-    Submitting Your Site to Authority Directories

Though there are plenty of directories, not all of them can give a good ROI. For directories, one should at least try to submit their links to big players like Yahoo!, Best of the Web, JoeAnt or Business.com. These directories have been proven to generate quality backlinks that actually help in the campaigns of their customers.

Directory submission can cost quite a lot. But once you get through, you can expect at least a respectable return on the money you spent. One thing to remember, directory submissions are not for websites that are still being constructed. Submitting an incomplete site is a sure way to get your application rejected.

Moreover, since getting listed is actually a privilege, you may not be able to refund the payment you made.

-    Actual Outreach Activities

This may not be a usual SEO strategy but it still is a legitimate avenue in establishing a connection with your customers. The only important thing here is how you will be able to translate your outreach into online customer traffic.

You can orchestrate outreach activities in many ways. The most common of these is through giveaways and/or promotional sample products. You can offer a free sample on your website just to entice some visitors in clicking through your online ads. You can also employ agents who will help promote your business by making phone calls and the like.

-    Web Content Publishing or Link Baiting

The most traditional way of building a link network is through web content publishing. Visitors click through a website maybe because it was first on the SERPs. What makes a website sit atop the rankings? Excellent Web content. Publishing quality web articles can be time consuming but it definitely is the surest way to life your website’s ranking and rep.

You can produce your own articles but for most companies, especially the bigger ones, hiring an external partner to produce the content may be the best way to go. This strategy is definitely more time and effort consuming but it is one of the most natural ways of acquiring backlinks.

You can use other tools though as link baits aside from web articles. You can use viral videos, graphs, photos, comic strips, and many more. You can post ads of your company in reputable and high-traffic websites.

-    Link Buying

Though a very common practice nowadays, link buying is a link building strategy that has been discouraged. However, many companies, especially some start-up ones, that turn to paid links just so they can jumpstart their link building campaigns.

Several businesses online offer their services for a fee and guarantee a certain number of backlinks back to their customers’ sites. The downside of this strategy mainly comes from the fact that you never really know where the links are coming from or if they are even relevant to your site.

Some of these paid link companies even give out spam links. These will definitely not help your campaigns. This dangerous possibility is the prime reason why this strategy is inherently flawed. You are better off sticking to strategies that will get you quality links in a natural way.

Link building requires time and effort. Do not hesitate to invest your time and a little bit of your funds to your campaign. The returns of your effort may dwarf everything that you spent to make it happen.
 

The Difference of Web Directories, Portals and Search Engines Web directories, also known as link directories, are basically the yellow pages of the World Wide Web. With information added constantly in the Internet everyday and all the websites, blogs and domains set up, web directories make it easier for users to find what they are specifically looking for amidst all the information available. A directory provides users with links to other websites and categorizes these links for easy searching.

1. Different from search engines: Directories are different from search engines as they do not necessarily display websites in terms of the keyword searched for. Instead of keywords, users will have to search in directories via categories and subcategories.
2. Categorize: Directories usually categorize web pages as a whole and not just based on certain keywords or phrases; some web pages can be found in one category and also be present in another.
3. Convenience: Directory searching is also more convenient especially if users are looking for a specific product or service online. Also, directories enable users to narrow their searches because the sites provide users with subcategories under the general categories.

Portals are also another type of directory that basically function like directories, though these are more niche focused. Government websites are usually portals because their pages are usually specific to anything regarding that country and its government. Sites such as retirenet.com cater specifically to housing and communities for retirees, making it a portal for this specific subject matter. In addition to this, getting links from portals is advantageous because one can be assured that the consumer traffic going to these portals is the market base being catered to. Since it is subject specific, portals almost always appear on top of search engine result pages, therefore increasing the chance for customer traffic to be directed to a company’s home page.

Importance of Web Directories

There are literally hundreds of web directories around the Internet nowadays. Getting listed into these websites has been one of the foremost goals that companies set out to do in their link building processes. This is basically because directories provide listed companies with quality inbound links that are necessary to get a higher page rank in terms of search engine ratings. While this is not always the case for every web directory, getting listed in some of these will provide a big boost for any link building process. Also, directories usually rank high in search engine rankings that is why it is very crucial in SEOs, especially if a company is battling to be number one in the rankings for a certain keyword or product.

