In search engine optimization, “off page” factors have
become more and more important as they relate to rankings. In particular, solid
link popularity can literally make or break a site with the search engines.
Before we go any further, what is “link popularity”?
In very simplistic terms, link popularity refers to the number and quality of
the incoming links that are pointing to your site. These other sites consider
your site important enough to link to. So, in the engine’s view, your site
is considered important as well. What is meant by “link popularity”
can get much more complex, which is discussed further in this article.
However, one of the most difficult areas of SEO is building link
popularity. Why? Because the engines don’t want “artificially
created” (or useless) links, so there are no easy ways to build link
popularity. The days of link farms and huge link exchange programs are over.
Try those strategies now and you can easily find yourself booted out of an
engine.
Rather, the engines want links from authoritative sites, or
links from sites that share the same focus as your site.
But besides the link popularity you gain by getting an
authoritative site to link to you, you also gain additional visibility for your
Web site. So, when working on building link popularity, don’t forget those
two basic reasons for requesting links.
The Purpose of this Article
Because building link popularity is one of the most difficult
and time consuming aspects of search engine marketing, we decided to join
forces with each other and with other search engine optimizers to create a list
of legitimate ways you can build link popularity for your site.
When looking through this list, you may find strategies that are
subject to abuse. If you use them as recommended in this article, you will have
no problems. Abuse them, and you’re treading in potentially dangerous
waters.
Stephen Baker with Fast said one of the most memorable
statements I’ve heard as it relates to what the engines like or don’t
like to see. He said:
“Our position is pretty straight forward...it's
not the technique that we are concerned about, it's the intention.”
So, always keep that statement in mind when you consider linking
or any other strategies for your Web site. Analyze your intentions, and if you
wouldn’t mind an engine knowing what you’re doing, your intentions
are okay.
Now that we’ve gotten the preliminaries out of the way,
let's get down to business: learning ways to increase the link popularity of
our sites. To write this article, we went to professional search engine
optimizers for their ideas. After each strategy, we briefly attributed it to
the SEO who sent it to us, and then we provided a list of all contributors
along with their companies and URL’s at the end of the article.
Keep in mind that these strategies aren’t in any particular
order. Also, keep in mind that though it isn’t always stated explicitly,
we’re always referring to “related” and “important” or
“authoritative” sites as our targets.
Start with the Basics:
Before you begin link seeking, you might want to read the
article, “A Linking-Campaign Primer”:
http://www.ericward.com/articles/primer.html.
(Eric Ward, President, NetPOST and
URLwire)
This is by far the oldest and best-known method of improving
link popularity. Basically you e-mail or contact the Webmaster of a site that
is complementary but generally not competitive to your own. You ask them to
link to your site while outlining the benefits of doing so. You would generally
offer to link back to them in exchange for this courtesy. Be sure you have
developed genuine content on your Web site of interest to the trading partner.
Explain the advantages to them and to their visitors by providing a link to
your content. Tell them where the link on your site will be or set the link up
in advance with the stipulation that you'll be glad to leave it there if
they'll add a link to you in kind. Take the time to look over their site and
then suggest where a link to you might be appropriate. Most importantly,
personalize your e-mails! You must distinguish yourself from all the spam they
receive daily. If the link is particularly important to you, call them
personally or write them a letter or send a fax to show them you're serious.
(Brent Winters)
Here's the simple means to find those good links. Go to the
major search engines. Search for your target keywords. Look at the pages that
appear in the top results. Now visit those pages and ask the site owners if
they will link to you. Not everyone will, especially sites that are extremely
competitive with you. However, there will be non-competitive sites that will
link to you -- especially if you offer to link back. Why is this system good?
By searching for your target keywords, you'll find the pages that the search
engines themselves are telling you are good, as evidenced by the fact that they
rank well. Hence, links from these pages are more important -- and important
for the terms you are interested in -- than links from other pages. (Danny
Sullivan with Search Engine
Watch)
When asking for a link:
- ALWAYS have a link already put on your own site BEFORE you
ask for a link in return and give the location of the link. It's harder to say
no if you can provide the URL of where their link is.
- ALWAYS give them the exact link text to use, even going so
far as to put it in HTML so they can just cut/paste it onto their page.
- MAKE SURE they actually have a links page!
- GIVE THEM as much information as needed in order to make it
easy for them to link to you. If they have a big site that's divided into
sections, give them the exact URL of where your site would fit in. Then,
provide the HTML for the link to your site. (Robin Nobles of
Search Engine Workshops,
Online Search Engine Marketing
Courses.
Use voice instead of e-mail to reciprocate and try contacting
people by voice instead of e-mail. More people are inclined to respond to your
request when you introduce yourself by phone and let them know that you were
visiting their site. Ask permission to link to their site. In return, you might
state that a link back is appreciated but not required. Assuming they say yes,
then you simply link up to them and confirm by e-mail once you have confirmed.
Warm personal voice contact goes a lot further than a cold e-mail or even a
warm e-mail letter. (John Alexander with
Search Engine Workshops.
Pre-qualify the people you solicit for reciprocal links. They
must have links from other sites like yours, and they must have the ability to
make changes to their own site. If they don’t respond to your
solicitation, at most send ONE second request. Otherwise move on and take their
site off of yours. Send a thank you note if they give you a reciprocal link.
(Gary Woods with Beautiful
Santa Barbara Real Estate)
Search for sites that rank high for search terms that are
important to you, then look through the search results for sites that do not
compete with you. These sites should be high on your list of link targets.
Piggy back on their high ranking. (Eric Ward, President, NetPOST and URLwire)
Check the link popularity of your competitors, and find out who
are linking to them. Contact those Web sites, and ask them to link to you in
return for a reciprocal link. (Robin Nobles of
Search Engine Workshops,
Online Search Engine Marketing
Courses, and the TNT-Guides for
Successful Web Sites.
Search the sites of the people who have linked to you for other
possible link partners. (Gary Woods with
Beautiful Santa Barbara Real
Estate)
Find URLs that are currently linking to one or more of your
pages and ask the appropriate Webmaster if they might also find value in other
pages on your site (that you might suggest). (Mike Adams, the
Email Doctor)
Manually search for Web sites that have the same theme as your
Web site. When requesting a link, make sure to highlight what your site has to
offer their visitors and why they should link to it. A compelling case will
increase your success. (Becky Thompson with
Inter@ctivate Inc.)
Review any Web site to which you want to link *before* writing
to its Webmaster asking for a link. Like all SEO, do it manually. Automating
the task is asking for trouble, especially if you haven't reviewed the site
before asking for the link. (Gil Sery with
Search Engine
Optimization Pros)
If someone says they can not or do not wish to link to your
site, I would still ask their permission to link to them. Instead of sending
them a confirmation, try sending them a pleasant thank you for permission to
link to their Web site. Don’t be surprised if they DO link back. (John
Alexander with Search Engine
Workshops, TNT-Guides for Successful Web
Sites, and Beyond-SEO .
If you've moved your site and you're asking those who have
linked to you to change to your new URL, give them as much information as
possible. I have over 300 pages on my personal site, but I still have people
who will write and tell me to change their link to:
http://www.mynewwebsite.com. Yet, they don't tell me their old URL (so I can
easily do a search), and they don't tell me which of those 300 pages their link
exists on. Do I have the time to dig through those 300 pages to find their old
link? (Robin Nobles of Search
Engine Workshops, Online Search
Engine Marketing Courses, and the TNT-Guides for Successful Web
Sites.
