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Call us toll-free at 866-397-2651
Search Engine Optimization and Marketing Tips from
EzRankings.com (www.EzRankings.com )
This is the third of a six-part series of lessons on search
engine optimization. Each lesson will contain tips and information on how to
improve your sites search engine placement. Todays lesson is on:
Links, Links, Links
Why They Count, and How To
Get Them
You want your site to rise to the top of the competitive
pile, and to outperform others online. This means, of course, optimizing your
site carefully and doing everything possible to increase your rankings with the
search engines. While this may seem like an elusive goal, it is actually quite
simple with most search engines.
Follow the rules, and your site will rise. And one
of the most important rules, or algorithms, that many engines use to determine
site ranking is its link popularity, or how many related sites link to
it. The thinking is this: if your site is good enough to get other people to
link to you, well, then it must be pretty important, or have some vital
information on a topic. Thus, it becomes worthy of a coveted higher rank
according to their calculations. For instance, Google consider link popularity its most important factor when determining site
ranking, and many of the other largest engines also use this as a major factor
in their algorithms.
You cant afford to ignore linking when optimizing your
site, if you want decent rankings. The more you have, and the higher the
quality of the sites linking to you (as in relevant to your targeted
search engine phrases, and they should be pretty popular sites themselves), the
better your site will show up when it is indexed and ranked. While its nice to have Uncle Joe offer to
link his home page to your site, this wont help you much unless Joe has a
popular, well-ranked site himself, in a category related to your own.
Otherwise, thank him nicely, but look for more relevant, topical links to
increase your link popularity.
How Do I Get Links?
There are entire businesses devoted just to answering this
one question for clients. But if youre willing to take the time (it doesnt
happen quickly or easily), you can make great gains in increasing your sites
ranking. In addition, getting links to your site will increase visitors to you,
giving you a wider audience for your content or services.
There are several methods of getting more links. These
include:
Free for all sites (FFAs): there are some sites
that will allow you to link to theirs for free, IF you give them your email
address. But many search engines consider these artificial methods of getting
links (and the links are usually poor quality to boot). In some instances,
sites have been banned from indexing on Google for link farming, or creating
artificial links to other sites, which they consider a form of spamming. If you
choose this route, be very judicious on the programs you choose. FFAs usually
have a high turnover (because of the large volume of new submissions), so you
will need to resubmit on a frequent basis.
Link Exchanges: these are groups of website owners
who link to one another, such as web rings. In return for being linked to,
you will need to upload pages of links to your own site as well, linking to
those who belong. If you choose this method, try to find the best quality links
by looking under different categories, and choosing one relevant to your site.
And be aware that you will be requested to place a graphic on your site,
usually the home page. Google and other search engines are increasing frowning
on these as another artificial method of getting links, so this isnt
considered a good method.
At EzRankings , we discourage our clients from using FFA or link
exchanges, because in our experience, they just dont work. Instead, we help
clients optimize their sites by finding higher quality links, with some of the
methods discussed below.
Offer reciprocal links: try doing a search online
for web sites that use the same, or similar, key word phrases that you are
targeting for your site. Also, search related phrases as well. Now, look up the
most popular sites in each category. You can then contact the site owner, and
ask for a link in return for placing a link to their site on your own. When
making the request, it helps to have a link and text that can be placed on
their site already prepared (the easier you make it, the more likely that they
will agree).
This is an excellent method of finding high-quality,
relevant links; but be aware that not every webmaster or site owner will want
to do this. It takes time, and contacting many, many web owners to build up
links using this method, but the ones you develop will be good ones. It is
often best to contact a specialist in
optimization to help you with finding quality, relevant
links.
Host an affiliate program: while affiliate programs
take work, they are an excellent method of increasing your sites popularity, with
links on highly relevant sites (after all, they are offering your URL as a
service to their site visitors). You can also gain income and traffic by doing
this. In order to host a program, you will need specialized software to manage
a database, and be able to offer a product or service that will interest others
enough to pay for. You will then promote this service/product to others, and
ask them to become part of your online sales force by placing links to your
site on theirs (and youll pay them a commission for each person who clicks to
your site, as thanks for doing this service).
Getting quality links takes time, but is well worth the
time spent. It is one of the best methods of helping your sites rankings
online, if the sites that link to you (and vice-versa) are popular, relevant
sites to your topic. Hosting an affiliate program, or exchanging reciprocal
links with highly relevant sites, are the best methods of getting links. Be
cautious about free for all or link exchanges, which are increasingly being
penalized by search engines.
Want to learn more about search
engine optimization, and how it can help your site? Visit us at www.EzRankings.com or call us toll-free at 866-397-2651
Be sure to look for our next tip
that will come within the next few days. In it, we will be discussing
"Choosing the Right Domain Name, and Why It Can Make a Difference".
Thank You,
J. Lisi
[email protected]
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