Link Popularity - Your Key to a Page #1 Listing
Last week I was doing a search in Google under 'ezine
advertising' and was amazed to find one of my own websites on
the first page of results (position #4 out of 271,000).
So then I went to Yahoo and got another shock - there it was
again at position #4 out of 274,000 results.
If you're wondering how I did it, the answer is I'm not entirely
sure.
But my guess is *link popularity*.
What is link popularity?
Some years ago the major search engines realized that the best
way to decide if your website has valuable content (and is
therefore worth a high ranking) is to see how many other
websites link to your site.
Link popularity was pioneered by Google but has now become a key
factor in the algorithms used by most of the major search
engines.
Would you like to know your current link popularity?
Here's a free tool that will check your link popularity 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 be wondering how
you can increase it.
Here are some commonly used strategies - some effective and some
not:
==> FFA Sites
Free For All sites are websites that collect your email address
(and send you a lot of junk email) and in return allow you to
post a link on a website.
FFA sites are rather like a conveyor belt - new links are
constantly being added and old links being pushed off. On Many
FFA sites your link will last an hour or two at the most.
Even if your link stayed on an FFA site long enough to be
indexed by a search engine, it is unlikely it would increase
your link popularity. Search engines regard FFA sites as spam
and they'll either ignore your link or penalize your site.
==> Link Exchange Programs
As with FFA sites, you need to ask yourself the same question
the search engines ask.
Did someone link to your site because you have valuable content?
Or did they link to your site as part of a mutual ploy to
artificially raise each other's link popularity?
The search engines know how to tell the difference and some of
them (Google for example) will actually ban your site for
engaging in 'link farming'.
Another problem with this method is *link relevancy*. If the
sites linking to you have content that is not related to your
content, the search engines will not give much weight to those
links.
==> Reciprocal Links with Individual Webmasters
This will definitely increase your link popularity, especially
if you seek out link partners whose websites share the same
theme as yours.
But this approach is time consuming - first you have to surf
around looking for potential link partners, then you have to
email them, then you have to confirm that they added your link
and so on.
==> Writing Articles
This is the technique I use for increasing link popularity and
it works very well.
Write short articles of 300 - 800 words and then submit them to
the article announcement lists and the online article banks.
There are thousands of webmasters out there who need free
content for their websites and you'll soon find your articles
appearing on dozens, even hundreds, of different websites.
At the bottom of your article is your Resource Box containing a
link to your website. It might look something like this:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
--------- John Doe is the webmaster of yourdomain.com where he
offers cutting-edge tips on all aspects of web marketing. To
find more advice, tools and resources to help you succeed in
online business, visit: http://www.yourdomain.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------
Most webmasters will make the URL in your Resource Box an active
link. If they don't, you should insist on it because it's part
of the deal - they get free content for their website and you
get a free link.
This technique has two important advantages over other methods
of raising link popularity:
(1) You don't have to clutter up your website with reciprocal
links
(2) You don't have to invest huge amounts of time searching for
link partners and then emailing them to request a link. If they
like your article, they just add it to their website.
Happy writing!
(c) 2002 by Michael Southon