Sample Link Exchange Letter
Be very clear with your request for reciprocal linking. After
you have thoroughly researched a potential site to ensure they are appropriate
and actually do have links to other sites, consider the following:
- Start with a very brief description of your site's content
and how it relates to their site.
- Provide the exact URL of their page you think the link would
be most beneficial. Show them that you've actually visited the site and given
some thought to the link.
- Finally, give the HTML code for the link so the Webmaster can
cut and paste it directly into his page code. That gives you some control over
the link placement and lets you include your keywords into the link text.
(Terry Plank with Search Engine
Marketing Consultants)
Take care in crafting your reciprocal links letter. Make sure
it's the best it can be before sending it out. Remember, you're asking for a
favor (a mutually beneficial favor, but a favor nonetheless), so be polite and
respectful in your letter. Otherwise, you'll get nowhere fast. (Gil Sery
with Search Engine
Optimization Pros)
Create a “Link Exchange Letter,” requesting a link
exchange with your site, to each of the sites you have noted in your list. Make
sure you’ve come up with at least 50 good quality content, non-competitive
sites with a decent PageRank score of their own to e-mail. (Chris Genge with
1st on the List Promotion
Inc.)
Example of a Link Exchange Letter from Eric Ward:
Hi <name>, my name is Eric Ward.
Regarding your AdoptionSolutions.com site at
http://www.adoptionsolutions.com/
This month I'm helping the Hallmark Channel (cable TV) announce
their new Web site about adoption. The site is the companion site for their
real-life TV series "Adoption Stories," which premiers this month (June).
Details about the site are below. Please feel free to feature or
link to this new content in any way you feel appropriate.
By chance is your adoption news section at
http://www.adoptionsolutions.com/general/adopt_topics.htm
a good fit for it?
Also, if you have any questions or need anything feel free to
contact me at eric@ericward.com or (865) 637-2438.
I'm a real person, not a link request bot :) :)
Best wishes,
Eric Ward
on behalf of The Hallmark Channel
Hallmark
Channel Site Announcement
----------------------------------
Hallmark
Channel Adoption Stories
http://www.hallmarkchannel.com/adoption/
Launched in conjunction with this month's premier of the
original series about adoption on The Hallmark cable TV Channel. The Web
version of Hallmark Channel's series about adoption seeks user input to help
end the myths surrounding the adoption process. Share your experiences of an
adoption and help others understand the process, the pitfalls and the rewards.
Every week, follow the stories of real people as they seek to enrich their
lives and fulfill their dreams through adoption. Go online and you can help end
the myths surrounding the adoption process.
(End of sample letter)
The above example is for a non-reciprocal link request, and it
resulted in a link being obtained for my client. It could be changed easily to
make it a reciprocal link request by adding one sentence that says where you
gave them a link. (Eric Ward, President, NetPOST and URLwire)
What Should you Put on Link
Pages?
Create a link page on your Web site that gives other Web sites
permission to link to yours. Make it very easy for them to include you by
providing cut and paste HTML code. Incorporate your keyphrases into the linking
code. Create small banners or buttons for this purpose as well. (Nancy
Nelson with Search by
Design)
Put a description under each link on your links page. You don't
want the search engines thinking of you as a link farm. (Gil Sery with
Search Engine
Optimization Pros)
Complete Linking Strategies:
Complete Strategy #1:
Here is my list, in order of tactical importance:
- First, build a content rich site, narrow in scope [say half a
dozen high potential keywords, with a smattering of lessor important but still
related kw's].
- Then, contact other sites that have the same scope as yours
does, and ask for a reciprocal link [after you have already linked to them, of
course!]. If you build a site that is content rich, informative, and above all
else has unique content, then all your peers will beat a path to your
door, asking you for a link!
- Get your site listed at Yahoo [yes, it does force you to yank
out your wallet, but it IS one of the best links you can get]. Do the research
necessary to find the most appropriate category [which is where the Link
Relevancy comes from], and get that title and description optimized!
- Get into the ODP. Do the same research as you did at Yahoo
for the best category.
- Find out which of the thousands of specialty SE's and
directories that your site is a good fit for, and submit to them.
- After you are done with 1 - 5, build another content rich
site, and on this one, concentrate on your next batch of kw's. Cross link the
home pages. Repeat.
- Even though blogging is all the rage these days, I think it
will go the way of link farms in the not-too-distant future, especially if/when
the SE's determine that it is just another case of spamming. We are staying
away from it, and concentrating on the 6 tactics above.
- Of much less importance is cross linking within each
of your individual sites. I have gotten away from heavy cross linking, relying
instead on good site maps [which addresses spiderability, not link pop].
(Rocky Rawstern with 7th
Wave)
Complete Strategy #2:
Like Links:
- Step 1: Identify useful linkages. If you're a Web developer,
break your clients (or willing contacts from the industry) into relevant linked
groups: e.g. realtors, travel and tourism, technology companies.
- Step 2: category-page.html. Build a link list for each group
(one for realtors, one for travel and tourism, etc.), plain html, listing a
keyword-relevant title for each description which links to the site for each
client, with one or two paragraphs about the site. Example:
"Travel accommodations and resorts in Australia"
Save this page as say, travel-sites.html, and perhaps to
remember where it lives easily, and make it easily updateable, save it in a
directory like www.yourclientsite.com/accommodations/travel-sites.html
- Step 3: Make each of the pages different within each site.
Now apply your site template for each site in the list, to that
raw html page, (in other words cut and paste the list into a blank version of
one of your existing pages for each site and save it as
/accommodations/travel-sites.html) so that you have different look, feel and
byte size, for each of the pages built, in line with the look of each site.
This will stop most SE's viewing pages as duplicate content when in fact what
you're validly doing is provided useful related links to other resources on the
Web.
- Step 4: Make a site-map.html. Build a site map within every
site in the above list, if you haven't already. In each site, have the site map
linking to every internal page, set out like the one above, with at least a one
paragraph description of what is on the page, with relevant keywords, which is
also useful to humans. Hyperlink the main keyword/phrase to the pages within
your site. Also include a link to the above link page
(/accommodations/travel-sites.html) which lists all the other related sites.
Save the site map as something like site-map.html.
- Step 5: Make a link to the site map from each home page.
On your home (index/default) page include a link to the
site-map.html page.
- Step 6: Submit to search engines. Submit your home page to
major SE's if it hasn't been submitted in a while. So now you have a link to a
site map on your home page, with that site map listing one paragraph
descriptions and hyperlinks to all the pages in your site, including your new
accommodations/travel-sites.html (which now looks just like the rest of your
pages in the site).
