So, we all know that in the core of it all, traffic is the most
essential thing to a successful internet based business company.
Aside from ensuring that you have a great product to sell, and
you have your company’s internal organization well taken core
of, it would be time to get to the nitty gritty of things,
generating traffic.

If you already have a site and you want think that you’re not
getting the traffic that you’re supposed to be getting, then its
time to re-consider. If you are contending in these very
competitive business, you should always be a step ahead of your
competition, increasing your traffic flow should have been done
starting yesterday.

Timing is essential, that’s an old adage known to everyone.
But with generating traffic, you should always be on your toes
and be a day ahead of everyone. Never think of today and
tomorrow as a starting point for making your site traffic laden,
it should always have been yesterday.

To help you out in generating more traffic for your site, here
are some seven surefire ways to increase your traffic starting
from yesterday.

1) Invest in good advertising with search engines

Google’s Adwords and Yahoo’s Overture provide great
advertising schemes that are very truly popular and assures
great traffic. Although with this surefire way to increase your
traffic would cost some money. While some would shy away from
spending money to increase traffic, it is imperative in this
case to do so because Adwords and Overture is the top surefire
way to increase your traffic.

You could see for yourself the success this search engine
advertising methods have reaped rewards for so many companies.
Lots of site feature these advertising system and many have
signed on to reap the benefits. Do not be left behind. Every
penny is worth it with using Google and Yahoo’s advertising.

2) Exchange or Trade Links with other sites

With exchanging links with other sites, both of you will benefit
from the efforts both of you do to enhance your sites traffic.
When one site features another sites link, they could provide
one another with the traffic one site generates. The efforts are
doubly beneficial because it would seem like both of you are
working to generate more traffic. The more links traded with
more sites the more traffic could be expected.

3) Use Viral Marketing

Viral marketing allows you to spread the word about your company
and product without any costs or if ever low costs only. This is
a marketing method that can be quite sneaky; you can attach your
company’s name, product or link to a certain media such as a
funny video, entertaining game, an interesting article or a
gossip or buzz. With this method, people get infected with the
creativity and entertainment of the medium that they will pass
it on to many people.

4) Search and use proper keywords or keyword phrases for your
sites content

Search engines look for certain keywords that they would show in
their results page. In doing so, having the right keyword and
keyword phrase is a high requirement in ranking in high in
search engine results. You could write your own content or you
could hire someone to do it for you.

5) Write Articles that can lead traffic to your site

Submit articles to sites that would contain the same subject
that your site deals in. If you sell car parts write press
releases and articles about cars and car parts. Attach your
sites description and services at the end of the article as well
as the link.

6) Join forums and form online communities

Capture a market and show your expertise and credibility. When
you found a good foundation for your site, people will trust you
and your site and will pass on to many people their trust.
Traffic will certainly increase because they know that you can
provide what they need.

7) Lastly, Offer newsletters.

If many people know what you are about and your existence is
shared with many others, you will find a loyal traffic that can
provide you with more traffic by recommendation. If you arouse
the curiosity of your customers they would be pushed to help you
with your traffic.

2. Offer additional value on your website. For affiliates and
partners you can place links to their sites and products and ask
them to do the same for you. You can also advertise their books
or videos, if these products relate to your industry and are not
in competition with your own product.

3. You can allow customers to “opt in” to get discounts and
special offers. Place a link on your site to invite customers to
“opt in” to get a monthly newsletter or valuable coupons.

4. Add a link to your primary page with a script “bookmark” or
Add this site to your “Favorites”.

5. Add a link “Recommend this site to a Friend” so that the
visitor can email your website link, with a pre-written title,
“Thought you might be interested in this”, just by clicking
on it.

6. Brand your website so that visitors always know they are on
your site. Use consistent colors, logos and slogans and always
provide a “Contact” link on each page.

7. Create a “Our Policies’ page” that clearly defines your
philosophy and principles in dealing with your customers. Also
post your privacy policy as well so that clients know they are
secure when they visit your site.

8. Create a FAQ page which addresses most of the doubts and
clarifications about your product or your company that are
likely to be asked. This helps to resolve most of the customers
doubts in their first visit to your site.

8. Ensure that each page on your website has appropriate titles
and keywords so that your customer can find their way back to
your site if they lose the bookmark.

