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Link Building: To Link, or Not to Link, That is the Question
Lately, there have been a lot of heated discussions regarding link building. Is it ethical to create a link building campaign? Does Google or any other search engine penalize for "link farms" (a bunch of non-related links created for the SOLE purpose of increasing search engine ratings)? Is the "link building era" over?
Link Farms
Many webmasters claim that Google penalizes websites for link farms. If this is so, why are a link farm sites that have a page rank of 5 on their link farm page? Let me give you an example, go to Google.com, type in any popular keyword(s) and append the word "links" to it. For example, "ABCD Links." Notice you'll get tones of websites that are linking to unrelated sites, but still have a great PR. I do not encourage link farming in any way or form, but building valuable partnerships is something I do encourage. If you're a jewelry site and you're exchanging links with an antiques site, I think this is a great thing. It's very possible that someone searching for jewelry may have an interest in antiques. I own a few sites and the hits I receive from partially related sites are phenomenal. Most of my websites are targeted towards webmasters so I receive hits from all sorts of sites. Remember, many webmasters claim to know the truth regarding search engine algorithms, but no one knows the EXACT TRUTH except the programmers at the search engines. Webmasters may have been penalized in the past for link farms and doorway pages (pages created around certain keywords for the sole purpose of redirecting surfers to the main page), but who's to say why some HAVEN'T been penalized.
Who Should I Create Link Partnerships With?
1. Create link partnerships with sites related to your site.
2. Create link partnerships with sites that have an audience that may be interested in your products
3. Exchange homepage links with websites that fit in your genre. You'll receive a link on a page with a good ranking and you'll get quality, targeted hits.
How Do You Find Link Partners?
1. Signup with an automated links management provider that organizes your links and helps find link partners. Automated tools are the best because they help you save time. Uploading and downloading your pages for every link exchange can be a huge pain and very time consuming. Automated tools are NOT link farms because they give you complete control of who you exchange links with. If a member exchanges links with every website, he/she might be abusing the tool. If a member uses the tool responsibly, it can be very effective.
2. This is a great little exercise I would recommend to anyone.
a. Write down 20 search terms pertaining to your website
b. Go to http://www.google.com and type in a search term written in step A
c. Contact as many websites as possible listed under that search term and ask them to exchange inner page or homepage links with you. If they're NOT interested, ask whether they would be interested in selling advertising space. If your website is fairly new, you may want to ask sites for advertising prices. Free hits are the best hits but sometimes you might have to go the extra lap and pay for service. I wouldn't recommend spending over $100 / month for advertising UNLESS it's a high traffic site with your site audience. The best deals are the ones that offer $10-25 / month. There are sites out there that will sell SUPER cheap advertising, and others that charge an arm and a leg.
EVERYONE gets rejected sometime or another so keep your head up and keep moving along! The internet is comprised of Billions of websites. If you're rejected 500 times, you still have MANY business opportunities left! This is a continuous job so set aside time every week to do this. If you don't have time for this, then you don't have time to make money.
3. Hire a link building firm (this can be quite expensive but if you have money, its minimal work for you)
PageRank
Pagerank is a great tool but don't use it as your ONLY measurement for success. I can't explain everything about pagerank but a good explanation is given at http://www.google-watch.org/pagerank.html.
Conclusion
In conclusion, link building is not only for increasing link partners and search engine rankings, it's also used to create partnerships and establish profitable relationships with other webmasters. Link building is a tedious process, but one of the best for getting free (sometimes not), targeted hits from other websites.
Vik Tailor is the owner of http://www.linkexchanged.com and http://www.buyadvertisingonline.com. He has been in the online advertising industry for over 4-5 years and has extensive online marketing knowledge.
10 Costly Search Engine Mistakes to Avoid
If you have a website then you already know the importance of traffic. Traffic is to Internet marketing as location is to real estate. It's the only thing that really matters. If you cannot generate targeted visitors to your site, you will not make any sales.
Search Engine Strategies for Affiliate Websites
The major search engines are always on the lookout to improve their search results and to weed out websites with duplicate content. They are also weeding out websites that mainly contain affiliate links. This is going to affect quite a few businesses on the Internet that depend on affiliate links to generate revenue.
