Build Link Popularity The Smart Way

A Brief Introduction To Link Popularity

As webmasters research various ways to get more traffic to their site one method that is gaining more and more publicity is Link Popularity. Link Popularity is the number of links that point to your website as measured by the search engines. In theory if your site has many sites linking to it then it is considered to be a valuable resource on the particular topic so the search engines will give it a higher ranking.

The Problem

As with many rules/laws eventually people found a way to manipulate it. Sites were created solely to build the link popularity of other sites. These sites are called 'Link Farms' and contributed to the pollution of search engine results. They increased the search engine rankings of many sites that did not deserve the position they received.

Eventually the search engines caught on to this deception and some such as Google adjusted their algorithms accordingly. Google now penalizes websites associated with Link Farms imposing penalties they deem appropriate based on the site and the scenario. Many people that felt the effects of this penalization were fairly innocent, well that is if you consider ignorance to be an alibi. They simply did not know that what they were doing was wrong; some even paid for SEO services and were victims of bad services.

As the search engines change their algorithms aiming to reduce fraudulent activities by webmasters, more and more ways are conceived to manipulate them, and so the battle continues.

An Honest Link Building Strategy

Getting quality links to your site from related resources is not always as easy as some make it sound. The key word here is 'quality'. It is a very time consuming process and involves the following steps:

  • Search for quality sites that are related to yours.

  • Contact the Webmaster of the related site.

  • Wait for a response from them.

  • Swap links if the response is positive.

There are also some automated methods of doing this that speed up the process, however, I would not recommend any of them and hence won't list them in this article.

So you have started your link building campaign and are hopefully seeing the results. Now you say this is great but how can I make this process more efficient and effective without risking your good standings with the search engines.

Here is the solution.

The Smart Way To Build Link Popularity.

One thing webmasters are always looking for, and find hard to refuse, is good quality content. If you are knowledgeable on a particular topic that is related to your site, writing informative articles is a great way to gain your website additional link popularity. If you are reading this article and are not reading it on http://www.lilengine.com then there is your proof.

If you don't consider yourself a writer don't worry, you don't have to be. Get your article in the best shape you possibly can and then have others, who you consider to be better at writing than you are, look it over. Make your edits and there you go.

How is writing articles efficient and effective?

Well-written articles do take time to produce but as you write more you will get better and will find that it starts to take less and less time. This method offers several more benefits than the linking method listed above. These are as follows:

  • Articles are, in most cases, permanent additions to sites.

  • Writing Articles demonstrates your knowledge of various industry related topics and this helps to build credibility.

  • If users are interested enough to read your entire article then there's a very good chance that they will click on your link to visit your site in hopes of learning more or even just out of curiosity.

  • You are able to include several links with articles. You can have several links in the resource box also known as the bylines as well as in any 'appropriate' spots in the article.

  • You have the 'option' of including your affiliate links in the article if it includes information on that resource.

  • You also get to add this content to your own website.

  • If you include reprint information in the bylines then others that read the article, and feel it would be a valuable addition to their site, will add it and then it becomes almost viral. It spreads even though you are not doing a thing.

Summary

Building link popularity is a vital part to your search engine ranking and should be approached in either of the two methods listed above that you feel is more appropriate for your individual situation. The benefits from writing, however, far outweigh those of requesting reciprocal links in most situations. Hopefully this article has helped to shed some light on this and will encourage more knowledgeable people to start sharing their knowledge with others. For more information on Link Popularity visit http://www.lilengine.com

About The Author

Alec Duncan is the founder of http://www.lilengine.com, a search engine optimization resource site. Visit http://www.lilengine.com and also visit their new Web Hosting resource section at http://webhosting.lilengine.com.

In The News:


pen paper and inkwell


cat break through


How You Can Easily Compile A Gigantic Keyword List

It doesn't matter what kind of marketing you are involved... Read More

Google Love - Five Top Tips To Make Google Love Your Site

1. Google love ...Google and all its programming is not... Read More

Keywords Finalization Methodology

To arrive at the set of keywords that:Describe business correctly... Read More

How To Make Your Website More Successful? (Part II)

In part I of our series of how to make... Read More

Google is Quickly Changing...

Google is quickly changing...With the big buzz of Novembers fall... Read More

Search Engine Marketing 101 For Corporate Sites

When most people want to find something on the web,... Read More

Is Page Not Found Making Google Tell The World Site Not Found?

Search Engines are hard to tame, that's for sure. But... Read More

Search Engines - The Dominant Factor

Let's face facts - Search engines are starting to rule... Read More

Developing A List Of Keywords For Marketing

Keywords aren't just some words that allow search engines, like... Read More

Googles Good-Writing Filter

I was recently struck by the fact that the top-ranking... Read More

How To Avoid These Ten Costly Search Engine Mistakes

If you have a website then you already know the... Read More

Search Engine Optimization: Who Do You Trust?

Internet search engines exist to organize the seemingly immeasurable amount... Read More

Companies Cash In on Your Search Engine Ignorance

This article will cause many companies to stir, but it's... Read More

The Two Most Important Things You Must Do For Google Top Ranking

Attaining a top ranking in Goggle or any other major... Read More

Google Tests Expanded Search To Include Printed Works

Google Labs is currently testing Google Print, which returns results... Read More

How To Avoid The 3 Biggest Title Tag Mistakes With Search Engines

Your title tag is the most important 3 to 12... Read More

The Changing Face of Search Engine Optimization

With the ever evolving internet market for just about anything... Read More

Were You Bamboozled by Google?

It's still happening. "Florida," "Boston," "Ginger," and "Brandy" are just... Read More

eMarketing Sabotage - Top 10 Steps To Kill Your Search Engine Marketing Practices

We at America Web Works find ourselves amazed at the... Read More

How to Improve Your Search Engine Rankings

When people think of search engine optimization, they immediately think... Read More

Why Top Search Engine Placements Never Move?

#1 question when it comes to web advertising is how... Read More

Website Submission - What You May Not Know About Search Engine Indexing

Getting your website listed in the search engines is relatively... Read More

A Play In The Sandbox Is Necessary

There has been a good deal written about the Google... Read More

Has Google Lost the Plot?

With the help of MSN, recently I've been reminiscing about... Read More

King + Queen = Royal Success

Ever wonder how or why your competitor gets better search... Read More

Black Hat SEO and the Sneaky Redirect

Are shades of grey SEO really Black Hat SEO?Black hat... Read More

All You Need to Know About Your Website Traffic is Contained in 5 Key Stats

You built that content rich web page optimized for your... Read More

8 ways to build a really bad web site for Search Engines

Some web sites receive hundreds or thousands of unique visitors... Read More

Rock Your Rank With a Dynamite Text Link - Yahoo Directory Explodes Rankings

Last week a client called me excitedly exclaiming that their... Read More

How to Make a Title Tag that Search Engines Will Love

Making the following changes to your title tag can help... Read More

Search Engines The Masters Of The Internet Universe ? Part 1

Trillions of Billions of content pages make up the wide... Read More

Offpage Optimization: Does Article Marketing Cut the Mustard?

For those who haven't heard: article marketing is the new... Read More

Google Sitemaps Explained - How To Use Google Sitemaps

Three Ways To Index Your Site With Google Sitemaps [Difficult,... Read More