Improve link popularity. Improve search engine position.
Good link popularity makes all the difference to your website ranking.
Once you have identified your keywords, optimized your pages and submitted your site to search engines, you should turn your attention to increasing links into your site.
Link popularity is a major factor to search engines. If your site does not have many links, it is not 'popular' and will not be placed high in their rankings.
Be aware that links are not sufficient by themselves to get you good rankings, you also need good content
and well optimized pages.
What is link popularity?
Every site that has a link to your website, will contribute to your popularity. The more sites that link to yours, the higher your popularity.
Effectively, when a site links to yours, they are saying that yours is a good site.
It's almost impossible for scammers to manipulate link popularity which is why search engines place such high value on it.
Choose your links carefully
Not all links to your site are of equal worth. A link from a highly ranked page will count higher than a link from a lesser ranked page.
Don't assume if you submit your link to thousands of FFA (free for all) sites you will achieve good link popularity, FFA sites are frowned upon by some search engines.
It is important to obtain as many high standing links as you can. It is also important that the site linking to you is of a similar topic or subject.
A site selling sweets will give little value by adding a link to a site representing a construction company, and vice versa.
Additionally, you can strengthen a link simply by using your keywords in the link itself. So, instead of linking to 'Company Name', you should link to 'Company Product'.
Top 10 tips for better link popularity
There are a number of ways you can increase the link popularity of your website and here we give what we consider to be the top 10 best ways ...
1 - Get reciprocal links from complimentary sites Search the Internet using your own keywords. Select the companies not in direct competition with you. Write to them to ask to exchange links. If you provide a link to them from your site, they will be more inclined to add a link on theirs.
2 - Write articles You can write articles about topics your own site visitors are interested in. Make these informative and original (if possible). In time, you will find other sites link to your articles. You can also submit your articles to syndicate websites. Just make sure to include a link back to your own website.
3 - Get listed on specific directories There are many niche directories that cater for specific topics and markets. Because these sites will be directly related to your own, the strength of a link from them will be very good.
4 - Get listed in Open Directory Projects Some search engines begin by crawling websites in the ODP list. This can add real value to your website and you can add your link here: DMOZ ODP
5 - Get listed in the Yahoo Directory The Yahoo Directory is separate from the Yahoo search engine and will add real value to your link popularity. Business websites can pay to be included (Yahoo Business) and personal websites can be included for free (Yahoo Personal).
6 - Provide your own link directory Add a link directory on your own website and invite other related sites to exchange links with you. If you provide quality links, this will be a valuable resource page for your own site visitors and for other sites to want to link to.
7 - Newsgroups and discussion forums When you post a comment to newsgroups and discussion forums, add a signature with a link back to your site.
8 - Rewards Submit your website to others who provide awards and reviews. If they mention your site they will no doubt link back to it. Similarly, offer a reward scheme on your own site where others can apply to be reviewed for award.
9 - Testimonials Give testimonials to other sites whose product or service you like. If they use your testimonial they will often link back to your site.
10 - Cross link your own sites If you have multiple sites under different domain names and they are different in content but related in product or service, add a link back to your other sites from each of them. You could do this by adding an 'about us' or 'group sites' page.