This simple 6-step process is a popularity and relevancy boost
for ALL the sites you have on the travel-sites.html list. Firstly, from the
home page on each site, SE spiders and humans now have access to relevant
descriptive links to all pages in your site and other related sites. They have
the addition of some useful "related resource" information within the site
content using the travel-sites.html page. And most importantly, they have "x"
more relevant sites as incoming links. If all the sites are full of valid and
unique topic-related content, you've built a nice little interlinked network of
sites for very little effort. And with a resubmission to the major SE's of this
new content, you should see some increased results within 3 months when
checking link relevancy. (Carl Watney with
Unearthed)
Complete Strategy #3:
Begin a Link Exchange Campaign to create high quality content,
high PageRank links to your site by utilizing the following steps, in order:
1. Create a links or resources page on your site
2. Establish a list of at least 50 related but non-competing,
high quality content sites with a high Google PageRank that you would like to
exchange links with by doing the following:
- Download Google toolbar (http://toolbar.google.com) to be able to
establish PageRank grading for the sites that come up in the following search
results
- Do searches on Google for:
- terms that will show search results displaying sites that
relate to your own site, but are not direct competitors
Check out these sites, one by one, beginning with the ones
listed first in the search results, for quality content, non-competitiveness,
and Web master’s e-mail address, and note down in a list the sites that
meet these criterion, recording as well the site’s title and description
from the homepage source code
- terms that will show search results displaying sites that
directly compete with your own site
- terms that will show search results displaying sites that
directly compete with your own site
Beginning with the ones listed first in the Google search
results, check out each site with a linking tool (e.g. of tool, go to
http://chatologica.com.) Click on Web Site
Popularity Check at the bottom of the page to establish what sites link to
theirs, and make a list of these linking sites. Then check out each of
these sites that are linked to your direct competitor for quality
content, non-competitiveness, and Web master’s e-mail address, and note
down on the same list you began in b., the sites that meet these criterion,
recording as well the site’s title and description from the homepage
source code. (Chris Genge with 1st
on the List Promotion Inc.)
Who Should You Target?
Inktomi's link analysis program policy is that sites that link
to its relevant topic category page on Yahoo! receive improved hub factor
rankings because of Yahoo!'s popularity. A reciprocal link with Yahoo! is even
more beneficial. Get your site listed with Yahoo!; it is easier today than
before with the Business Express option. (Detlev Johnson with
The Ascendant Group)
While you're at it, link back to the search engines. Does it
help? I don't know. But what if it does? What if the search engines check if
your site leads back to them? What if they give 1% boost if you do? Would 1%
matter if everyone else had 99% relevancy and you got an extra 1%? Hmmm,
something to ponder. I always link every important site back to the major
search engines and directories as a little thank you gesture. (Michael
Campbell with Internet
Marketing Secrets)
Get a link in an appropriate category from an About.com
Guidesite. The popularity of About and the extent of their quality links
positions the network as a mandatory stop in a marketing campaign. Also, make
sure to thoroughly annotate links on your Web site with targeted keyword
phrases. This will aid Google and other engines in their partial indexing.
(Marshall Simmonds of About.com)
Your homepage is not the only part of your site that you can get
links for. If you offer an online newsletter, there are directories just for
newsletters you can get links from. If your site has multimedia files, there
are multimedia search engines you can submit to. If you have other files, like
.pdf files or even image files, there are search engines you can get links
from. (Eric Ward, President, NetPOST and URLwire)
Go to Google and search for "submit a link" AND "put your
keyword phrase here." You'll be shown a list of sites that have link pages on
them in your keyword area, and some of them may be worth writing to. "Submit a
URL," "add a URL," etc., will work too. (Elbert Flores of
Position Research)
Think in terms of related fields as opposed to actual
competition. Are there any organizations or associations connected with your
industry? What about educational establishments? Publications? News sites?
(Robin Nobles of Search
Engine Workshops, Online Search
Engine Marketing Courses, and the TNT-Guides for Successful Web
Sites.
How many links do you need pointing to your site? More than your
competition. :) (Stephen Mahaney of Planet Ocean)
Find as many themed directories to submit to as possible. Make
sure the directory is already in Google, has a good PR, and doesn’t use
dynamic script in the address. Think about your theme. If you are a marketing
firm, look for marketing directories/hubs/portals/vortals, do the same for
business to business or b2b. If you are niched or focused on one aspect of
marketing, then also look to that for your directories. You can probably
stretch it to advertising directories. Be creative but stick with your theme.
Once you are listed, it’s good to have a page on your site that you use to
feed the spiders: a “Where we can be found on the Web” page. Link
directly to the page you can be found on. (Debra Paynter with
Promotion Strategies)
Ask your upstream or downstream suppliers to link to you and you
to them. If you are a wholesaler, you don't sell to the public, only to
retailers. List your top 10 retailers as a reward to them. Same with retailers,
link to your main wholesalers, unless they have to remain a secret for some
reason. Advertising agencies and printing shops can link to their customers and
vice versa. (Michael Campbell with
Internet Marketing
Secrets)
Paying for a link at Overture.com (formerly GoTo.com) that is
not in the top five in the search results is, in most cases, a waste. Results
of six and lower are not made available to the Overture partner sites, which
collectively have millions more users than Overture does alone. Like AOL, for
example. If the cost increase is just a few cents, get in the top five, and
your site could be found across all of Overture's partner sites rather than
only at Overture.com. (Eric Ward, President, NetPOST and URLwire)
Download Google's Toolbar (http://toolbar.google.com) to ensure that
inbound links are from decent sites, with a minimum of 3 out of 10 on the
toolbar. (Dixon Jones with Receptional)
Link quality simply means how well positioned are the pages
that link to you. There are also boosts and penalties involved. If you are
linked to by a spammy link farm, you get a penalty. If you are linked to by a
directory like Yahoo, LookSmart, or Dmoz you get a boost. What about the
hundreds of free directories? Yes, they all help. In my Vault, I list about 80
search resources. Dozens of them are directories. Take a few days and MANUALLY
submit your site to every directory that will take it. I was surprised to find
several directories for my own city. Regional directories can often supply
plenty of incoming links. Every relevant link helps. (Michael Campbell with
Internet Marketing
Secrets)
Go after authoritative sites. Look for vertical engines and
directories in your topic areas. Look for popular sites. One or two
authoritative sites linking back to you will do you more good than 1,000
irrelevant links. Visit Search
Engine Guide and Beaucoup for a
listing of vertical engines and directories. (Robin Nobles of
Search Engine Workshops,
Online Search Engine Marketing
Courses, and the TNT-Guides for
Successful Web Sites.
Work on building rapport with other Webmasters. By building up a
“working rapport” with other local Webmasters or affiliates, there
are lots of ways that you can mutually benefit by trading links with several
similarly themed sites, which are non-competing. Once you start working with
other Webmasters, it's surprising what synergies may develop. Remember to give
your very best to your fellow Webmasters as these relationships are win/win.
(John Alexander with Search
Engine Workshops, TNT-Guides for
Successful Web Sites, and Beyond-SEO .
I am not a fan of reciprocal links unless they are
complimentary. Portals and directories will naturally work better. My logic
with outbound links is, “You have already lost the client for today,
Dixon, so get a better product tomorrow.”) (Dixon Jones with
Receptional)
Become a Content Provider:
The bottom line is the easiest most obvious answer. It's also
the toughest to do. Give people a reason to link to you. Think about it. Sites
get linked to for a reason: usually if they provide the most information or the
best resources on a particular topic. Is there any reason WHY people should
link to your site? How is your content? Even if you are not a writer, ask the
writers if you can use their stuff. The answer is usually yes. The writer gets
a link from you. And you get great content. Now people will start linking to
you. (Michael Campbell with
Internet Marketing
Secrets)
We all want to get on the top ranking sites listed in Google
with few, if any outbound links. But what if they don’t have a links
program in place? Here’s one way to get yourself linked from these choice
sites. The top sites in a keyword category often don’t have a links
program, but they do have an e-zine or content library on their site. So...
Write a 300-500 word article on a topic of real interest to their target market
and submit it to the Webmaster, as well as to other e-zines reaching the same
target audience. Include in your article sig file (or credit box) your site
link and an enticing description. In other words, give the site owner something
they can use that delivers real value to their constituents. By providing them
with an asset, you’re reaching them in a new way that goes beyond a simple
link request. A couple of notes:
- Don’t market in your article. Deliver real value
instead.
