Over the past two years, "link popularity" has definitely
become the new buzz word of the search engine promotion
arena.
With virtually all of the major engines now incorporating
this criteria into their ranking algorithms to at least some
extent, many Webmasters have found their once high-ranking
sites have fallen to less than spectacular levels.
Achieving that number one ranking now requires not only the
perfect mix of content and keywords, but also a site that is
deemed "popular" in the eyes of the all knowing search
engines.
This brings us to the question "What is the best way to
increase my site's link popularity?"
Many systems have sprung up that are geared toward helping
Webmasters increase their site's link popularity. Let's take
a look at some of them.
1) Link Farms
Link Farms sprang up rather quickly. With link farms you
generally agree to upload a number of pages to your site
that link to a random list of other sites. In return,
your link is added to this list of sites and are uploaded
to other sites creating instant link popularity. Sounds
good and it worked for a while, but the search engines
soon caught on to this. Now most search engines either
ignore pages that are members of these link farms, or in
some cases (such as Google), they will simply ban you for
being a member of such a system.
2) FFA Pages
FFA Pages or Free For All Link Pages are sites that allow
you to submit your link to them free. All it costs you is
a bunch of junk mail in your inbox. FFA pages have a
preset number of links that can be on the page at any
given time. As newer links are added, the older links are
pushed off. Theoretically, these could definitely help
your link popularity. Unfortunately, your link rarely
stays on the list long enough to be of any real help.
Numerous programs have sprung up, both PC and Web-based,
that will submit your site to a large number of FFA
pages. The problem here? So many Webmasters have become a
member of these programs that you would need to submit
your site every hour for it to be of any real benefit to
you.
3) Reciprocal links
Reciprocal links are link exchanges between Webmasters.
These are by far the most productive types of links you
can get. Not only will they increase your link
popularity, but you will generally get a good amount of
traffic from them as well. There is one big problem with
reciprocal links and that's time. It can take a GREAT
deal of time to hunt down other Webmasters willing to
trade links with you, email them asking for the exchange,
then deal with the actual adding of the links for the
Webmasters who agree. Then you have to keep track of who
has your link, their contact information, etc. The
solution... a wonderful piece of software I ran across
about a year ago called Zeus.
Zeus is a software program that was designed to automate
the task of finding reciprocal links for you, leaving you
free to concentrate on your business, customers, and
promotion. It's sole purpose is to crawl the Web and find
sites that match your criteria, and then get them to link
to you.
In the beginning, you simply train Zeus as to what type
of sites you are looking for, then you set him loose. He
will crawl from site to site through links scanning sites
and deciding if they meet your criteria. If they do, he
adds them to his database and grabs the contact info.
Once you've acquired a good database of sites, Zeus will
build you a directory of all of the sites that met your
approval separating the directory into themes for easy
navigation.
Once he has built your directory for you, he will email
all of the Webmaster's for the sites in your directory
letting them know of their new links and requesting a
reciprocal link in exchange for better placement in your
new directory.
In no time, you will begin getting confirmations from
Webmaster's who have added your link to their site.
Voíla! Instant link popularity!
Not only are you on your way to creating stellar link
popularity for your site, but the links pointing to you
will be virtually permanent and from quality sites that
are similar in nature to your own which will bring you
qualified traffic!
There is simply no better method I have found for
generating good, quality links to your site with a
minimal amount of time spent.
For more information on Zeus, and all of his features
visit http://www.cyber-robotics.com/c/c.pl'ses
About the Author
John Buchanan is the author of the book "The Insider's Guide
to Dominating The Search Engines," and publisher of a FREE
monthly newsletter "The Search Engine Bulletin." Visit him
at http://www.se-secrets.com for more information or to sign
up for the newsletter