Linking methods - Part 1

Your site may be a virtual masterpiece, but if people dont know about it and can't see it, then the money and time that you have invested into it are worthless. Building a powerful online presence is much more than substantial web designs.

Being popular on the internet is much more than basic web knowledge, it has a great deal to do with search engines and effective linking methods. And speaking of linking methods, there are so many ways to get them, which luckily for you, we have listed in this article.

One of the ways to get links that will bring traffic to your site is by submitting your site to search engines. Submit them to reliable and important search engines that automatically and robotically spider the web. Look for a link on the search engine that says ADD YOUR URL.

In the US, the most used search engines are Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL Search, and AskJeeves. If you submit and get listed on these sites, there is no doubt that these will feed other search engines with your site, especially in the local area. For Europe and other areas, it is advisable to submit to local listings.

Always remember that it is a waste of time to pay someone to do the submissions for you. Avoid registering on FFA sites, or Free For All pages, and other link farms. Always make sure to check the credibility of the search engine before registering your page into it.

Free sites dont work well; instead they just bring you lots of spam e-mails and can cause you to be penalized by search engines. If your search engine is already indexed in a certain search engine, dont resubmit it unless there are significant changes; the search engine spider will come back and revisit it soon anyway.

Since linking from a directory will help your ranking and get you more traffic, be sure to list them in free Open Directory Projects like DMOZ, which is overlooked by human editors.

This hierarchical directory provides content feeds to all the major search engines. Plus, it provides a link to your site from an information hub that Google deems important.

Yahoo! Directory is another important directory to be listed in, though their search results recently haven't been featuring their own directory as prominently. Real humans will read and too often, pare down your 200-character sentence, so be very careful and follow their instructions.

Somewhat use less than the maximum number of characters allowable, so you don't have wordy text that will tempt the Yahoo! editor to begin chopping.

You may find some directories focused on particular industries, such as education or finance. Be sure to register with these. You probably belong to various trade associations that feature member sites.

Ask for a link. Even if you have to pay something for a link, it may bring you the kind of targeted traffic from an info hub you need.

Beware of directories that solicit you for "upgraded listings." Unless a directory is widely used in your field, your premium ad won't help, but the link itself will help boost your PageRank and hence your search engine ranking. Marginal directories come and go very quickly, making it hard to keep up. Don't try to be exhaustive here.

Practice reciprocal linking. Find complementary websites and request a reciprocal link to your site, especially to your free service, if you offer one. Develop an out-of-the way page where you put links to other sites, so you don't send people out the back door as fast as you bring them in the front door.

Your best results will be from sites that get a similar amount of traffic to your site. High-traffic site webmasters are too busy to answer your requests for a link and don't have anything to gain. Look for smaller sites that may have linking pages.

Only do reciprocal linking with sites that you think are consistent; do not do reciprocal linking with spam sites because this will naturally damage your site's reputation. There are also directories that ask for reciprocal linking in return for your listing.

You can also make a trade of benefits in your reciprocal linking. If a site is really in theme with your site, ask for a front page top page listing and have it done for them too. This way you will generate more traffic for each other.