The concept of link wheels can be likened to large company. After a period of success a business providing a great service will realise that they are able to expand and can seek out new pastures.

For the purposes of illustration let’s take the hardware store Wilkinsons. They have stores all over the UK, but one enormous warehouse and head quarters just outside Sheffield. This warehouse serves all the shops across the country and all the stores rely on deliveries from the main HQ.

Each delivery symbolises a link, the more deliveries made the more stock will be sold and therefore, more profit will be sending its way back to the main headquarters. More stores and more deliveries mean one thing: Business Growth. This growth equates to online reputation for a website, which is what a link wheel will provide.
If correctly implemented and managed, link wheels will significantly boost SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) campaigns.

The stores represent web 2.0 properties. ‘Web 2.0’ refers to a specific type of website that is second generation in terms of web development and design.
An example of this would be a blog. Free to setup, easy to use and is full of different types of media such as podcasts, videos and articles.

There are many types of ‘Web 2.0’ websites out there that anyone can setup. The basic premise of a link wheel is to use many different web 2.0 properties to link back to your main website and also to one another. Your main website will act as the Warehouse or the Head quarters in the above example and will receive all the link power from the different channels available.

A link wheel will be more successful if the web 2.0 properties that are chosen for use are hosted from websites with a strong page rank and good online reputation.
The links will then hold more gravitas and will be looked upon more favourably by the search engines. The key idea within a link wheel is to channel a great amount of authority and trust on a specific keyword or phrase. This will then improve the search engine’s positioning for that keyword.

Here’s what to do:

• Sign up to 8-10 web 2.0 properties such as Blogger, Wordpress or Squidoo
• Post different articles on each property
• Provide two keyword rich links. The first link should link back to your main website and the second link should point at the next web 2.0 property in the chain.
• Link up all your properties until a full link wheel has been created.