| Directories
and other types Web sites can provide a link to your
business site. These links have great potential value
in Goggle's PageRank, and people may stumble on your
link while visiting the other site or directory.
Many directories
today are paid. There are National, regional and vertical
directories. You may also set up a link exchange program.
This advertising mode is known as "link building,"
and it involves getting other Web sites to link to your
site. It's like one of your neighbors recommending a
good plumber or handyman; it carries more weight than
if a person just stumbled across your Web site. In today's
world, there is much more to good search engine listings
than simply optimizing your site for keywords. In order
to keep searchers happy, search engines are always developing
ways to make their results more relevant.
In the last couple
of years, links have become increasingly more important
to the engines because they see links as an endorsement
of your site by other Web sites. Think about it for
a minute: Would you link to a site you didn't like?
This concept is referred to as "link popularity."
Based on the links pointing to your site, the search
engines either increase or decrease how relevant your
site is for particular keyword searches.
Obviously, you
want to increase your site's relevancy, right? Good.
That's the goal here: to make sure you start building
the right kind of links for your site in order to improve
your search-engine results.To this day, the best way
to build links is still doing it by hand. Here are the
steps you should follow when building links:
1. Set
a goal. Link building takes a lot of time,
but it is very effective and easy to do, so you want
to keep at it. Set a goal for the number of links you
want as a way to stay motivated through the process.
Depending on the sites you ask and your approach, your
results will vary. But a general rule of thumb is to
set your linking goal at four-to-six times higher than
the number of links you actually want to receive. You
need to set your goal higher because most sites will
not want to trade links, for various reasons.
2. Make
sure your site is worth a link. This means
your site must offer something of value to entice other
sites to link to yours. If all your site does is sell
products or services, you need to get busy creating
some additional linkable content. Examples of linkable
content include how-to articles, product reviews, tools,
tips and so on. Creating content can be tough, but if
you don't have some on your site already, you've got
to do it. Adding linkable content not only will encourage
others to link to your site, but it will improve the
overall quality of your site for your visitors. Make
it easy on yourself by writing about something you know
that relates to your site. This column is a perfect
example. It teaches without trying to sell something.
The best part of creating linkable content is that if
you do it well enough, you will find that people will
link to your site without you even asking, and that's
the easiest way to build links. You're not a writer?
You can always add free tools or free downloads. Also,
consider creating a links page prior to requesting a
link trade with a site. You can usually expect a better
reception from a potential link partner if they can
see where you will place the link to their site.
3. Determine
the type of sites you want to trade links with.
This takes some thought. You need to figure out all
of the different types of sites that could potentially
trade links with you. Focus on sites that are related
to your target market.Here's a good example:I worked
on a site that sold sunglasses, so I approached sites
that sold swimsuits and tanning lotions, but not sunglasses.
Once we accumulated links from those sites, we then
developed a section of our site on eye protection and
asked for links from all of the sites we could find
that addressed eye protection. In the end, we significantly
increased the number of links to our site from other
sites in our target market. Plus, we added about 10
additional pages of content to our site that our visitors
enjoyed and we continue to link to. This helps significantly
in search-engine placements.
4. Get
equipped to evaluate your link partners. To
make the most of your efforts, you don't want to spend
too much time going after links from sites that the
search engines don't think are valuable. While it isn't
perfect, the Google Toolbar can help you decide which
sites are quality link partners and which aren't.The
toolbar integrates with your Web browser. It helps you
by displaying the "page rank" of each site
you visit. Put simply, page rank is a rough indicator
of what Google thinks of a site. You can rest assured
that if Google thinks it is a good site, it probably
is.The higher a page ranks the better. One strategy
is to try to link up with sites that have pages ranked
as high as or higher than your own.
5. Locate
quality link partners. There are many ways
to find link partners, but the easiest way to find quality
link partners quickly is to start at Open Directory
and Yahoo!. Open Directory and Yahoo! are good places
to start for three reasons:These directories are both
so difficult to get listed in that each potential link
partner you find there is likely to be of a higher quality
than those you would find elsewhere. Yahoo! and Open
Directory greatly boost a site's link popularity when
they list a site. Your site will receive a little bit
of that boost each time someone from one of those directories
links to you.The links you build don't help your link
popularity in the search engines unless the engines
know about the link. The search engines crawl the sites
listed in Yahoo! and Open Directory on a regular basis,
so by starting your linking campaign here you can be
sure the search engines will find you new links quickly.
To find partners, simply start searching for terms that
are related to the types of link partners you decided
are best (step No. 3 above). While surfing your potential
partner's Web site, keep your eye on their page rank
(step No. 4).
6. Organize
your findings. Again, there are many ways to
do this, but it's always a good idea to keep it simple.
Use a spreadsheet to keep track of the following: Full
name of site owner or Webmaster. E-mail address of the
site owner or Webmaster. Home page URL of link partner.
URL of the page where you think your link belongs and
why you think it belongs there. Page rank of the page
where you think your link belongs. Something unique
that you liked about the site. Date of initial link
request.For many sites, much of this information will
not be available, but you should try to find as much
of it as you can.
7. Prepare
for contact. Now that you have a list of potential
link partners, go through the list and send a custom
e-mail to each one requesting that you trade links.
Do not send a generic e-mail requesting a link; it will
not get a response. Your link request should mention
the following, most of which comes from your spreadsheet
(step No. 4):Something you liked about their site; compliments
go a long way. Why you think your link belongs on their
site. The URL to exactly where you think your link fits
on their site. The URL of where you'll be placing their
link on your site. How you would like them to link to
you. Provide a sample link and description. The easier
you make it, the more likely they will post it.
8. Check
for links. When building links, you are dealing
with real people, so it can take some time. You may
need to wait a month or longer before checking to see
if anyone has linked to your site from your new partner.
Usually it is best to do this step by hand, but you
can use a link popularity tool if you have a lot to
check.
9. Follow
up with the cream of the crop. Once a month
has passed, follow up with each site that hasn't linked
to you yet. Save time and only follow up with the cream
of the crop — those in your spreadsheet with the
highest page ranks.
10. Set
a schedule. You will find it easier to keep
building links if you put yourself on some sort of link-building
schedule. Consider doing a certain small amount (30
to 60 minutes) of link building each day. It will help
prevent burnout, which is inevitable if you try to do
your entire campaign in a couple of days. |
