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Link Popularity explained and how to build links

Saturday, September 6th, 2008

Link popularity is the single most influential factor for determining how well a web site will perform in search engine rankings. A web site’s link popularity is computed from the number and more importantly, the quality of links pointing to a web site.
Link Popularity history

To gain a better understanding of link popularity it is useful to know why it became so crucial for search engine rankings. In the past a web page’s ranking was determined, amongst other factors, by the number of keyword occurences within ‘on-page’ elements i.e. in page text, META tags, title tag. When web developers learned that they could trick a search engine to return their web pages by cramming keywords into their pages the search engines had to get a bit smarter. They were using ‘on-page’ elements to determine relevance so it was only natural that they would look to elements out of direct control of the web page creator i.e. ‘off-page’ elements. Search engines made the assumption that the greater the number of links from other sites pointing to a web site, the more popular the web site is and therefore a more quality resource. This worked nicely in theory but in practice it was also to be abused.

Web site owners figured out many ways to get links pointing to their web sites one example of which was through the use of link farms, pages the contained nothing more than a collection of links, Quantity of links was being abused so the search engines made use of the old saying “quality not quantity” and began to assign a quality factor to each of the links pointing to a web site. Now web sites that had a higher number of high quality links were looked upon favourably by the search engines. Building link popularity became a science in itself and today is still the most time-consuming and frustrating activity for a search engine optimizer.
Main classes of links

Note: In the following examples SiteA is our web site and SiteB is an outside site (i.e. a web site under a different domain name than SiteA).

Inbound links:
Inbound links to a web site are links that originate from an outside web site . An example would be a link on SiteB pointing into a page on SiteA.

SiteA <—– SiteB

Outbound links:
Outbound links from a web site are links pointing to a page on an outside web site. An example would be a link on SiteA pointing out to a page on SiteB.

SiteA —–> SiteB

There are two further classifications of links:

Reciprocal links:
An example of a reciprocal link is when SiteA links to SiteB AND SiteB links to SiteA, the link is reciprocated by both parties.

SiteA —–> SiteB
AND
SiteA <—– SiteB

One-way links:
An example of a one-way link is when either SiteA links to SiteB OR SiteB links to SiteA, it is one-way only.

SiteA <—– SiteB
OR
SiteA —–> SiteB

To achieve a high link popularity the type of links to build are inbound one-way links. This simulates how natural links are created i.e. links that people create to point to your site because they found it worth linking to.

For outbound links it is natural to assume that they might decrease link popularity of a web site but this is not true. You do not give away your link popularity when you link to another site. They do not add to your link popularity though.

Reciprocal links can add to your link popularity if the web site that you exchange links with has a higher link popularity than your site. However they are not as powerful as inbound, one-way links as they are quite artificial in nature i.e. most probably created by communication between the owners of both sites.

How to build link popularity

So it is quite obvious that to help build up a nice link popularity many inbound, one-way links need to be created. This can be achieved in a number of different (and most importantly, legal) ways:

Directories:
Directories are categorized listings of links from around the web. Many, many directories exist and vary in their methods of getting your link posted on them. They provide a great source of quality inbound, one-way links. Getting listed in quality directories such as DMOZ or Yahoo can be more beneficial for your link popularity than a lot of links from smaller, newer directories.

Great site content:
The most powerful way to get inbound, one-way links is to have great site content that other web sites will want to link to. This allows you to get links from sites other than directories, which can definitely be better. The best thing about this is that it requires no communication on your part, it just happens naturally. If your site has poor content then others sites may not link, including the directories. Most of the top ranking web sites today got to the top because of great content. Writing interesting and informative articles for your web site is a good way of getting these kind of links.

Emailing web site owners:
If you come across a listing of links on a web site other than a directory e.g. a links page on a somebody’s personal web site, it can do no harm to write the web site owner a polite email requesting a link to your site from their page. They may request a reciprocal link in return but sometimes they do not and you can get a quality inbound, one-way link for your efforts. I have got many links in the past using this method. In my email I always ask them to visit my site first before making a decision to link and I personalise each email with a comment or two about their site.
Summary

The best and most effective way of increasing your search engine rankings is working to improve your web site’s link popularity. This can be achieved by getting as many inbound, one-way links as you can from quality sites such as directories. Other ways to get these links are having great content on your site and requesting a link to your site from other web sites.

Increasing link popularity is a time-consuming and sometimes frustrating process but is definitely worth the time and effort when you see a dramatic increase in traffic.

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Link Building Tips

Saturday, September 6th, 2008

Link building is an extremely important part of any online marketing campaign. Since page rankings with the major search engines are influenced by the number, as well as the quality of links that direct traffic to your website, knowing how to formulate and execute a link building campaign is imperative.