- Before writing anything, subscribe to their e-zine first or
go through their site content. Fill any gap you see - create something new that
they don’t already have on file
- Market in your sig file only – and be sure to include
your full site URL! (Scott Smith)
Become an "expert" in your particular field and write related
articles. Market those articles to online content providers. Be sure to include
your byline at the end of your article, including your name, company name, and
URL's, and make sure to use appropriate keyword-containing link text. Visit
this URL for a list of places that accept articles:
http://www.coachmaria.com/articles/articlebanks.html
(Robin Nobles of Search
Engine Workshops, Online Search
Engine Marketing Courses.
I am hopeful that http://www.marketing-strategy.info
is a good idea for link building – giving up “brand” in favor of
white labeling. How does white labeling work? If you have a good product or
content but a weak brand, then why not give up the brand altogether and
concentrate on your content? Focus on why a human would follow the link that
the other site has made for you – a compelling reason. That will usually
come down to superior content. MarketLeap.com allows you to “brand”
their stuff with your logo, but it involves a link to do it. (Dixon Jones
with Receptional)
Write a testimonial for a product or service that you
particularly like in your topic area. Many companies will put testimonials
throughout their site, with links back to the company providing the
testimonial. (Robin Nobles of Search Engine Workshops,
Online Search Engine Marketing
Courses, and the TNT-Guides for
Successful Web Sites.
A very effective strategy to gain quality links as well as
traffic is to license content from your site for free in exchange for a link
back to you. For example, we encourage anyone to post individual articles or
the entire MarketPosition newsletter on their own Web sites so long as they
properly credit us for the material and link back to
http://www.webposition.com/
or http://www.marketposition.com/.
(Brent Winters of First Place
Software)
If you're asking someone for a testimonial, tell the Webmaster
to whom you're writing that you're willing to put a link to their site under
their testimonial if they're willing to reciprocate. That way, everyone wins.
Actually you win twice! First, because you have a good testimonial for your
product/service and second, you've increased your link popularity -- all with
one link! Make sure that the link under the testimonial opens in a new browser
window so that you don't lose that visitor to the linked site. (Gil Sery
with Search Engine
Optimization Pros)
Create teaser articles. See if you can get the first third of
the article listed on their site with a keyword rich text link leading back to
your site where they can find the rest of the article. Be sure you get the bio
with an additional link to your homepage as well. (Debra Paynter with
Promotion Strategies)
Offer something for free (such as a downloadable report), and
then ask for a link back to your site if the person finds value in the free
item. This works because you're giving away something of value, and when people
find it valuable, they're likely to reciprocate. (Mike Adams, the
Email Doctor)
Spend time building valuable content on your site through
different keyword windows. As you do, more and more people will begin linking
to your site, as they're linking to your valuable content. (Robin Nobles of
Search Engine Workshops,
Online Search Engine Marketing
Courses, and the TNT-Guides for
Successful Web Sites.
Offer yourself as an expert. Contact editors and writers and let
them know you are available to be used as a source in exchange for a link and
always push for the bio. (Debra Paynter with
Promotion Strategies)
Have an easy way for people to link back to an article or
content if they like it. Example: an icon that generates the HTML code they can
copy and insert into their own HTML pages. (Mike Adams, the
Email Doctor)
A sure fire way to increase link popularity is to have a high
quality newsletter or article section on your site. If you have good content on
your site, people will want to link to you to provide their visitors useful
information. You can take this approach a step further by offering your article
or newsletter to other sites with the condition that they link back to your
site. This is especially good when you can get a high quality site to use your
linked story on their site. (Chris Churchill with
NetMechanic)
Use emotional content to give people a reason to
link to you. A site built on a single theme may often benefit from using
content which employs:
- unique theme-related information which appeals to the
emotions
- original and appropriate humor
- content of extremely useful nature (references materials)
- original cartoon work
- animation that appeals to the senses or tells a short story
- something with an uncommon emotional element
Web sites that employ emotional elements often find that other
sites with a similar theme will automatically link up to them just because of
that emotional appeal. (John Alexander with
Search Engine Workshops,
TNT-Guides for Successful Web Sites, and
Beyond-SEO .
Leave your Links Everywhere!
Host your own affiliate program on your own server. Sure it
takes more work: you have to set it up, administer it and pay out the affiliate
checks. However, if you use an affiliate service, such as Commission Junction,
the links point to the affiliate service and get redirected to your site. If
you host your own affiliate program, all those affiliate links point directly
to you. You can find affiliate programs, some of which may be free at The CGI
Resource Index (http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/
Website_Promotion/Affiliate_Programs/).
(Bill Gentry with Look Sharp
Designs)
Look for linking opportunities within discussion lists related
to your site’s topic, but do so carefully. Try YahooGroups, which has
thousands of topical discussion groups on almost any topic. I often send short
posts to appropriate lists with links for my clients’ sites, and if you do
so properly, it is very effective. (Eric Ward, President, NetPOST and URLwire)
Anywhere you can leave your link, do it: in chat rooms, guest
books, etc. You would be surprised at where your link turns up on search
engines when you start doing this. And if the SE has found it, then it adds to
your link popularity. (Don Hammond at DonOmite.com)
Now that Google indexes the content of newsgroups, if you post
to related newsgroups, be sure to use a signature line with your link and
appropriate link text. (Robin Nobles of
Search Engine Workshops,
Online Search Engine Marketing
Courses, and the TNT-Guides for
Successful Web Sites.
Ask a question (FAQ) and include a link. Post questions on
forums that allow links. Post into the newsgroups. Include an e-mail tail tag.
Put it on your T-shirt. Include it as a sticker with each shipped order. Tattoo
it on your forehead. Tell your mom. Get a vanity license plate...etc etc etc
:-) (Michael Campbell with
Internet Marketing
Secrets)
The number one way I've built link popularity is by offering a
good information product or service, establishing a good conversion on the
site, and then getting super affiliates. I've found that getting super
affiliates multiplies the number of regular affiliates I'm able to get. All of
this leads to hundreds of inbound links. It takes a very disciplined approach,
but one I've found very effective. (Jon Keel with
Improved Results)
The last remaining major free directory is The Netscape Open
Directory. What most folks don’t realize is that you can have multiple
links to your site’s content as long as that content is a match for the
category you are submitting to. (Eric Ward, President, NetPOST and URLwire)
I'm surprised at how many people don't have their link in their
signature line of their e-mail. (Don Hammond at
DonOmite.com)
Be Creative and Visible!
One of our most successful methods for increasing link
popularity is to offer “awards” (a gif that links back to our site).
We create a strong incentive for the awardee to place the award on their site
because the awardee perceives a benefit – he gets to tell the world that
another site recognized his site as a quality site. One way we do this at
NetMechanic is to offer “Star Performer” awards to Web sites that get
4 or more stars on their site when they run our validator tool over their site.
This tells people visiting the awardee’s site, that the award-winning site
is a professional site run by individuals interested in quality assurance and
providing a good visitor experience. Remember to make it easy for awardees to
place the award gif on their site. Have the snippet of code available so all
they have to do is cut and paste it into their Web page. Even if your site
doesn’t support an award, offer visitors a gif to put on their site.
