.
Understanding Website Traffic Sources
The primary purpose of this discussion is to guide you in monitoring incoming links to your website. However, a crucial component of attracting traffic involves securing banner or sidebar advertisements on other relevant websites.
Developing an advertisement for your site is an effective method for attracting the attention of readers on complementary platforms. Banner and sidebar ads demonstrably generate results, which is why advertisers continue to invest in them. As online content gains popularity, the demand for advertising space increases, and as a webmaster, you need avenues to promote your site.
Designing Your Banner Advertisement
For creating your banner ads, I recommend Banner Sketch, previously reviewed by John at MUO. A key benefit of Banner Sketch is its comprehensive selection of popular banner sizes, allowing you to provide publishers with a variety of options – header, sidebar, content, and footer banners.
BannerSketch operates entirely online, eliminating the need for software installation. Simply navigate the tabs, customize your text, colors, and fonts, and you’ll generate a set of advertising banners. Upon completion, you’ll be prompted to enter your email address to receive the image files. Following this, craft a compelling sales proposal for potential websites within your niche, highlighting the benefits of displaying your ad to their audience. Offering a monthly payment, if feasible, can be a persuasive tactic.
Price your advertising space based on the website’s traffic volume. Advertising on a smaller blog should cost significantly less than on a high-traffic site. Position yourself as a valuable resource for their readers, and you’ll likely find interested parties.
Implementing the Pretty Links WordPress Plugin
Prior to purchasing ad space or initiating a link-building campaign through forum or blog commenting, it’s essential to configure the Pretty Links WordPress plugin. Upload the plugin files to the "plugins" directory within your WordPress installation, then activate it from your admin panel. Activation will add a new menu item under "Settings".
This menu allows you to manage how incoming links are directed. The plugin enables redirection of groups of incoming links to a specific URL on your website – potentially a landing page tailored to those visitors – which is particularly useful if you’re promoting a product like an eBook.
Furthermore, the plugin tracks and logs the origin of these links, along with the total and unique visitor counts.
The Pretty Links menu includes the following options:
- Add New Link - Used to create unique affiliate links and define the destination URL.
- Groups - Allows you to organize affiliate links for campaign management.
- Hits - Provides access to link statistics and reports.
- Tools - Enables the Pretty Links browser bookmarklet.
- Options - Offers settings for filtering robots, blocking IP addresses, and more.
Begin setting up your links by selecting "Add New Link".
The Pretty Link represents the unique URL you’ll provide to the website hosting your ad, or the link you’ll share in blog or forum comments. You won’t need complex codes or hidden strings; the defined URL is sufficient. Ensure each advertisement receives a unique URL to facilitate accurate tracking. The target URL will contain the tracking ID for the link, enabling you to monitor clickthroughs from specific websites.
Within the link options, you can assign a group, set the link to "Nofollow," and configure other relevant settings. Confirm that "Track this Link" is enabled. To review and manage your advertising traffic, navigate to the Pretty Links settings and click on "Hits".
Initially, this section will be empty, but the top graph will display overall traffic from all your unique incoming links. The lower chart will log individual hits, including the unique IP address, date/time, and, crucially, the "Referrer," which identifies the source website. This allows you to track traffic from each referrer. You can download the data in CSV format for easy analysis.
This approach establishes an organized and effective system for growing your incoming links and accurately tracking referral traffic. By monitoring clickthroughs for your advertisements, you could potentially negotiate a payment structure based on performance rather than a fixed monthly fee.
Have you previously sold advertisements for your website or blog? What methods do you employ to track incoming links? Share your insights and experiences in the comments below.
Image Credit: Blank Billboard via Shutterstock