Link Popularity: A Powerful Traffic Building
Technique
By Sue Doughty |
“What exactly is “link popularity” and why is
it so important?”
Link popularity is where other sites have
links to your site. It is essential to driving traffic to your site.
Link popularity works on the assumption that if other sites have
links to your pages, then it must be that they consider your site
to be important and that you provide information that people want
to read. A search engine will give your site a high ranking if it
thinks that its users will want to read the content on your site.
The more popular the site that links to you, the
higher the ranking you achieve with the search engines. If a site
has a lot of traffic and links to you, this would be considered
to be a quality site. The search engines perceive that both their
site and your site must be popular. This is better than having a
high number of low-traffic sites with links to your site. Thus,
the quality of the links is more important than the quantity of
links to your site. The ideal scene is to have a high quantity of
quality sites linking to your site.
What makes a site want to link to my site?
The answer is simple. Content! You have to have
something that makes a visitor come to the site other than your
product or service that you sell. There must be a perceived value
that would make the user want to visit your site. This will make
your site popular and thus others will want to link to you.
What type of content should I put on my site?
A. Free “how-to” articles, reports or newsletters
of interest to your client
B. Topical information such as local news or updates
on your particular industry
C. Downloadable software
D. Clips: video, photos, graphics or sound
E. Links to other value-added sites. This shows
the search engines that you are networked within your industry and
thus increases your popularity.
Traffic will come from sites linking to you directly.
Traffic will also come to your site ‘indirectly’ (but significantly)
from the search engines and directories as your position improves.
“Why is link popularity so important”?
If you’re not linked online to your target audience,
they will never know you are there and will never find you. If you
have no traffic, you will have no sales.
Additionally, over a dozen top search engines
and directories today use link popularity to determine your positioning.
In other words, if there are no targeted links to your site, your
search engine rankings will suffer dramatically. This will be the
case even though you may have the right keywords and your pages
are optimized for the search engines.
“Is it important to host reciprocal links
on my site?”
Yes. Today it is critical. Most sites expect you
to offer a reciprocal link in return, so you should start planning
for this now. You can do this by creating a links page on your site
- preferably the index or home page, because that’s what your link
partners most want. This links page will enable you to become an
outstanding portal resource for your industry niche, with visitors
coming back repeatedly to use your links.
“How should I go about building links?”
There are several ways you can go about it. If
you decide to do it yourself, look for websites that are related
to you and your specific industry. Then contact the webmaster expressing
your desire to exchange links and how it would be mutually beneficial.
Look for sites that are quality sites that will give your visitors
content.
You can also hire a professional service that
will build your links, monitor the exchange program for you and
guarantee a specific number of links. This could save you a tremendous
amount of time and will ensure that it is done correctly.
Building links can be an arduous process, but
when done correctly provides a strong and lasting foundation for
the success of your site. Link popularity can be one of the most
valuable techniques you will ever use. Do not underestimate its
power in driving an enormous amount of traffic to your site. It
is essential to your marketing success!
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Sue Doughty is the Marketing Director of Studio 1 Design and Hosting
and has over 15 years experience in her field. Her advice in the
area of
search
engine optimization has helped businesses achieve high search
engine placement and success on the Internet. Visit Studio1
Design and Hosting on the Web at http://www.studio1webdesign.com,
email .
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