INCREASING LINK POPULARITY

Link popularity is the external factor in preparing a web site for search engine submissions. All search engines now check link popularity when deciding upon rankings.

The theory is that if a web site owner is willing to send some of his visitors to your web site then your site must contain valuable information and will be of a better quality than a site with no inbound links.

Although external links cannot be directly controlled by yourself, you can always encourage various web sites to place a link to yours and drive the increase rather than waiting for it to develop organically.

A key part of the link building process is reciprocation. You will have to create a links page on your own web site in order to reciprocate when one of your contacts requests it.

Partners, Clients & Suppliers
The people you do business or trade with are the most likely to trade links with you. Contact them in the way you feel most comfortable and offer to swap links. After they have agreed, check to see that the link has been uploaded.

Directories
Suprisingly, a link from the directory sections of Yahoo! or Open Directory will help to increase your link popularity. Make sure you do all you can to get listed in both these directories.

Related subject sites
By searching for your key search terms in a search engine, you should find a selection of sites with subject matter related to your own. You will have to decide which sites you would be happy to link to then contact them. Write each site owner a polite email introducing yourself and your web site. Say that you would like to link to their web site and would they be so kind as to reciprocate with a link back to your own site. Monitor all the replies and ensure that you follow through on providing the outbound links yo have offered.

Blog Comments
Seek out blogs related to your site and comment on posts that you have an opinion on. Make sure your comments are well composed and relevant to the post or they are likely to be removed by the blog owner. On most blogs you are rewarded with a link back to your own site. Also, if the blog owner likes your comments, or your site they sometimes will post a sitewide link to your site. Gold dust.

In this way you can easily build up 20, 50 or more than 100 inbound links to your site, it just depends how organised you are and how much time you have to search for appropriate sites to swap links with or request links from.