Increasing Link Popularity
By: Ken Crowe
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Search engines are our gateway to the Internet; they are
the first tool that potential customers use to find the
products and services they need. This is why link
popularity is so important. If the customers do not find
your websites, you have no possibility of making any
sales.
You're probably wondering what the blazes is popular about
a link! Well, in a word - plenty! Link popularity refers to
the ranking assigned to your website by the search engines,
and it determines the ranking that your website gets when
keywords are entered into a search engine. So, you're
probably wondering, how do You make Your links popular?
Search engines are discretionary, giving status and rank
to sites that have links to their pages from related and
quality sites. It's a simple formula, but a very important
one. Google created the system, and now virtually all the
most popular search engines employ it to rank your web
pages in their indexes.
The more commonly used your keyword is, the harder it will
be to achieve link popularity, but without achieving this
step, it is almost certain your site will never rank highly
on the search engines. But don't be discouraged; there are
tried and true ways of achieving link popularity using the
most competitive keywords.
There are a few things you should be aware of. The first is
that just linking up with many other websites will not
achieve link popularity. In fact, it may have the opposite
effect. This is particularly true when pertaining to websites
that are nothing more than "link farms" - pages containing
many indiscriminate links. Search engines may aggressively
discriminate against websites if they are associated with
link farms, so stay away from them!
The next thing to bear in mind is the quality of the site
you are linking to. Never link to a page you have
reservations about your visitors seeing. The last thing you
want your website to appear as is indiscriminate and cheap.
Linking to sites of poor quality will only lessen your link
popularity, if not completely destroy it.
So let's get to what you need to do to achieve supreme link
popularity and improve your rankings to stellar status on
all the popular search engines.
The first step, and the fastest way to get your foot in the
door, is to get a listing in a popular directory, such as
Open Directory Project and Yahoo. If your site is
business-related, you will want to be listed on Yahoo, and
despite the fact that it will cost you around $300 a year,
it will be worth the money. If your site is non-commercial,
the listing will be free, but it will take time to follow-up
and to actually get it listed. Open Directory gives you a
free listing whether you are business-related or non-commercial,
but be prepared to make a lot of follow-up inquiries before
you see your site listed.
You are aiming to get listed in the highest level of
appropriate category, and this just takes some common
sense. For example, if your company ships Alpaca wool from
an Alpaca farm located in the middle of Nowhere, Tiny
State, do NOT submit your listing to "Retailers from
Nowhere, Tiny State." BIG MISTAKE! All you have to do is
look a little deeper - and submit your listing to the "Fine
Alpaca Wool" category. You will not only associate yourself
with culture and quality, but you will be listed in a
great national category.
The next step after you have attained directory listings is
to locate other quality sites that will increase your link
popularity. Try to find sites that are in some way related
to yours, so not only will your link popularity increase,
but your customer base may also get expanded. You want to
avoid your competitors and look for sites that are useful
to your site's visitors. Let's look at the Alpaca Wool site
for example. Linking up to a site that sells knitting supplies
would be helpful to your visitors, and the chances are the
knitting supply site will want to link to your site are
even greater. By linking to a related site that will be
relevant to your website's traffic, you are increasing both
of the site's business prospects - and both of the sites'
link popularity.
Not all sites want to link to other your site, so you will
have to do some research when you are looking for possible
linking partners. Google is an excellent starting place for
the search. Make sure you enter your keywords that you think
quality customers will also enter to find your own site.
Remember, your criteria are quality, highly ranked and
non-competing websites that have a link or resources page.
Go to these sites and objectively assess them. Look at the
quality of the products, the graphics, and the ease of use.
Then check out the other sites they are linking to, and
determine if your site would fit in with the others.
When you decide you have found a good prospect, you must
set out to woo them. The first thing to do is to add a link
on your own link page to their site. This is an essential
first step; it shows good faith, and ups your chances
significantly of their reciprocity. After you have added
their link, you must contact the webmaster of that site.
Since this is almost always done by email, you want to make
sure it is immediately clear that your message is not junk
mail. This requires that you tell them right off that
you have added a link to their page on your site. A
hook like this almost always insures the reader will read
on.
Next, be sure to be flattering and let them know how much
you appreciate their website. Make sure you emphasize that
you have actually visited their site, and that their site
was not just a random pick. Give them the address of your
link page, and ask them to check out the link to see for
themselves. It's a good idea to mention that they will not
only benefit from the increased traffic your website will
direct their way, but that it will also increase their link
popularity. Briefly, explain why link popularity is so
essential, but do this in a sentence or two so you don't
sound like a professor! Finally, tell them you would
greatly appreciate if they would reciprocally add a link on
their own link page to your website.
Go through this process with as many appropriate sites as
you can find, bearing in mind the criteria of quality and
non-competitiveness. After you have emailed all relevant
sites, be sure to check these website frequently to see if
they have added a link to your page. Give it about a month,
and if no has link appeared, try another charming email. Then
give it another month, and if your site is still absent
from their link page, it's time to remove their link from
your own link page. The only time you want to pursue a
link further than this is if you believe a site is crucial
to your link popularity and your business needs. Just
remember to keep all your communications complimentary and
cordial.
Then set up a schedule to check your rankings in the search
engines frequently to see if your link popularity is
improving. This is not achievable in the blink of an eye. It
will take some time and lots of hard work. There is no
way around the labor-intensive quality of improving your
link popularity, which is why the search engines regard it
with such importance.
By the way - make sure you have a beautiful, streamlined
site or you will never persuade anyone to link with you.
Be prepared to keep plugging away at this process, as long
as it takes, for you achieve link popularity stardom!
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About The Author:
Ken Crowe has been in MLM, Network Marketing and Internet
Marketing for over 37 years. Ken ownes several businesses.
Ken newest business is the Pets-R-Us Mall. He has a Pets-R
-Us Group at APSense. He also has a Network marketing Group
there also. To check out the Pets-R-Us Mall you can go to
his website:
http://www.pets-r-us.biz