Last week I was doing a search in Google under'ezine advertising' and was amazed to find one of myown websites on the first page of results (position #4out of 271,000).
So then I went to Yahoo and got another shock - there itwas again at position #4 out of 274,000 results.
If you're wondering how I did it, the answer is I'm notentirely sure.
But my guess is *link popularity*.
What is link popularity?
Some years ago the major search engines realized thatthe best way to decide if your website has valuablecontent (and is therefore worth a high ranking) is tosee how many other websites link to your site.
Link popularity was pioneered by Google but has nowbecome a key factor in the algorithms used by most ofthe major search engines.
Would you like to know your current link popularity?
Here's a free tool that will check your linkpopularity in Alltheweb, AltaVista, AOL, Google,HotBot and MSN. This tool will also compare your link popularity with your competitors':http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/
Now that you know your link popularity, you may bewondering how you can increase it.
Here are some commonly used strategies - someeffective and some not:
==> FFA Sites
Free For All sites are websites that collect youremail address (and send you a lot of junk email) and inreturn allow you to post a link on a website.
FFA sites are rather like a conveyor belt - new linksare constantly being added and old links being pushedoff. On Many FFA sites your link will last an hour ortwo at the most.
Even if your link stayed on an FFA site long enough to beindexed by a search engine, it is unlikely it would increaseyour link popularity. Search engines regard FFA sites asspam and they'll either ignore your link or penalize your site.
==> Link Exchange Programs
As with FFA sites, you need to ask yourself the samequestion the search engines ask.
Did someone link to your site because you have valuablecontent? Or did they link to your site as part of a mutual ployto artificially raise each other's link popularity?
The search engines know how to tell the difference andsome of them (Google for example) will actually banyour site for engaging in 'link farming'.
Another problem with this method is *link relevancy*. Ifthe sites linking to you have content that is notrelated to your content, the search engines will notgive much weight to those links.
==> Reciprocal Links with Individual Webmasters
This will definitely increase your link popularity,especially if you seek out link partners whosewebsites share the same theme as yours.
But this approach is time consuming - first you have tosurf around looking for potential link partners, then youhave to email them, then you have to confirm thatthey added your link and so on.
==> Writing Articles
This is the technique I use for increasing linkpopularity and it works very well.
Write short articles of 300 - 800 words and thensubmit them to the article announcement lists and theonline article banks.
There are thousands of webmasters out there who needfree content for their websites and you'll soon find your articlesappearing on dozens, even hundreds, of different websites.
At the bottom of your article is your Resource Boxcontaining a link to your website. It might looksomething like this:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------John Doe is the webmaster of yourdomain.com where heoffers cutting-edge tips on all aspects of web marketing.To find more advice, tools and resources to help yousucceed in online business, visit: http://www.yourdomain.com--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Most webmasters will make the URL in your Resource Boxan active link. If they don't, you should insist onit because it's part of the deal - they get freecontent for their website and you get a free link.
This technique has two important advantages overother methods of raising link popularity:
(1) You don't have to clutter up your website withreciprocal links
(2) You don't have to invest huge amounts of timesearching for link partners and then emailing them torequest a link. If they like your article, they justadd it to their website.
Happy writing!
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Michael Southon has been writing for the Internet for over 3
years. He has shown hundreds of webmasters how to use this
simple technique to build a successful online business. Click
here to find out more: http://ezine-writer.com/
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