Available Directories for Web Developers

Directories in the Internet today mostly cater to a large scope of topics and subjects. Technology websites may be listed in the same directory as home furnishing or gardening. Most directories cater to various regions of the world and in their subsequent languages. Portals and niche directories are relatively new in the market and only lately have they been gaining popularity among Internet users. Yahoo! Directory and the Open Directory Project (aka DMOZ), are just some of the widely used directories available in the Web. Among the two, DMOZ enjoys a bigger following because aside from the fact that it categorizes websites in a much larger scale than other directories, it is free and can be used by any web developer and link builder. Some directories charge a minimum fee for listing a website into their pages. A few directories implement a pay-per-click type of arrangement when listing websites.

Factors to consider when picking out directories in the Internet include:

1. A high or respectable search engine ranking: This is important because developers aim to advertise their pages when submitting their links to directories. A directory with a high SE ranking will enable listed websites to reach more customers and obtain customer traffic for their business.
2. Length of time the directory has been in the business: Yahoo and DMOZ are definitely pioneers in the web directory business, which is why it is very advantageous to be listed in such directories. There are new directories developers can submit their links to nowadays, but it is very important to consider a directory that has already been established in the business.
3. Format of the Listings: It is good to study directories thoroughly first before submitting links to them. Consider directories that display websites in categories and sub-categories that are user- and search friendly. Also consider if being listed in these directories will result in inbound links for the website as this would increase the page ranking of the site itself.
4. Payment: If the payment for getting listed into these directories will be more worthy than a costly investment, then web directories are always the way to go.

The Role of Directories in Today’s Business Directories allow customers to search for what they specifically want and not deal with situations wherein what they want is out of stock. It gives businesses some buffer time to assemble what their customers requested, thereby resulting in more efficiency in their business transactions. Shoppers are now getting more comfortable purchasing what they need in the comforts of their homes without having to walk around in malls anymore. Everything is provided for by the Internet, and directories are crucial in the success of businesses in the Internet advertising landscape. With so many users and consumers turning to the Internet for everything they need, from home furniture to personal essentials, and other services, directories will be playing a big role in the future of doing business.

There are two ways that companies can use in submitting their links to various web directories. The difference between the two methods lie basically in the fact that the other is free and the other charges a fee. But the advantages of both vary and go beyond the fact of charging fees.

• Free Directories The biggest perk of free directories is that they are basically free. However, if the company is serious about its efforts of utilizing web directories, then they will not get much from using free directories.

Free directories are not really helpful in instantly increasing traffic to the websites. Here are a few examples:

1. The lag time that a company incurs between submitting their websites for listing up to the actual listing is one of the major drawbacks of free directories. Since it is free, literally anybody can go on submitting their websites for listing, thus making the job of sorting these websites a doubly tedious process.
2. Oftentimes, links are lost in the ocean of links, or worse, grouped together with low quality links, devaluing the link further. A link building company should probe deeper into their options if they do not want these things happening to their links.
3. Another thing is that even though these directories are free, they would still have to get funds somewhere to finance their operations. This is where advertisements come in. Selling Ad space is the primary place where directories get their money. Add them to the equation and the company’s website is further drowned in the midst of lower quality links and more enticing advertisements.

• Paid Directories. Using a paid directory does not instantly eliminate all of the disadvantages that a free directory has, but it gives the company more assurance that their websites are viewed and grouped together with other quality links even for a fee.

Make the most out of the money spent by knowing what your paid submission includes. Here are a few tips:

1. Making sure that the directories are professionally maintained is one of the first tasks in using paid directories.
2. Paid directories provide link building service only to those websites that will pass their meticulous review process and quality standards.
3. These directories also feature fewer amounts of advertisements, which also lessen the competition within the directory.
4. Paid directories also offer various opportunities for deep linking with other websites listed in its domain. Yahoo! Directory and Business.com are just some examples of popular paid directories in the Web.

Discerning what investment best suits one’s company will be the main task of the company. Reviewing the options and making sure that one employs the most logical strategy is crucial in ensuring the success of the link building process. Other options aside from web directories include consulting with an Internet marketing professional or an SEO expert. At the end of the day, it will all depend on what directory or strategy will best suit the needs (and budget) of the company.

