Break Into Your Topical Neighborhood

To make your Web site an authority, you should first seek to obtain links from topical hubs. Obvious hubs might include any niche directories or resource pages about your Web site's topic.

One way to find less obvious hubs is to do a backlink search on authority sites in your topical community. Finding authority sites is easy--they are sites that rank highly for a search for that topic. Once you find an authority, search "link:http://www.theirsite.com." Go through backlinks, and find pages that link out to multiple sites within your topic; a page that links out to multiple authority sites is probably considered a hub by a search engine.

Aside from hubs, it can be quite helpful to get links from authority sites themselves. I have seen many Web sites get a significant boost after obtaining just one link from a top authority. It is implied that an authority site will link out less than will a hub, and therefore it is possible that these links are even more valuable in terms of rankings.

Obtaining links from quality hubs and authorities is easier said than done. One can however use certain methods to get links quickly. These methods include but are not limited to: offering to swap links; submitting a relevant, well-written press release; submitting a relevant, well-written article with your Web site's URL hyperlinked and embedded in copy; offering to buy or rent a links; and, of course, writing a lot of great content (it will get noticed, sooner or later!). Conclusion

Obtaining links from reputable sources within your Web site's topical community is necessary in order for that site to be ranked highly in today's search engine algorithms. Getting your Web site entrenched within its topical community would be a good idea anyway, even if search engines did not exist--which is a pretty good litmus test for a strong, long-term SEO method.

The "professional" affiliations are tracked by a site called "Eliyon.com Business People Search" where links to web mentions are tied to byline of my articles. Seems their forte is finding business mentions to connect with names. OK. But I was surprised to see that one company that I work with was incorrectly listed as being in Northern California, when they are in fact in Southern California. Oh, and they incorrectly named, but correctly linked to web site of that company.

This type of error is probably common in online databases and is one of biggest problems with this type of data aggregation. It is not kept current or accurate by all sources and there are others with same name, etc. There is a prominent link on Eliyon.com site labeled "Log in to Update your Profile" or Didn't find yourself? Add your profile!" link is ridiculous. Why give them info they don't have so they give it to everyone else?

The Property Info tab is truly offensive as it gives you a link to county tax assessors office record of any property owned by someone you've searched for. Plus their home address, square footage of their house, how much it is worth and amount of taxes owed on it. Oh, and phone number, street address, zip code.

The multiple other options take you to financial records such as bankruptcy filings, political contributions, defaulted loans and dozens of other possible financial records you don't want world to see. Why is this acceptable - and bigger question - why is this legal?

A very interesting note comes from Pretrieve.com privacy page where they make this curious statement: "It may seem contrary for a company dedicated to making public information more easily accessible to be an ardent supporter of information privacy, but fact is we take information privacy rights extremely seriously. We believe public information should be open and made available to everyone as adamantly as we believe private information should remain private."

But doesn't making all sources of public information easily available, make possible private information easily available along with it? Actually, this only applies to informaiton directly available on pretrieve site, which is nothing other than your computer and connection info as they don't require registration to use their service. They do place cookies on your hard drive so site will not work if you turn off that option in your browser. The information business seems to be full of contradictions.