Romantik Design

Everyone expects of massive online success as soon as they promote their services and products online but there are few factors that can decide website’s popularity and longevity and needs thorough attention. Among them link popularity is the most important one.

In fact, the moment words link popularity passes through our sound receptors, our brain interprets us what it generally mean, but apart from that vague idea, you must understand few core facts on link popularity if you want to be a leader in search engine marketing.

Link popularity is the number of incoming links from potential partners to your website. More the one way link, more popular will be your website; more popular your website become, higher will be the chances of getting good page rank and good turn-around of Web traffic. Since good PR focuses on quantity and popularity of the links, it can help in attaining good position in search engine result page (SERP). If your website is placed in appreciable position, people easily find you as soon as they enter the Web world, view your services repeatedly and become potential buyers.

People often considers page rank (PR) and link popularity as the synonym of each other but this consideration is nothing more than a misconception because page rank is the software used by the Google to rank a Web page and it is a numeric value that determines the relevancy and importance of a Web page on search engine result page. PR is an important factor that facilitates link popularity because link popularity is determined on the basis of PR. Hence in order to get more link popularity, your website must be good enough to get suitable PR when search engine spiders visit your Web pages once a month (such process is called Googlebot in case of Google search engine).

Link popularity does not mean linking your website to numerous irrelevant website. Links must be developed with potential partners having similar interest like yours and more importance is given to one-way-link or incoming link rather than two-way-link or reciprocal link. In order to be benefited through link building, you must thoroughly check the PR and link popularity status of the approaching websites because if the website has zero PR then you will gain nothing from that link.

Another suggested factor in link building is the text used in links. Make your website links with targeted Keywords. In some other way, articles, forums and blogs posting is few appreciating technique of getting back links but make sure not to spam the process and submit relevant information in articles, blogs and in forums.

Hence, start making your website most desirous among your competitors; work on it, make it informative, content rich and link-worthy so that others may prefer linking to you. Be judgmental on quality than the quantity of the links. If you follow the process sincerely with an utmost desire to success, you will see your website gaining link popularity in each successive day.

Link popularity is referred to as the process of enhancing the popularity of a webpage by linking it to other domains to increase search engine ranking of a webpage. Link building, apart from increasing the ranking of a webpage on search engine key word search, also helps increase the PR of a page. Mere search engine optimization, no mater how nicely done, is not sufficient enough to guarantee high search engine ranking.

Major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Alta Vista rely on link popularity to determine the importance of a website and rank it accordingly. If more number of related incoming links your have to your website the better for you to rank high in search engines.

Tips for Improving Link Popularity

* Get listed in directories: One of the best ways I know for improving link popularity in search engines is to get listed in the top directories. Start with Open Directory Project, which is free, but also include Yahoo! Express and LookSmart Express Submit. If your site is relevant to a section in About.com, submit to that network. Search for industry-specific directories and topical search engines in Search Engine Guide’s Search Engine Directory, and submit to relevant databases.

* Build links: Search for the top key phrases you want to be found for, then review the sites that come up. Visit these sites and select those that are noncompetitive. Ask them to exchange links with your site, giving them reasons why your site is valuable and suggesting where a link to you might be appropriate. These are the best sites to be linked to for your search phrases because their high rankings will improve your link popularity, not to mention increase your traffic if their visitors click your link.

* Redesign your site to promote linkability: Provide quality informational resources and outgoing links on your site, such as links to search engines, news portals, and industry professional organizations. Your outgoing links can be important, too.

* Generate content: Write articles in your area of expertise, post them on your site, and submit them to appropriate publications across the Web.

Why is link popularity important?

Outside links help dramatically to increase traffic to your site. Increased traffic can lead to higher page rank and better conversionrates. Many search engines take link popularity into consideration for your website’s page rank by “looking” at how many relevant links are directed to your website.

Here are some strategies that are generally considered to be important to increase link popularity:

* There should be links from the home page to all subpages so that a search engine can transfer some link popularity to the subpages.

* Appropriate anchor text with relevant keywords should be used in the text links that are pointing to pages within a site.

* Getting links from other web sites, particularly sites with high PageRank, can be one of the most powerful site promotion tools.

* One way links often count for more than reciprocal links.

* The webmaster should list his/her site in one or more of the major directories such as Yahoo! or the Open Directory Project.

* The webmaster should only link to sites that he/she can trust, i.e. sites that do not use “spammy techniques”.

* The webmaster should not participate in link exchange programs or link farms , as search engines will ban sites that participate in such programs.