A directory lists web sites by category and subcategory.

The categorization is usually based on the whole web site rather than on one page or a set of keywords making sites limited only to a few and specific categories. A link building company would usually provide this service for those who need it. Web directories often allow site owners to directly submit their site for inclusion. The only job to be done by the company is to have editors review these site submissions for quality. Many web directories have risen in popularity over the past few years. As people get more Internet savvy, paid directories become handy tools that can help make web browsing easier for users. Paid directories are considered as one of the best link building strategies available in the market nowadays. There are numerous ways to be included in web directories. The common practice nowadays is for SEO companies to provide link building services like web directories to its customers and charge a fee not for the membership per se but for the time allotted in reviewing and making sure that the links submitted are at par with the criteria posted by search engine companies like Google and Yahoo. Directories are usually paid through credit cards and debit cards or through online payment sites like PayPal, gBuy and 2CheckOut that will require companies to pay their fees through their credit or debit accounts.

Directories also have various features in listing that often depend upon the fees paid for inclusion.

1. Free Submission, that wipes out all review and listing fees for companies that avail of their services.
2. Reciprocal Links to directory, there are directories that require companies to put reciprocal links or links that will take the reader back to the web directory embedded in the outbound website.
3. Paid Submissions, or featured listing services that charge fees for companies to have their links listed or featured within the web directory.
4. Human-edited Directories created and maintained by editors who add links based on the policies particular to that directory.

Link Building has become one of the primary strategies in search engine positioning for many companies nowadays. Link building not only helps improve exponentially a company’s popularity among users and on different search engines, it also helps in achieving target traffic and boosts over-all company productivity and popularity. The quality of information present in every web page is of primary importance in many businesses nowadays. This quality is also one of the most important things that people always seek in surfing the Internet. Companies that are able to capitalize with various linking strategies like paid directories will be the ones achieving enormous success and sitting atop the various search engine rankings.

If you pursue high quality link building using other methods and increase inflow of backlinks by submitting your URL effectively to Internet directories, the greater your change in breezing ahead of your competitors. The successful use of directory submission to boost link popularity and rankings depends on the number and quality of directories you submit your website to. The importance of “quality” in directory submissions, as in other link building methods cannot be overemphasized. Algorithms in Google and other major search engines favor sites listed in high quality directories.

Are Free Directories Worth It? There are thousands of possible directories that you could submit your website to for your link building campaign, but screening out thousands into a group of high quality directories will take time. When time is an issue for you, you can hire a link building company to handle directory submissions for you. High authority directories are the most popular go-to directories for site owners who are gunning for top spots in the SERP rankings. An important option you need to consider if you intend to submit a URL to an Internet directory for enhanced link popularity is The Open Directory Project at DMOZ.org. The Open Directory Project feeds content to search engines like Google, Lycos, Hotbot, AOL Search, Ask Jeeves and Netscape, among others.

Listing your site at DMOZ is helpful to your link building campaign since this allows your information to be found on several smaller search engines and directories on the Web. Moreover, DMOZ is considered to be among the free higher authority directories that are guaranteed to build link popularity. The downside with DMOZ however, is that its free listing feature subjects sites to very strict quality control procedures before submissions are accepted. Hence, acceptance is not easy and turnaround takes a considerable amount of time. Despite this, site owners must consider submitting to DMOZ and other free quality directories for link building. They must also submit to paid directories listings for site inclusion.

Paid Directories Why do you need to pay fees to be included in the directory listing? According to Matt Cutts of Google, the purpose of the fee in a high quality directory is to compensate the time and effort of someone (an editor) doing a genuine evaluation of a URL or site. There have been concerns that Google’s rejection policy of URLs with paid links would render listing into paid directories useless in link building efforts, but Cutts has explained it clearly that Google does not penalize directories requiring minimum fees for editorial reviews. What Google blacklists are directories that sell links for link juice, passing PR and purely for profit with no regard for the end user. If used effectively, directory submissions as a link building method guarantees a high return on investment (ROI).