9. Never spam a client, who has opted for newsletters, with
unsolicited emails. Later if they decide they want to ‘opt
out’ of the mailings, be sure you honor their request and take
them off the mailing list. They may still come back if they like
your products. But they will certainly not come back if you
continue to flood their email box with mails they no longer wish
to receive.

Most web hosting companies will provide you with basic web
traffic information that you then have to interpret and
make pertinent use of. However, the data you receive from
your host company can be overwhelming if you don’t
understand how to apply it to your particular business and
website. Let’s start by examining the most basic data – the
average visitors to your site on a daily, weekly, and
monthly basis.

These figures are the most accurate measure of your
website’s activity. It would appear on the surface that the
more traffic you see recorded, the better you can assume
your website is doing, but this is an inaccurate
perception. You must also look at the behavior of your
visitors once they come to your website to accurately gauge
the effectiveness of your site.

There is often a great misconception about what is commonly
known as “hits” and what is really effective, quality
traffic to your site. Hits simply means the number of
information requests received by the server. If you think
about the fact that a hit can simply equate to the number
of graphics per page, you will get an idea of how overblown
the concept of hits can be. For example, if your homepage
has 15 graphics on it, the server records this as 15 hits,
when in reality we are talking about a single visitor
checking out a single page on your site. As you can see,
hits are not useful in analyzing your website traffic.

The more visitors that come to your website, the more
accurate your interpretation will become. The greater the
traffic is to your website, the more precise your analysis
will be of overall trends in visitor behavior. The smaller
the number of visitors, the more a few anomalous visitors
can distort the analysis.

The aim is to use the web traffic statistics to figure out
how well or how poorly your site is working for your
visitors. One way to determine this is to find out how long
on average your visitors spend on your site. If the time
spent is relatively brief, it usually indicates an
underlying problem. Then the challenge is to figure out
what that problem is.

It could be that your keywords are directing the wrong type
of visitors to your website, or that your graphics are
confusing or intimidating, causing the visitor to exit
rapidly. Use the knowledge of how much time visitors are
spending on your site to pinpoint specific problems, and
after you fix those problems, continue to use time spent as
a gauge of how effective your fix has been.

Additionally, web traffic stats can help you determine
effective and ineffective areas of your website. If you
have a page that you believe is important, but visitors are
exiting it rapidly, that page needs attention. You could,
for example, consider improving the link to this page by
making the link more noticeable and enticing, or you could
improve the look of the page or the ease that your visitors
can access the necessary information on that page.

If, on the other hand, you notice that visitors are
spending a lot of time on pages that you think are less
important, you might consider moving some of your sales
copy and marketing focus to that particular page.

As you can see, these statistics will reveal vital
information about the effectiveness of individual pages,
and visitor habits and motivation. This is essential
information to any successful Internet marketing campaign.

Your website undoubtedly has exit pages, such as a final
order or contact form. This is a page you can expect your
visitor to exit rapidly. However, not every visitor to your
site is going to find exactly what he or she is looking
for, so statistics may show you a number of different exit
pages. This is normal unless you notice a exit trend on a
particular page that is not intended as an exit page. In
the case that a significant percentage of visitors are
exiting your website on a page not designed for that
purpose, you must closely examine that particular page to
discern what the problem is. Once you pinpoint potential
weaknesses on that page, minor modifications in content or
graphic may have a significant impact on the keeping
visitors moving through your site instead of exiting at the
wrong page.

After you have analyzed your visitor statistics, it’s time
to turn to your keywords and phrases. Notice if particular
keywords are directing a specific type of visitor to your
site. The more targeted the visitor meaning that they
find what they are looking for on your site, and even
better, fill out your contact form or make a purchase – the
more valuable that keyword is.

However, if you find a large number of visitors are being
directed or should I say misdirected to your site by a
particular keyword or phrase, that keyword demands
adjustment. Keywords are vital to bringing quality visitors
to your site who are ready to do business with you. Close
analysis of the keywords your visitors are using to find
your site will give you a vital understanding of your
visitor’s needs and motivations.

Finally, if you notice that users are finding your website
by typing in your company name, break open the champagne!
It means you have achieved a significant level of brand
recognition, and this is a sure sign of burgeoning success.

To get a person to go to a site than others, it needs to be very
visible. Providing ads that could direct potential consumers and
customers to their site would allow them to have an increase in
traffic as well as sales. Yahoo provides a service that can put
a site or company’s ad in their sites that can be shown when
certain keywords are inputted.

Yahoo offers a chance for any company to increase their traffic
by using their services. With more people being aware of your
site, there would be more traffic and visitors to your site
given the chance to view your pages as well as your products.
With even a small percentage of successful sales, with a high
traffic volume this could still be a substantial figure for your
company.

Getting a consistent substantial flow of website visitors is
every company’s goal. Many methods are devised and utilized to
ensure that there would be more people to boost the sales and to
be aware of the existence of such a product or service. Website
visitors are potentially the life blood of your internet based
business.

Yahoo/Overture utilizes the same principle as Google’s
Adwords. In fact, they are very similar to each other that they
use keyword and keyword phrase searches and to determine which
ads to show per search. When a person types in a keyword or
keyword phrase to search for anything, the search engines gives
out the results in a page. Then at the right side of the page,
you will see selected ads that have paid for their ads to be
viewed with certain keywords and keyword phrases searched.

For example, Lets say you run a car parts retail/wholesale site.
You choose keywords that can prompt or trigger your ads to be
shown in the page when a keyword is searched. When a search
engine user types in Honda Accord, your ad may come up if you
have designated that as one of your keywords. You don’t need
to fully optimize your site with Search Engine Optimization
methods and techniques.

While some labor so hard to make their site one of the high
ranking sites per keyword search, you get the chance to be on
the top of the list or at least in the first page of a search
result increasing your chance to be clicked on. With that, you
drive traffic and website visitors to your site a lot faster.

You will have to pony up some cash when using this service
though. There are different ways Yahoo/Overture will charge you.
It may be in the number of Keywords or Keyword phrases your ad
uses or in the many times your ad is clicked on. Others offer
many other services like having your ad show up not only in the
search engine pages but also with some third party sites.

Third party sites support ads that have the same theme or niche
as them. With more areas your ad is shown, you increase the
chances of people knowing about your site or product. With more
website visitors you increase the sales of your site which makes
your investment with your ads a wise one.

With so many competitions in the internet based businesses, it
is necessary to take a huge leap forward from the pack by
advertising. Yahoo/Overture will be a great place to start. Many
have utilized their services and have reaped the rewards of this
decision. It’s a marketing strategy that will increase your
website visitors as well as increase your sales resulting to
profit.

It takes money to make money, while there are some methods that
are basically low cost or free, using a marketing service such
as what Yahoo/Overture offers will provide results faster and on
a larger scale. Many businesses have learned this the hard way,
don’t be counted with them.

If you expect your site to stimulate some form of action,
whether it is visitors filling out a form so a
representative can contact them, or purchasing a product,
there are steps you can take to insure that your website is
functioning at peak efficiency. One of the first indicators
of how well your site is working for you is finding out the
number of visitors in a given period of time. A good
baseline measurement is a month in which you haven’t been
doing any unusual offline promotional activities.

However, just because hoards of people have passed through
your gates does not mean your site is successful. Usually,
you want those visitors to actually do something there. It
is equally important to monitor the number of visitors to
your site who made a purchase. This figure is called the
site conversion rate, and it is an essential element of the
efficacy of your website.

To find the site conversion rate, take the number of
visitors per month and figure out the percentage of them
that actually performed the action your site is set up for.
For example, if you had 2,000 hits to your site, but only
25 of them purchased your product, your site conversion
rate equals 1.25%. To get this figure, take your number of
visitors and divide that figure by the number of visitors
who made a purchase. Then divide that result by 100 (25 X 100).

If your website is set-up to get visitors to fill out a
form, make sure to then figure out what the difference is
between your site conversion rate and your sales conversion
rate. This is because not everyone who fills out your form
will actually become your customer. However, whether your
site is set-up to sell a service or product, or to get the
visitor to fill out a form, the site conversion rate will
measure the success or failure of your website whenever you
make changes to the site.

You may find that you need to implement some additional
marketing strategies if you find that traffic to your site
is extremely low. There are several effective methods to
improve the flow of traffic to your website, particularly
launching a search engine optimization campaign. This
campaign is targeted at increasing your position in search
engine results so that consumers can find your pages faster
and easier. You can either research the steps you need to
take to improve your search engine rankings, or employ a
search engine optimization company to do the work for you.
In either case, after your have improved your search engine
positions, make sure you keep on top of them by regular
monitoring and adjusting of your efforts to maintain high
positions.