To increase link popularity, many webmasters interlink multiple domains that they own, but often search engines will filter out these links, as such links are not independent votes for a page and are only created to trick the search engines.

Link popularity isn’t about simply increasing your “links.” And it’s definitely not only about exchanging links with your business partners. Major search engines have hundreds of factors with which they measure link popularity, like internal link, outbound link and inbound link etc. But, whenever people talk about link popularity, they emphasize more on inbound link. Why so? If search engines are to be believed, all three have equal contribution in link Popularity. Let us discuss their individual impact in link Popularity.

Internal Linking– One of the major components of link popularity that often gets overlooked is Internal Linking. Let’s say a user found your site through an external link, but they didn’t land on the homepage. Starting from any page on your site, make sure that they easily find their way to the homepage and/or other relevant sections. Your website’s text content should be filled with opportunities to potentially pass link juice to other pages of your site and to help users find their end destination. Internal Linking serves in two ways:

Compatible linking structure enables website visitors to find out what they are really looking for.
Improve link popularity of your website by indexing each and every internal page.

Outbound Linking– Link from your website to other websites is called outbound or outgoing link. Have a look on advantages of having outbound link:

Offer visitors your unique observations on existing resources.

Provide your readers in-depth information about similar topics.

Show that you’ve done your research and have expertise in the subject manner.

Make visitors want to come back for more analysis on future topics.

Sending visitors to other sites for more information can build a good business relationship.

Some argue that linking out to other sites isn’t worth it because you drive people away from your website – but the general theory is that if you direct them to useful information often chances are that they’ll keep coming back to you for more.

Inbound Linking- Links from other sites pointing to your site comes under inbound or Incoming Linking. Following are the few benefits of these links:

Links from quality sites clearly indicate that your site is valuable.

Sends traffic to your site.

Anchor text “click” optimize site in search engines and move up the rankings.

Helps in brand recognition.

Hence in Link popularity, what is important is not only the number of links pointing to your site, but also your internal link structure and linking out. Now we can say that internal linking, inbound links and outbound links are the key ingredients of Link Popularity.

The major factor for success on the Internet is link popularity. If you have good link popularity it can increase traffic to your web site by bringing high ranking on search engines. It is quite difficult task for a new site to build link popularity which has just born here we will discuss what strategy a new site should adopt to boost link popularity. First of all let’s understand the meaning of link, link popularity and link exchange.

What is Link and Link Popularity?

The link (hyperlink, or Web link) is a connection from one web resource to another. Internet begins with the hyperlink and a person go from one page to another page by clicking link. Links are the buttons and underlined text on web pages that take you to other pages on click.

What is Link Popularity?

Link Popularity means how much you are known on the internet which can be measured how many sites or web pages linked to you. Link popularity is a measure of both the quantity and quality of sites that link to your site. Link Popularity is the number of quality hyperlinks pointed to your website.

What is Link Exchange?

In Link Exchange basically, we exchange links – you add my link to your website and I will add your link to mine. It is a barter system give link and in return get link .By exchanging links, with theme based sites or authority sites you can increase your websites link popularity and which will results into increase of your website search engine rankings.

What are new site link exchange problems?

For new sites it is quite difficult to get linked with other sites. Even the google takes the site for indexing if it has got few inbound links from other websites. Google says “The best way to ensure Google finds your site is for your page to be linked from lots of pages on other sites…”

In one of the reason for site not listed Google has explained: “If we have not picked up your site and it has been several months, then it is likely that our spiders are not able to find your site. If you increase the links pointing to the page, Google will likely find your site in the future. “

It is clear that your site will not be listed on Google quickly. Search Engines usually takes news sites very fast if you are linked by other popular related web sites. New site will also not get reciprocal link from other sites because of non popularity or 0 PR (Google Page Rank).

Link building strategy for new site owners

Now what strategy should new sites adopt to get started on the Web? Here are the few one, which will work.

1. Get Listed on Free Top Web directory Try to get listed on open directory project DMOZ ( www.dmoz.org.) and also submit your site to Yahoo! by visiting http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/. Be sure to follow their guidelines for listing. The important free directories in addition to dmoz are:

http://www.dmoz.orghttp://dir.yahoo.com

2. Get Links for Your Associates Try to get link from your associated or friends web sites. If you are in business you can get link from your dealers or business associates. It will also help you in getting theme bases links. In initial stage you can take link from your friends and relative web pages or site although they may not be theme based but at least search engine like Google will find your link and index you.

