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Search Engine
Optimization 101
Everything You Need to Know About Link Popularity
The number of websites that link to
your website is one of the factors that help search
engines determine your relevancy for a search term.
Link popularity and gaining new links from outside
websites to your website have proven to be a popular
concept for people seeking to improve their search
engine rankings.
What is link popularity and how exactly
does it work? Search engines don't just look
at the content of your website to determine if you
are a match for a search. They also look at the number
of outside websites that can validate, by linking,
that you are a good match.
Search engines have also begun to
rank the importance of the sites that link to you.
This means if the New York Times links to your site,
your credibility is higher than if Joe's Online
Newspaper provides a link to your website. Search
engines also consider the text contained in the link
that is pointing to your website. If the text in the
links contains keywords you are trying to compete
for, the search engines consider your site to have
even greater credibility.
Since link popularity has become a
factor that people feel like they have some influence
over in determining their search engine positioning,
many solutions have been proposed for growing your
online link popularity. One of the more popular ways
is also one of the least effective.
Several software programs have been
written that help you create lists of websites in
your space that might be willing to link to you. These
programs also help you gather the email addresses
for these sites and even help you craft an email requesting
that the site add a link to yours.
The concept sounds good but the results
are often mixed. If you use one of these tools and
simply follow the templates they give you, your email
will read like a spam message that won't be
taken seriously.
The best way to build long-term link
popularity is to offer good content and features that
provide real value to your audience. As people discover
your website and realize its benefits, the likelihood
of them linking to your website naturally increases.
There are several critical targets
if you want to build up your link popularity without
appearing to be a spammer. The first is good links
from Yahoo and the Open Directory Project. Both of
these sites are human based directories that have
a lot of influence over search results. If your site
is listed in the correct category and has a good description,
links from these two websites are seen as validating
you are the real thing.
The second place it's important
to have a link from is topic specific or niche directories.
These are websites that are dedicated to news and
information that is an exact match for what you provide
online. If you have a website that deals with tractor
parts, being listed on sites that focus on tractors
is very important. In the case where a niche website
doesn't know about your website, it's
okay to ask them to link to your website. But your
message should be personalized to them and also tell
them the benefit or feature their users will get from
linking to you.
Another part of the web that helps
build your link popularity is resource sites. Resource
sites are lists of links that people put up on their
own. These pages are often spread amongst friends
and readers who find good information available from
the resource. In order to reach this audience, a good
PR campaign and press releases can ensure that these
individuals know you exist and have a link to your
website that they can easily include.
One of the most overlooked spots for
building link popularity is links from partners and
vendors for your business. Because you already have
a business relationship with these companies or individuals,
you are more likely to be able to request and receive
a link from their website. These websites help validate
your place online and also establish you within a
community of websites online. If you are visible to
the community, you are more visible to the search
engines.
Link popularity also starts at home.
You must make sure your link
architecture is solid and easily followed by search
engines. That's the first way that search engines
see you. It's also the way that visitors find
information within your website. The easier you make
it on your audience to find good information, the
more likely they are to link to it.
The final way you can work to increase
your link popularity is to participate in newsletters
and online forums that relate to your website. You
don't want to just jump in and give a plug for
your URL. You must participate in the discussion as
an expert or authority who gives good advice. When
you sign your name at the bottom of your posting,
be sure to include a signature that includes a link
to your website. If these forums and newsletters are
archived and remain online, search engines continue
to see them and the links they contain.
If your website doesn't have
a lot of content and you are wondering how you can
build your link popularity you should think about
building a tool or feature on your website that will
be valuable to your online audience. Marketleap's
Search Engine Marketing tools are a good example of
a feature built to generate link popularity.
Marketleap's free tools provide
unique data for search engine marketers that they
can't find other places. We've also made
it possible for people to place our tools on their
sites easily by cutting and pasting a piece of HTML
code into their web page. Because the tools are valuable
to our community, many websites have linked to the
tools or added the tool to their own website. Consequently,
if you search for "link popularity" at
Google, Marketleap will usually appear in the top
3 results on the first page.
Link popularity will continue to be
an essential factor in successful search engine marketing
initiatives for the foreseeable future. Links are
a helpful tool for search engines trying to wade through
billions of documents and find ones that are relevant
to their users.
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