Link popularity is the number of links pointing to a website. It is an important factor that major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN use to rank web pages.
Webmasters figure out that in order for their web pages to rank well at the search engines for certain keywords, they need a lot of incoming links with these targeted key words. Linking schemes of all kinds were hatched...mini-sites, site networks, link farms and reciprocal linking, just to mention a few. Some schemes like link farms were clear indication of manipulating the search engines.
Google has clamped down on such practices and further fine-tuned its SERP algorithm to stop manipulation by anyone as evidenced by Jagger.
Focus on the long term. Build a site that is credible to the search engines and your website visitors.
Here are 7 ethical link-building strategies for you work with...
1. Internal linking. Having a well organized internal linking structure insures that your website gets spidered and that all pages of your website gets indexed by the search engines. This in turn increases the chances of the number of phrases that your website has the potential to rank for. And I have had website traffic from key phrases that I never thought of.
2. One-way links. Human edited directories look like a thing of the past. With Google being more efficient and accurate as ever theres no need to turn to human edited directories. A directory may get you a few click-throughs in a month or none at all. However, to be listed in a high quality directory like DMOZ and Yahoo can increase your PageRank.
The way to get inbound links is distribute content. There are many article directories on the Internet. Just include a link in your article. With article distribution you can choose the exact anchor text for the link.
3. Reciprocal links. What is reciprocal linking It is simply trading links with other sites. You add their links to your site and vice versa. In times past website owners have sizeable directories with multiple links that are not relevant to theirs. Now, search engines have become wiser and look for link relevance. A word of advice here, know whom you are trading link with. Dont just choose any Tom, Dick, Harry or toothless Jane to be your link partners.
People have asked whether they would be penalized by the search engines for reciprocal links. Well, at least for now, they are still acceptable.
4. Varied the Text of your inbound links. It will not appear natural to the search engines for every site that links to you to have the same link description. So vary the text of your inbound links using a few key phrases.
5. Grow your links at a steady rate. Google penalizes new sites with low-traffic that grow their links too quickly, whereas a well-established high traffic site that increases by a few thousand links a month will viewed as normal. The rate at which links are created without being penalized by Google, is directly proportional to the age of the website. For owners of new sites, bear this in mind, if you are thinking about buying inbound links.
6. Have inbound links from different ranking sites.If all your inbound links are Pr6 and Pr7 sites, then you will send a strong indication that you have purchased those links. Your inbound links will not appear natural to the search engines. It is more natural for you to have a large number of Pr1 and Pr2 inbound links with decreasing number of inbound links as you move higher up the PageRank scale.
7. Actively participate in forums or blogs. Dont just post threads indiscriminately on forums. Search engines view this as spamming. Participate in forums to learn and to contribute to the communities and at the same time gather inbound links. You will also build credibility for yourself and your business if you are a solution to peoples problems.
Blogging is an effective way of gathering inbound links. If you have a personal blog, it is easier to post comments at other sites. But do spam blast your comments with advertisements. Just provide a link to your site with your comments. Your goals are to gather inbound links and to gain a good reputation online. Comment intelligently on the specific subject. A well thought out comment will not only attract the search engines, but also more readers of the blog to your website. They will naturally link to you if they find articles of good quality at your website.
To achieve good rankings at the Search Engine through link popularity requires time and patience. Stick to the sound practices of link building. Impatience could cause you to incur penalties. It was once rumored, but now quite evident that Google uses a sandbox to keep questionable sites in the hold until they have aged to a point. Then they are released at the sole discretion of Google. Other search engines also have their own safeguards to keep their SERPs from being cluttered with questionable sites.
The underlying principle is to grow your links organically whilst adding content of value to your website. Ethical SEO is not a black art. It is a matter of adhering to the guidelines, terms and conditions stipulated by the search engines.
Gerrick W
mailto:gw@1stinternetmarketingsolution.com
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When most people go to the internet, they head directly for a search engine to type in the topic of their choice. If your business is not indexed by search engines, chances are good that you will never see the level of customers you might be able to with search engine traffic being directed your way. There are three fairly simple ways to increase your traffic and profit from search engines.
The first way to profit from search engines is through pay per click advertising. Pay per click advertising works through search engines that have an agreement with a business to place a small ad on the results page for certain key terms. The listing on the search engine page usually has a title, a short heading, and a short promotional wording blurb. Depending on the search engine, the advertiser may or may not get to control the text. The advertiser pays nothing to appear on the results page itself. He or she only pays a previously agreed upon amount to the search engine when a visitor clicks on the ad itself.
While it is true that pay per click advertising is only worth it if the sale gets from click to close, those businesses that do manage to close the sale have an excellent deal in their hands with pay per click. This means that customers are usually directed to their site for about five cents each, depending on the price of the key word. There are many different current companies that offer pay per click advertising. Googles pay per click program is called AdWords. Google estimates that over eighty percent of internet users visit Google as a search engine. That results more customers seeing the ads than most businesses ever thought possible. Google allows you to create your own ads. They do, however, have a service that will design your ad for you if you choose. Yahoo is the other most popular pay per click program. Yahoos Overture works through partner sites like MSN and Alta Vista. Through these many sites, they claim to allow you to reach over ninety percent of internet users.
The second way to profit from search engines is to increase your website content. When people surf the web, they are looking for content that is relevant to their purpose. They typically are not looking for marketing ploys. If internet searchers see relevant content on your site, they are more likely to read what you have to say. The more articles you have, the more chances you have that customers might see your site. Many different people search for many different things. Many people search for multiple things in one internet session. As a result, if you have several key word articles, you have more chances that customers might see your articles and click on your site. Because content articles tend to be focused on a topic, and that focus leads to the repeated use of a keyword or phrase, that repeated use leads to higher and more search engine rankings. Increasing your website content will help you become one of those first ten articles. This means more people than you ever thought possible will be clicking on your site in no time simply based on your website content. Not only will you be closer to the top of the search engine with more content, you may also be indexed by more search engines. This could mean something like ninety percent of all internet users seeing your website in any one given internet session.
The final way to profit from search engines is to optimize your site using search engine oriented keywords. Using keywords can do a number of things for your site. First, and foremost, they increase your search engine ranking. Search engines index your pages based on location and frequency of key words on your page. The more key words on your page, the more likely you are to get a higher search engine ranking. The higher your search engine ranking, the more likely people are to click on your site. Research shows that typically, people only click on the first ten links with regard to search engine results. Therefore, if you land in those then, you are more likely to get more web traffic. Keywords also ensure that your pages will be indexed by more search engines. If you have more search engines indexing your pages, you will have more chances for customers to see and click on your site.
Profiting from search engines is not a difficult task if you try to use at least one, or preferably all three, of these methods.
Copyright 2006 Anton Cheranev
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