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What's all the talk about links we hear about? Reciprocal links?
Non-reciprocal links? Targeted links? Link Popularity? I need links. You should
have links. What about the dead links? I don't have enough links! Ever since I
joined the link farm, I dropped out of the search engines! Well, you musn't
fret; we're going to shed the light on all theses different links. You'll learn
the different types, how to get them, how to keep them and how to keep them
current.
Let's start with some definitions.
Reciprocal Link (Two-way link): When you link to a web site and that web site
links back to you, you have one reciprocal link. Reciprocal links need to be
related to your web site's subject matter. For example, if your web site sells
Milk, then links from other sites that sell milk products. Sites about dairy
products would also be good reciprocal linking candidates. While, a link from
say a tobacco company would not be recommended. Your reciprocal links need to be
related to your web site's main keyword phrase or subject matter.
Non Reciprocal Link (One-way): These links are the most beneficial and also can
be the hardest to obtain. Links from search engines or directories are a form of
a non-reciprocal linking. However, the links that hold the most weight with the
search engines are from other relevant web sites, sites we have not linked to.
When a dairy site links to your milk site because they feel your site is of
value to their visitors, it is the ultimate compliment and also holds more
weight in the search engines. The best way to get this type of link, is to have
unique content that is well written. Your site needs to look professional and
sound professional. Related sites will be eager to link to you because you have
quality, relevant content.
Targeted Links: Targeted links are just what they sound like, links that are
related to your sites main subject matter. For example, if you have a site
devoted to music then links from other music sites or music stores are good,
while links from a site specializing in window blinds are not so good.
Text Links: Text links are simply that, text links. Text links are very
important as a search engine can follow a text link and catalog it. It's like a
vote for your site.
Graphical Links: Graphic links, such as logos and banners, may look great and
attract visitors, but they cannot be read by search engines and are rarely
followed by them. While having a graphical link, such as a logo, can give you
some recognition and look professional, it must be well made and identifiable.
Furthermore, you should always add alt* tags to the graphic html code, as alt
tags help with content and keyword density. A text link directly below the
graphic for the search engines to follow should be included when ever possible.
* (An alt tag or alternate text is an attribute added to the image tag in html.
It is designed to give a text example of what the image is for people browsing
without image support, some search engines count this as part of the page
content.)
Links Page: This is very important. Your links page needs to fit into your site.
It should have the same look and feel as the rest of your pages. Unless you only
have five or ten links on your link page, you will need to have categories and
even sub-categories for extensive link pages. It's important to keep the number
of links per page as low as possible and never over 100 links.
Adding a small form for visitors to suggest links can be a nice feature and I
recommend it, but it also can lead to a lot of off-target links suggestions.
When exchanging links, you will have to show the other site owners where their
link is placed on your site. Therefore, you'll want to have the links page well
laid out and visually appealing.
Dead Links: This is really a maintenance issue, sites go off-line, from time to
time page addresses change, or the site changes owners and the content changes.
It is important to check your links often to ensure you don't have a page full
of dead links or links that have changed and now point to unrelated content. If
you don't keep up on this task, you will soon have a page full of dead links and
visitors wont come back to use it. Search engines also frown on pages with too
many dead links.
Link Farms: Link farms should be avoided; adding your site to one can cause you
to loose popularity or have a negative effect on your Page Rank, joining one and
displaying their links on your site can get you banned from the most important
search engines. With 90% of web traffic originating from only a hand full of
search engines, this is something you don't want to happen. It is almost
impossible to reverse and it can take you out of the search engines for up to a
year or more. Staying away from places that guarantee hundreds or thousands of
links by filling out a form.
Links should be arranged one at a time by contacting the desired site owner, by
e-mail or more prefferrably by phone, and notifying them that you want to
exchange links. This is the best way to do it, any short cuts or get link quick
schemes can lead to trouble as soon as the search engines crawl your site.
Links are very important to any site that wants to rank highly in the top search
engine results. The more targeted links you have pointing to your site, the more
important your site is to the search engines. It's like a voting system. If 100
sites think your content is worth linking to, then search engines like Google
will take notice. However, if 10,000 related sites link to you, then search
engines will treat you like a king and you will be on the A list for sure.
About the Author
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