Top 10 Tips To Improving Link Popularity
by Michael Campbell
Link Popularity - to me - means how many incoming links and how often
do they get clicked on. It's only one part of the equation. There are
also many other factors involved. Most engines in this day and age do
a complete link analysis.
So not only do they look at the amount of links and how often they get
clicked on, there's also link quality, link relevancy, reputation and
topic, temporal duration, cache data, traffic patterns and in the case
of Google, PageRank. Improving your site's overall link popularity depends
on how well you do in all these areas.
1) Telling People to LINK OFF
Yes, it's really odd. Turns out my marketing site was also known for
wicker furniture and chat lines among other things. Huh? Yes, a couple
of sites thought it would be a good idea to link to me, just because I
do well in the search engines.
The problem was their links didn't make sense as they were totally off
topic. We both ended up getting penalized.
Usually you cannot make people remove incoming links, unless they are
infringing on some kind of patent. But if you kindly explain that what
they are doing is actually giving their site a penalty and hurting their
findability, the links come down pretty fast.
What they are doing is building the reputation of my page with what they
say in their outgoing links. If what the links say, do not match the topic
of my page, the search engine gives the page containing the link a penalty.
Simply put: Reputation is what a page is known for. What incoming links
say the page is about. Topic is what the page is really about. The actual
content of a page. The Reputation must match the Topic.
2) Making Google Eyes
Google uses PageRank. You can either be a hub or an authority. Decide
which one you want a particular page to be and stick with it. Don't mince
types with Google.
Hubs have many links and are ranked by backwards clicks. Meaning that
every time someone hits their back button - to find more sites - you actually
score points. Hallway pages or directories are good examples of hubs,
especially if you link to them with authority pages.
Authority pages contain relatively few links - the fewer the better in
my opinion - and are rated according to forward clicks. Authority pages
are not likely to be found with backward crawling and most often lead
to pages with many links.... hubs. Doorway pages are good examples of
authority pages, especially when you link them to hubs or catalog style
sites.
Hubs lead to authorities, which lead to hubs, which lead to authorities.
Repeat the process as often as desired.
3) Hail Hail the Gang's All Here
Ask your upstream or downstream suppliers to link to you and you to them.
If you are a wholesaler, you don't sell to the public, only to retailers.
List your top 10 retailers as a reward to them. Same with retailers, link
to your main wholesalers, unless they have to remain a secret for some
reason.
Advertising agencies and printing shops can link to their customers and
vice versa. Same deal with your friends. You could each provide three
links and put up a "my friends" page or "suggested sites"
page. A word of advice though, don't everyone call it the same thing and
don't call it a "links" page.
Also don't request links on a public bulletin board. Yes, the search
engines have many employees, some of them have the job of maintaining
the integrity of their search results. They read the popular search engine
boards.... so be very careful about how you recruit a gang of cross linkers.
4) I dunno... Search Me?
While you're at it, link back to the search engines. Does it help? I
don't know. But what if it does? What if the search engines check if your
site leads back to them? What if they give 1% boost if you do? Would 1%
matter if everyone else had 99% relevancy and you got an extra 1%?
Hmmm, something to ponder. I always link every important site back to
the major search engines and directories as a little thank you gesture.
5) Temporal Time and Space
How long did someone spend on your site before clicking back to the search
engine? If the person didn't come back it means - to the search engine
- that the person found what they were looking for. Your site is given
a boost in rankings because people who visit your page, don't come back
to the search engine for more links.
One way to achieve temporal brownie points this is by creating and controlling
two levels of links. It's much like the hub and authority example I mentioned
earlier. Search engine links to a authority page with only one link on
it, which in turn leads to a directory style page. From the directory
page the visitor finds plenty of links on their search topic and there's
no need to hit the back button to the search engine.
6) There's Cash in the Cache
If your page gets clicked on often enough, it gets stored in the search
engine's cache, a storage buffer for speedy retrieval of web pages. Cache
data is analysed and pages in it are given a big boost in positioning.
One simple way to boost your cache is to use the search engine, to find
your page and click on your own link. Do it once a day. Have staff with
multiple computers? Get them all to click your company web page link once
a day.
Another way is to pay for inclusion, get spidered every two days and
optimize your way into the top 20. Soon you'll be in the cache. Then,
the rest of the internet will take over with their clicks.
7) Use Only the Finest Organic Binary 0s and 1s
Link quality simply means how well positioned are the pages that link
to you. There are also boosts and penalties involved. If you are linked
to by a spammy link farm you get a penalty. If you are linked to by a
directory like Yahoo, LookSmart, or Dmoz you get a boost.
What about the hundreds of free directories? Yes, they all help. In my
Vault I list about 80 search resources. Dozens of them are directories.
Take a few days and MANUALLY submit your site to every directory that
will take it.
I was surprised to find several directories for my own city. Regional
directories can often supply plenty of incoming links. Every relevant
link helps.
8) He Went Thatta Way
Traffic patterns are also analyzed and used as a filter or booster. The
worst possible thing is to set up 10 sites on the same IP address and
then link them together exactly the same way. Setting up 10 sites on similar
topics is a good idea but vary the links, the byte size of the pages and
store them on several different hosting companies.
The trick is to build your own mininet without setting off any filters.
The only way to do that, is not copy what you've already done, but start
each site from scratch. When done properly, you can set up a very effective
cluster and really boost your rankings.
9) Link - This - Way
Provide a page on your site that tells people how to link to you. Even
go so far as to provide copy and paste html.
That way, you can tell people what specific keyword phrase you want them
to use when linking to you. You can also tell them which page on your
site your prefer them to link to.
10) Oh, You Mean THAT 800 lb. Gorilla
The bottom line is the easiest most obvious answer. It's also the toughest
to do. Give people a reason to link to you. Think about it. Sites get
linked to for a reason. Usually if they provide the most information or
the best resources on a particular topic. Is there any reason WHY people
should link to your site? How is your content?
Even if you are not a writer, ask the writers if you can use their stuff.
The answer is usually yes. The writer gets a link from you. And you get
great content. Now people will start linking to you.
Conclusion
I could ramble on for days about this but I'm sure you've got many of
the obvious link popularity issues covered. Things like write an article
and include a link. Ask a question (FAQ) and include a link. Post questions
on forums that allow links. Post into the newsgroups. Include an email
tail tag.
You can also get your url noticed by putting it on your t-shirt. Include
it as a sticker with each shipped order. Tatoo it on your body. Tell your
mom. Get a vanity license plate... LOL :-)
I hope you can use this information to your advantage and it helps show
the big linking picture. It's no longer a game of whomever gets the most
links wins.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Campbell is a search engine optimization specialist and top internet
marketing consultant. He has written a step by step internet
marketing strategy in the book called Nothing But Net. It details
how he generated over $750,000 in internet revenues in less than a year,
with no advertising costs, not even so much as a business card.
In addition to writing the Internet
Marketing Secrets newsletter, Michael has produced Clickin' it Rich,
a complete work from home
business training system.
Michael Campbell has a background in the printing trade, graphic design
and advertising. He began using the internet in 1993 and was one of the
first people to realize it was the most important communications revolution
since Gutenberg's printing press.
Michael has served on several advisory boards, given hands on training
seminars, spoken at lectures and conferences. He is president and CEO
of Dynamic Media Corporation and currently resides in Vancouver, British
Columbia, Canada.
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