The Quest For Links
By: Thomas Jenkins
High ranking on Google and other such search
engines is largely based on the number of sites that
links to your page. Due to this factor, the SE conscious
web master is eternally engaged in a quest for links.
In this article I shall reveal some of the does and
don'ts, and perhaps even a few tips and tricks to
help you along your quest.
Links exchanges can be extremely productive, but
here are a few things to consider. Set up a separate
page where you will put your reciprocal links, however,
do not name this page links.html or links.htm, call
it associates.html. This will make other webmasters
more attracted to having a link on your page, also
it seems a lot more professional to have 'associates'
rather than; 'random people I decided to exchange
links with to gain/maintain a high SE ranking'.
Furthermore, when first starting out on your quest
for links, always be the one to make the first move,
by placing a link to someone's page in anticipation
of them reciprocating. You can always remove it if
they don't, and it is likely to encourage them to
add a link to your site. Do not be afraid to approach
the 'Big Boys', do a search in Google for your keyword,
and contact the people that rank highest. This makes
perfect sense, but many people simply do not bother
contacting the webmasters at the top - thinking they
would never agree to exchange links with them. But
remember; they too have to maintain their high position
and getting new links is the easiest way to do this.
Moreover, exchanging links with high ranking sites
is far more productive, Google is after all based
on weighted voting.
To make the most of the links to you, submit the
pages that link to your site to the search engines,
this will ensure that their 'votes' are counted, and
if you let people know that you are submitting their
pages for free, just because they linked to you, then
people are far more likely to link to you in the future.
The easiest way to get loads of links from a high
ranking site to your own is through forums. Becoming
very active on popular forums is a great way to increase
search engine ranking.
Another good tip is to submit the pages of the forum
that have your link on, to the search engines. Now
people are going to be sitting there reading this
and thinking, 'there is no need to do that, Google
crawls every link on a page and they will eventually
get to the link to your site'. However, EVENTUALLY,
is the key word (if you pardon the pun), submitting
directly to the search engines will make the process
quicker. Also, there is evidence to suggest that pages
submitted directly to the search engines and linked
to in other pages gain higher ranking.
Furthermore, Google does not penalise for over submission,
so where's the harm? Always ensure that you exchange
links with sites relevant to yours, but not too relevant,
the last thing you want to do is promote your competition.
For example, if you run a web design company, exchange
links with web design resource sites, SEOs, graphic
designers, but not other web design companies - unless
you have formed a good relationship with that company
and work collaboratively on projects or work in different
markets.
Good luck on your quest for links!
About the Author:
Visit Thomas Jenkins at JKomp.com.
