Posted by sam on October 16th, 2009
Posted in Web Directories |
Despite the influx of many SEO strategies, link building remains the most effective method to obtain a high search engine ranking for your site. Links are a crucial component in ranking algorithms. The number of quality links that point to your site can thrust your website to the top of the search engine results pages. Since backlinks are viewed by search engines as a vote made by other sites in your favor, getting them becomes the most successful means of boosting your link popularity. Blogging has become an indispensable method of building link popularity. Although a lengthy and time-consuming process, the value of blogging in trying to get noticed on the Internet is very high.
Blogging works this way: you share your knowledge on a preferred niche or topic and readers can send you feedbacks through comments. Since content is something very valuable in the eyes of the search engine, high quality content and sound link building methods can propel your blog to the top of the rankings. Your blog’s popularity can be gauged by examining the number of subscribers on your RSS feed and the frequency of exchanges and comments that occur between you and your readers. You can hire a link building company to increase your blog’s rankings. There are several firms that offer professional link building services to assist you. However, there are also useful do-it-yourself tips to maximize your blog’s link popularity.
Below are a few tips on how to acquire free links that can help catapult your blog’s rankings to the top spot.
- Add your URL to major search engine directories. Essentially, this means Google, Yahoo, and MSN. All you have to do is visit Google Webmaster tools, login, add your site, and make sure to verify it. After verification, it takes about a week for Google to crawl your site. As for Yahoo, aside from adding your site, you will also need to authenticate it. Authentication takes around one or two days and it will entail about a week for Yahoo to crawl your web site. The same goes for MSN. Go to MSN Webmaster, login, add your site and upload the XML file provided to you by MSN on your site for verification.
- Submit your URL to directory listings. Submitting your site to web directories will help you get free back links that will increase your search engine ranking. The trick is to choose the best free web directories to submit your URL to. Identify all possible web directories for submission but be picky. Search engines are rumored to blacklist some directory submissions for abusive behavior so it is best to do a little research on prospective web directories. Go to the site of each listed directory and review their submission rules and privacy guidelines. Avoid a directory submission service because you might not have control on the submission, you face the threat of being labeled a spammer, or your blog or site could get blacklisted.
- Do some link swapping. Link swapping is a great way to build link popularity since it allows you to connect with the community of bloggers. It enables you to trade links with bloggers who share similar interests with you. In the end, link swapping generates more readership, more traffic, and consequently, link popularity to your site. Examples of sites that facilitate link swapping among bloggers are BlogLinker and Link2Blogs.
- Button exchanges. A button exchange is a network where member sites display button ads and getting ads in return, which are displayed on other web sites. All you have to do is submit an 88 x 31 button and put the network’s code on your web site. In doing so, other participating sites will display your 88 x 31 button on their sites. This could hopefully increase your chance of getting people to click your site once they see your button, generate traffic, and build link popularity.
- Traffic exchanges. A traffic exchange is a service where you can sign up to generate traffic to your blog or site and boost link popularity. It works like this: you get to view other people’s web pages in exchange for having your own pages viewed by others. If you view another member’s web page for a certain period of time, your credit balance increases. If a member views your web page for the same amount of time, your credit balance increases. Consequently, the more you surf the Internet and view other people’s web pages, the greater your chances of your site getting more hits and views, increasing link popularity. There are two types of traffic exchanges – manual and auto. A manual exchange involves a human being viewing web pages, whereas an auto exchange can run in your web browser and automatically refresh to a new web page.
When trying out these tips, always bear in mind that link building is a process that will necessarily take time. Therefore, patience is a virtue when it comes to building link popularity. In addition to the advice mentioned above, you should always educate yourself on the newest and most effective link building methods that you could use in order to get your blog noticed on the Internet.
Tags: backlinks, button exchange, link popularity, link swapping, Paid Link Building, ranking, search engine, search engine directories, SEO - Search Engine Optimization
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on Friday, October 16th, 2009 at 2:32 pm and is filed under Web Directories.
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