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Off Site Linking & Link Popularity


The single most important factor in site positioning is link popularity.


In recent years, more and more search engines have started to heavily rely on a link popularity measurement in order to determine site ranking.  This is actually a good way for them to get more accurate ranking, while minimizing the irrelevant pages that are optimized for irrelevant keywords. In other words, it makes your job much harder, because just optimizing your site isn't enough.


In this way search engines don't just look at the content on each page of a website.  Most also analyze link structures and clicks to determine the best results to show in a search.  In a nutshell, link popularity is measured by the number of links between websites.


So, if you have many outbound links on your site, and there are many links TO your site, your value increases.


Example:

  • Site A is linked to by 1,000 other web pages that are indexed in a certain search engine.
  • Site B is only linked to by 50 other web pages that are index by the same engine.  Site A will likely have a much better link popularity rating, and even if Site B has a more optimized site, it is likely that Site A will have better ranking.


All Links were not created equal

 

There is an added catch to the link popularity issue.  Not only are the quantity of links considered, but also the quality of links.  If a site that links to you is considered by the engine to be important, it will carry much more weight than some random site.  Furthermore, most search engines assign themes to websites they index and if you have a higher inbound link count from websites of the same theme, you will be better off than having links from unrelated sites.


For these reasons, make sure that you get linked from the best directories, and from lots of quality sites with a topic related to your site's. The best search engines, and in particular Google (who alone can deliver 80% of the search engine traffic to your site) "crawl" the web looking for links to your site.  They interpret a link to your page as a vote, and the more links (votes) you have coming from quality sites the higher your page rank will be, and the higher the possibility that your page will achieve a good position in the search results pages.  It's that simple. 


Following these four steps is the best way to get the quality links you need:


  • Get listed in DMOZ: The Open Directory Project ( http://www.dmoz.org  ) is the world's largest directory. It is maintained by voluntary editors who review your site prior to inclusion. Being listed in this directory is important because it is used by Google and America Online to build their directories. Getting listed is free, but it may take a few weeks or even months to get listed, which can be a bit frustrating. However, there is a strong belief among search engine optimization experts that an Open Directory Project listing can significantly increase your page rank in Google, so you must take the time to submit your site and do it right (list your site in the right category and strictly follow their submission guidelines). For how to get listed in the Open Directory Project go to:  http://www.dmoz.org/add.html .

  • Get listed in Yahoo!:  Submissions to Yahoo! are no longer free for commercial sites (your site can be reviewed in about a week for a fee of $299 although inclusion in the directory is not guaranteed.  However, if you do get accepted, the $299 fee will be due every year if you want your site to continue to be listed).  A link from Yahoo’s directory is still one of the best links you can get, and it is worth the money you spend getting listed.  For tips on getting listed in Yahoo! go to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/.

  • Submit articles: There are many sites where you can publish articles in your field of expertise. This is a great way to establish yourself as an expert and to drive quality traffic to your site. The key is to include your resource box at the end of your article. A resource box is a small paragraph with a brief description of you and your business, where you include a link to your site. This way, every time somebody picks up your article and publishes it in their website or newsletter, your link will be there for readers and search engines to see and follow.  For tips on getting traffic by writing articles click here.

  • Exchange links with reputable sites: You must try to find quality sites that are compatible to your site's topic (not direct competitors), and ask the webmaster for a link exchange. This will give you highly targeted traffic and will improve your score with the search engines. For tips on a good link exchange campaign, click here.


You can freely reprint this article.  Just include the following resource statement at the end:


Jerry Higdon contributes to several Internet Digests at the Resource Center published by Envisiondustry.net.  You will find useful articles and resources on internet marketing, website design, website branding, search engine and website optimization (SEO), including article submission, social networking and backlinking.


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