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The secret link building roadmap used by SEOs
Search engines are the front door to the Internet. It is the very first tool that potential customers use to find the products and services they need. This is why search engine optimization is a must and one of the strategies for ranking is through link building. If the customers do not find your website, you have no possibilities of making any sales.
Link popularity refers to the ranking assigned to your website by the search engines, and it determines the ranking your page gets when keywords are entered into a search engine. So, you're probably wondering, how do I make my link popular?
Search engines are discretionary, giving status and ranking to sites that have links to their pages from related, quality sites. Nobody knows what the exact algorithm used by these search engines. But their goal is simple, to get the most relevant websites on the top of the search engine results.
The more commonly used your keyword is, the harder it will be to achieve link popularity, but without achieving this step, it is almost certain your site will never rank highly on any search engine.
There are a few things you should be aware of. The first is that just linking up with a large number of other websites will not achieve link popularity. In fact, it may have quite the opposite effect. This is particularly true when pertaining to websites that are nothing more than "link farms" - pages containing line after line of indiscriminate links. Search engines may aggressively discriminate against your website if you are associated with a link farm, so steer clear of them!
The next thing to bear in mind is the quality of the site you are linking to. Never link to a page you have reservations about your visitors seeing. The last thing you want your website to appear as is indiscriminate and cheap. Linking to sites of poor quality will only lessen your link popularity, if not completely destroy it. So how do you know if it is a poor quality website? Read their content. Is it something that your visitors would find useful?
So what is the best roadmap for link popularity building?
The first step, and the fastest way to get your foot in the door, is to get a listing in a popular directory, such as Open Directory Project and Yahoo. If your site is business-related, you will want to be listed on Yahoo, and despite the fact that it will cost you around $300 a year, it will be money well spent. If your site is non-commercial, the listing will be free, but it will take time and follow-up to actually get it listed. Open Directory is gives you a free listing whether you are business-related or non-commercial, but be prepared to make a lot of follow-up inquiries before you see your site listed.
The second step after you have attained directory listings is to locate other quality sites to exchange links with. Try to find sites that are in some way related to yours, so not only will your link popularity increase, but your customer base may also be expanded. You want to avoid your competitors and look for sites that are useful to your site's visitors.
Obviously, not all sites want to link to other sites, so you will have to do some research when you are looking for possible linking partners. Google is an excellent starting place for your search. Make sure you enter keywords that you think quality customers will also enter to find your own site.
After you decide you have found a good prospect, you must set out to woo them. The first thing to do is to add a link on your own links page to their site.
This is an essential first step; it shows good faith, and ups your chances significantly of their reciprocity. After you have added their link, you must contact the webmaster of their site. Since this is almost always done by email, you want to make sure it is immediately clear that your message is not junk mail. This requires that you tell them right off the bat that you have added a link to their page on your site. A hook like this almost always insures the reader will read on.
Next, be sure to be flattering and let them know how much you appreciate their website. Make sure you emphasize that you have actually visited their site, and that their site is not just a random pick. Say something like "I personally like your logo with your name on it" or something that would really show them that you really visited their site.
Give them the address of your links page, and ask them to check out the link for themselves. It's a good idea to mention that they will not only benefit from the increased traffic your website will direct their way, but you will also increase their link popularity. Briefly, explain why link popularity is so essential, but do this in a sentence or two so you don't sound like a professor!
Finally, tell them you would greatly appreciate if they would reciprocally add a link on their own links page to your website.
Repeat this process with as many appropriate sites as you can find, bearing in mind the criteria of quality and non-competitiveness. After you have emailed all relevant sites, be sure to check these website frequently to see if they have added a link to your page. Give it about a month, and if no link appears, try another charming email. Then give it another month, and if your site is still absent from their links page, it's time to remove their link from your own links page.
Be sure to set up a schedule to check your ranking in search engines frequently to see if your link popularity has improved. This is not achievable in the blink of an eye. It will take some time and a good deal of work. There is no way around the labor-intensive quality of improving your link popularity, which is why search engines regard it with such importance.
The secret is that there is no secret to link building. You just have to really work for it. You can also outsource it to some country with cheap labor.
Not of course you want a black hat alternative.
About The Author
Noel Bautista is a search engine optimizer, and internet marketer.
Visit his website at philippines | isulong seoph | mobile blog | internet profit
Previously on SearchEngineChannel
- Keyword Domination on Google With Blog Links
- Google Sitemaps' useful SEO Tools
- What defines the success of a web site?
- Successful Article Marketing Strategies
- Are You Sabotaging Your SEO Success?
- Why You Can't Get Good SEO for $29.99 per Month
- Google Sandbox is gone!
- Sitemaps and SEO - Do sitemaps help your Google PageRank?
- Mastering The Google Dance And The Use Of Page Rank
- Buying expired domains for PR does it still work?
