Link popularity or link promotion (as it’s sometimes called), is the practice of increasing the number of quality web sites linking to your web site (known as your site's link popularity).

Why is link popularity so important?

Increasing the number of quality links to your web site is the single most efficient technique you can use to increase traffic to your web site and boost your search engine rankings.

Here are the techniques that we recommend. Many can be implemented quite easily.

TIP #1: Perform a links audit
Watch your incoming links from websites, make sure they are relevant to your site or you and the website linking to you could be penalized. For a quick check of your inbound links, this web site will show you links in over 8 different search engines:
Link-popularity-checker.com

TIP #2: Link to your clients and customers
And vice versa. You could even have an area on your web site for “client of the month.”

TIP #3: If you’re B-2-B, link to your upstream and downstream suppliers
And vice versa. You could even have an area on your web site for “supplier or vendor of the month.”

TIP #4: Link to the search engines
Linking to the search engines might help your chances gain higher rankings in the long run.

TIP #5: Link to your competitors
Research your competitors and try to exchange links.

TIP #6: In your link test, provide the most important keywords
For example, here is how we do links for our site:
<a href=www.searchenginepatrol.com> Search Engine Optimization Services</a>

TIP #7: Include a website description with your link
Include information about your site with your keywords.

TIP #8: Exchange links with other webmasters
Research through the search engines potential partners that would exchange links with your site.

TIP #9: Exchange links with others in the same Yahoo! directory
Research sites that are in the same Yahoo! category as your site, and try to exchange links.

TIP #10: Submit your site to multiple directories
Research directory web sites such as Yahoo! and Looksmart, and manually submit your site to the requested directory as well as any regional, local or industry directories. Even non-profit directories are a good idea.

TIP #11: Create a links page on your site for inbound links
Include a description of each site that is in your links page, and provide a mailing address or submit form that they can send their link information to.

TIP #12: Give people a reason to link to your site
Describe the benefits of linking to your site, and what your site has to offer.

TIP #13: Submit an online article and include links to your site
Research web sites that write articles that pertain your web site’s content, if you can’t find one, then make an article and send it out through a newsletter.

TIP #14: Write an online review and include a link to your web site
Review a web site or a book or something that might trigger users to come to your site.

TIP #15: Create an event or contest where you give out awards
Perhaps it’s something in your industry or even in your community. You can have contestants link their web sites to yours as part of the process in choosing the winners.

TIP #16: Research high link popularity sites and link to them
Be careful you don’t link to people that just have good link popularity, but no relevance to your site. Find appropriate targeted web sites that have similar content and good link popularity.

TIP #17: Post questions on a forum or a FAQ page
Find forums or pages that are updated frequently and ask questions that provide links to your site. Make sure you include your website address as a signature so that a link is created back to your site.

TIP #18: Post question or information on newsgroup sites
Find appropriate newsgroups that would have people interested in your site and post information that would link to your site. Ask people in the newsgroup you are trying to find people to link to your site, be honest and provide benefits on why they should link to you.

TIP #19: Create an email campaign and include links to your site
Send out emails to people with links to your site or copy an article that you have written and ask people to forward it to their friends.

TIP #20: Create a signature file with links to your site
Provide links in your signature file to attractive pages of your site, or create ‘landing’ pages that will serve as entry pages to your site.

TIP #21: Research high link popularity sites and link to them
Keep on track of people linking to your site, to do this go to the search engines and type in “link: yourdomain.com”

TIP #22: Purchase link-building programs like Zeus , Opti-link or Arelis
You should be serious enough about link popularity to purchase a program that will help assist you in contact webmasters and building a links page. For more information on link building programs, contact us here: linkpopularity@searchenginepatrol.com

TIP #23: Create separate web sites on different hosts
Create different websites on different hosts and have them link to each other. (Note: having different hosts in different parts of the country helps in terms of the search engines seeing the sites are different companies.)

TIP #24: Have business associates/friends/family sites link to yours
Make sure they provide a brief description of your site and what your site has to offer to the user.

TIP #25: Create an affiliate or referral program through your web site
Provide an affiliate service through your website that will include users to link to your site for a commission or lead generation.

TIP #26: Create partnerships/alliances/join ventures that link to you
Research and establish potential partnerships with other websites that could help improve your link popularity.

TIP #27: Create a newsletter and include articles that link to your site

We hope you find these ideas, tips and techniques useful.

Marc Harty is the owner of SearchEnginePatrol.com. His firm has obtained hundreds of top 10 search engine rankings for a diverse list of clients, including those in the financial, legal, human resources, educational and manufacturing sectors. Marc regularly leads Internet marketing seminars and is an authority on guerilla-style e-marketing.

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