3. Free Site Submission Tools There are lot free site submit tool are available on the Internet. Use them to get listing as for the new site owner it is difficult to find the important search engines. Be careful and do not submit many time to same search engines as they may consider repetive submission it Spam. Further try to keep away from FFA pages as they are treated as ‘link farms” by search engines and listing is penalized.

4. Join Discussion Forum The Discussion form is another media to get inbound links. Join the Message Board which is related to the theme of your site and if you are expert in your field you can reply the many threads. Be sure to include your URL in your signature and also anchor text to be linked with URL should be your site Keyword. If the message board allows it, you can even include a short promotional blurb about your site at the end of your posts. Even if you do not post try to add your url in profile and it is also an inbound link and is important if from your theme based Forum. Try to add your details i.e city, country name, interest and occupation in profile as it will make your theme based pages where all contents are related to you.

5. Email based discussion Email based discussion lists, which are archived on the web in static HTML pages can also be used to boost the link popularity of your site in a similar manner. In this case, the signature file that you use with your email program should contain the URL for your web site.

6. Reciprocal links request low page rank sites The New site faces difficulty in exchanging link with high Page Rank Sites. It is better to start exchanging link with sites which are related to your topic or theme of your site even they may have low Page Rank. You will see that there page rank will increase with the time and you will gain.

7. Link Popularity through Awards Try to join the award sites. There are many sites which open contest or award of good site design or good content site you can apply for it. If you get a chance to which your brief site content will be published on Award site, which will increase your link popularity.

8. Major Industry Associations There are many industrial association sites which publish free listing of there sites. Just find the association site relating to your products or theme of site and get listed.

9. Signing of Testimonial Lot of website ask to write testimonial and also add your URL. Just study the site and write brief genuine testimonials about the website. If you will be able to write good, genuine testimonial you are sure to get listed there with your comment. Do not sign guest books with vague comment just to get link.

10. Discount Offer You can offer a discount or concession on your good, products and services to anyone who put a small banner or text link back to your site.

11. Affiliate program Set up an affiliate program, which is an excellent way to boost link popularity. Your affiliate members will put there affiliate code on there sites which will contain your URL and your will get theme based inbound link.

12. Free Netcard Try to make free netcard available on the Internet and your complete detail to make your full information page and inbound link is also important as it is your business card on net.

It is always said better beginning is half done. So if new site adopt the above method to increase link popularity they are sure to build good page rank in the beginning and latter on all higher page rank web sites will be ready to exchange link with you and will result into building of solid link popularity for your site. You should not expect results (Increase in search engine ranking) so fast. Wait for at least 3 month till search engines index you all full site pages.

So tell the truth, were you popular in high school? Did you have a lot of friends, and a wide social circle? Were you an athlete? Did your accomplishments extend far outside the halls of your alma mater to neighboring schools and counties? If so, then congratulations; you’re probably in the minority of those reading this article. What does this example have to do with link popularity you ask; more than you think.

Just as in high school, on the World Wide Web, your website is known by the company it keeps. Link to the wrong site or “hang with the wrong crowd” and you could be ostracized by the search engine community before you even begin. Achieve quality inbound links from a wide range of popular kids on the internet, however, and watch your site’s online profile soar. Sounds simple, and it is, if you know what to do to climb the online social ladder that is Link Popularity.

But before we get to that, what exactly is Link Popularity? Simply defined, Link Popularity is a measure of the quantity and quality of other web sites that link to your site on the internet at any given time. It is considered an off-the-page criteria that is greatly utilized by search engines to determine the overall importance and quality of your site to the online community. Because of its impartial nature, a site with a very high number of incoming links is usually viewed as highly relevant to the online community at large and thus highly visible within relevant search engine results. Whereas a content-poor site will attract fewer incoming links and thus hold little value to the same visitors.

What is the current link popularity of your site today? Take a moment to enter your site url at popular free link tool www.linkpopularity.com, then come back for the rest of this article…..

Still there, good! The results probably weren’t what you had hoped for though, where they? Not to worry; probably the biggest threat to you obtaining a high link popularity score for your site is relying on old information. To that end, below is a quick 10-step CURRENT process that can be implemented immediately to increase your site’s overall link popularity:

Step 1 – SUBMIT YOUR SITE TO OPEN DIRECTORY (DMOZ) AND YAHOO – Although neither of these sites are the 800 lb. gorillas they used to be, any link from these sites is going to increase your online profile immediately and very visibly. Find your appropriate category in both sites and submit for free with DMOZ and invest the $299 for a yearly indexing with Yahoo. Although DMOZ is still incredibly slow in adding new sites, keep at it, find the appropriate editor and send him cookies or flowers if necessary (couldn’t hurt?) then be patient.

