EVERYTHING
YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT LINK POPULARITY
Search Engine Optimization 101
Everything You Need to Know About Link Popularity
Report courtesy of MarketLeap
The number of websites that link to your website is one of
the factors that help search engines determine your relevancy for a
search term. Link popularity and gaining new links from outside
websites to your website have proven to be a popular concept for
people seeking to improve their search engine rankings.
What is link popularity and how exactly does it work?
Search engines don’t just look at the content of your website to
determine if you are a match for a search. They also look at the
number of outside websites that can validate, by linking, that you
are a good match.
Search engines have also begun to rank the importance of
the sites that link to you. This means if the New York Times links
to your site, your credibility is higher than if Joe’s Online
Newspaper provides a link to your website. Search engines also
consider the text contained in the link that is pointing to your
website. If the text in the links contains keywords you are trying
to compete for, the search engines consider your site to have even
greater credibility.
Since link popularity has become a factor that people feel
like they have some influence over in determining their search
engine positioning, many solutions have been proposed for growing
your online link popularity. One of the more popular ways is also
one of the least effective.
Several software programs have been written that help you
create lists of websites in your space that might be willing to link
to you. These programs also help you gather the email addresses for
these sites and even help you craft an email requesting that the
site add a link to yours.
The concept sounds good but the results are often mixed. If
you use one of these tools and simply follow the templates they give
you, your email will read like a spam message that won’t be taken
seriously.
The best way to build long-term link popularity is to offer
good content and features that provide real value to your audience.
As people discover your website and realize its benefits, the
likelihood of them linking to your website naturally increases.
There are several critical targets if you want to build up
your link popularity without appearing to be a spammer. The first is
good links from Yahoo and the Open Directory Project. Both of these
sites are human based directories that have a lot of influence over
search results. If your site is listed in the correct category and
has a good description, links from these two websites are seen as
validating you are the real thing.
The second place it’s important to have a link from is
topic specific or niche directories. These are websites that are
dedicated to news and information that is an exact match for what
you provide online. If you have a website that deals with tractor
parts, being listed on sites that focus on tractors is very
important. In the case where a niche website doesn’t know about
your website, it’s okay to ask them to link to your website. But
your message should be personalized to them and also tell them the
benefit or feature their users will get from linking to you.
Another part of the web that helps build your link
popularity is resource sites. Resource sites are lists of links that
people put up on their own. These pages are often spread amongst
friends and readers who find good information available from the
resource. In order to reach this audience, a good PR campaign and
press releases can ensure that these individuals know you exist and
have a link to your website that they can easily include.
One of the most overlooked spots for building link
popularity is links from partners and vendors for your business.
Because you already have a business relationship with these
companies or individuals, you are more likely to be able to request
and receive a link from their website. These websites help validate
your place online and also establish you within a community of
websites online. If you are visible to the community, you are more
visible to the search engines.
Link popularity also starts at home. You must make sure
your link
architecture is solid and easily followed by search engines.
That’s the first way that search engines see you. It’s also the
way that visitors find information within your website. The easier
you make it on your audience to find good information, the more
likely they are to link to it.
The final way you can work to increase your link popularity
is to participate in newsletters and online forums that relate to
your website. You don’t want to just jump in and give a plug for
your URL. You must participate in the discussion as an expert or
authority who gives good advice. When you sign your name at the
bottom of your posting, be sure to include a signature that includes
a link to your website. If these forums and newsletters are archived
and remain online, search engines continue to see them and the links
they contain.
If your website doesn’t have a lot of content and you are
wondering how you can build your link popularity you should think
about building a tool or feature on your website that will be
valuable to your online audience. Marketleap’s Search Engine
Marketing tools are a good example of a feature built to generate
link popularity.
Marketleap’s free tools provide unique data for search
engine marketers that they can’t find other places. We’ve also
made it possible for people to place our tools on their sites easily
by cutting and pasting a piece of HTML code into their web page.
Because the tools are valuable to our community, many websites have
linked to the tools or added the tool to their own website.
Consequently, if you search for “link popularity” at Google,
Marketleap will usually appear in the top 3 results on the first
page.
Link popularity will continue to be an essential factor in
successful search engine marketing initiatives for the foreseeable
future. Links are a helpful tool for search engines trying to wade
through billions of documents and find ones that are relevant to
their users.
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