One
of the most important search engine optimization (SEO) tasks is developing link
popularity. Not only because of Google, but because every major search engine
now uses this criterion as part of its relevancy formula.
Link Popularity Began With Google
PageRank (PR) is an important variable in Google's algorithm. It evaluates Web
structure through link analysis to determine relevancy by means of "link
popularity." PR gives higher rankings to sites with many strong, quality
links leading to their pages. These sites are deemed to be highly relevant
because of the quality and number of these links.
To quote Google software engineer Matt Cutts, "Google's PageRank search
technology works by first identifying the link structure of the entire Web, then
ranking individual pages based on the number and importance of pages linked to
them." Note that the quality of the backlinks is more critical than the
number.
Beware of Link Farms
Linking no sooner became the rage than people began to look for short-cuts to
link popularity. But there's a right and a wrong way to create backlinks, and
short-cuts can get you in trouble. One of these short-cuts was the creation of
link farm services that provide hundreds of irrelevant links. Google calls this
spamming and will remove sites associated with link farms from its index. Other
engines also hate spamming and will do the same.
How do you define a link farm? It's a network of sites that link to other sites
for the sole purpose of increasing their PR score or link popularity. You get
hundreds of links to your site from totally unrelated sites and in return, you
must link to hundreds of other unrelated sites. This is counterproductive
because you need to link to related information to provide value to your
customers. In fact, if customers are sent to unrelated topics they'll probably
abandon your site out of frustration.
So how can you build link popularity the right way? You need to link to
information that expands your customers' knowledge in topics related to your
business –topics of interest to them. There's no short-cut for doing this, it
takes due diligence. Below are five tips for getting started on the road to link
popularity
Five Tips for Improving Link Popularity
1. Directory Listings: Ensure your site is listed in ODP (free) and also include
Yahoo! Business Express ($299 yearly) and LookSmart Express Submit ($299) or
Basic Submit ($149). Directory listings boost link popularity because they rely
on human editors, known to result in relevant content.
There are many lesser-known directories that might be advantageous to be listed
in. You can find many industry-specific and smaller directories in Search Engine
Guide's Search Engines Directory http://www.searchengineguide.com/searchengines.html.
2. Request Links: When looking for possible link candidates, start by visiting a
search engine and typing in your most important strategic keywords. You'll see a
lot of competitors, but look for non-competing, complimentary sites. Screen
those sites, selecting only the ones that might be receptive to your link
request. Give them a compelling reason to link to your site and be sure to
suggest where a link might be appropriate. A good strategy is to link to them
first and point this out, which might help get a link back.
Another way to do this is to identify a well-established site with good content
that targets the same audience you want to reach (non-competitive, of course).
Then perform a link analysis from that site, noting the incoming links and
soliciting those sites.
3. Promote Linkability Within Your Site: There are many ways to do this.
Basically, you want to provide quality resources and outgoing links as
appropriate. This can include links to search engines, news hubs, weather
reports, industry resources, industry professional groups and so forth. Outgoing
links can be important in two ways: they provide incentive for other quality
sites to link to you when you're already linked to them, and if internal linkage
is done properly, it can improve your PR score. For technical information on PR
see the white paper by Chris Ridings "PageRank Explained
4. Publish Articles: Get the experts in your company to write informative
articles your audience is interested in, then submit these articles to
appropriate online publications in your industry. Provide a brief bio containing
your Web site URL and make it a condition for publication that the article must
appear with a bio containing your company URL. This can generate a lot of links,
but it takes time and editorial skills.
5. Testimonials: It can be worthwhile to start a testimonial page of products
and services you find useful. Say you admire certain marketing sites or
publishing sites. Contact the company, telling them why you value their services
or find their products effective. Be earnest and concise. The company may
respond asking for permission to display your comments on their Web site. Grant
them permission provided they agree to link to your site. Sometimes it helps if
you post the testimonial on your site first and refer them to that page.
In conclusion, this is an important SEO strategy and one of the best ways to
improve your visibility and rankings. So you want to do it the right way.
Bio Paul J.
Bruemmer is the CEO of Web Ignite, http://www.web-ignite.com/ a professional
search engine marketing company. Founded in 1995, Web-Ignite has helped promote
over 15,000 Web sites. Client testimonials report traffic increases of 150 to
500 percent. Bruemmer presents at search engine conferences and his articles
have appeared on ClickZ, New Media, Internet Day, B2B Interactive,
I-Advertising, MarketingProfs, Marketing Sherpa, Search Engine Guide and
SitePoint
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