The first step in any link building campaign should be to make sure that links exist on sites that you already do business with. It is usually simple to get links in such places, and they will more than likely remain there for quite an extensive amount of time. When starting out, make sure to have links in the following places:

. Vendors and suppliers websites.
. Trade associations.
. The Chamber of Commerce.
. Friends’ websites.
. Customers’ websites.
. Trade groups and associations websites.

Once your links have been placed with the aforementioned sites, there are numerous other steps that can be taken to efficiently build links.

Directories and Verticals

If you are serious about your website, you will definitely want to have it listed in all of the major directories, and if your website is industry specific, being listed with an appropriate vertical that services your industry will be extremely valuable. Major directories to be listed in include:

. Yahoo
. GoGuides
. Joeant
. DMOZ
. Business

Some of these major directories charge a fee, while some are free of charge, but do take longer to list your link. If you need to find out if your industry is serviced by a vertical, a quick search on the Internet will provide you with the answer.

How to Obtain Links

There are a variety of places, as well as ways in which to obtain links. There always seems to be a difference of opinion among webmasters as to what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to link building. You will need to examine your specific needs, as well as what kind success you hope to have with your website in order to determine what will work for you. Some of the ways to obtain links are as follows:

. Unique Content-Having unique content on your site may draw webmasters who place a link to your site on theirs. This is often referred to as a “natural link.”
. Reciprocal Links-This is simple, you trade links with another website. This is usually only beneficial if both websites are targeting the same market, but are not in competition with one another. This is commonly referred to as “link trading.”
. Writing Articles-Getting articles published online that you write is a great way to build links, as it affords you the opportunity to place a link to your site within the text of the article. Hence, the more articles you write and get published, the more links you will be gaining.
. Message Boards and Blogs- Adding a link within the signature line of posts that you make to message boards and blogs is a good way to get free advertising and build links. However, be sure to only post on high quality sites, and only on those sites that pertain to the essence of your own websites’ content.

Another way to find places for your links is to simply search for them! There are virtually thousands of sites that will allow you to place a link for free, or for a very nominal charge. To find these sites, use any major search engine and type in any of the following search phrases:

. “submit a site”
. “submit your site”
. “submit a URL”
. “submit your URL”
. “list a site”
. “add a site”
. “add your site”
. “add a link”
. “add your link”

You will discover many different sites where you can add your link. Do a bit of research, and make sure that you are placing links on quality websites that are offer relevant, authoritative information.

Since there are so many different ways to build links, you are sure to find a way that works great for you, and that will raise the ranking of your website. Remember that it is the quality of links, and not necessarily the quantity of links that is important.

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Link Building Strategies That Work

Saturday, September 6th, 2008

There are a number of ideas about what are the best ways to promote a website and about the best ways to attract more visitors to a website. In my opinion, it is important to start up a link building campaign to increase the number of websites which have a link to your site on their site. This is one proven method which has been successful in achieving high rankings for many different sites, however there are some important factors to keep in mind when attempting to build up this link network.

If you have a new site and are desperate to achieve top rankings on the top search engines such as google, think again. Most of these search engines will probably not give your new site a high ranking until it has become established. This is where the age of the domain is important. You can not in reality expect to be placed in a higher search position than a site which has been around for eight years and which has been building up links, during this period. This is where patience is required, you should see your site as something which is going to be online for a long time and hopefully in time, some of the other sites that you are competing with will have dropped out etc.

This is the same attitude that should be applied when building up the number of backward links pointing to your site. Going from only a few, to a few thousand in a short space of time may not be the best idea. Regular increases are in my opinion the way to go and quality is just as important as quantity. Decide the ways in which you are planning to obtain your backward links and try to ensure that you obtain roughly the same amount each month, where possible of course. Over a long period of time this strategy is sure to pay dividends and your search engine position should steadily improve. You will then have an authority site, which all new sites will be aspiring to compete with. Like many areas of life we do not really want to wait for our success and want immediate rewards, such as high rankings. On some search engines this may be possible but on most it will require hard work and this type of patience.

The links that you obtain should where possible be from sites which are in a similar industry or subject matter, to your own site. This is a lot easier said than done however. If your site is very well written, optimised and of use to a large number of people, you may well receive links on other sites without the need to request the link. This is of course exactly what you want and is why it is important to spend time thinking of how your site is written and presented.

A good way of obtaining a link to your site is to write a reference or testimonial to owners of other sites with which you have had dealings with. Offer to write them this testimonial which of course will be of great benefit to them, on the understanding that they will include a link back to your site at the bottom.

