Link Popularity: ROCK The Rankings Without Breaking The Rules

Why don’t most link popularity schemes work? Simple. Because they break the rules. Here’s how it usually goes: a) Webmasters scour the net to find quick and dirty ways to build link popularity, b) They discover a method that works causing everyone to jump on the bandwagon, which c) forces Google to come up with new ways to curtail the outrageous amount of link spam, so d) Webmasters start looking for another quick and dirty scheme, etc.

Ignoring common sense and Google’s rules is an exercise in futility. Why? Because the search engines hold all the cards. It’s their game. That’s why the above method only works for a very short while if at all.

But there are strategies you can use to get genuine, legal links that will rock your rankings for a long time. I’ll explain in a moment.

The Old Way

First let’s look at how most webmasters and SEOs still approach link popularity and why these methods are so five minutes ago:

1. Reciprocal linking: Not bad in and of itself IF you are linking to sites you would truly do business with or refer people to. However in today’s frenzied linking environment, the majority of sites that offer reciprocal links have an automated process void of any sort of human decision-making:
    
   First you add their link to your site. Then you fill out their form. Their software runs a check to see if you are linking to them and if you are, well maybe they will link to you. And then you have to remember to check their site in a week or so to ensure they added your link. And if they didn’t, you send them a polite reminder, and then another and another. And when they don’t, you have to go back to your site, find their link and remove it.
    
   All that to secure one link. Now repeat the process 500 times. No wonder SEOs and site owners get frustrated. This is NOT what Google had in mind when it factored link popularity into its algorithm.
    
2. Text Link Ads: Why not just take five minutes and a few dollars to purchase 5,000 text link ads? Instant link pop, right? Actually it’s instant link spam, according to Google. Instead of getting top rankings, you’ll risk getting booted from the index. Ouch! Better get approval from finance to kick up more cash on your already over-budget PPC campaign.
    
3. Splogs: Never heard of a splog? It’s short for spam blog. Ever since free blogs became popular, they have been used to create pages and pages of useless (or zero) information with the sole purpose of hosting links pointing to other sites. Why doesn’t this help your link popularity? Because in order to work, the blog linking to your site has to have high quality links pointing to it. Without that indicator of a blog’s popularity, search engines consider any link from the blog to your website as all but useless. And how many webmasters are going to link to your blog if you don’t have anything useful to say on it?
    
   Of course if you actually have tons of valuable information that other sites in your industry want to link to, that’s great. But that takes time. And energy. And ideas. It doesn’t meet the criteria for “overnight SEO success” that most site owners demand from their web designer or SEO.

The New Way

Clearly, the way we conducted link building last year or the year before is no longer viable. So what are the new success guidelines that you and your webmaster or SEO should follow?

The answer is twofold:

1. Learn exactly what Google considers quality link popularity.
2. And learn how to create it.

1. What Google Considers Quality Linking

No big mystery here. Google’s webmaster guidelines tell you to:

• Have other relevant sites link to yours.
• Make sure all the sites that should know about you are aware of your site.
• Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to industry-specific expert sites.

2. How To Give Google What It Wants

• Have other relevant sites link to yours. The keyword here is “relevant”, which means: “Having a bearing on or connection with the matter at hand.” This is different from being “related”. Many sites are related to yours… they are your competitors! Who wants to give them a free plug!? What you want to do is make logical connections. For example, if you are a reseller/affiliate, the manufacturer of the product you sell may have a webpage for links to their authorized sellers. That link could actually generate a clickthrough from an interested buyer, which is what Googlebot wants to see: targeted link popularity.
   
• Make sure all the sites that should know about you are aware of your site. This means contacting sites such as non-profits, training sites, and information-based sites with a connection to your type of business. This can be time consuming but the results over the long haul will far exceed any of the current link popularity schemes being used.
   
• Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo! as well as to industry-specific expert sites. This is probably the easiest method (thank goodness) of all. Research a list of directories or have your SEO compile and submit them to you for review. Some directories may charge an annual fee for inclusion. Don’t be stingy about investing the money. If the directory is perceived as an expert site by Google, it will be money well spent.

In Conclusion

It all boils down to one question: “What sites should know about mine but don’t yet?” A bit of legwork to determine the answer to that question is a great way to launch a link popularity campaign that delivers lasting results.

In other words, rocking the rankings without breaking the rules.

Google’s Growing Aversion to Paid Links: Three Ways to Overcome

In its ongoing drive towards more honest, accurate search engine results, Google is now making it harder than ever to gain rankings by using linking tactics that it considers manipulative. And its definition of “manipulative” is getting wider, too.

Remember when link farms, link-sharing schemes and free-for-all programs used to be in vogue? Then Google wised up to that one and SEO’s and webmasters had to scramble to find another way to fool the engines into dishing out higher rankings.