Step 2 – ADD YOUR KEYWORDS TO THE LINKING ANCHOR TEXT – When at all possible, try to have an on-point relevant keyword phrase used as the linking text within any inbound link your seek for your site. If all you can manage is your site name or your url, that is certainly fine. But if you are selling toothbrushes to Eskimos, then “Eskimo toothbrushes for sale” as the linking keyword phrase from one site to yours is always the way to go.

Step 3 – WRITE ARTICLES AND SUBMIT PRESS RELEASES – Hey, look what I am doing right now! I could be watching ESPN, but I am writing this article instead. Write articles and submit press releases when you have a personnel change, introduce or upgrade a service or product or when you have a topic of interest you wish to share with the online world web community. Don’t have a blog? Get one! This is a simple way to get your articles and press releases out for indexing and review. Make sure to include links to your site where appropriate and watch your link popularity grow and grow.

Step 4 – FIND OUT WHO LINKS TO YOUR COMPETITORS – Go to Google.com and enter this into this search query: link:www.yourcompetitor.com. Do the same for Yahoo by entering linkdomain:www.your-competitor.com -site:www.your-competitor.com into the search field. Seek out the sites linking to your competitors and convince them to link to you instead. You win TWICE with this approach. You gain a quality link and an increase in your overall popularity while your competitor LOSES a link and achieves a lower popularity score in return.

Step 5 – CREATE AN AFFILIATE PROGRAM – Nothing generates quality, inbound links to your site faster than an established, commission-paying affiliate program. Whether your site is product or service-based, an affiliate program can be just the thing that takes your site and its link popularity to new heights. Visit www.CommissionJunction.com or www.LinkShare.com to set-up a new affiliate program of your design today and watch your online profile grow by leaps and bounds.

Step 6 – DEEP LINK YOUR SITE – This step is vastly overlooked by even the most savvy of online marketers initiating a new link popularity campaign. Make sure that links you seek out or solicit don’t just link to your home page, but ALL pages of your website. This process has numerous benefits including expanding your overall online link profile as well as generating unique Google PageRank values for each and every one of your site’s pages instead of just your home page.

Step 7 – SIGN UP ON GUESTBOOKS AND FORUMS – If you don’t participate in forums on your site topic or remember to sign-in when visiting a new site for the first time, now is the time to make such actions a habit. Always post a message or participate in a forum thread whenever possible and include a link to your site in your signature where appropriate. These “sig” files do get indexed and really add up, especially if the site forum in question is something highly regarded in your specific industry.

Step 8 – CONTACT RECIPROCAL LINKS BY PHONE NOT EMAIL – You would be shocked how successful this really is. More people are inclined to respond to your request when you introduce yourself by phone and let them know that you were visiting their site. Tell the person you are linking to their site, asking permission of course, and then politely ask for a link back. Cement the request by following up by email; then wait for the links to roll-in (oh, and get rid of the form letters; they don’t work!).

Step 9 – AVOID LINK FARMS AND LINK EXCHANGES – Reputation on the web is more important than ever. Again, just like friendships in high school, it’s better to have fewer higher-quality links to your site than hundreds of off-point, non-relevant links that do nothing to enhance the overall experience of the online community. Stay away, far away, from companies promising you hundreds of links to your site overnight. At best you don’t need the links, and at worst, you could be banned by the major search engines altogether.

Step 10 – DOWNLOAD THE GOOGLE TOOLBAR – This very simple technique allows you to view all potential link partners by the very important Google PageRank score (1-10) that is viewable in this browser. Use the toolbar to keep tabs on your own site’s PageRank score, than seek out complimentary, highly relevant linking partners that have a Google PageRank score of 6 or higher whenever possible. Convince a handful of high Google PageRank sites to link back to you and watch your site take off.

Remember, just like in high school, you and your site will be known by the company kept. Follow the simple, ten step plan outlined above, and you will be well on your way to achieving real, measured, lasting success online. Be the popular site on the block today; it’s easier then you think. Go ahead, be popular!

Search engines are the first tool that potential customers use to find the products and services they need. This is why link popularity is so important. If the customers can’t find your website, you won’t make sales.

You might be wondering, “What is popular about a link!” Plenty! Link popularity refers to the ranking assigned to your website by the search engines, and it determines the ranking your page gets when keywords are entered into a search engine. So, how do I make my link popular?

Search engines are discretionary, giving status and ranking to sites that have links to their pages from related, quality sites. It’s a simple recipe, but a very important one. Google created the system, and now most popular search engines employ it to rank your web pages in their indexes.