You’d be surprised how many people are willing to do something like this
for a site they like. (Chris Churchill with
NetMechanic)
Build a stand alone search engine or directory. Add your own
sites, your clients’ sites, your affiliate sites, your own sites that are
affiliates for others, etc. It's a great way to legitimately build link
popularity for all your sites, even if they are unrelated. Some programs will
even allow you to supplement your results with ODP. You can find search engine
and directory programs at The CGI Resource Index (http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/Link_
Indexing_Scripts/)
and The PHP Resource Index (http://php.resourceindex.com/Complete_Scripts/Link_Management
/Directories
and_Portals/). You can also build a stand-alone themed search engine or
directory, with a link to your own site. (Bill Gentry with
Look Sharp Designs)
If someone wants to interview you for an article in your related
field, say YES immediately! That person will list your qualifications with a
link back to your site as part of your introduction. Plus, you’ll get
added visibility and credibility for your Web site and online business.
(Robin Nobles of Search
Engine Workshops, Online Search
Engine Marketing Courses, and the TNT-Guides for Successful Web
Sites.
Although joining a banner exchange program would probably not
improve your link popularity, you can improve your link popularity by starting
your own banner exchange service. The concept of these services is that people
sign up and agree to add special links to your Web site. Your server will then
display banner ads on their pages. In exchange, you agree to automatically
display a certain number of their banners on your own site and other Web sites
within your banner exchange network. (Brent Winters of
First Place Software)
If you have your own server, or if you can work out a deal with
your ISP for extra IP addresses, register URLs and point them to the extra IP
addresses and do the same thing described above. URL registration has gotten so
inexpensive these days that cost should not even be a consideration.(Ron
Gotcher with GotcherLaw.com)
If you offer a contest or sweepstakes on your site, you can get
free links to it from the many contest and sweepstakes directories on the Web.
(Eric Ward, President, NetPOST and
URLwire)
Offer a small discount to anyone who agrees to post a graphic
pointing to your site on theirs. Anyone who goes through that link will get a
discount off your goods or services, and you'll get added link popularity.
(Robin Nobles of Search
Engine Workshops, Online Search
Engine Marketing Courses.
I have found that it is hard to handle the “mechanics”
of building link popularity pages. It is very time consuming to add the links
to a client’s site and follow up by sending an e-mail to the site that you
would like a link back from. So I have developed a dynamic database link system
whereby the client can add the link, logo, and description on their own without
having to know any code. We also created for them the template e-mail that they
can send to the other site’s Webmaster. This saves the client money and
enables them to take over this function instead of me having to handle this
task. (Author’s Note: Make sure that the template e-mail is personalized for
each recipient in some way.)
Host a Top Site. Top Sites can work for almost any topic. A Top
Site is run by a cgi program. There are several ways to configure the program,
but most rank by the amount of incoming traffic a site sends. Here's how it
works. A site signs up for a Top Site. They add your link or button with their
top site id in the link on their site. The link points to your Top Site via the
cgi program. The referring site gets credit for the visitor. The more visitors
that site sends, the better it ranks. An added benefit is that all the outgoing
links from your Top Site go through your cgi-bin and are redirected to the
site. So if you are worried about sharing too much PageRank (which I wouldn't
worry about myself), you won't be sharing it by using a Top Site. You can find
Top Site programs, some of which may be free at The PHP Resource Index (http://php.resourceindex.com/Complete_Scripts/Website_
Promotion/Top_Sites/)
and The CGI Resource Index (http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/
Website_Promotion/Top_Sites/).
You can also use the Top Site to generate some advertising revenue. Peruse
other categories at the above sites to find advertising programs. (Bill
Gentry with Look Sharp
Designs)
Do you have a members-only Web site? Offer site owners free
membership if they link to you. (Scott Smith)
Host your own Web Ring. All the links on every Web ring banner
point to your site and redirect to member sites, your site if you host it. You
can find Web Ring programs at The PHP Resource Index (http://php.resourceindex.com/Complete_Scripts/Website
_Promotion/Web_Rings/)
and The CGI Resource Index (http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/
Website_Promotion/Web_Rings/).
However, don't join a Web ring for link popularity purposes as all the links
point to the ring server and redirect to member sites. However, they can be
useful for building traffic. (Bill Gentry with
Look Sharp Designs)
Do you have a discussion board? Invite other related sites to
link to it. (Scott Smith)
If you give away something on your site, don't forget to try and
get a listing from the sites that list sites that give stuff away, such as The
Free Site (http://www.thefreesite.com). (Bill
Gentry with Look Sharp
Designs)
Write a review of a Web site, then tell the site owner it's
theirs to post in exchange for a link. (Scott Smith)
If an established and respected writer, like Robin Nobles, asks
you for a contribution for an article he or she is writing, always say yes (if
you have the knowledge)! Established writers get published in a lot of places
that you can't. The writers will always give you credit and may give you a link
in the article as well. (Bill Gentry with
Look Sharp Designs)
Especially for B2B Sites:
A few suggestions to increase external link popularity to B2B
sites:
- incorporate the requirement to link to your site in all
contracts with:
- resellers
- partners
- subcontractors
-
vendors
Remember to ask them to put the link on a page that is
accessible to search engine robots (not behind password control). It should
appear on a page already showing up in results. (Barbara Coll with
WebMamma.com)
Submit technical papers to Web sites that are either interested
in the subject or offer technical papers for a fee (like bitpipe.com).
(Barbara Coll with WebMamma.com)
Increase the amount of case study, technical studies (i.e.
non-product or sell oriented) material on your Web site and point industry
editors to it as fodder for their articles. (Barbara Coll with
WebMamma.com)
Apply to awards programs. For example: -> Windows & .NET
Magazines Reader's Choice Awards. Any company who sells technology products is
eligible to nominate their product(s) using the form at the link below. Top 100
Winners published in September, but deadline for nominations is April 5th.
Entry is free.
http://www.winnetmag.com/mediakit/editorial/Readers-Choice
-Form.doc
(Barbara Coll with WebMamma.com)
Make sure that all employee speaking engagements at tradeshows,
etc. are listed in the online brochure for the show and ask for a live link
back to your site. (Barbara Coll with WebMamma.com)
Submit your site to all online industry and general business
directories you can find. Consider paying for a few. For example,
www.business.com, www.allbusiness.com, www.yellowpages.com, www.dmoz.org.
(Barbara Coll with WebMamma.com)
Implement small money (or large if you have it) buys on
Pay-per-click engines like Overture.com and FindWhat.com. (Barbara Coll with
WebMamma.com)
Pay to have your home page spidered by search engine robots for
search databases like Inktomi (through www.positiontech.com) and Lycos. Make
sure that page is well optimized before you start. (Barbara Coll with
WebMamma.com)
Why not hire a summer student to go looking for places to submit
your site and to clean up (verify accuracy) of current links. To find all sites
currently pointing to your site, go to Google and enter
link:www.domainname.com. Keep in mind that 'link farms,' a whole page of only
links, do nothing to increase your link popularity. (Barbara Coll with
WebMamma.com)
Off the Net Ideas:
Make News! Draft a brief press release about something
newsworthy at your company. It can be the announcement of a new location,
landing a big new contract, speaking at a prestigious conference, or even just
announcing a new hire. Then fax or e-mail your press release to all relevant
newspapers, to the attention of the Business Editor. You can do a free search
at www.gebbieinc.com for the contact
information of the newspapers in your region and/or industry. Most newspapers
today have a companion Web site and your article will often end up online,
adding another new link to your site each time a press release is published.
(Susan J. O’Neil with @Web
Site Publicity, Inc.)
