To get top search engine placement nowadays,
link popularity is of fundamental importance. If your web site has
good link popularity, you are sure to get a top search engine placement
for your primary keyword. The more web sites linking to yours, the
better in general and this translates in higher link popularity
for your site...
But bare in mind that link popularity is not simply
obtaining as many links as possible. The quality of the links hold
more "weight" than the quantity of links. You will get
better results in the search engines if you have link popularity
from sites that have top search engine placements and hence considerable
traffic.
To develop popularity for your web site and achieve
top search engine placement, consider the 5 tips I am giving you:
(1) High Traffic Web
Directories
Submit your site to the most visited directories.
Yahoo of course at (yahoo.com),
LookSmart (looksmart.com),
and Open Directory (dmoz.org)
are examples of major directories.
(2) Reciprocal link
exchanges
One of the best ways to get links is to give links,
through reciprocal exchanges. Using link exchanges does two things.
First, it makes getting links easier. Most webmasters are willing
to help each other, so if you give them a link, most times they
will return the favor.
Second, by adding links to other quality websites,
it increases the quality of your own website. Finally, you are providing
a resource (links to other websites) for your visitors. Will you
lose potential customers? If you website is good, you don't have
to worry.
When looking for possible link candidates, start by
searching your strategic keywords at major search portals. You'll
see a lot of competitors, but look for non-competing, complementary
sites.
Screen these sites, selecting those likely to be receptive
to your link request. Give them a compelling reason to link to your
site. Show them where a link might be advantageous. A good strategy
is to link to them first, which might help get a link back. Target
respected and popular sites of relevance to your target audience.
A note about what is meant by a "quality"
website. You do not want to link to any old website. You need to
research the website and note such things as its Google pageRank,
theme, search engine rankings, the websites it links to, etc. You
only want to link to the best websites you can.
Unfortunately when you are first starting out, many
websites will not want to since you are new ...In that case you
might have to search a bit harder and may be "lower your standards"
some but your persistent will pay off. Set goals and stick to them.
(3) Linkability Within
Your Site
Provide quality resources and appropriate outgoing
links, including links to search engines, news hubs, weather reports,
industry resources, industry professional groups, etc. Outgoing
links are important for they provide incentive for other quality
sites to link to yours, and they can improve your PR score if internal
linkage is done properly.
(4) Write Articles
Write articles related to your target audience and
submit the articles to appropriate online publications. Include
your Web site URL in the bio and make it a condition for publication
that the article appear with bio and company link. This can generate
many links and can also help promote future business.
(5) Well Designed and
Optimized Web Site
Before worrying about getting those links, you need
to create quality content that will make people want to link to
you. Your website needs to be designed properly and optimized before
you worry about links.
The time spent getting your website's overall design
and content properly done will make your link popularity grow even
faster later.
If your website is new and has been designed well
and optimized, do not fall for those "get link popularity quick
schemes." Be patient-it takes time. Yes, you should work on
link popularity but you just can't get a link from anyone.
To check your link popularity in some search engines,
you can use the following tools at:
http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop
http://www.searchenginepromotion.cc
While increasing link popularity is of fundamental
importance, you should take note that there are certain strategies
to avoid.
These strategies hyped in the past should be avoided
because they're now worthless and can get you penalized in search
engines.
Here are 3 strategies
to avoid:
(1) Link Farms
A link farm is a network of sites linking to other
sites for the sole purpose of increasing link popularity. Search
engines consider this spamming and will remove sites associated
with link farms.
(2) Reciprocal Link Exchange Services
Networks consisting of hundreds of webmasters with
sites on numerous topics are linked to one another. The service
requires linking to all sites in network, making content unrelated.
Search engines consider this spamming.
(3) FFA Listings
Free for All listings appear and disappear rather
quickly. Few people search through the listings except for spammers
collecting email addresses. These sites are not indexed by search
engines.
In conclusion, link popularity cannot be overlooked,
but as with any web site promotional technique, to be effective
it has to be done properly.
Running a link campaign can take a little time, but
is well worth the effort if the groundwork has been laid and you
put the time into it that it deserves, for these links establish
relevancy, a top priority for search engines and consumers alike.
Only then will it truly help your website out.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Jean Lam is the Webmaster of Zine Guru Internet Marketing Resource
Site and also a Web Site Marketing Expert. Check out his wide range
of highly recommended internet marketing products ranging from membership
sites, ezine advertising, internet marketing course, email marketing
software, super affiliate guides and search engine ebook at http://www.zineguru.com
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