Four
steps to implementing a
high-traffic link popularity campaign
One of our clients runs a free e-card
site. Outside of a few advertising deals, it doesn't
produce much cash flow, so the promotional budget is
practically nil. Our job was to increase traffic without
spending a lot of money. Here's the story...
Initially, the site relied on free
traffic, both viral (card sending), and through search
engines. Over the past six months, however, we tracked a
large increase in visitors (as much as 15% of all traffic)
who came from other sites that put up a link
because they enjoyed the cards, and wanted to share them
with their visitors.
Some of these links came from other card
sites, some card-specific search engines or directories,
and some from online businesses that dealt with a holiday
theme and were looking for relevant content.
Almost immediately, these inbound links
created a phenomenon known as "Link Popularity," which
gave us higher ranking in the search engines, creating
more visitors, who then gave us more links, and so on, and
so on.
Therefore, we decided to capitalize on
this momentum and implement a formal linkage
campaign, knowing the more legitimate in-bound links we
had, the more traffic we would get and the higher we would
list on engines like Google.com (who consider link
popularity above all else when ranking sites).
We turned to one of our clients and
friends, Scott Smith, of LinkageXpress, who implements
"hand-tailored" link campaigns. Within 30 days, we saw an
additional 12 sites on our referrer logs, and an increase
in direct traffic by over 25%.
Even more exciting, a few weeks after
that, these inbound links improved our search engine
rankings so much so we now have seven separate
search words and phrases within the top 10 listings for
Google.com, AltaVista.com, and Excite.com.
These three search engines now produce 150
- 250 unique visitors a day for the client, and Scott's
campaign is only 15% implemented!
We sat down with Scott to ask him what
steps he takes to set up a professional linkage campaign,
and how business owners can do it themselves.
Here are the highlights of our interview:
Online Marketing Tips Free-Zine:
What exactly do you do and why is it so important?
Scott Smith: We increase the number
of visitors to your site by finding you high quality link
partners quickly. This generates traffic, and more
important, improves your "link popularity," which helps
you get the best possible positioning on the major search
engines.
OMT: So a successful linkage
strategy gives you both direct traffic and improves your
overall findability?
SS: Yes, you get direct traffic
because it makes you more visible to your niche market.
Other than search engines, the most common way for people
to find a site is through a link. In a sense, a link on a
popular site is an endorsement.
Plus, if these endorsements come from a
site within your target niche or "theme," then search
engines like AltaVista.com rank you as highly relevant,
which translates into much better positioning.
For search engines like Google.com,
Lycos.com, and Excite.com, link popularity is critical
because it indicates other sites have already looked at
you and decided you're "worthy" of a link.
In fact, Google.com currently gives link
popularity more weight than any other attribute, and as
the default search engine for Yahoo, getting a listing
ranked there can produce a windfall of traffic for free!
Let me give you an example: We did a
campaign a few months ago where direct traffic
substantially increased in only two weeks. This is
fast. We tell people it usually takes 30 days, so this
campaign was very successful.
Anyway, the client was happy. However,
they got a lot more excited when they started to see a
dramatic increase in their search engine traffic. Because
of the link popularity we achieved, they were the #1 spot
on Google.com for their primary keyword! Plus, they were
#2 on Alta Vista.
This was a big deal in terms of traffic
and dollars for them. The only thing they did was
implement the linkage campaign, so clearly that made all
the difference.
OML: What are the steps a site
owner needs to take to implement an effective linkage
campaign?
SS: The actual process is not hard,
but it is very time consuming. If you want to do it
right, which means "by hand," it's a 4-step process:
1. First, identify sites that are relevant
to your target market and have excellent link potential.
If they already have a links page or recommend other sites
within their content, clearly they're open to the idea and
are a hot prospect.
We find these sites by using Dogpile.com.
This is a meta-engine that searches multiple search
engines and directories, and gives us the most relevant
results. We also look at individual engines like AltaVista
and Google.com. We want to work with sites that are
currently ranking well themselves. It's a good indication
they get traffic and have strong link relevancy.
There are other ways to find link
partners, but we have found this approach generates the
best returns. We suggest you go after the top 10-20 sites
on each engine you research.
This means you have to visit each site,
look to see if they have a links page or recommended
resource page, study whether or not they include links to
others within their content, find a specific site owner
name and e-mail address (if you can), and keep detailed
records. We recommend using an Excel spreadsheet or
database program.
Once you've done the basic research,
you'll want to narrow it down to the best sites, the ones
that are the strongest match for your own site. In terms
of time, figure 15 - 30 minutes to find each high quality
link partner.
2. Next, in a polite, straightforward (but
flattering) e-mail, request a link from them. The approach
here needs to be personal, instead of something generic
like "We are looking for a great Web site to trade links
with us, might that be you?"
Today everyone is getting spammed to death
by potential link partners, advertisers, and people trying
to sell them stuff, so you have to mention something that
demonstrates you actually visited the site in the
first line or two to get their attention.