Write letters to the editor of your local newspaper(s). Just
make sure you aren't saying nasty controversial things! Many newspapers are
mirrored online nowadays. (Don Hammond at DonOmite.com)
If you belong to professional organizations, your local Chamber
of Commerce, etc., see if they will give you a link. (Bill Gentry with
Look Sharp Designs)
Contact your local radio and television stations and offer your
expert knowledge as a source. This may get you a link on their site. If you get
the gig – get the link. (Debra Paynter with
Promotion Strategies)
Set aside a certain amount of money to use to join associations
within your industry. Make sure they have a good site with great PR and that
they list links to their members sites. See if they accept articles, teaser
articles, or are interested in using you as a source in exchange for additional
links. (Debra Paynter with Promotion Strategies)
Put your URL on your stationary, business cards, off-the-Web
advertising, invoices, statements, print publications, T-shirts, promotional
items, anywhere you can think of. The more times that people see your URL or
business name, the better chance you’ll have at their remembering and
recognizing your site and eventually visiting. (Robin Nobles of
Search Engine Workshops,
Online Search Engine Marketing
Courses, and the TNT-Guides for
Successful Web Sites.
Keep Track of What You’re Doing:
Research your competition. During the process, open a
spreadsheet and start making lists from the information you find. The standards
include: general directories, themed directories, link partnerships to explore,
and the biggie – PR or public relations. I consider PR as all the oddball
links your competition gets, either an actual Press Release you find listed on
a Web site, an article they’ve written that’s placed or a quote with
a link back to your domain. Look at your main keywords during this research and
the top competitors for each. It’s not just who is linking to them but the
relationships and patterns you see developed. This information is invaluable in
structuring your link popularity campaign. (Debra Paynter with
Promotion Strategies)
Create a spreadsheet and detail who you've contacted, when and
the results. Or if you have a contact database (ACT!, Access, FileMaker Pro,
etc.), use that contact's "notes" field to keep a record of this information.
(Gil Sery with Search Engine
Optimization Pros)
Open a spreadsheet for general directories (themed directories
or link partners – whatever you are working on). At the top of the page in
copy/paste form, list in order the pertinent information that directories look
for in a submission. Have all that information ready ahead of time to make the
process run quick and easy. In one column list the URL of the site, in another
list the category you are submitting to, the next list the page you are
submitting, then a column for the date you submitted and one for the date you
are accepted. This information will help you to know where you’ve been and
where you are going. An additional tip I like to follow is to come up with 3-5
variations of a title with the most crucial keyword phrase included. I then
rotate these variations of the title, with each submission. You say the same
thing but in more than one manner. I also create at least two descriptions, a
long and a short form and I am sure to maximize the use of keywords in
submissions. You want these to sell in that you want click-thrus and you want
them keyword rich for search. (Debra Paynter with
Promotion Strategies)
Check out the affirmative replies for a link exchange, and make
sure they have uploaded a link back to your site from theirs. If they
haven’t, politely e-mail them and notify them of it, with your thanks.
(Chris Genge with 1st on the List
Promotion Inc.)
A few weeks after you’ve received the reciprocal link,
check the people who have linked to you to make sure they’re still linked.
(Sites change policies and go 404, no dead weight and no free riders) (Gary
Woods with Beautiful Santa
Barbara Real Estate)
Monitor your site on a monthly basis utilizing a linking tool to
ensure that all the links are still in place. If they’re not, e-mail the
site politely, mentioning same and asking them to reinstate the link. If they
don’t, remove your link to them from your resource page. (Chris Genge
with 1st on the List Promotion
Inc.)
Link Checking Services and Information:
Check your link popularity at
Link Popularity Check.com,
which will give your link popularity for Lycos/Fast, AltaVista, and MSN. The
service, which is provided by First Place Software, will even send you a weekly
or monthly report showing your link popularity in those engines. (Brent
Winters of First Place
Software)
You can also check your link popularity at
LinkPopularity.com to learn your
link pop for Google, HotBot, and AltaVista. (Robin Nobles of
Search Engine Workshops,
Online Search Engine Marketing
Courses, and the TNT-Guides for
Successful Web Sites.
Visit LinkPromotion.com for a step-by-step
walk through of how to increase your link popularity. (Robin Nobles of
Search Engine Workshops,
Online Search Engine Marketing
Courses, and the TNT-Guides for
Successful Web Sites.
Software or Services:
Use Links Manager,
which is a service that allows you to set up a links page on your own site and
have others submit their sites to you. You approve all new links and have full
control over them. This service does NOT find you links -- it simply helps you
set up an automated system for adding new links to your Web site and keeps
track of reciprocal links pointing back to you. (Robin Nobles of
Search Engine Workshops,
Online Search Engine Marketing
Courses, and the TNT-Guides for
Successful Web Sites.
Hire a high school student part time to hunt for related links
for you. Give that person very specific instructions. If the student is going
to send out e-mail on your behalf, craft the e-mail very carefully yourself,
and make sure the student includes all of the pertinent information to make the
request appear to be personally sent and not a blanket e-mail. (Robin Nobles
of Search Engine Workshops,
Online Search Engine Marketing
Courses, and the TNT-Guides for
Successful Web Sites.
You can use a free service like TrackEngine (http://www.trackengine.com) and your
favorite search engine to create a free link tracking alert service that sends
you email any time a search engine finds a new link to your site, or your
competitors. (Eric Ward, President, NetPOST and URLwire)
Use the "linked" facility at Spyonit.com (http://www.spyonit.com/Home) to be
automatically notified whenever anyone else on the Web links to your Web site!
(Nancy Nelson with Search by
Design)
Things to Avoid
Don't participate in link popularity farms. Don't participate in
programs that send out e-mails soliciting people to swap links (link spamming).
Never place a link on your own site for the sole purpose of trading link
popularity. Only place links that are valuable to your readers. Never try to
get low-integrity Web sites to link to you. The link will actually hurt your
site, not help it. (Mike Adams, the Email Doctor)
Create your link directory to be tightly themed. DO NOT include
directory listings unless they match the themes or subjects of your Web site.
(David Notestine of Cyber-Robotics)
Tell people to LINK OFF. Yes, it's really odd. Turns out my
marketing site was also known for wicker furniture and adult chat among other
things. Huh? Yes, a couple of sites thought it would be a good idea to link to
me, just because I do well in the search engines. The problem was their links
didn't make sense as they were totally off topic. We both ended up getting
penalized. Usually you cannot make people remove incoming links, unless they
are infringing on some kind of patent. But if you kindly explain that what they
are doing is actually giving their site a penalty and hurting their
findability, the links come down pretty fast. What they are doing is building
the reputation of my page with what they say in their outgoing links. If what
the links say do not match the topic of my page, the search engine gives the
page containing the link a penalty. Simply put: Reputation is what a page is
known for. What incoming links say the page is about. Topic is what the page is
really about. The actual content of a page. The Reputation must match the
Topic. (Michael Campbell with
Internet Marketing
Secrets)
Be careful about who YOU link to. Stay out of "bad
neighborhoods." Don’t submit to FFA (Free for All) sites or join link
exchange programs or farms. Using bulk submission programs won’t increase
your link popularity either. (Robin Nobles of
Search Engine Workshops,
Online Search Engine Marketing
Courses, and the TNT-Guides for
Successful Web Sites.