Another factor to examine is how easy it is for a visitor
to your website to accomplish the action the site is set-up
for. For example, if your goal is for the visitor to fill
out a form, is this form easily accessible, or does the
visitor have to go through four levels to get to it? If
it’s too difficult to get to, the customer may just throw
in the towel and move on to another site. Make sure your
buttons are highly visible, and the path to your form or
ordering page quickly accessible.

Finally, have a professional evaluate the copy on your
website. The goal is, of course, to get your visitor to
make a purchase or fill out your form. Website copy must be
specifically geared to your online campaign and not just a
cut and paste job from your company brochure. The right
copy can make the difference between profit and loss in
your online campaign.

Is this through luck? That is even more remote. It takes good
business sense and a lot of help and team effort. Most
importantly, it is the eagerness to succeed and the
determination to learn and the willingness to invest in a lot of
hard work and some money.

The Very Basic

Like Neo, traffic is “The One”. Without traffic, all your
effort would just go to waste. Every business needs customers,
without them you wouldn’t have anyone to sell your products
to. In the internet world traffic is the walk in customer. The
more traffic you have the more people would be able to sell your
products to.

But like any business that’s in every corner building or in
the mall, not everyone that goes in will buy, but the greater of
number that do come in to browse your merchandise, the greater
number of people that will buy your products. It is a simple and
known fact.

But, how do you get traffic, traffic large enough that could
make a small percentage of eventual buyers enough to make a good
profit. Many big companies generate traffic of tens of thousands
a day and a measly ten to fifteen percent actually buys, but
that small percentage is enough to provide them with good
business.

Many of these success stories get their traffic from paying
others. Yes that’s right; you have to spend money to make
money. Advertising is the key. The more people that knows that
your site exists, the more people would of course go to your
site, that’s common sense.

While there are many ways that can get you advertising for free,
this do not generate the same high volume as those methods that
are getting paid. These paid advertisements include advertising
schemes by Google and Yahoo.

The Value of Searches

The search and will be the easiest and fastest medium in finding
what a person needs in the internet. Search engines have been
very popular because they provide a vital service to many
people. They are free and easy to use. With this popularity,
they get many visitors and clicks that they are the most common
sites that people go to. It is easy to understand why so many
companies would pay to advertise with these search engines.

Search engines provide information to the millions of users that
they have each day. They provide links to many sites that a user
may be looking for. If your sites link pop up in the high ranks
of the search results page, you get a great chance that they
will go to your site. While search engine optimization is a
cheaper and low cost way to get your site a high rank, paying
for advertisements will ensure that you will be on the top
ranks.

When you pay for your advertisements, it is like paying for your
traffic. This may sound like not such a good idea, but the
payoffs would tell a different story. When you pay for your
traffic, you are guaranteed of a consistent traffic flow to your
site. You will never go with an empty sales day.

Paying for your Traffic

Usually, you will be charged with the number of hits a link gets
when your ads is clicked, this is called pay per click. For some
search engines, you will be charged with the number of times
your ad shows up when a certain keyword or keyword phrase is
searched. It is imperative that you have good keyword content in
your ad. There are many tools that aid you in using the right
keyword for the right moment.

All the money you spend in paying for your traffic will not be
for naught. You will get an impressive boost in traffic which
will also result to a great boost in your sales figures. Paying
for your traffic would be a really good idea and you will get
all the benefits it has to offer.

There are basically two types of search engines. The first is by
robots called crawlers or spiders.

Search Engines use spiders to index websites. When you submit
your website pages to a search engine by completing their
required submission page, the search engine spider will index
your entire site. A ‘spider’ is an automated program that is
run by the search engine system. Spider visits a web site, read
the content on the actual site, the site’s Meta tags and also
follow the links that the site connects. The spider then returns
all that information back to a central depository, where the data
is indexed. It will visit each link you have on your website and
index those sites as well. Some spiders will only index a
certain number of pages on your site, so don’t create a site
with 500 pages!

The spider will periodically return to the sites to check for
any information that has changed. The frequency with which this
happens is determined by the moderators of the search engine.