If you get the name of the site owner, use
it. If there's something special about the site you like
or that's relevant to a partnership, mention it
immediately. Here's an example:
|
Hello [NAME],
I just visited your excellent stock-trading site,
Day-Traders-Anonymous.com, and wanted to tell you
about a free real-time quote service I have. Since
we both have resource pages and target the same
audience, I'd like to discuss trading links with
you. Etc., etc., etc. |
You want to get a dialogue going. Describe
your site a bit, then explain why your link on their site
would be a benefit to their audience. Close the message
with an offer to post a link on your site back to theirs.
The entire message should be no more than one screen of
text to read. Keep it simple.
If you don't have a good reason for them
to link to your site, you'll have to find one. If all you
have posted is a sales pitch, don't expect many links.
Site owners will only send their visitors
to you if you offer content that's valuable or
entertaining, like resources, "how-to" articles, e-books,
software, audio or video clips, photos, or topical
information like news about a particular industry.
3. Generate your links page and upload it
to your site. Whenever we can, we'll post a link on our
page first, then notify the site owner. This does
two things: It qualifies us as real people who are
trustworthy, and it also prompts them to visit our URL to
see if we really listed them.
Your links page should follow the look and
feel of your overall site design. It's well worth spending
the time to make it look inviting. Be sure to include a
way for site visitors to contact you and request a link
from this page. It's a valuable asset that grows over
time.
4. Follow up with your potential link
partners. A majority of them will link to your site, but
it takes time. Our experience has been some sites will add
you immediately, while others can take 2-3 months.
Overall, figure about 20+ hours of time to
implement a successful linkage campaign, with another 10
hours spent on following up.
OML: You say over 50% of the sites
will link back to you, which is amazing. How much traffic
does this generate on average?
SS: Our experience has been 60% -
80% of carefully targeted sites in a linkage campaign will
link to you if you offer content of value. In terms of a
traffic increase, a majority of sites we've worked with
experience a 300% increase in traffic. This translates to
as many as 2,000 - 4,000 additional visitors per month.
OML: How long does it take for the
process to work?
SS: Site owners usually see an
increase in traffic within 30 days. In general the
increase climbs much higher over a period of a few months,
and even more after the search engines spider. It's a
steady predictable increase, and the good news is, once a
link gets posted, it can stay posted for years. Contrast
this with a stand-alone search engine strategy, where you
can be hot one day and gone the next.
OML: What if you have an affiliate
program or don't have content on your site, are there any
special techniques?
SS: There are other ways to
generate links, especially if you are paying a commission.
You can write articles, allow sites to post them, and
include their affiliate link in the contact box at the
end. If you have an e-zine, you can encourage them to
offer subscriptions or even reprint back issues. You can
put up a discussion board, then invite other related sites
to link to it. If you have a members-only site, offer site
owners free membership if they link to you. You can also
join a Web Ring (see http://www.Webring.org) or Banner
Exchange, both of which promote linking strategies. The
secret is not to have a bunch of links on a "link farm,"
but to have targeted, niche-specific, high quality links
on actual Web pages generating real traffic.
OML: Just to clarify for our
readers, a link farm is a technique used to manipulate
search engines into thinking there are a lot of inbound
links to a site, artificially raising link popularity.
SS: Right. A link farm is simply a
page with a bunch of links to different sites on it. That
page is submitted to the search engines with the hope that
it will increase ranking of the listed sites. The problem
is that search engines are getting much better at
determining who has fake links and who has real links,
even going so far as to check who owns the domain of the
page to compare with the ownership of the domains of the
links. If you get caught, you can kiss your listing
goodbye!
OML: There's a software product
called Zeus, which finds potential linkage partners. Do
you recommend using it?
SS: Zeus is useful for building a
niche-specific directory, but it has serious drawbacks for
building link popularity. Studies show only 10-15% of
sites contacted by Zeus become link partners, but there is
no guarantee of site relevancy. It's described as a "smart
Internet robot" but that means it thinks like a robot, not
a person. It certainly can't gauge site quality,
visibility, or search engine positioning. By it's very
nature, it will never be able to deliver the results of a
targeted, hand-tailored service.
Zeus also doesn't work on frame sites or
individual Web pages not residing on a root domain. Some
of these sites are incredibly popular, and by using the
search engine method we advocate, you'll catch popular
listings Zeus doesn't.
Finally, there are spam issues. Whenever
you allow a software program to find links and send e-mail
to potential partners, you risk getting accused of
spamming, which can get you shut down. To us, this concern
alone makes the risk too high, which is why we do
everything by hand.
OML: Therefore you recommend either
taking the time to do a linkage campaign manually, or
hiring a professional?
SS: Definitely!
OML: How much do you charge, and
where can people find out more about your service?
SS: Currently we offer 4 programs.
The fee for a campaign to announce your site, get you
properly linked within your niche market, bring you
pre-qualified site visitors that are prone to buy what you
offer, and help improve your placement with the major
search engines and directories is:
