Improving Your Site's "Link Popularity"
While your search engine ranking success depends largely on the good, relevant content on your website, search engines also rank you based upon how "important" they deem you. (It's starting to feel a little personal, I know.)
So how do they do this? By tracking how many people visit you - both directly and find you from other websites. They track how many sites are linking to you, and how much website traffic they receive.
Here are some ideas that will help convince Google and the others that you are indeed, very important:
- Create a MySpace and Facebook profile, either for yourself or for your business with links back to your site.
- If you have relevant product or service videos, post them on You Tube and link back to your website.
- If you offer content on your website that is educational/ informational, look up related information on Wikipedia and determine if it’s appropriate to link to your information. If it is, you can add a link to yourself right there.
- Write articles and submit them to article directories such as Digg or EzineArticles.com with your signature and website link in the author’s resource box.
- Submit your website to online directories in your region or area of focus. You'll find these just by Googling something like "nonprofit online directory", or "California massage therapists".
- Find blogs that people are writing on topics related to your business and respond to their posts with a comment. Be sure to sign your name and include your web address (but don't put more than one link in your message.) Or better yet, start your own blog! (We recommend Wordpress.)
- Advertise your product or service on Craigslist once in awhile, and place employment ads on Craigslist when you’re hiring.
- Create accounts on the most popular social bookmarking websites, such as del.icio.us and ma.gnolia and bookmark your website. Be sure to write a description, add keyword tags and rank the site.
- Write reviews of products or events that allow you to post your web address.
Keep in mind:
Content is still the most important - if your site has relevant, quality content, then people will naturally want to link to your site.