By increasing the number of backlinks to your site, directory submissions help you gain link popularity and a better placement on the SERP rankings. Directory submissions are a long-term advertising technique that can directly send customers at your doorstep. Since it acts like an online phonebook of sites, having your site listed in many quality directories means a greater likelihood for prospective customers to view your site and obtain contact information. In the group of paid Internet directories, there are major differences in payment options. Some charge a lifetime or one-time fee and others charge an annual or recurring fee. Depending on your ROI goals, you need to evaluate the payment guidelines and review payment options before selecting the directory to submit to. Here are definitions to guide you:

1. Paid web directories. These are Internet directories that charge site owners a fee for their site inclusion on the directory. They are also called premium, commercial, or pay-for directory listings. Among the high authority paid directories include Yahoo! Directory, Skaffe, Joeant, Abilogic, eLib, and BOTW Directory.
2. Annual fee web directories are directories that charge site owners an annual fee to get listed on the directory. They are also referred to as recurring fee, recurring membership listings, or recurring fees.
3. Permanent fee web directories require a one-time charge for directory listings. This means that you pay a lifetime fee for site inclusion.

There is some debate on which payment option is best. Some prefer the permanent fee listings since it is more economical, but others question the quality of services in one-time listings. Recurring or annual fees are usually paid in order to maintain directories. As submissions increase, the larger the directories become, so Internet directories deem it fitting to charge site owners to maintain the directories and pay for editorial costs to ensure effective and sustained indexing for Google rankings. The choice is entirely left on the discretion of the site owner. A rule of thumb: do not pay too much for submission to paid directories. Submit to free directories and suggest your site only to high quality paid directories that guarantee ROI.

Why is correct category finding important in a link building campaign? Before you can expect to fare well in link popularity or search engine rankings when using web directories for link building, it is crucial to understand how web directories actually work and how they operate. In simple terms, web directories serve as catalogs of web sites sorted by categories and subcategories. Unlike search engines that allow you to locate pages with relevant information, web directories allow you to locate websites according to category.

Directory submissions are one of the easiest ways to acquiring links to boost your website’s link popularity, but among the most confusing steps in suggesting a site for inclusion is the first step: selecting the right category to suggest your site to. Finding the right category is important for possible inclusion to a web directory because it increases your chances of getting your suggestions acted upon by editors more promptly. Sites that are suggested under incorrect categories delays the submission process. Hence, choosing the correct category is important if you are serious about improving your site’s link popularity.

How do I find correct categories for submission? Emphasis on link building using web directories is on the most popular directories, namely Google Web Directory and Yahoo! Web Directory. Here is a preview of how each of them organizes categories so you can find the most suitable category to submit your URL to.

Google Web Directory

Google stands out among other web directories for some enhanced features such as importance ranking, which is a plus factor for link building campaigners. Google Web Directory has a corps of Open Directory volunteer editors that selects websites and categorizes them. Using Google’s patented PageRank mechanism, the web directory is able to display a ranking of sites based on importance. This notable feature makes the highest quality pages appear at the uppermost in any directory category.

Other web directories list sites within each category alphabetically, but Google uses PageRank to sort sites according to their importance. The highest-rated sites receive a green ratings bar to indicate their popularity in terms of PageRank. This helps users effectively launch a link building campaign by enabling them to determine which sites under any category are worth browsing.

When choosing the correct category for directory submission, submit your URL only under the most related categories to your site. Keep in mind that search engine rankings and link popularity emphasize on relevancy. Google directory narrows your search from a broad range of topics or category. It displays topics in a given category and can recommend terms that will help you conduct a narrowed search. Further, it lets you search subcategories once you narrow your topic of interest within a specific subsection.

To help you locate the most popular subcategories within a broad category, the largest subcategories are displayed in boldface. Google’s World Category features directory content using descriptions in non-English languages. To illustrate, in World/Francais, content and descriptions are written, not merely translated, entirely in French so that a whole section of the Web is displayed completely in that language.

Yahoo! Directory

The Yahoo! Directory features 14 main categories to browse on. Each main category is composed of several sub-categories that organize general information to specific information. The Yahoo! directory can list sites either in alphabetical order or by popularity. The popularity listing allows pages to be sorted by relevance based on Yahoo! Search Technology, helping your link building efforts focus on sites that are worth checking out.