How to Manage SEO
Whether you launch a search engine optimization program in-house or outsource the program, you should keep the following training opportunities and skill sets in mind:
Internet Directory Submission Tips
Internet Directories and their Importance
Everything You Wanted To Know About Google -- But Were Afraid To Search For!
(A Reflective look at the little search engine that soared!)
The Long And Short Of It Is That These Two Sales Techniques Are The Same
With the Internet beginning to stand up and be counted as an online business medium, many are beginning to realize that selling online is not only possible, but very profitable. People are seeking ways to improve their sales technique online and close on more of their website visitors. It was bound to happen. The problem now is that there are thousands of different companies telling you that their way is the best way and that you should follow their advice. I don't subscribe to all the thousands of new and fangled ideas to sell anything. This article describes two methods described by many as 'new' online sales techniques, which many people call the long copy versus the short copy debate. It's actually simply a mix of the ways we've all been selling stuff since print was invented.
Keyword Demand Isnt Enough
I get half of the world traffic for the term "dirtbagging," on one page of my backpacking site, but that only means ten visitors a month. Without decent keyword demand you can't ever get much traffic. Total demand is just one factor to consider, though. Here are some others.
Marketing to Search Engines AND Humans
When you were just a young and precocious student of marketing, someone explained to you how to market to humans. "Know your target audience!" said the experts. "AIDA method!" they pressed on.
Writing SEO Copy ? 8 Steps to Success
We all know that the lion's share of web traffic comes through the search engines. We also know that keywords and links to your site are the two things that affect your ranking in the search engines. Your keywords tell the search engines what you do, and the inbound links tell them how important you are. This combination is what determines your relevance. And relevance is what the search engines are after.
Getting To Know Google
Having greatly benefited from my relationship with Google in the past several years, I am dedicating this article to the search engine superstar.
Search Engine Wars - Quality Searches Vs Quantity!
It is no secret that Google and Yahoo are on a continuous battle to win our hearts and get everyone to convert, but is converting someone really a matter of the quantity or the quality?
Use Keyword Articles for Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization is very important for your online business if you are interested in staying in business. The reason for this is most of the time the large search engines direct traffic to your website, however your website must include what the search engine is looking for in order for your web page to be returned as a result. It might sound complicated, but it really is not because people use the search engines to search for keyword terms and then the search engines crawl the web looking for web pages containing these same keywords. The most important thing for you as an online business is to know the keywords that apply to your business and then include them on your web page through the use of keyword articles.
Whats the Big Hurry?
Quite often I get asked what the magic solution is for getting better Google ranking. Sometimes the questions sound fairly naive, something like this:
Google Groups
Some very early users of the Internet - not the worldwide web as we know it today - but the Internet from the early 1980s, will have heard of, and likely used, Usenet. This was the collective name applied to text-based electronic bulletin boards that were used to communicate in the days before the web and email existed, and that are still in use today. The Usenet posts were first collected and organized for worldwide web use in 1995, by a company called Deja News. In 2001, Google bought Deja News and applied their considerable search expertise to Usenet posts. The result is Google Groups.
Optimize your Search Engine Placement Five Easy Ways
If you are like me, you created web site metatags with the help of your Web master. Maybe like me, you didn't spend time or money submitting to search engines because you weren't techie enough.
Search Engine Updates vs. SEO
Webmasters always anxiously wait for a search engine update. Those who rank well want to see their sites get even better. Those who didn't do well expect a major boost. Those whose sites get de-indexed anticipate a major comeback. Those who just started new sites bet on their sites will make into the first page of search engine result pages (SERPs) for their targeting keywords. Of course, not everyone will be happy about the results of search engine updates. After all, search engine traffic is a zero-sum game - someone loses and someone gains. Then, the webmasters start preparing for next update.
Are You Losing The Battle For Search Engine Traffic?
Search engine traffic should be a priority for any online business and some level of optimization is apart of every effective marketing strategy.
Basics to Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization popularly known as SEO.
To Understand the Success of Website Ranking
Time is a factor
PageRank and How It Gets Assigned
We know that each and every website page is assigned a Google Page rank, based upon a mathematical algorithm. Pages rank on a scale of 0 (zero) the lowest, and 10 (ten) the highest. Linking between websites both internally and externally pass a value or Page Rank.