The more popular tour keyword is, the harder it will be to achieve link popularity, but without achieving this step, it is almost certain your site will never rank highly on the search engines. But don’t be discouraged; there are ways of achieving link popularity using the most competitive keywords.

There are a few things you should be aware of. The first is that just linking up with a large number of other websites will not achieve link popularity. In fact, it may have quite the opposite effect. This is particularly true when pertaining to websites that are nothing more than “link farms” – pages containing line after line of indiscriminate links. Search engines may aggressively discriminate against your website if you are associated with a link farm, so steer clear of them!

The next thing to bear in mind is the quality of the site you are linking to. Never link to a page you have any problem about your visitors seeing. Linking to sites of poor quality will only lessen your link popularity, if not completely destroy it.

So let’s get to what you need to do to achieve high link popularity and improve your rankings on all the popular search engines.

The first step, and the fastest way to get your foot in the door, is to get a listing in a popular directory, such as Open Directory Project and Yahoo. If your site is business-related, you will want to be listed on Yahoo, and despite the fact that it will cost you around $300 a year, it will be money well spent. If your site is non-commercial, the listing will be free, but it will take time and follow-up to actually get it listed. Open Directory is gives you a free listing whether you are business-related or non-commercial, but be prepared to make a lot of follow-up inquiries before you see your site listed.

You are aiming to get listed in the highest level of appropriate category, and this just takes some common sense. For example, if your company sells Goats Milk from a farm located in the middle of Whoop Whoop, do NOT submit your listing to “Retailers from Nowhere.” BIG MISTAKE! All you have to do is look a little deeper – and submit your listing to the “Goat Product” category. You will not only associate yourself with culture and quality, but you will be listed in a national category.

The next step after you have acquired directory listings is to locate other quality related sites that will increase your link popularity. Try to find sites that are in some way related to yours, so not only will your link popularity increase, but your customer base may also be expanded. You want to avoid your competitors and look for sites that are useful to your site’s visitors. Let’s look at the Goats Milk site example. Linking up to a site that sells Goats Milk recipes would be helpful to your visitors, and the chances of this site wanting to link up to your site are also greater. By linking to a related site that will be relevant to your website’s traffic, you are increasing both of your site’s business prospects – and both of your sites’ link popularity.

Not all sites want to link to other sites, so do some research when you are looking for possible linking partners. Google is an excellent starting place for your search. Make sure you enter keywords that you think quality customers will also enter to find your site. Remember, your criteria are quality, highly ranked, non-competing websites that have a links or resources page. Go to these sites and assess them. Look at the quality of the product, the graphics, and the ease of use. Then check out the other sites they are linked to, and determine if your own site would fit in with the crowd.

When you decide you have found a good prospect, you must set out to woo them. The first thing to do is to add a link on your own links page to their site. This is an essential first step; it shows good faith, and ups your chances significantly of their reciprocity. After you have added their link, you must contact the webmaster of their site. Since this is almost always done by email, you want to make sure it is immediately clear that your message is not junk mail. This requires that you tell them right off the bat that you have added a link to their page on your site. A hook like this almost always insures the reader will read on.

Next, be sure to be flattering and let them know how much you admire their website. Make sure you stress that you have actually visited their site, and that their site is not just a random pick. Give them the address of your links page, and ask them to check out the link for themselves. It’s a good idea to mention that they will not only benefit from the increased traffic your website will direct their way, but you will also increase their link popularity. Briefly, explain why link popularity is so essential, but do this in a sentence or two so you don’t sound like a professor! Finally, tell them you would greatly appreciate if they would reciprocally add a link on their own links page to your website.

Go through this process with as many appropriate sites as you can find, bearing in mind the criteria of quality and non-competitiveness. After you have emailed all relevant sites, be sure to check these website frequently to see if they have added a link to your page. Give it about a month, and if no link appears, try another charming email. Then give it another month, and if your site is still absent from their links page, it’s time to remove their link from your own links page. The only time you want to pursue a link further than this is if you believe a site is crucial to your link popularity and your business needs. Just remember to keep all your communications complimentary and cordial.

Then set up a schedule to check your ranking in search engines frequently to see if your link popularity has improved. This will not happen over night. It will take some time and a good deal of work. There is no way around the labour-intensive nature of improving your link popularity, which is why search engines regard it with such importance.

B.T.W – make sure you have a tidy, professional looking site or you will never persuade anyone to link up to you. Be prepared to keep plugging away at this process, as long as it takes, until you achieve link popularity success!