I personally concentrate on obtaining one-way links as I believe these to have the most value. One way I do this is by writing articles such as the one you are reading. There are a great number of benefits of writing articles which can be read at most of the article directories such as ezinearticles. I would certainly recommend it to other people who are thinking of starting up a link building campaign.

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The benefits of SEO in link building

Saturday, September 6th, 2008

The benefits of SEO in link building
Let me tell your story on your behalf. I am a Webmaster who is building links for the benefits. I know that there are thousands like me. Exactly what are the benefits one is looking for thru link building? Those are detailed below.

. Rushing Traffic to one’s own Website: Lots of visitors should be coming in. A theme that links one with the other enriching the visitor also enriches the link partners with business. Somebody comes to a website away from you. The reciprocal links come to work and can bring the visitor to your website. The more your linkages are, the better your visibility will be.
. Your website will go up in ranking: The keywords and the number of links are essential for the search engine to reach your website through direct or reciprocal links. So it is beneficial to get linked to websites with similar themes.

. Rich content of Your Website: What is rich content? It is the ability to enrich the visitor with information, new looks out and improved vision. It is quite possible that you and not provide all to most of the visitors. So what to be done? One has to be cementing with other like minded websites with clever positioning. One should take a stand from where the visitor knows exactly about what he/she is looking for. Some visitors may be lost after ending up at your website, so it is better to help them out into safety with better knowledge dissemination while traveling out of the site.

. The more linking one does; the more credible one becomes: When you place a link with others, others put a reciprocal link to you. In that process, the reader realizes that your are referred by a number of sites and hence the credibility of your site goes up. Don’t think that you are the only one with good source to everybody. By becoming one out of so many, you become important. Web traffic is of course important, but your image also builds up in the process.

. Be reachable to all in the Internet Community: Link building is free advertising the website. With every link you reach a section of web audience. When you reach, you are traversing a path that it is traffic which people follow to reach you. When people with similar interests interact through and because of you, you are considered to be a serious component of the community which increases credibility.

. Website affiliation : the other road towards link building : Without your initiation, there will be some websites that will link up to you, which means that some traffic will end up at your doorstep, which gives an illusion of an affiliation to another website. It results in increasing credibility and visibility and you will be better recognized.

Your site can be submitted to relevant directories that take link building started. It should be done as early as possible. Time is money and you can immediately start benefiting as soon as you get underway.

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Tips for successfull link building

Saturday, September 6th, 2008

One of the most important aspects of your website is the building of links
with other sites. Not only does this gain you additional traffic, but more
importantly, it enables you to build a better and more relevant placement
with the search engines.

The easiest way to build such links is to maximize the usage from your
content. New articles and features are what keep your audience coming back
and keep Google happy. Have you considered leveraging these things to create
even more traffic? Why, you ask, after spending hours researching yourself
or paying others to do so, would you want to share your hard work? Easy
answer. It works.

New and exciting content is what attracts visitors and pushes the sale; it
lures visitors away from other sites and diverts traffic onto yours. When
someone reads an interesting and helpful article, whether it’s in an email
or a website, they are drawn to your business. Consumers feel that if you’re
letting other people distribute this information for free, then what you
charge for must phenomenal.

There are two easy ways to go about this. Article directory sites such as
goarticles.com or ezinearticles.com, operate on the idea of letting people
share content in exchange for recognition. Websites or newsletters looking
for content republish your article and reimburse you with credit for both
you and the main directory. They get interesting content for free; you get
the potential for a highly targeted influx of traffic. There is a more or
less free license to use the articles as long as the source is quoted and
the main site is linked. These systems, however, are not without their
flaws.

The majority of the content listed is of inferior quality. People looking
for original and helpful articles shun these sites as they often contain
poorly written, unoriginal and frequently plagiarized content. Your article
could be used by anyone, possibly sites you would prefer to have no
affiliation with, even your competitors. Search engines sometimes penalize
you on the quality of your incoming links. If a Google thinks a site is of
poor quality and has a low ranking, the site, if it links to you, can
negatively impact your own ranking.

A second, and preferable method of building links to other sites is to
locate websites that have a similar base audience, preferably a site with
the same content base, but different goals. Look for sites you know have
traffic that will be interested in your article. They get free content for
their viewers; you get credit and yet another link back to your own site.
Everybody wins. Find these sites to partner with. Grow together.

This is easily one of the best methods utilized by those who with to grow
their site. There is no quick and easy way to build both your search ranking
and your traffic. Any methods that make such lofty promises are usually of
little value in the long run, and any traffic thereby generated is often
worthless. Some tactics promising quick results can get you banned from
search engines. Play it right. Slowly add worthwhile content to your own
site and look for others to partner with.

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