Link Popularity — Its Role and importance in getting top search engine rankings

November 3, 2009 at 4:30 am · Filed under Links Portal

Introduction

“Link Popularity” - these words may have caught your attention several times while you have been searching the Internet for tips on optimizing your website for top search engine rankings. Link popularity means popularizing a particular link of a website by increasing the number of websites that link to that site. Nowadays link popularity is being considered to be the most important step of the search engine optimization process. You cannot imagine getting good ranks in the top search engines especially Google without following an effective link popularity plan.

Link Popularity Basics

Google gives a lot of importance to the number of websites that link to a website. In order to get the number of websites that link to a site, just type in a domain name in this manner link:www.your-domain.com in the search box and the number that returns is the number of incoming links to your site. On the basis of the number of incoming links to a website along with various other factors, Google provides points within 1-10 to that website. These points or PageRank in the language of Google is like a measuring tool that helps the Internet surfers to know about the online popularity of that website. The PageRank of a website can be obtained from the PageRank Toolbar of Google which can be easily downloaded from the Google website. (http:/ oolbar.google.com/)

Link Popularity Methods

Link Popularity can be done through different methods like Reciprocal Link Exchange Programs among websites Posting messages of your websites on various message boards and guest books Publishing articles about your website or company in other websites.

1. Reciprocal Link Exchange Program

Definition -

Reciprocal Link Exchange Program is the most popular and commonly followed method for implementing the link popularity plan of a website and getting the desired results.

Reciprocal Link Exchange Program Steps -

A reciprocal link exchange program deals in exchanging of links with several websites. This program involves several steps that need to be followed which have been described below:

Step 1 -

Link exchange for a website is usually done with websites of the same industry as well as with the websites of other industries. For example, if your website is all about finance, you should be on the lookout for websites that deal in finance along with other websites that are not related to finance. So the first and foremost step is to find prospective link partners/websites that offer reciprocal link exchange programs. You can do this easily by typing in the industry related keywords (e.g. “personal finance”, “financial expert”) in the Google search box. And you can find out the websites offering link exchange out of the search results thus generated.

Step 2 -

Always try to exchange links with websites having Google PR (PageRank) of 4 or more. Here the PR 4 criteria is applicable for both index page as well as the links page of a website.

Step 3 -

You have to look for the link exchange details of each of the websites. The link exchange details lets you know how the website wants to its link to appear in your links page, where to send your link exchange details, etc. The details generally include the website’s link code, email address to send your information. Sometimes you may have to submit your link information through a form provided in the website.

Step 4 -

Now, create an html page containing the list of link partners that you have searched and saved so far. Name this html page as Resources/Partners/Links/Interesting Websites, etc. and provide a link to this links page in the index page of your website. Make sure that your links page is either 1 click or maximum of two clicks away from the index page otherwise prospective link partners may not be interested in reciprocating your link.

Step 5 -

Prepare the link code for your website that you would send or submit through a form to the prospective link partners. A sample link code is given below:

Search Engine Optimization - Offering search engine optimization services.

Always try to include potential keywords for your website in the link text that is the text between the anchor tag () as well as in the description provided against the link text. Always go for text links instead of banner ads because Google gives a lot of importance to the anchor text of the incoming links.

Lastly you have to submit these links pages to the search engines especially Google where your link has been placed by your link partners. (http://www.google.com/addurl.html)

2. Message Board Link Popularity Program -

Link popularity can also be pursued by posting your website link message to the message boards and guest books. In this method you have pay more attention towards the selection of message boards and guest books. Always select message boards and guest books that have a PageRank of 4 or more and have already been indexed by Google. It is also necessary to submit the URLS generated after posting messages to the search engines. For example, say www.online-message-board.com is one of the popular message boards where you want to post your website link. After posting your website link at www.online-message-board.com, the message board will generate a particular URL say www.online-message-board.com/your-website-link.html which contains the particular information about your site. Submit this URL in various search engines so as to boost the link popularity of your site.

3. Other Methods of Increasing Link Popularity -

You can also improve the link popularity of your site by publishing articles or write-ups regarding your company or website in other websites. And make sure you do not forget to include a link to your website in these articles or write-ups. In this way your link becomes visible to the search engine robots. Paid ads also help in your link popularity plan.

Conclusion

In this paper, we have tried to explain the link popularity basics along with various methods for pursuing the link popularity campaigns for your website. Being a vital parameter of your search engine optimization plan, you need to make a link popularity plan and follow it strictly so that your website finds place within the top 10 results of all the important search engines, especially Google.

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Everyone Wins With Reciprocal Link Exchange

September 23, 2008 at 6:24 pm · Filed under Links Portal

©2004 Sonya Gray

Many Webmasters are realizing the beauty of Search Engine Optimization (S.E.O) when utilizing a popular technique known as Reciprocal Link Exchange. When exchanging links with other site owners, Webmasters are capitalizing on S.E.O’s powerful effects.

The goal of most Webmasters is to generate as much traffic as possible in order to sell their products or promote their services. I have found, from personal experience, everyone who participates in exchanging links wins.

Plus, exchanging links is really easy to do. Here’s how:

Look for sites that have rich content that will be of interest to your site visitors and look for sites that are relevant to your site. One of the best search engines to look for content-rich, relevant links is Google.

For example, let’s say you began a marketing campaign to search for businesses to link to in Google under the keywords “work from home”. There are 13,300,000 sites that match the keyword combination “work from home” and are possible link exchange partners.

Carefully look for a way to submit your link to their site. Some sites provide the convenience of an online form that can be filled out to submit your link to their site.

Or, carefully look for contact info, i.e., an email address and email the Webmaster with:

Your URL Title of your site Description of your site Category you want your site listed under (e.g., Business Opportunities) URL where their link can be found Your email address

If the Webmaster agrees (many won’t, but some will), place a permanent link to their site somewhere on one of your pages and they will do the same for you.

Always go back to the site in a week or so where you submitted your link to insure that your link is listed and active on their site, i.e., you can click on your link and go to your website. It does no good if you are placing a link on their site, but they are not doing the same for you. I have found most Webmasters are pretty good about exchanging links and most will contact you via email when your link has been added. Some won’t. So it is a good idea to follow up and make sure your link is listed and active.

The goal is to link to as many content-rich, relevant sites as possible. The higher the search engine ranking of your site, the more likely Internet surfers, i.e., possible customers will check out your site, bringing with them repeat traffic and repeat sales.

When sites trade links, they both benefit by:

*Sharing a percentage of traffic directly.

*Getting noticed more favorably by the search engines.

Some link exchanges can send hundreds of visitors per day to your site, while others might send one or two a week. The latter is far more common, but even those are worthwhile as long as they are from content-rich, relevant sites.

Why?

More and more search engines are considering “link popularity” as a factor when they decide to rank pages in their search results.

In other words, if the search engines notice other quality sites linking to one of your pages, they will “like” that page better, all else being equal.

The presumption is that a link pointing to your page is like a vote of confidence in that page. More links equals more confidence. Even a few links can make a worthwhile difference in how well a page is ranked.

I have found the benefits are enormous. Consistent use of Reciprocal Link Exchange as a marketing strategy is highly recommended for driving more traffic to your website.

If done correctly, everyone wins with Reciprocal Link Exchange.

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