The Professional Solution to Building Link Popularity
...that gathers the blessings of search engines in the making!
          By Robin Nobles -- OnlineWebTraining.com

One important point that came from the Search Engine Strategies 2001 Conference in Boston is that major search engines do not willingly index or provide links to link exchange orientated sites -- aka, link farms. In fact, I'm aware of instances where both Google and Inktomi have banned sites from their index simply for participating in link exchange programs. The end result of this restriction is that the engines have effectively taken away the easiest way to quickly build link popularity.

Most SE optimizers are aware that building an effective linking strategy is one of the most challenging aspects of search engine optimization work. Why? ...because there really aren't any quick fixes. For instance, you can't purchase a handy dandy software program to do an effective job for you. And, in view of the current "rules" sites aren't allowed to participate in link exchange programs either. Yet, the reality is that link popularity can often make your site's rankings in the search engines while, in contrast, lack of popularity can often break it.

So, I hear you asking "...are there any alternatives?"

Sure. You can manually search for related sites and write to each relevant site you find with the objective of getting them to link to you. Of course you'll find this is a slow, tedious process. Even if you hire a high school or college student to cheaply do the "grunt" work your results will be subjected to the effect of a trial and error learning curve and whatever aptitude the on-the-job trainee might possess.

The Solution

Currently the most efficient solution is a professional one and the best service we're aware of that provides this specific professional assistance is LinkageXpress -- the first hand-tailored, targeted linkage service on the net.

The concept is simple. You turn over your linking needs to LinkageXpress, and they'll find related and relevant links for your site. Even better is that they're practiced in selecting "key" sites that already rank well with the search engines. And, they target sites that are both relevant to your target audience as well as already "popular". These are the precise factors that are likely to elevate your own site's link popularity. Stated another way, LinkageXpress applies a professional personalized approach to solve what is otherwise a difficult and time consuming search engine optimization problem. End result? ...they remove the drudgery and guess work from the equation while you get the results you are looking for.

To write this article, I interviewed Scott Smith, President of LinkageXpress, so that we could get some insight into their unique program.

Question: How does your service differ from the link exchange programs that can get you in trouble with the search engines?

Scott: There's really no relationship between what we do and link farms. LinkageXpress generates targeted, niche-specific, high quality links on actual web pages generating real traffic. Search engines welcome sites we work with because they have genuine link popularity, and often award them better rankings.

In fact, Google currently gives link popularity more weight than any other attribute. As the default search engine for Yahoo!, getting a well-ranked listing here can produce a windfall of traffic literally for free. Our approach is exactly what Google and the other top search engines want and need.

Here's why: in order to be useful to users, search engines must deliver relevant search results. For this reason they drop sites today that don't relate to a specific search theme. If your site cross-links with other sites that have nothing to do with your primary business, you're at risk of being kicked out. We think search engines are smart to do this, because it cannot help but deliver better search returns.

That's why we don't endorse or use random link exchange programs or link farms. A link farm is simply a page with a bunch of links to different sites on it. By linking to a link farm, you diminish your site relevancy. The right approach is to focus your entire site like a laser beam on a single, potent theme.

Today high-quality, niche-specific link popularity is key. For search engines like Google, Lycos, and Excite, link popularity is critical because it indicates other sites have already looked at you and decided you're worthy of a link.

Question: Let's say I have a site that promotes a utility software program. What would you do to increase links to the site? In other words, how does your service work?

Scott: We increase the flow of targeted traffic to your site by finding you high quality link partners quickly.

Now let's say we're dealing with a utility software product. Odds are good that direct competitors will not trade links with you, so that's not where we're going to look for link partners.

Instead, we look at your unique selling proposition and concentrate on what you do. How does the rest of the world view you? What do your meta tags say, as well as the copy on your site?

Out of this initial examination we'll develop a short list of niche-specific markets where we feel you belong and compare our notes with yours. Together we'll chart the right course of action. The goal is to attract highly targeted traffic to your site and help you achieve better search engine positioning.

Question: From what I understand, your service basically takes over the link building program for a company, to where the company does nothing but sit back and wait for the increase in link popularity and subsequent ranking. Is that correct?

Scott: For the most part this is true, Robin. The process must be conducted by hand, one site at a time, so we save our clients a substantial amount of time. Overall, we expect to invest about 20+ hours of time to implement a successful linkage campaign, with another 10 hours spent on following up.

Question: Is building valuable content so that people will want to link to the site the only obligation the web site owner has if he/she purchases your service?

Scott: We take care of the entire contact and link generation process so our clients don't have to. When we've developed the list of targeted link partners, we create an HTML document for seamless integration with each client's site. This is the only real job the client has - to upload this page to their site so we can complete the process. And of course, make sure they're properly registered with the search engines.

Question: Tell me about a couple of your success stories.

Scott: We recently conducted a campaign for an electronic greeting card site. Within 30 days, they experienced an increase in direct traffic by over 25%.

Even more exciting, a few weeks after that, their inbound links significantly improved their search engine rankings to the point where they had seven separate search words and phrases within the top 10 listings for Google, AltaVista, and Excite These three search engines now produce 150 - 250 unique visitors a day for their site.

At the same time we were generating these results, we were working on a travel site campaign, for whom direct traffic substantially increased in only two weeks. This is very fast, and we tell people it usually takes 30 days.

The client was happy but 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 in the #1 spot on Google for their primary keyword and in the #2 spot on AltaVista. Both positions resulted in increased traffic and dollars for them.

Question: How does your service differ from Zeus, a software program that is designed to build link popularity? After all, if I can purchase Zeus for $195 or even use their free version, why would I want to purchase another link building service?

Scott: Zeus is an interesting tool, but it is more about building a links directory than it is about finding targeted link partners. Studies show only 10-15% of sites contacted by Zeus ever become link partners at all.

By contrast, a LinkageXpress campaign will traditionally generate better than 60% return links from carefully targeted sites if you offer content of value.

Zeus is 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 its 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. By using the hand-tailored approach we advocate, we can catch popular listings Zeus doesn't.

Finally, there are spam issues. Whenever you allow a software program to find links and send email 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.

And the cost?

Currently LinkageXpress offers 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:

US $497 for 25 GUARANTEED links
US $900 for 50 GUARANTEED links
US $1250 for 75 GUARANTEED links
US $1500 for 100 GUARANTEED links

Additionally, you will receive PromoMinder as a value-added bonus to maximize the profitability of your campaign.

So, the bottom line is this . . .

Considering the importance of solid, no-nonsense link popularity, building important and relevant links to your site is your best strategy to insure long lasting top positioning on today's search engines. Your choice is simple; either spend the time it takes to do it yourself, or hire someone to do it for you. If you choose to hire help, the folks at LinkageXpress are a good bet to get the job done right the first time.  

Editor's Note: Robin Nobles is Director of Training for the Academy of Web Specialists. Robin has taught over 1000 students in her online and onsite search engine positioning courses during the last two years. Her second book on the subject, titled Maximize Web Site Traffic, Build Web Site Traffic Fast and Free by Optimizing Search Engine Placement was released in August 2000. Visit Robin's site to learn more about the Academy's search engine training courses. http://www.onlinewebtraining.com

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