subject: How to Transform Your Website Into an Authority Site [print this page] How to Transform Your Website Into an Authority Site
Your market will respect you and give you proper credence if you own an authority site. You will see all kinds of doors opening for you when your site is finally considered as an authority. You will need to get a lot of things right, and you have to know exactly what you are engaged in plus have a vision.
One of the things you cannot allow to happen is to drag your feet in any way. You cannot stand around just hoping people will link to you. So you have to accept that you will not allow that to happen, and you must commit to taking matters into your own hands. It really is all about taking the bull by the horns and stating that you will do something. One of the most important things you can do is with your visitors is get them to trust you and the things you have to say. Once you begin to be seen as someone worthwhile for people to listen to, then your stock will begin to rise in your industry. There is nothing wrong with going after social proof, and that really is the only way you will make a difference. What about site awards, have you ever won any? Has your site ever been highlighted in the press? There is nothing wrong with letting people know about any awards.
Comment on Blogs -blog commenting on quality, relevant blogs in a helpful way can help increase your site's reputation. If you post useful comments, this will motivate lots of the blog readers to visit your website for more information. The key to success with this method lies in making highly useful comments so that the readers know what you're talking about, and take your advice as targeted expert advice. Of course with an authority site, you do not want to make the mistake of linking to sites with a poor reputation. Linking to and getting backlinks from high quality sites within your market is the best approach here. As you rise in the search engine ranks, you will get a lot of traffic from search engines. If you link to bad neighbors, you'll be seen negatively by the search engines. You could suffer, perhaps, in terms of your regular sites readers, but how much is anybody's guess. You really have to commit yourself to doing this because it is a long-term project.
