Michael Campbell's Top 10 Tips To
Improving Link Popularity
Link Popularity - to me -
means how many incoming links and how often do they get
clicked on. It's only one part of the equation. There are
also many other factors involved. Most engines in this day
and age do a complete link analysis.
So not only do they look at the amount of links and how
often they get clicked on, there's also link quality, link
relevancy, reputation and topic, temporal duration, cache
data, traffic patterns and in the case of Google, PageRank.
Improving your site's overall link popularity depends on how
well you do in all these areas.
1) Telling People to LINK OFF
Yes, it's really odd. Turns out my marketing site was also
known for wicker furniture and chat lines among other
things. Huh? Yes, a couple of sites thought it would be a
good idea to link to me, just because I do well in the
search engines.
The problem was their links didn't make sense as they were
totally off topic. We both ended up getting penalized.
Usually you cannot make people remove incoming links, unless
they are infringing on some kind of patent. But if you
kindly explain that what they are doing is actually giving
their site a penalty and hurting their findability, the
links come down pretty fast.
What they are doing is building the reputation of my page
with what they say in their outgoing links. If what the
links say, do not match the topic of my page, the search
engine gives the page containing the link a penalty.
Simply put: Reputation is what a page is known for. What
incoming links say the page is about. Topic is what the page
is really about. The actual content of a page. The
Reputation must match the Topic.
2) Making Google Eyes
Google uses PageRank. You can either be a hub or an
authority. Decide which one you want a particular page to be
and stick with it. Don't mince types with Google.
Hubs have many links and are ranked by backwards clicks.
Meaning that every time someone hits their back button - to
find more sites - you actually score points. Hallway pages
or directories are good examples of hubs, especially if you
link to them with authority pages.
Authority pages contain relatively few links - the fewer the
better in my opinion - and are rated according to forward
clicks. Authority pages are not likely to be found with
backward crawling and most often lead to pages with many
links.... hubs. Doorway pages are good examples of authority
pages, especially when you link them to hubs or catalog
style sites.
Hubs lead to authorities, which lead to hubs, which lead to
authorities. Repeat the process as often as desired.
3) Hail Hail the Gang's All Here
Ask your upstream or downstream suppliers to link to you and
you to them. If you are a wholesaler, you don't sell to the
public, only to retailers. List your top 10 retailers as a
reward to them. Same with retailers, link to your main
wholesalers, unless they have to remain a secret for some
reason.
Advertising agencies and printing shops can link to their
customers and vice versa. Same deal with your friends. You
could each provide three links and put up a "my friends"
page or "suggested sites" page. A word of advice though,
don't everyone call it the same thing and don't call it a
"links" page.
Also don't request links on a public bulletin board. Yes,
the search engines have many employees, some of them have
the job of maintaining the integrity of their search
results. They read the popular search engine boards.... so
be very careful about how you recruit a gang of cross
linkers.
4) I dunno... Search Me?
While you're at it, link back to the search engines. Does it
help? I don't know. But what if it does? What if the search
engines check if your site leads back to them? What if they
give 1% boost if you do? Would 1% matter if everyone else
had 99% relevancy and you got an extra 1%?
Hmmm, something to ponder. I always link every important
site back to the major search engines and directories as a
little thank you gesture.
5) Temporal Time and Space
How long did someone spend on your site before clicking back
to the search engine? If the person didn't come back it
means - to the search engine - that the person found what
they were looking for. Your site is given a boost in
rankings because people who visit your page, don't come back
to the search engine for more links.
One way to achieve temporal brownie points this is by
creating and controlling two levels of links. It's much like
the hub and authority example I mentioned earlier. Search
engine links to a authority page with only one link on it,
which in turn leads to a directory style page. From the
directory page the visitor finds plenty of links on their
search topic and there's no need to hit the back button to
the search engine.
6) There's Cash in the Cache
If your page gets clicked on often enough, it gets stored in
the search engine's cache, a storage buffer for speedy
retrieval of web pages. Cache data is analysed and pages in
it are given a big boost in positioning.
One simple way to boost your cache is to use the search
engine, to find your page and click on your own link. Do it
once a day. Have staff with multiple computers? Get them all
to click your company web page link once a day.
Another way is to pay for inclusion, get spidered every two
days and optimize your way into the top 20. Soon you'll be
in the cache. Then, the rest of the internet will take over
with their clicks.
7) Use Only the Finest Organic Binary 0s and 1s
Link quality simply means how well positioned are the pages
that link to you. There are also boosts and penalties
involved. If you are linked to by a spammy link farm you get
a penalty. If you are linked to by a directory like Yahoo,
LookSmart, or Dmoz you get a boost.
What about the hundreds of free directories? Yes, they all
help. In my Vault I list about 80 search resources. Dozens
of them are directories. Take a few days and MANUALLY submit
your site to every directory that will take it.
I was surprised to find several directories for my own city.
Regional directories can often supply plenty of incoming
links. Every relevant link helps.
8) He Went Thatta Way
Traffic patterns are also analyzed and used as a filter or
booster. The worst possible thing is to set up 10 sites on
the same IP address and then link them together exactly the
same way. Setting up 10 sites on similar topics is a good
idea but vary the links, the byte size of the pages and
store them on several different hosting companies.
The trick is to build your own mininet without setting off
any filters. The only way to do that, is not copy what
you've already done, but start each site from scratch. When
done properly, you can set up a very effective cluster and
really boost your rankings.
9) Link - This - Way
Provide a page on your site that tells people how to link to
you. Even go so far as to provide copy and paste html.
That way, you can tell people what specific keyword phrase
you want them to use when linking to you. You can also tell
them which page on your site your prefer them to link to.
10) Oh, You Mean THAT 800 lb. Gorilla
The bottom line is the easiest most obvious answer. It's
also the toughest to do. Give people a reason to link to
you. Think about it. Sites get linked to for a reason.
Usually if they provide the most information or the best
resources on a particular topic. Is there any reason WHY
people should link to your site? How is your content?
Even if you are not a writer, ask the writers if you can use
their stuff. The answer is usually yes. The writer gets a
link from you. And you get great content. Now people will
start linking to you.
Conclusion
I could ramble on for days about this but I'm sure you've
got many of the obvious link popularity issues covered.
Things like write an article and include a link. Ask a
question (FAQ) and include a link. Post questions on forums
that allow links. Post into the newsgroups. Include an email
tail tag.
You can also get your url noticed by putting it on your
t-shirt. Include it as a sticker with each shipped order.
Tatoo it on your body. Tell your mom. Get a vanity license
plate... LOL :-)
I hope you can use this information to your advantage and it
helps show the big linking picture. It's no longer a game of
whomever gets the most links wins.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Campbell is a search engine optimization
specialist and top internet marketing consultant. He has
written a step by step
internet marketing strategy in the book called Nothing
But Net. It details how he generated over $750,000 in
internet revenues in less than a year, with no advertising
costs, not even so much as a business card.
In addition to writing the
Internet Marketing Secrets newsletter, Michael has
produced Clickin' it Rich, a complete
work
from home business training system.
Michael Campbell has a background in the printing trade,
graphic design and advertising. He began using the internet
in 1993 and was one of the first people to realize it was
the most important communications revolution since
Gutenberg's printing press.
Michael has served on several advisory boards, given hands
on training seminars, spoken at lectures and conferences. He
is president and CEO of Dynamic Media Corporation and
currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
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