Because of my work with this hunting and fishing directory, I spend a lot of time browsing the web. I’m looking for other directories to see what the competition is doing. And, I’m looking for hunting and fishing outfitters, guides, charters, and lodges to add into out directory. I’ve come to realize that there is a massive number of outdoor services that aren’t easily found.  And, I think I know why…

Because I think they built a website, submitted it to a couple of the big search engines, and stopped right there. The reality is that’s just the beginning. Go to any search and engine, and search for “bass fishing” or “deer hunting”. The number of results are staggering. Obviously, if someone is searching for something more specific like “Minnesota walleye fishing guide” and your business happens to be a walleye fishing guide service in Minnesota, you have a better chance. But, you can make those chances better.

Its all about being in the top 10 search results. Well, not all of it, but since most of a hunting and fishing service’s website traffic is likely to come from search engine results, being in the top 10 is a big deal. The fact is that most people don’t look past the first 10 results.

How you do get in the top 10 you’re asking? It comes down to quality. Not only the quality of your website, but the quality of the websites that link to you.  We sometimes call these “back links”.  Search engines want to provide the “best” results to their users as possible. In order for them to do that, they have to rate your website’s quality.

Website quality is a large subject.  In fact my last blog spoke a little on this topic already.  And, I’ll be blogging about that a lot in the future.  Website quality for the hunting and fishing industry is no different than any other.  The main factors are:

• Keyword saturation – got just enough or trying too hard and over saturating?
• Update frequency – how often do you update the information on your site?
• Response time – the speed your pages and images load, faster is better
• Standard pages – privacy policy, terms of use, about us, contact us
• Standards compliance – how compatible is your website for most web browsers and is the HTML clean and correct?

Back link quality is determined by two main factors.  The first is the quality of the website that is linking to you.    If their website doesn’t do a good job with the website qualities mentioned above, their website quality, and their link to you might be downgraded.  If the website is not hunting or fishing related, then the link quality might be lower.  A travel website might be a little better, but somehow you need to make sure your outdoor website promotes travel too in a somedirect way in the text of your website.

The second back link quality is location of the link on their website and how many other links you share with other websites on that page.    If their website is just one big monolithic list of links, the quality of that link to you is not going to be great.  For example, if there are 100 links on that one page your link will only get 1% of the overall quality of that website.  If you’re maybe one of five or the only link, the you get far more quality for that back link.  Even better would be if your link is surrounded by content that shares the same or similar keywords to your website.

What does this all mean?  And, how do I get good backlinks?  The best ways of doing this is blogging, writing articles, posting in forums/communities, and trading reciprocal links.  All of which should be on or with websites that share common topics with your website.

Yes, this is a big topic.  Over the next several weeks and months I will be digging deeper into all of these points in very specific detail.  In the meantime, start growing your back links and get listed the OutfitterSource.com directory for hunting and fishing guides, charters, outfitters, lodges, and vacation destinations.