|
Getting in-bound links to your site is one of the most important things you can do for generating traffic to your site: * It helps to get your site listed in the search engine. * It helps to boost your position in the search engine. * It helps to build small streams of traffic to your site. Links to your site are normally given by also giving a link from your site to the other one. These are called reciprocal links or link swaps. And naturally there are a few services available to automate the link somehow. Some of these services will automatically add the link to your site and the other site once your link request is approved (through some software to be installed on your site). Some will simply point you to sites which do use link swaps and who are interested in hearing from you. Some will also check that the link to your site remains in place, and email you if it disappears. It's then up to you to either contact the owner of that site to find out why the link has vanished, or to remove the reciprocal link on your site. But there is one thing they do not do, and which you need to watch for: How would a visitor to the other site FIND the link back to your site? Because you can be sure that if a human visitor cannot find it, then it's unlikely that a search engine will. Let me give you an example: Andrew was using the service at LinkMetro.com to get links to one of his sites. Someone had a site on a related topic, and they requested a link back to Andrew's. He checked the link back to his site, and everything looked OK. The other site had requested a link back to their homepage (rather than another specific page), so Andrew checked out that home page. What did he find? * No links to the "link directory". * No link to a "related sites" page. * No link to a "resources" page. It seemed that the link directory on that other site was not linked from the home page of that site. The other site was requesting inbound links back to its home page, but effectively hiding the return link from the search engines and from website visitors. And that makes the link back to Andrew's site useless - it's like that link doesn't even exist. So next time you get asked for a reciprocal link, check the route that people and search engines would use to get from that site over to yours. You might be surprised what you find.
Other site's News
- 7 Secrets to Getting Your Next Job Using Social Media (Mashable)
Dan Schawbel is the author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success , and owner of the award winning Personal Branding Blog . Between current economic conditions and the technological evolution of the Internet, the traditional approach most job seekers have taken in the past is no longer viable. The approach — developing a resume and cover letter, locating jobs on and ...
- Tough Love For Microsoft Search (Search Engine Land)
Back in June, I spoke at Microsoft as part of a regular series for those involved with its webmaster tools group and anyone generally interested in search.
- Napster wounds the giant (Rocky Mountain News)
When Shawn Fanning was born, on Nov. 22, 1980, he lived with his single mother, Coleen, and a rotating cast of her eight brothers and sisters and their families in working-class Rockland, Mass.
- Experts expect '09 resolutions will zero in on money (El Paso Times)
EL PASO - In between sorting through your bills from the holiday season, watching the Sun Bowl and celebrating the arrival of the new year, you might want to take a moment to make a few resolutions to improve your financial picture in 2009, experts say.
- New Media Trends And Predictions 2009: What Independent Web Publishers Should Expect - Part 1 (MasterNewMedia.org)
Here my new media predictions for 2009 : what to expect when it comes to new media, professional web publishing and learning, collaboration and social media? Find out everything I see coming across these key areas in this two-part report opening today. Photo credit: Giancarlo Mazzaro - 7th Floor I have prepared this report , which gets published every year end (here my 2008 new media ...
- Search Engine Roundtable Is Five Years Old - December 2nd (Search Engine Roundtable)
I totally forgot to write a special article for this site's fifth birthday, which took place on December 2, 2008. We have been writing here for five years! We have written over 9,000 articles, and over 2,300 just this year alone. That makes for over 8 articles per work day this past year and just about seven articles per work day over the course of these past five years. I could not have ...
- The Greenville Adcoate (Greenville Advocate)
Superintendent Mike Looney will introduce a cost-cutting plan to the Board of Education at its January meeting due to a projected $1.8 million loss in state revenues because of a prorated education budget.
- Wishing For The Perfect Search Marketing Tool (Search Engine Land)
In The Trenches is a spotlight of tips, tricks, and news about the tools search engine marketing professionals use to give them a leg up on the competition.
- Top 10 Free Tools for Monitoring Your Brand’s Reputation (Mashable)
Dan Schawbel is the author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success , and owner of the award winning Personal Branding Blog . Brand monitoring has become an essential task for any individual or corporation. Years ago, when people talked about our brands, it was behind our backs and we almost never found out about it. Today, most of these dialogues are right in front of ...
- A Bitter Christmas for Unemployed Immigrants (New America Media)
With the economy declining and job cuts increasing, unemployed Latino immigrants in New York are struggle to provide for their families this Christmas, let alone make ends meet.
|
|
