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We all know the importance of incoming links to our web site. The more incoming links you have, the better your position in search engines. A measure for incoming links is the google PageRank (PR), which you can see on the google toolbar. Another good measure is the linkdomain command in Yahoo search. To know how many links there are to your web site, type linkdomain:www.mydomain.com and see the number of results. The number of incoming links is also sometimes called link popularity.

The number of links is not all that counts: There are good and bad quality links. A link is generally of good quality if the linking page has a high PageRank.

Many people think that the best way to increase the number of incoming links is participating in link exchanges. But I would advise against this. There are much better ways to increase your link popularity.

1. Distribute freeware

One good was to increase your number of incoming links is developing software or an ebook and giving it away for free. Put up a dedicated web page on your web site, and make sure this web page links back to your web site’s home page. Then submit your free products to all freeware and download sites. You can use specialized software or services to do this. You can find an example at Rudenko Software.

However, one important thing to keep in mind: Make sure that what you are giving away is valuable. Stay away from junk. Junk will give you a bad name.

2. Distribute articles

Another good way to increase your link popularity is by distributing articles. Write a large number of articles and submit them all using a specialized service. This can give great results.

3. Press releases

Distributing a press release is very similar to distributing an article. The results are very similar. You can distribute your press releases for free with PRWeb.

4. Blogging

Blogging offers several ways of increasing your link popularity. First, you can submit your blog to blog directories. Second, you can write follow-ups to popular blogs and post trackback links. Third, your readers may write about your blog and post links to your blog. Of course, for this to be effective, make sure that all pages in your blog link to your web site’s home page.

Be very careful to stay away from spamming. When you post a trackback, make sure that your posting is relevant and that your comments will be appreciated.

5. Wiki pages

This is often overlooked, but it’s a very simple idea. You can search for wiki pages relevant to your web site and edit them to include a link to your web site. The idea is simple, but you have to be very careful here. Don’t spam. Only post a link on highly relevant pages. Don’t overdo it.

6. Online forums

You should also participate in online forums. Don’t post blatant advertisings in the forums, but participate in the discussions and answer questions. Make sure the other participants start to know and trust you. Put the URL of your web site in your signature.

Posting comments to blogs is very similar and can also work, but be extremely careful here. Blogs are being spammed so much that most bloggers will not appreciate any comments that look even a little bit suspicious. Don’t do anything beyond posting very relevant comments and including your URL in the From line.

Using a combination of the 6 techniques just discussed allows you to have a very large number of incoming links, and to have a wide variety in links. Each technique will give you links from a different type of web site. Having all these diverse web sites link to you will give amazing results, beyond anything you ever expected.

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Link popularity has recently become an important aspect to consider when promoting a website. Many search engines have started to use link popularity to help determine ranking in their listings. Gaining links from other sites is also very beneficial because you gain added traffic when users follow the link from another site to your site.

What Is Link Popularity? Link popularity is basically the number and quality of links that point towards your site. A link from a very important site is worth more than a link from a smaller site. The search engine companies think that an important site would only link to your site if your site was important, and it makes sense too. Try getting the main page of Yahoo! to link to you and you’ll fail, but if you did get a link, then your site must be worth something. You couldn’t even get a link to your site from a medium size site unless your site was important enough and had something to offer. Both of which are important aspects in determining relevancy - a search engines main goal.

The number of links is also important for the same reason. Your site must be important if many sites link to you. Search engines know these things, and that is the basis for link popularity.

Linking Strategy Rules

The most basic way of gather and exchanging links is to simply visit websites and email the webmaster asking for a link exchange. However, there are a few rules to keep in mind.

1. Related, Not Competitive - You should try to focus your linking strategy on sites related to yours, but not in direct competition. For example, a search engine submission company site wouldn’t want to link with a competitor. They would be better off linking with a website that teaches various ways of promotion. The object is not to lose business to competitors, but to gain business from similar sites.

2. Offer A Link - Most sites won’t just give out a link for nothing in return. Have a link to their site setup and then email them asking for an exchange. Even go as far as to give them the URL of where their link is located. This basically just makes the offer more serious because you already have a link setup.

3. Be Selective - You shouldn’t just fire off an email to every website you find asking for a link exchange. Be selective based on the importance of your site. If you have a large site that has been around a while, you can be more selective with your linking. You just want to be sure that you aren’t wasting your time with sites that will benefit greatly from your link, but won’t do much for you at all.

4. Mini Yahoo! - When I created my links page, I had in my mind a picture of a small directory. Yahoo uses actual people to decide where and if a site gets added. Although my link page is obviously much smaller than Yahoo, I try to keep the same idea. I set up a page with different categories that relate to my site. This makes your links page professional and also offers another free service for my visitors to use. They can use my links page as a targeted directory where they can easily find specific, relevant information.

Best of luck to you,

JC Anderl www.Redlionbooks.com, JC@Redlionbooks.com

Visit my site or email me if you have any questions about marketing or website promotion.

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