Earth Skater Internet Marketing
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Finding Link Exchange Partner Sites To Improve Your Link Popularity
Last Update: Monday, July 30, 2007.
In this article I show you how to find link exchange partners to improve
your link popularity rating, which in turn will improve your search engine
rankings.
Search engine optimization experts agree that link popularity is now
considered by most search engines to be one of, if not, the most important
factors that determines a site's ranking in the search engines.
If you're not sure what your site's link popularity rating is, then use
this
link popularity check tool to check your link popularity rating in the
top search engines.
Let's say we have two identical sites. One has thousands of targeted
sites linking to it. The other only has a few incoming links. It's virtually
guaranteed that the site with thousands of incoming links will rank higher
than the other site.
So how do you find reciprocal link partners?
First, you need to work out what type of web sites would link to your
site. Here are some examples of sites and the types of sites that would link
to them.
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Your Site: |
|
Links From: |
| Pet store |
Pet lovers' sites |
| Site design service |
Webmaster sites |
| Travel site |
Local guides |
| PC store |
Software/hardware review sites |
| Music store |
Music fan sites |
As you can see, you're looking for sites that are on the same subject
matter, but not necessarily similar.
So now you know what sites to look for, how do you find these sites?
There are basically two methods:
In the following examples, we'll use "pet lovers'" sites as the type of
sites we're looking for.
1. Find targeted sites in the web directories, such as
Yahoo!,
LookSmart, or the
Open Directory Project.
Go to a directory's home page and search with the keywords, "pet lover."
Then click on the category the top listings belong to. The sites listed in
these and related categories are the types of sites you need to contact.
If the category has a resources or directories sub-category, then try the
sites in those categories first. Resources typically offer links to sites on
the same subject.
2. Use the search engines to find sites that link to your competitors'
web sites.
Using the search engines is probably a more efficient method of find
reciprocal link partners, than searching the directories.
Go to your favorite search engine, such as
Google, and search for any of the
following keyword phrases:
"pet directory" - Searches for pet directories.
"pet search engine" - Searches for pet search engines.
"pet lover" links.html - Searches for link pages in pet
lover's web sites.
"pet lover" resources.html - Searches for the resource page
in a pet lover's Web site.
Don't forget to include the quotation marks to narrow your search.
Also try replacing the ".html" with other file extensions, such as ".htm,"
".shtm," ".shtml," ".cfm," and ".php."
Now make a list of the sites. Then create a links or resources page and
add links to the sites on that page.
After you've done that, link to that page from your home page. If you
have hundreds of links, split the pages into different sub-categories. When
you're done, upload the pages to your server.
Now contact each site by informing them that you have linked to their
site and request a link in return. Don't forget to be polite and inform them
of the benefits of exchanging links.
Some sites, such as web directories, will not require a reciprocal link.
So simply submit your link.
The most important tip I can give you with regards to reciprocal linking
is to only exchange links with targeted sites. I highly recommend that you
don't exchange links with sites that bear no relation with your site. If you
link to poor-quality or spam sites, it could affect your search engine
rankings.
WARNING
Under no circumstances should you link to, or add links from, link farms.
Link farms are considered as spam sites in the eyes of the search engines.
Call 877-627-2492 to discuss your marketing plan
today.
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