Link Popularity

Link Popularity Means More Traffic

The first place that a potential customer goes to find a product or service on the internet is a search engine. The higher you are listed in a search engine the better the possibility of your site being found. If the potential customers do not find you in their search, chances are that they will not visit your site and as a result you will not have an opportunity at making a sale with the prospect.

What has this all got to do with link popularity? Well, link popularity refers to the ranking assigned to your website by the search engines. It determines the ranking your page gets when keywords are entered into a search engine by a potential customer when looking for a product or service.

There are a few things you should be aware of and guard against in your quest for link popularity. These can be summed up in two words: Quantity and Quality. You will not achieve link popularity just by linking up with a large number of other websites. In fact, it may work against you. There are web sites that are known as "link farms" containing line after line of indiscriminate links. Search engines will discriminate against your website if you are associated with a link farm, so steer clear of them!

The quality of the site you are linking to is also super important. So be sure to check out the site you are linking to before you commit to linking. If you have any reservation about your visitors seeing that you are linking to a site that is indiscriminate and cheap, forget about it. Linking to sites of poor quality will only lessen your link popularity, if not completely destroy it.

Here are some things you need to do to achieve link popularity and improve your rankings on the popular search engines.

The fastest way to get your foot in the door is to get a listing on some popular directories. You can do this manually or with the aid of software. There are several excellent software products on the market and when you consider the cost versus the time, you can decide which course is best for you.

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 be expanded. You want to avoid your competitors and look for sites that are useful to your site's visitors. For instance, if you are selling life insurance, someone selling health insurance would be a good link choice. By linking to a related site that will be relevant to your website's traffic, you are increasing both of your site's business prospects - and both of your sites' link popularity.

Remember, your criteria are quality, highly ranked, non-competing websites that have a links or resources page. Go to these sites and objectively assess them. Look at the quality of the product, the graphics, and the ease of use. Then check out the other sites they are linked to, and determine if your own site would fit in with this crowd. Again you can do this manually, or with a software program.

It is a lot of hard work and other than the software programs to assist you there are no shortcuts to achieve link popularity. So be prepared for a long journey to the top. This is one of those areas where patience, commitment, and persistence pay off. Good Luck!

P.S.: You want to be sure to have an attractive and interesting site or you will never persuade anyone to link up to you.""

About the Author
Donald N. Lombardi, United States donlombardi@cox.net
More Details about Link Popularity at www.homebasedbusinesswizard.com

How to Increase Your Link Popularity for Free

By now most website owners know why it is so important to increase their site's link popularity. From an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) standpoint, there are few things that you can do that will be more effective than link building for your search index rankings. And fortunately this is one area that you can work on which is still largely free of charge. The rewards are substantial: by increasing your site's link popularity you will be increasing it's Google Pagerank (PR) while helping it to climb in the rankings. The first method of building links to your site is from traditional link-swapping. This is easy; you simply find another (similiar but non-competing) website that you would like to trade links with. Link to them first, then email them and ask for a link in return. Do not overdo this, however. Nowadays your reciprical links should probably not exceed a quarter of your total incoming links, according to some experts. The rest of your incoming links should be one-way backlinks. A tried and true way to obtain such one-way links for free is to write an article about something that you are knowledgeable about, preferably something related to the theme of your website, and submit that article to the article directories and other publishers. The key benefit here is the viral marketing aspect; one article can potentially produce many backlinks to your website. When you submit your article, you may also submit a 'resource box' (also sometimes referred to as a byline or just resource area) where you can insert a link to whatever site or sites you choose. The directory informs webmasters that they may use your article on their site or newsletter in return for including your resource box. A well written article may be reprinted many times. This is viral marketing at it's best, in my opinion. Another reliable way to obtain free inbound, one way links is by submitting your site to directories. Most directories are human edited and require you to find a suitable category before submitting. Start with the high quality directories such as the Open Directory Project, or the DMOZ, then find the niche directories which pertain to your website. Next submit to some of the smaller directories. There are many to choose from which do not require either payment or a reciprical link. A great way to obtain additional free links to your site is to post to forums. Do not post your website URL directly, however. This will get you banned from that particular forum. Instead, insert your URL into the signature line. Then when you comment naturally in the forum your website will appear automatically. This method is completely accepted. In my opinion, this is one of the best ways to obtain a lot of links. You can literally secure hundreds of links this way over time. But only post if you have something truly relevant to say.

About the Author
Aaron W., Kapaa, Hi, US
More Details about search engine optimization at www.julek.org
Aaron W. is the webmaster of Aarons Freebies Directory http://www.aaronsfreebies.com/ and editor of The Freebie Update Newsletter. To subscribe, mail webmaster@aaronsfreebies.com with 'Subscribe' in the Subject line

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