Link Popularity for a Successful Website: How (Not) to Go About Getting It

A classic way of getting seen and noticed on the web is to make sure your site is linked to as many other sites as possible. The strategy of link-exchange has been so overused and abused that search engines are now wary of it and may penalize sites that are linking to "link farms", or to any other sites with non-relevant content.

This is the way it should be. We all want our web browsing experience to be smooth and pleasant. We don't want to get frustrated by stumbling over irrelevant content while following links between sites. On the other hand, webmasters all want more traffic to their sites, and get frustrated when they don't get it. There are two types of benefits from having many links to your website:

- Get improved ranking by the search engines - if you are popular, you are probably worth a visit

- People (not just search bots) actually follow the links and find your site!

If done properly, link popularity improvement is an extremely important strategy to make your website successful. Broadly speaking, you can achieve this in a number of ways:

1. The classic link exchange (link swap) method; two webmasters agree to swap links

2. You pay to get incoming links from high-ranking websites

3. By writing articles and getting them posted on other websites; including a link to your own site

4. By getting your articles published in E-zines, with links back to your site

5. You participate in online forums, where a link to your site may be included with each post

6. You start a blog/RSS feed, and get it spread to many subscribers!

All these methods involve work, in varying amounts. Method #2. costs you money, the rest may be essentially no-cost. Method #4. will probably not contribute to search engine ranking, but may give you droves of targeted visitors.

The problem with method #1. is that it's tedious. But you can get software that may automate it by helping you find link partners and manage your link collection. I am aware of these software tools:

ARELIS I have tested this tool, and it seems very promising. It goes out and searches for link exchange partners according to different search methods which you specify. For me, looking for incoming links at sites similar to my own gave the best results. The program then quickly returned many relevant sites. Next, it helps you contact webmasters and keeps the link collection neatly organized. It also creates the link pages.

Zeus A bit similar to ARELIS, but I find it much clumsier. The only way it can search for link candidate sites is thru a list of 100+ search phrases. In my hands, this method produced very low-quality results. At the time of writing, I am trying to get a refund from the company that sells Zeus. They seem very reluctant to honour their money-back guarantee. Buyer beware!

Links Manager This program does not go out and search for link partner sites; it only handles swap requests and organizes the link collection. I have not tested it myself.

When building a link swap strategy, note that the search engines are getting increasingly sophisticated in judging the quality of your links. Some things to remember:

- Outbound links ONLY to quality sites with content relevant to your site; never "link farm" type sites

- Make sure the sites that you link to have not been penalized. This would affect you also!

- Incoming links that are placed on the same page as 100:s of other links won't help you; their value gets "diluted"

- The anchor text in the incoming links is very important. It should contain relevant keywords; but all links should not have identical text - this looks artificial in the virtual eyes of the search bots

If you follow these guidelines, I believe link swap can still be an important strategy for building a successful web presence.

Conclusion: Link popularity improvement, if you do it the proper way, is still of enormous importance for a successful website. But if done the wrong way, it may backfire. If you want to try the classic link swap method, I recommend using ARELIS ( www.axandra.com ) to make it less tedious.

Kai Virihaur runs The Hosting Finder ( http://www.thehostingfinder.com ), a web hosting directory featuring articles and RSS feeds on web development, website promotion, and online marketing.

---

How to Approach Potential Link Exchange Partners

Exchanging links can be a great way to build relations... Read More

Web Traffic Wonder: Are You Using This Free List Building Tool?

Yes, if need more web traffic, this free list building... Read More

How to Cheat Traffic Exchanges

There are many ways to cheat traffic exchanges and generate... Read More

The Nuts And Bolts Of Traffic Exchanges

Traffic Exchanges. What are they? How do they work? What... Read More

Free Traffic Course - Day 3

This is the 3rd day of "Free Traffic Course".This day... Read More

Deep Linking Strategy for Content Sites

Linking - what a mess if you don't know what's... Read More

The Best Traffic Secret I Ever Learned

If you could get high quality traffic that would grow... Read More

Keyword Articles: Use Magical Keywords in Your Articles and Get Lots of Traffic

You get a flash of inspiration and an interesting topic... Read More

How To Generate Targeted Traffic...and Cash In On It.

We all know that generating traffic to your site is... Read More

How To Get Free Traffic To Your Website

There are many ways to get free traffic to your... Read More

Reasons Why You Should Have A Weblogger Installed On Your Web Site

I don't know about you, but when I built my... Read More

Secret to Increase Traffic from Banner Exchanges

IntroductionBanner exchanges allow you - as a website owner -... Read More

Trafffic Equal Sales?

Everything being equal, more traffic to your website translates into... Read More

Using Free Publicity to Build Your Web Site Links and Traffic

So, you have a great product or service, yet your... Read More

Do You Need to Marry The Daughter?

For the sake of this article let's forget about search... Read More

Keeping Track of Your Link Exchanges

All of us want to increase traffic to our web... Read More

Why Traffic Touts and List Pushers Are Bad For Your Business

In this Article we look at the second competitive advantage... Read More

How To Get Guaranteed Traffic With Overlooked And Little Used Methods

Traffic. We all know that without it our sites will... Read More

Yahoo Drops Google: How To Flood Your Site With Traffic In The Next 48 Hours

It official Yahoo has dropped Google and will be using... Read More

How To Fire Up Your Link Popularity

When I first started out in Internet marketing, reciprocal linking... Read More

A Tip for Finding Willing, Quality Links

Google might not dominate the search engine world like it... Read More

How To Explode Your Web Sites Traffic With Articles Permanently!

There is one golden rule, which is inherent in this... Read More

Expand your Website to Improve Traffic

One problem with websites is that they often go neglected... Read More

Using an e-Signature to Guarantee a Boost in Your Web Traffic!

Using an e-signature is one of the easiest, most effective... Read More

How To Get Links Without Asking

Sending out link requests is a time-consuming business. So wouldn't... Read More

Top Ten Ways to Promote Your Website When the Traffic Dries Up

Even the best websites with the best marketing plans can... Read More

4 Ways To Use Quality Content To Increase Traffic To Your Website

There are multiple ways to drive traffic to your website.... Read More

10 Ways to Increase Traffic to Your Website

Ever since the time websites became new to the World... Read More

The Importance Of Incoming Links And Reciprocal Links

Building a web site is only the first step in... Read More

Increasing Site Traffic

Alright, so you have a website but are lacking visitors?... Read More

Link Popularity and Your Add URL Page

With all the buzz going on about the importance of... Read More

How to Run a Successful Link Exchange Program

Link Exchanges are a very time consuming project. The time... Read More

How to Increase Targeted Traffic that Boost Your Income?

To increase targeted traffic is one of the foremost wish... Read More