The goal of all webmasters is to rank high in the major search engines in hope of generating increased traffic. Although links are just one of several dozen criteria used to determine a website ranking, it is still a very BIG part of the equation. Proper linking can mean the difference from modest success to tremendous success. The following guide will help you in your linking campaigns.
The Linking DO's
- DO submit your sites to the Open Directory Project, also known as ODP or DMOZ. The ODP feeds various other directories and search engines, so inclusion in the ODP is a must.
- DO exchange links with sites that contain relevant content as your own. Although reciprocal links do not carry the same weight they once did, they are still a very viable and effective way of promoting your website and gaining PageRank.
- DO create a section or several pages on your website dedicated to links from partners. Make sure that you keep the links per page to a minimum... preferably 25 or less. Also be sure to include enough relevant text on the link pages so Google doesn't consider them to be link farms (which are a series of links with no content). Finally, ensure you exchange links with websites of similar relevancy to your own to maximize link weight.
- DO include in-line links on your website. In-line links are when the link appears within the body of some text rather than in a menu or in the footer. Major search engines (Google specifically) put more weight on links surrounded by text.
- DO sign up for services that provide one-way relevant links, especially those that surround your anchor text in rich content such as Quality Links Direct. One-way relevant links are believed to have the most weight in Google's algorithm that generates PageRank. With Quality Links Direct and similar services you'll receive one-way links at a steady pace each month, which is favored by search engines. Best of all, you have little to nothing to maintain on your end.
- DO keep tabs on who you exchange links with to ensure the partner keeps your link on their website. Perhaps the most frustrating part of link exchanges is keeping track of links.
- DO use simple HREF tags when generating links rather than code or JavaScript to produce them. The key is to keep static links on the page that Google and other search engines will have an easy time crawling.
Now that you know the DO's of a successful link campaign, find out about
the don'ts of a successful link campaign.