Link Popularity

Q. What is Link Popularity and how can I increase the link popularity for my web site?

A. Link Popularity is a term used to define the number of incoming links to your web site (links to your site from other web sites). Some search engines look at the number of incoming links to determine the relevancy of your site content for indexing.

What are the search engines looking for?

Here are a few of the things the search engine spiders are looking at:

How can I increase my Link Popularity?

1. Find web sites that would attract the same type of traffic audience as you desire.
2. Contact the web site owner requesting an exchange
3. Follow up with requests to see if a link has been placed on your site.
4. Keep track of who you have contacted and what the correspondence was

How do I find these sites to request a link exchange?

I use various tools to help me find web sites I would like to exchange links with. Here are a few of the tools we use:

Google Toolbar  Backward Links
Copernic
Marketleap
Link Popularity

How should I request a link exchange?

1. Find the contact information on the web site you want to exchange links with
2. Send an email message to the contact person, if known, (use their name whenever possible) or call them on the phone. Do not  send mass emails. 1 in 3 emails will get a response. Don't waste too much time on sites that haven't been updated in years.
3. Make note of why you think an exchange would be beneficial to both of you. Personalize the message as much as possible.
4. Keep track of who you have contacted and what you have written or said and follow up if an exchange has not taken place within a few days. Make sure followups are personal - not canned messages.

A few cautions:

• Don't exchange links with "link farms" (sites with numerous links that have nothing to do with the main site content)
• Don't send canned email requests for exchanges. You will receive a much better response if the messages are more personalized rather than looking like it may have gone to every web site owner on the planet.

It takes time to find appropriate sites to link to, contact the site owners and request an exchange and follow up appropriately. It can also be very frustrating.  Exchanging links with complimentary sites does have its rewards, however. The more appropriate links you have coming into the site the better your chances are of being found in that world of cyberspace.

Targeted incoming links may also help with search engine indexing (at least for today). Who knows what the search engines will be doing tomorrow. Even if  the search engines stop weighing incoming links, you still have those relationships directing traffic to your web site that you wouldn't have otherwise.

Additional information about link exchanges

Contact us if you would like help establishing a link partnering campaign.