Building Link PopularityWritten by Scott Buresh
What is Link Popularity? Link popularity is a criterion that many search engines use when ranking web pages within their index. Simply put, most search engines give a ranking boost to sites that have incoming links from quality, related sites. This method of establishing importance, pioneered by increasingly popular Google, is now used in some form by 19 of top 20 search engines. While it is still possible to achieve high rankings for non-competitive terms without a great deal of link popularity, it is unlikely your site will rank well for very popular terms without it. Directories It is important to note that sheer number of incoming links is not as important as quality of sites that are doing linking. The fastest way to get some quality incoming links is to get listings in popular directories, such as Yahoo and Open Directory Project. For business sites, Yahoo costs $299 per year (it is free for non-commercial sites, although it takes a while to get listed). The Open Directory is free for all sites that meet certain quality standards, but it sometimes takes a lot of follow-up inquiries to make sure your site gets listed. When listing your sites, try to get them in highest-level category that is applicable to your site. For instance, if your company in Podunk Ohio ships wind chimes to consumers nationwide, make sure you submit to national "Wind Chime Dealers" category, not "Retailers in Podunk, Ohio" category. Finding Partners Once you have submitted your directory listings, you should look for other sites that might link to yours. Ideally, businesses that run these sites will be related to yours but will not be direct competitors. For example, if you had a site that sold supplies for swimming pools, it could be useful to your visitors if your site had a link to a swimming pool installer, and useful to his visitors to have a link back to your site. Since your offerings complement each other, neither of you are likely to lose business by exchanging links. You also have to find sites that show a propensity to link to others. Google is an excellent engine to use when looking for potential linking partners. Typing in keywords that you think your customers might use to find you, look for quality, well-ranked, non-competing sites that have "links" or "resources" pages, and objectively look to see if your site would fit with other sites listed. If you think it is a possibility, make a note of site, including webmaster's address and something specific about site you particularly liked. It is also very useful to look at each of sites on these "links" pages, as many of them might also be potential link partners. When you have found a good number of sites, add a link to each of them from a "links" page on your own site. It is important to do this before contacting site owners, as they are much more likely to reciprocate if they see that you have already taken trouble to link to them.
| | Building Link Popularity with Topical ArticlesWritten by Daria Goetsch
One of important factors in ranking high in search engine results is link popularity. It is not enough to just have best website in world--other sites have to point back to you. The thought is that if your site is good enough for others to link to you, then you must have a great site.How do I increase link popularity? Building link popularity is hard work. You've searched endlessly. You've sent every reciprocal link email you can think of. What else can you do? Surprisingly, writing articles on your topic can lead you to a wealth of link popularity. What are benefits of writing articles? Think about it. If you write articles, you get to use them on your website and you build your website content. You can also submit your articles to other sites. With both methods you get a lot in return: You build your content. More is better when it comes to site content. You promote your website. With more keyword-rich text on more pages, you will increase number of pages indexed by search engines. Other websites link back to your website content. Sites focused on related topics link back to you. You receive a link back to your website from site you submitted article to. Remember to include a link in all guest articles you submit. You become an authority on your topic. Search engines reward sites with a larger number of inbound links from sites dealing with similar topics. What do I write articles about? The saying goes "write about what you know." Sometimes it takes thinking in a creative way to open door to a new route for link popularity success. Think of what your visitors might be looking for. Why do they come to your site? What can you help them with when they arrive on your website? Answer their questions about your topic. We all search to find information, so give them what they are looking for. So what are they looking for? That is easy enough to find out. Review your web server logs to see what keywords and phrases your visitors are using when they find your site through search engines. Run your own searches using those keywords. What kinds of sites are returned in search engine listings? Pay attention to visitor feedback. Know your visitors. Answer questions they are asking, or even those questions they do not know yet to ask. Most importantly, write because you have something to say. If in process of building your content and inbound links, you benefit your readers with your content, all better in terms of providing visitor satisfaction. This is best reason to write, which is way of web, to seek out and share information. Where do you put articles? On your site. The first and obvious answer is to put them on your site. After all, you have all this knowledge; why not share it with your visitors? You may want to create an Articles page on your site. This will give you a place to put your articles, and any new ones that you write. Make sure to add this new page into your site navigation, and especially to add it to your sitemap page. Add a link to your main articles page on your sitemap, and a link to each new article on your articles page, and you are on your way to having your good content indexed. Make sure your visitors and search engine robots can find your new pages. Adding article content not only answers your visitors' questions, it adds to your website. Your visitors will have a richer experience with your site when there is more content. Not only can they buy widgets you are selling, but they can also learn more about how to select widgets, exciting news from world of widgets, and so on.
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