Remember being advised to buy paid link ads all over the place, just to trick the engines into giving you higher PageRank? That one fell into disfavor, too.

Now Google is telling errant website owners that, “Certain actions such as buying links to increase a site’s PageRank can result in penalization.”

Google Crawls Inside Your Head

In other words, Google is now telling us that, with the help of its clever algorithms, it can deduce our motivations and determine whether we purchased an ad solely for PageRank purposes or if we bought the ad seeking to attract legitimate, targeted traffic to our web page.

How does it know the difference? A dead giveaway are site-wide (or run-of-site) ad placements. If your text ad appears on every page of a linking site, and if the content of your ad does not relate to the content of the page on which it appears, the relevance factor is nil and that ad loses big points in the new and improved Google PageRank sweepstakes.

The direction of this trend is becoming very clear: What Google really wants to see is incoming links from relevant sites that are linking to you of their own free will, not via paid site-wide ad placements or any other SEO tricks.

So, how to compete in this new climate of distaste for paid links?

I have come up with three effective and legal ways to increase your incoming links. The bonus is that they will also attract the right kind of traffic to your site, which just happens to tap into Google’s growing appetite for customer-centric search engine marketing.

1. Optimized press releases

A perfect example of Google-friendly self promotion. A well-written press release that appeals to the media’s hunger for a good story and that is properly optimized with your best-performing keyword phrases can earn you not only valuable media attention and new prospects, but also increase your legitimate incoming links. Ergo, better search placement and a triple source of new traffic - traffic coming from the search engines, traffic coming from the press release itself, and traffic from the publicity generated by the press release.

2. Industry-specific articles

Website owners have been using article distribution to promote their businesses online for ages. It’s only in the last few years that they’ve really begun to take advantage of the fact that articles are also a safe and effective way to:

-Attract higher search rankings with keyword-optimized article content.
-Amass more true, natural link votes for greater PageRank.
-Direct targeted traffic to their site.

But remember, the content of the articles must be relevant to your industry and valuable to your readers - not just a glorified ad - in order to deliver those benefits.

3. Blogs and RSS Feeds

The search engine value of blogs and RSS feeds is that you can update them both with fresh content on a regular basis… and the more you post, the more frequently your pages will be visited by search engine spiders, and the faster the updates will appear in search results. Blogs and RSS feeds provide relevant information about the “goings-on” in your industry and are a great way to build relevant link popularity by including keyword-rich copy and links in your entries.

Adjusting to a Slower Pace

I can hear you moaning: “But it will take forever to get those strategies in place. I want results NOW!” But just look where the obsession with speed has gotten us so far: many sites being banned or penalized by search engines for using quick and dirty tactics, and site owners wasting money on SEO schemes that have no staying power.

This time, take the time to do it right. Yes, it may take five or six months to get the kind of rankings you hope for. But consider it a sound investment in a long and fruitful relationship with some very important business partners: the search engines AND your customers-to-be.

How To Win the Link Popularity Contest

When it comes to generating link popularity, you’ve likely heard web marketers say, “Build it and they will come”. In other words, create an excellent website marketing strategy with loads of quality content displayed on a site that’s well designed and properly optimized. This, they say, will inspire other sites to link to yours.

Oh, is that all?

Unfortunately, it isn’t.

Having a quality site with hundreds of pages of well-written, unique content is great. But for most websites, even that isn’t enough to attract the quality and quantity of links needed to boost Google rankings these days.

So what do you have to do to get quality links that will actually count for something with the search engines? Here’s Google’s answer to the question:

“Make sure all the sites that should know about your pages are aware your site is online.”  (http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769)

That means don’t wait for them to find you. Put your paws to the pavement and seek out organizations, associations, and specialty industry groups… any and all sites representing groups that are considered credible and respected resources for your industry. Then get them to link to you (more on that coming up.)

Becoming affiliated with groups like these will not only shift your link popularity efforts into high gear, it will also help build your brand and expose your business to consumers in your precise target market.

How to Start Getting Popular:

Paying For Popularity?

Since Google is so adverse to paid run-of-site links, it would be natural to assume that any sort of paid link popularity method would also be frowned upon. But luckily that’s not the case when it comes to association membership fees.

Some of the organizations you research will charge a membership fee, anywhere from $10 for a lifetime to $5,000 or more per year. Don’t let that scare you off. If your funds are limited, consider signing up for a few at a time and adding more as your budget allows.

Anyway, a few links added judiciously over time are much more credible than a flood of sudden links that appear all at once. That will get you the kind of attention you don’t want from search engines… red flags over possible link spamming.

In conclusion, nobody said link popularity was a contest you could win overnight. But if you steadfastly use the ideas outlined above, it will pay off in a gradual – and very satisfying – improvement in your link popularity, targeted traffic, and rankings.

Reporting Paid Links: The Debate