A Guide to Better Link Popularity
by John Buchanan
Over the past year or two, one thing has become extremely clear...the
need for link popularity. Every major engine weighs the link popularity
of sites heavily when ranking sites. At least one major engine even claims
they won't index sites that don't have at least one link pointing to them
from another site.
Unfortunately, building link popularity can be one of the most challenging
aspects of search engine promotion. It's tedious, boring, extremely time
consuming, and ABSOLUTELY essential.
That being said, let's go over some things you should and shouldn't do
when beginning your link popularity campaign.
We'll start first with the "shouldn't" list so we can get those
out of the way and focus on what will actually work.
*Don't bother with FFA pages. They worked at one time but now most engines
have learned to filter out FFA pages, and even if they don't your link
will most probably rotate off the results page in a matter of minutes,
but you can guarantee that your email address will remain in their database
for YEARS.
*Don't join link farms. These were a good idea once as well, but have
come under heavy fire by the engines over the past year.
*Don't use hidden links with the goal of building your link popularity.
I'm of the opinion that one or two throughout a site is no big deal, but
don't go overboard with them.
*Don't use free classifieds to get your URL out there. You are just asking
to receive mass amounts of junk mail.
Ok...now that we know some of the things NOT to do, let's get down to
some things that you can do to build your link popularity.
*The first thing you should do is to get your site listed in the "Big
3" directories. Those are Yahoo, LookSmart, and the ODP. Yes, Yahoo
and LookSmart are expensive (even more so since their recent price increases),
but one link from each of them can go a long way in boosting your link
popularity.
*Next you should concentrate on finding sites that are of a similar nature
to yours and approach them about linking to you. Stay away from off-topic
sites. Links from sites of the same theme as yours help to reinforce your
theme and further help in boosting your search engine rankings. Be creative
in your thinking. Attempt to develop a list of all the different types
of sites that relate to yours. Once you have this list you can then begin
to search for those specific types of sites.
*Create a link page listing all of the sites that you wish to link to
you. By linking to the sites you are going to be contacting first, they
will be more likely to link back to you when you contact them.
*Search for smaller vertical directories to submit your site to. There
are thousands of these directories out there. A good place to start is
at:
http://www.searchengineguide.com/searchengines.html
*One often overlooked trick is to find similar sites that use guestbooks
and forums. If you can find these you will often be able to post a message
and include your URL. Be careful with this. Some forums don't allow the
posting of URL's so check out their rules of etiquette first.
*Testimonials of products can also be a good way to get your URL out.
Consider writing a testimonial of a product you've used. Include your
name and URL at the bottom. Email the testimonial to the site owner. Site
owner's are ALWAYS looking for testimonials as it increases buyer confidence
and most likely they will be happy to post your testimonial.
*Writing articles on your topic can also be a great way to get your URL
out. Write an article and include your URL in the bio at the end of the
article. Once written submit it to related areas around the web such as
E-zines etc. Most of these publications also keep web-based archive of
articles that the search engines will eventually spider.
*One product I have personally used is a program called Zeus. This program
can dramatically reduce the time involved in finding sites similar to
yours. There is a bit of a learning curve to it, but once you understand
it and have it up and running, it is a definite time saver. The program
is designed to automate the entire task of finding sites, contacting them,
and building a link system for those sites, but many people use it just
to help them locate the sites so they can personally contact them.
*If you don't think you have the time to devote to this consider hiring
a professional to do the work for you. I have personally worked with a
company called LinkageXpress and had great results. They have different
price plans depending on the number of links you want. For more information
on them visit the following URL:
http://www.se-secrets.com/linkage
*Finally, don't forget to link from your site to other related and important
sites. This is also taken into account by the engines.
Yes, it can be a bit of a task, but it is an absolute necessity in today¹s
search engine era. Stick to the above guideline and with a little work,
effort, and time, you should be sitting pretty.
Good Luck and Happy Linking!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Buchanan is the author of the book "The Insider's Guide to Dominating
The Search Engines", and publisher of "The Search Engine Bulletin",
a FREE monthly newsletter. Visit him at http://www.se-secrets.com
for more information or to sign up for the newsletter.
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