Never send out a "blanket" e-mail to hundreds of sites asking
for a reciprocal link. Make each e-mail personal. Mention something that you
like on their site. Give the URL for their links page. Discuss one of their
products. Ask them a question. Do ANYTHING to make it clear that this is a
personal request and not a mass-generated e-mail. (Robin Nobles of
Search Engine Workshops,
Online Search Engine Marketing
Courses, and the TNT-Guides for
Successful Web Sites.
Don’t solicit sites that have their reciprocal links pages
so deep in the site it’s difficult to find. If you have trouble finding
the pages, so will the spiders. (Gary Woods with
Beautiful Santa Barbara Real
Estate)
Don’t apply to sites that have hundreds of links on one
page. Just like with the search engines, “If you’re not in the Top
10, you’re Cyber-Road Kill” (quote from Ginette Degner of
Search Engine Services)
(Gary Woods with Beautiful
Santa Barbara Real Estate)
Keep your link directories clean of 404s or dead links.
(David Notestine of Cyber-Robotics)
Don’t solicit sites that have nothing to do with your
business. (Gary Woods with Beautiful Santa Barbara Real
Estate)
Extra Tips and Notes:
Make link popularity building a part of your overall search
engine marketing efforts. Spend a little time every week trying to find a few
more links. You'll be surprised at the snowball effect that link popularity
building has. You'll work hard on it for a while, and then all of a sudden,
everyone else will be writing to YOU to ask YOU to link to THEM! (Robin
Nobles of Search Engine
Workshops, Online Search Engine
Marketing Courses, and the TNT-Guides
for Successful Web Sites.
Google uses PageRank. You can either be a hub or an authority.
Decide which one you want a particular page to be and stick with it. Don't
mince types with Google. Hubs have many links and are ranked by backwards
clicks. Meaning that every time someone hits their back button - to find more
sites - you actually score points. Hallway pages or directories are good
examples of hubs, especially if you link to them with authority pages.
Authority pages contain relatively few links - the fewer the better in my
opinion - and are rated according to forward clicks. Authority pages are not
likely to be found with backward crawling and most often lead to pages with
many links.... hubs. Gateway information pages are good examples of authority
pages, especially when you link them to hubs or catalog style sites. Hubs lead
to authorities, which lead to hubs, which lead to authorities. Repeat the
process as often as desired. (Michael Campbell with
Internet Marketing
Secrets)
Most search engines index only content in the top two levels of
your site. They have no idea that links exist beyond the secondary level simply
because they don't search beyond the secondary level. Let's say you have links
built to your site from other sites. If these links exist beyond the spiders'
allowable depth of travel, they will NEVER be counted. In other words, if you
have 5,000 links pointing at your site, but all of them exist on pages beyond
the second directory level, a search engine will determine that your site has
zero links. This doesn’t mean those 5,000 links are useless. Quite the
contrary. It just shows that you don’t need to obsess over links from a
search engine perspective. Links are their own virtue whether a search engine
knows about them or not. (Eric Ward, President, NetPOST and URLwire)
I do not employ (as a general rule) a linking strategy designed
for search engines, rather for REAL traffic. The SE bonus is great, but
it’s better to think of the quality of the link as a vehicle to get a
human to your site, not a spider. The search engines will then find your links
stronger than your competitors’, because they are! (Dixon Jones with
Receptional)
How long did someone spend on your site before clicking back to
the search engine? If the person didn't come back it means - to the search
engine - that the person found what they were looking for. Your site is given a
boost in rankings because people who visit your page don't come back to the
search engine for more links. One way to achieve temporal brownie points is by
creating and controlling two levels of links. It's much like the hub and
authority example I mentioned earlier. Search engine links to an authority page
with only one link on it, which in turn leads to a directory style page. From
the directory page, the visitor finds plenty of links on their search topic and
there's no need to hit the back button to the search engine. (Michael
Campbell with Internet
Marketing Secrets)
Remember that with Google and Fast at least, link popularity is
based on individual pages, not on the site as a whole. So, use that to your
advantage or at least take it into consideration when appropriate. (Robin
Nobles of Search Engine
Workshops, Online Search Engine
Marketing Courses, and the TNT-Guides
for Successful Web Sites.
Don't think in terms of building "link popularity." What you are
really doing is building traffic by exchanging links with similar sites and
sites that offer products and services that are complimentary to yours. Link
popularity is an added benefit. If you are focused on "link popularity," you
may miss some great opportunities to build traffic. (Bill Gentry with
Look Sharp Designs)
Host your links page on your own domain for maximum
effectiveness. If you have several domains, you can use the same or similar
links page on each domain if they're related in topic. You may want to have a
different opening paragraph, or different content here and there. But, if you
have several related domains, be sure to link them together and use the power
of the combined link popularity. (Robin Nobles of
Search Engine Workshops,
Online Search Engine Marketing
Courses, and the TNT-Guides for
Successful Web Sites.
PageRank is not the only way to factor link popularity into
ranking algorithms. It is only one way. For example, Teoma uses a variation of
hub and authority to factor link popularity into its ranking algorithm.
Basically, a hub is a site with many outgoing links, while an authority is a
site many incoming links. So, while you may read many articles about how to
manage PageRank and what you should and shouldn't do (varying opinions, of
course), remember that PageRank is not the end all, be all method to calculate
link popularity. There are many other methods. (Bill Gentry with
Look Sharp Designs)
Spend less time working on your overall, global link popularity,
and focus more on building up strong connections in the natural "community" of
sites that share a similar focus to your own. (Chris Sherman of
Search Engine Watch and
SearchDay)
For a Power Point presentation on hyperlink strategies, visit
http://www.dixonjones.com and click on
Speaking at the top of the page. The picture at this URL is worth noting:
http://www.dixonjones.com/talks/linking/index_files/slide
0004.htm.
The trick is to develop links in the top right of the picture and avoid links
in the bottom left. (Dixon Jones with Receptional)
Keep current with the latest linking techniques by reading The
Link Mensch column at http://www.ericward.com/. (Eric Ward,
President, NetPOST and
URLwire)
In Closing . . .
Ask yourselves the following questions:
- Are the sites that link to you in your same field? Pursue
"theme analysis" not only for your site but also for your linking partners.
It's not only a consistent theme for you so a search engine knows what you are
about, it's also vital that the people who link to you are in the general
"community" related to your theme.
- Are the sites that link to you, linked to in turn by others
in the same field or theme area? The more "popular" your friends are, the more
"popular" you are.
- Do you have some "high quality" sites linking to you that are
"authorities" or experts in your field, your subject area? Remember, the search
engines know everything about the sites linking to you, and if they are
authoritative sources in your field and they link to you, then you are likely a
valuable source of information and highly relevant to the keyword phrases that
characterize your site.
- Finally, are all your pages optimized for relevant keyword
phrases and linked back and forth within your site? This will flesh out the
theme of your site. When your "friends" are doing the same, you all become a
strong "community of authorities" encouraging the search engine to present you
to their searchers. (Terry Plank with
Search Engine Marketing
Consultants)
Thanks to our Contributors
A special thanks to each of the contributors to this article. We
appreciate your willingness to share your strategies with the search engine
marketing industry.
These contributors are listed in alphabetical order.
Mike Adams is the 'Email Doctor' and operates an
e-mail marketing Web site, Email
Doctor, that offers free reports, e-mail marketing strategies and regular
articles.
John Alexander is a professional Internet Consultant, SEO and
educator who has taught his results-oriented, SEO strategies to other Internet
consultants and Webmasters from over 80 different countries around the world.
John owns and operates Beyond-SEO.com.