When submitting for a URL to Yahoo! Directory with improving your site’s link popularity in mind, to choose the most suitable category for your website. Here are a few tips:

1. Be specific. If you want to suggest your site for inclusion to Yahoo! Directory to help you improve link popularity, be meticulously specific. You can search Yahoo! Directory for words related to your site, and from there, view “Related Categories” that are displayed in the results.
2. Indicate whether your site is commercial or non-commercial. If your website is entrepreneurial in nature, it belongs to the Business and Economy section. Commercial sites require paid-for listings which cost $299/year.
3. Specify the region when applicable. If your site is of particular relevance to a region, you must suggest your URL to a regional category. For example, a museum in California should be suggested under Regional > U.S. States > California > Arts and Humanities > Museums, Galleries and Centers.
4. Personal. Suggest your personal web pages under the category Society and Culture > People > Personal Homepages.

Uncertain? If you think you have found the right category to submit to, check out what sites are already listed under it. If you find that they are unrelated, think twice before submitting. View the “Description” of this category or go to the “See also” heading and look at a list of related categories to help you find a better location. To use directories effectively and establish your site’s link popularity, always ensure that you submit your URL to the relevant directories and to the correct categories and subcategories within these web directories. The task may be time-consuming, but with a little patience, you will see inflow of links to your site.

Web directories are Internet-based resources that specialize in categorizing websites and linking to them. They could either be a general directory or a specialized directory. General directories contain a large range of categories while specialized directories contain just one or two topics/areas. When choosing web directories to submit or register to, quality is the most important thing to look for. Quality directories are a fantastic link building resource that generate potential for user traffic and create link popularity.

The difficult part is choosing which directory to choose for submissions. There are literally thousands of web directories sprawled over the Web and you need to pick those that will augment and not derail your link building campaign. It is important to sort out which of them is of high quality and which is of low quality, to achieve link popularity for your site. Here are tips to help you judge quality in web directories and decide whether to skip or keep:

1. Direct Links. Ideally, links in web directories must be direct, meaning that when you click the link, it leads directly to your website. Check a directory page’s source code and examine the link coding used. Direct links follow the a href="" HTML link. Check whether the directory incorporates a rel="nofollow tag in the code. If it does, submitting to such a directory would be wasteful since it yields nothing as far as Google is concerned. Moreover, check if the directory redirects using javascript and if so, skip it since this renders the link impossible to follow by search engines.
2. Accessibility. You can check whether a category in a web directory is inaccessible to search engines. Make sure to read the site’s robot.txt file by typing the site address, followed by a slash and robots.txt – http://www.directorysite.com/robots.txt Also, check the image and images folder because this is what websites usually use to make the site off limits. If in the Arts folder or category you see: Disallow: /Arts, this means it is inaccessible. If you see Disallow: /Arts, then it’s a keeper.
3. Pagerank. Although not the most important criteria in ranking a directory, PR reveals a directory’s search engine exposure and clue you in on a site’s link popularity. It tells how frequently a site is crawled by Google. A search engine manifests its love to a site by indexing many of its internal pages.
4. Site Design and Maintenance. Generally you can judge the quality of a directory by simply looking at it. If a site is designed and maintained well, the more likely it is to attract traffic and build link popularity. Quality requires time, effort, and serious thought. A quality site is regularly maintained, free from typos, broken pages or dead links. If the site offers obsolete information, it means its maintenance is sub-standard. Another way to check for maintenance is to look for a “newest links” listing and determine when these links were added. Owners of quality directories update and add new links on a regular basis.
5. Quality Control. Ideally, quality directories that build link popularity are those that are not clogged with spam and ads. It is better to submit to directories that have quality standards in place when considering listings for submission and do not approve every website unless it passes those standards. Search engines dislike low standards in sites. If you want to build link popularity, it is better to skip these directories. Also look out for directories that list MFA or Made for AdSense sites; these sites are sure to sink your ratings.
6. Category Structure. Check for a directory that offers a top level category that is related to your website. Relevancy is a top criterion in link building. If you find that there is a sub-category that fits your site, then this is a keeper. What’s better is that some directories offer a “suggest category” field in case an appropriate category does not exist. If a directory does not contain that option, you better skip it. You have nothing to gain from submitting to a category that is irrelevant to your topic.
7. Links. Examine the number of links present in a directory. If there are over 20-30 links a single page, that number may be unreasonable. Avoid directories that are loaded with too many links because this is a sure indication that a directory has too few sub-categories. Look for a directory that features categories broken down into as many sub-categories as appropriate.
8. Reciprocal Links. Bear in mind that quality directories never ask for a reciprocal link in exchange for listing. Stay away from directories that impose such a condition because clearly, that directory seeks inbound links more than it does great sites. Linking to so-called “bad neighborhoods” will injure your link popularity and search engine rankings.

