A classic way of getting seen and noticed on the web is to make sure your site is linked to as many other sites as possible. The strategy of link-exchange has been so overused and abused that search engines are now wary of it and may penalize sites that are linking to "link farms", or to any other sites with non-relevant content.
This is the way it should be. We all want our web browsing experience to be smooth and pleasant. We don't want to get frustrated by stumbling over irrelevant content while following links between sites. On the other hand, webmasters all want more traffic to their sites, and get frustrated when they don't get it. There are two types of benefits from having many links to your website:
- Get improved ranking by the search engines - if you are popular, you are probably worth a visit
- People (not just search bots) actually follow the links and find your site!
If done properly, link popularity improvement is an extremely important strategy to make your website successful. Broadly speaking, you can achieve this in a number of ways:
1. The classic link exchange (link swap) method; two webmasters agree to swap links
2. You pay to get incoming links from high-ranking websites
3. By writing articles and getting them posted on other websites; including a link to your own site
4. By getting your articles published in E-zines, with links back to your site
5. You participate in online forums, where a link to your site may be included with each post
6. You start a blog/RSS feed, and get it spread to many subscribers!
All these methods involve work, in varying amounts. Method #2. costs you money, the rest may be essentially no-cost. Method #4. will probably not contribute to search engine ranking, but may give you droves of targeted visitors.
The problem with method #1. is that it's tedious. But you can get software that may automate it by helping you find link partners and manage your link collection. I am aware of these software tools:
ARELIS I have tested this tool, and it seems very promising. It goes out and searches for link exchange partners according to different search methods which you specify. For me, looking for incoming links at sites similar to my own gave the best results. The program then quickly returned many relevant sites. Next, it helps you contact webmasters and keeps the link collection neatly organized. It also creates the link pages.
Zeus A bit similar to ARELIS, but I find it much clumsier. The only way it can search for link candidate sites is thru a list of 100+ search phrases. In my hands, this method produced very low-quality results. At the time of writing, I am trying to get a refund from the company that sells Zeus. They seem very reluctant to honour their money-back guarantee. Buyer beware!
Links Manager This program does not go out and search for link partner sites; it only handles swap requests and organizes the link collection. I have not tested it myself.
When building a link swap strategy, note that the search engines are getting increasingly sophisticated in judging the quality of your links. Some things to remember:
- Outbound links ONLY to quality sites with content relevant to your site; never "link farm" type sites
- Make sure the sites that you link to have not been penalized. This would affect you also!
- Incoming links that are placed on the same page as 100:s of other links won't help you; their value gets "diluted"
- The anchor text in the incoming links is very important. It should contain relevant keywords; but all links should not have identical text - this looks artificial in the virtual eyes of the search bots
If you follow these guidelines, I believe link swap can still be an important strategy for building a successful web presence.
Conclusion: Link popularity improvement, if you do it the proper way, is still of enormous importance for a successful website. But if done the wrong way, it may backfire. If you want to try the classic link swap method, I recommend using ARELIS ( www.axandra.com ) to make it less tedious.
Kai Virihaur runs The Hosting Finder ( www.axandra.com ), a web hosting directory featuring articles and RSS feeds on web development, website promotion, and online marketing.
ohare limo service Grand Rapids ..I have been reading, with great interest, all the online... Read More
"Submit to 10,000 Search Engines" or "Submit to over 200,000... Read More
Building a successful web site is a process that works... Read More
The desire of every webmaster and in fact anybody with... Read More
Have you spent a lot of money on advertising with... Read More
Let's face it; the Internet is cluttered with all sorts... Read More
The number one question among webmasters is "How can I... Read More
Yesterday, I got stuck in a traffic jam. It wasn't... Read More
Do you have your own site? Do you have any... Read More
If you want to get something from others, the fastest... Read More
The debate rages on forums all over the internet-should one... Read More
Webmasters understand that quality and relevant inbound links can increase... Read More
Unless you're building a baseball diamond in the middle of... Read More
All too often I find site owners are confused (or... Read More
Traffic. We all know that without it our sites will... Read More
Every website owner wants their website to be popular; some... Read More
The future of online business rest in one word: traffic.... Read More
How to increase your website traffic with zero cost'. It's... Read More
There is one golden rule, which is inherent in this... Read More
What good is a website without traffic? A website without... Read More
I don't know about you, but when I built my... Read More
Part 27. Ezine Ads - create an ad for your... Read More
If you sell products or services, chances are you have... Read More
There are many "offsite" promotion tactics that work well to... Read More
This is the 3rd day of "Free Traffic Course".This day... Read More
executive chauffeured services Barrington Hills ..A reciprocal link is when a web site links to... Read More
If the headline is what gets them there, then it's... Read More
You want to start your own online business. You want... Read More
Nowadays there are just too many people trying to give... Read More
Just imagine ... your website having high PageRank and a... Read More
Wouldn't it be great if your website was listed on... Read More
Much has already been said about having a content rich... Read More
Winning the traffic exchange game can be done. I was... Read More
This is part two of an article series which will... Read More
Do not pay anyone or any service to submit your... Read More
Why would you pay for advertising if you could just... Read More
It's a strange world, this place we call the internet.... Read More
We will begin this topic with one assumption, that our... Read More
Traffic. We all know that without it our sites will... Read More
How to get FREE traffic and vistors to your website... Read More
While most webmasters agree that reciprocal linking is a very... Read More
Link Exchanges are a very time consuming project. The time... Read More
Every home business owner should know that your WEBSITE TRAFFICS... Read More
We all know the value of getting links to our... Read More
Once again I used my wacky test marketing strategy to... Read More
Getting Traffic or more precisely Targeted Traffic to your website... Read More
Dear Friend,Many people like to listen to all the graphic... Read More
Did you know that web linkage is responsible for a... Read More
Most people have the notion that generating traffic is a... Read More
For the past few years, I've been stashed away in... Read More
Traffic Building |