He teaches The Ultimate SEO
Mastery Workshop in LIVE onsite trainings through Search Engine Workshops,
and he's the Co-Author of Keyword
Forensics 2.0 and Wordtracker Magic
Michael Campbell is the author of Nothing but Net and
Clickin’ it
Rich, highly successful e-books about how to become successful on the
Internet. He is a well-known Internet marketer who publishes a newsletter
called Internet Marketing
Secrets.
Chris Churchill is the Director of Web Development and Search
Engine Marketing at NetMechanic, Inc.. Chris is also the subject matter expert
for Search Engine Power Pack,
NetMechanic's comprehensive search engine optimization package.
Terry Dean is an Internet Marketing Reviewer for
NetBreakThroughs.com.
Elbert Flores is a search engine optimization expert with
Position Research out of San Diego, CA.
Chris Genge is President of
1st on the List Promotion Inc., a
search engine optimization firm located in British Columbia, Canada.
Bill Gentry has been a professional Web designer since 1999 and
a Search Engine Optimization and
Online Marketing specialist with Look Sharp Designs since February 2000. He
is also the head software reviewer, an instructor, and a chat moderator with
Search Engine Workshops.
Ron Gotcher, of the Gotcher
Law Group, is an immigration lawyer located in Los Angeles, CA.
Don Hammond operates a full
service Web site design, construction, and search engine positioning firm
that specializes in Cold Fusion, SQL, Flash, and Miva Script.
Detlev Johnson is a search engine consultant with
The Ascendant Group, a search engine
marketing company specializing in optimization strategies, implementation
guidance, and tracking for your in-house or outsourced search engine
optimization campaign.
Dixon Jones is the managing director of British-based
Internet marketing agency,
Receptional, and was the first fully paid up member of the World
Association of Internet Marketing. His business career started in 1989, writing
and running murder mystery evenings for clients from American Airlines to
Zeneca. Enron still owes him money. In 1996 this business went onto the Web and
the site immediately took on a life of its own developing into a profitable
company in its own right. In 1999 Dixon teamed up with Dr. David Smith,
previously of Cranfield University, to provide Internet marketing expertise to
a range of blue chip companies.
Jon Keel of Improved
Results, "Helping Businesses Improve Results Through Performance-Based Online
Marketing," is also an authority on the pay-per-click search engines.
Barbara Coll is Owner of WebMamma, a search engine optimization firm.
Stephen Mahaney is the Editor and Publisher of
Search Engine News, a
publication of Planet Ocean, a leading source of information for the search
engine industry. He is also a well-known and respected Internet marketer.
Nancy Nelson is the founder of
Search-by-Design, a full service
Internet marketing firm focused on keeping your online marketing presence
optimized for your target market. She is also a chat moderator for
Search Engine Workshops.
Robin Nobles is the Co-Director of Training of Search Engine
Workshops with John Alexander. They teach 2-day beginner, 3-day advanced, and
5-day all-inclusive "hands on" search engine marketing
workshops in locations across the globe. She also teaches
online search engine marketing
courses, and she’s a member of
Wordtracker’s
official question support team. Robin has two books on the market: Maximize Web
Site Traffic and Web Site Analysis and Reporting, and she and John Alexander
are writing a series of e-books called, "The
Totally Non-Technical Guide to Having a Successful Web Site.
David Notestine is President of Cyber-Robotics and the creator
of Zeus
Internet Marketing Robot.
Susan J. O’Neil is the founder and C.E.O. of
@Web Site Publicity, Inc., an
integrated search marketing firm. She is the co-author of Maximize Web
Site Traffic with Robin Nobles.
With a strong focus on research, Debra Paynter is an expert in
the field on online Website
optimization and promotions. Her specialties include both site development
and promotional linking in order to draw targeted traffic. Visit
Promotion Strategies for more
information.
Terry Plank is the Owner of
Search Engine Marketing
Consultation.
Rocky Rawstern is the Senior Analyst with 7thWave, a
search engine optimization company,
and Webmaster & Editor of
Nanotech-Now.
Gil Sery is the President and Chief Search Engine Optimizer of
Search Engine
Optimization Pros, “your one-stop specialists for search engine
optimization, placement, and marketing.”
Chris Sherman is Associate Editor of
Search Engine Watch and
Editor of SearchDay, a daily
newsletter for the search engine industry.
Marshall Simmonds is Director of Search at
About.com.
Danny Sullivan is editor of
SearchEngineWatch.com, a widely
recognized site that provides authoritative information about search engines.
Free tips can be found at http://searchenginewatch.com, and
members have access to extended articles and information, including how search
engines make use of link analysis.
Becky Thompson is an Online Marketing Strategist with
Inter@ctivate Inc. Our technical, creative and marketing services include
design and programming, search engine positioning, online marketing and
promotions, database and email programs and an array of traditional offline
communications such as collateral development and media relations that
contribute to fully integrated marketing programs.
Eric Ward, President,
NetPOST and
URLwire: Eric founded the Web's first
service for linking and announcing Web sites back in 1994, and he still offers
those services today. His client list is a who's who of online brands. Ward is
best known as the person behind the linking campaigns for Amazon.com Books, The
Link Exchange, Microsoft.com, Rodney Dangerfield, Warner Bros, The Discovery
Channel, the AMA, PBS, and The Weather Channel. His linking services won the
1995 Tenagra Award For Internet Marketing Excellence, and no other linking
service has won it since. Eric also writes the “Link Mensch” column,
and has been a speaker for iWORLD, Fawcette, and Cnet conferences.
Carl Watney works for Unearthed®, a small business based
in Brisbane, Australia, specializing in search engine marketing, content
management systems and building online relevancy of SME commercial sites. They
believe in the power of community on the Web and are happy to share ideas from
previous successes and failures ;-) to help grow this boundless market so that
professionals build the industry and give us all a good name.
Steve Wilson is a search engine optimization expert
with the Worldsites.network, San Antonio's "Be Found on Web" Experts.
Brent Winters is the President of
First Place Software, maker of
WebPosition Gold, the first software product to both track your rankings on
the search engines and to help you improve those rankings.
Gary Woods is the Owner of
Beautiful Santa Barbara Real
Estate and Chat Moderator for
Search Engine Workshops.
This article was written and compiled by
Robin Nobles,
Eric Ward, and
John Alexander. Their
individual bios are found above. They own the copyright of the article itself,
but the individual contributors retain the copyright of their own individual
tips.
You may post this article on your Web site as long as you keep it
in its entirety and keep the contributor and bio section intact. Or, you can
post the first 1000 words or so at your own site, and then link to the complete
article here. For more information, contact Robin
Nobles.
© Copyright 2005 Robin Nobles, Eric Ward, and John
Alexander. All rights reserved.
This Article is Available in
E-Book Format
A special thanks to Butch Pujol and Heather
Colman with Digital Page
Author Software and Service
The dynamite e-book
for the "131 (Legitimate) Link Popularity Building Strategies," along with
all the graphics, was created by Digital Page Author Software and Service, and
we thank them for the amount of time and professionalism they put into this
project.
We couldn't be more pleased or proud of the results, and we
highly recommend their services to anyone. You can purchase the software and
create your own e-books, or let Heather do her magic and credit the e-book for
you. Butch and Heather, you took a drab HTML page and created a work of art,
and we thank you!
Robin Nobles, Eric Ward, and John Alexander,
co-authors of "131 (Legitimate) Link Popularity Building Strategies," as well
as the many other contributors to the project.
This work is licensed
under a Creative Commons License.