These are some of the most important criteria to consider when judging quality directories. Submit and register to a quality directory, use other helpful link building methods, and seek help and guidance from a link building service or a link building company to be on your way to a great spot at the search engine rankings.

If you want to boost search engine rankings, focus on how to acquire quality links using link building techniques. There is no one best method to launch a successful link building campaign. There are several ways, in fact. When you are after link popularity, using different but reliable means of getting links should always be welcome. This is why leveraging the power of web directories to elevate your link popularity and catapult your site to the top of SERP hierarchy deserves serious attention.

What is a web directory? A web directory is oftentimes mistaken for a search engine but a distinction has to be drawn. A web directory acts like a catalog on the World Wide Web that lists sites according to category and subcategory. These directories are considered human edited resources because sites are subjected to a manual review process before their listing gets approved. Any website owner can submit their URL to a web directory – some for free and some for a fee. Since we are talking about getting free links to improve link popularity, we focus on submission to free directories available on the Web.

How does directory submission contribute to link popularity? Judging by the single link and search capability of a web directory, a site owner acquires a vast number of potential link partners begging to be added. With the use of appropriate strategies, web directories can improve link popularity to a great degree. In order to get a clear picture of how free quality directories boost link popularity, it is important to understand how search engines work. Basically, search engines aid users in locating relevant information based on keywords typed in the search.

Search engines then evaluate the relevance of your page based on a number of factors, including:

1. meta data on your page, to include page title and keywords
2. page content and keyword density
3. absence or presence of keywords in the URL leading to the page
4. number of links from related pages on quality sites that link back to the page
5. number of links pointing from your site to related pages on quality sites. While all of the factors are rated with a certain value by search engines, all rate the number of links pointing to the page highly.

Several benefits can be reaped by submitting your URL to a free web directory:

1. Listing your website with free directories give you permanent links that boost link popularity. By using targeted anchor text and “themed” submissions, the relevancy of keywords on your site are improved.
2. Link building through directory submissions let you acquire links from related pages. For instance, if your site is related to travel, your URL submission is approved only if it is submitted under a travel category, or a travel category within a general directory. This guarantees that links pointing to your web site come only from relevant pages, which search engines love.
3. Directory submissions replicate “natural links,” which are favored by search engines. A natural link is acquired once a site owner voluntarily creates a link pointed at your site.
4. Submitting to directories give you instant targeted visitors that are vital to any link building effort. Although their popularity has been replaced by search engines, people still depend on online directories to locate relevant websites. Having your website listed in free quality directories increase the potentiality of receiving user traffic.
5. Free quality directories can create one-way links. Site owners commonly link to other sites for link building. Swapping or trading links are usually done in order to get a permanent back link from a related website. While there are many free directories that act as link exchanges, there are also free quality directories where links are permanent, free, and does not require reciprocal linking. If you have a terrific website, directory owners would be more than willing to link to your site if you request so.
6. Free directory submissions provide permanent results for a one-time investment. Whether you do the directory submission yourself or hire a link building company to do it for you, it is a worthwhile effort. For a one-time investment, you get permanent and free links that will enhance link popularity and visibility of your site.

Where and how do I submit my URL? The most popular choice is the DMOZ directory, which is a free listing online directory. DMOZ has been operating for many years and catalogs more than four million categorized Web sites. It is maintained by a large number of editors that add new URLs of approved sites to for categorization under relevant topics or areas. However, there are alternative free online directories out there that can help your link building campaign. Identify those directories first. Once you come up with a list of free web directories and before you submit your URL to them, go to each site and review their guidelines for submission to the letter.

Generally, experts put a red flag on directory submission services since it gives you no control over how the submission is handled, if at all. It could also turn you into a potential spammer, which will eventually get you blacklisted, and hurt your site’s link popularity. Google and other search engines are known to penalize associations to so-called “bad neighborhoods,” or sites that abuse SEO techniques and search engine algorithms.

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.