A spider is almost like a book where it contains the table of
contents, the actual content and the links and references for
all the websites it finds during its search, and it may index up
to a million pages a day.

Example: Excite, Lycos, AltaVista and Google.

When you ask a search engine to locate information, it is
actually searching through the index which it has created and
not actually searching the Web. Different search engines produce
different rankings because not every search engine uses the same
algorithm to search through the in-dices.

One of the things that a search engine algorithm scans for is
the frequency and location of keywords on a web page, but it can
also detect artificial keyword stuffing or spam indexing. Then the
algorithms analyze the way that pages link to other pages in the
Web. By checking how pages link to each other, an engine can both
determine what a page is about, if the keywords of the linked
pages are similar to the keywords on the original page.

Site maps are also where search engines look at if somebody is
looking for a particular keyword or phrase. If you have a site
map, you can most likely be searched.

Creating a site map, now with software technology surging in, is
relatively easier than before. You need not be a programming
guru to be one. All need is a notepad, a program editor, and
some patience. Here’s how you do it:

Create the listing on a notepad.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be a notepad. Any word
processing program will do. First off, make sure to type in all
the parts and pieces of your website. Include all pages and all
links you have. Create it as if you listing the contents of your
book. Make a draft first. You’re sure no to miss something out
this way.

Create a new page for your site map.
You can insert the site map on your website on one of its pages
or you can create an entirely different page for it. Using your
notepad, incorporate all tags necessary to it to make another
web page. Open up your website creator program and tag your
site map using it. If you have created your website on your own,
this will be easy for you.

Create a link for the site map.
You won’t be able to view the site map if you won’t put a
link for it, of course. Create the link on the front page of
your website so that visitors can view it right away and be
directed appropriately.

Check your work.
It is important to validate the functionality of the links you
created on the site map. Test each and every one in there and if
you get an error, be sure to fix it accurately. Run through
every single page to make sure that all are accounted for.

Upload your work.
Place the site map now on your live browser and double check it.
It should function as smoothly as the dry run. Error should be
minimal at this stage since you already have verified it
locally.

The steps provided here with is the manual way of creating a
site map. These days, if you search hard enough on the web, you
will find online programs that will do all these work for you.
All you have to do it type in the URL or the link of your
website and they will create the site map with click of a
button.

Of course that method is generic. All of you who have created
their site map that way will have an end product that is all the
same, plus there’s that possibility that something else will
be inserted in there too. Then again, the process is less taxing
and way, way simpler.

But if you want a more personalized output, and you are pretty
good with computers and programming yourself, better make one of
your own. And since you made your website anyway, creating
site map is just like creating any other page on the website.
Other than you’ll know for sure the links are accurate, you
can organize the links the way you prefer it to be. Major parts
of the site are emphasized compared to less significant. This is
important especially if you are selling products or offering
services online.

Site map is vital to a website. People search the web a lot for
something. If your website has what that particular person is
looking for, and your site map reports it, then you have a new
customer looking at your items. Not only that, they will see
some other things up for sale that they might be interested in
as well.

Site maps, be it generated by a program automatically or you made
it yourself, presents the same purpose. That is to lead your
visitors to where they’re likely headed, and for you to be
seen on the World Wide Web through search spiders. So with
these, make sure your website has a site map of its own, lest
make one.

While there are ways to jump start your traffic flows, many sites
don’t have the resources that others have to generate more
traffic for your site. Well, you don’t have to spend a cent;
all you need is the proper mindset and a lot of eagerness. You
also must have the drive and perseverance to do hard work and
research to generate more traffic for your site.

How sweet it is to have more traffic for your site without
spending a single cent. Now it’s a sure thing that many sites
have articles that offer tips and guidelines in how to generate
traffic using only free methods. Because it is possible, you
don’t need to speed a single cent, it may take time, to say
honestly, I’m not going to beat around the bush with you. You
get better chances by paying for your advertisements, but at
least you get a fighting chance with some of these free methods
I’m about to tell you.

Take advantage of online forums and online communities. The
great thing about forums and online communities is that you can
target a certain group that fits the certain demographic that
you are looking for. You can discuss about lots of things about
the niche that you represent or offer. Another great advantage
is that you know what you are getting into and you will be
prepared.

With online communities and forums you can build a reputation
for your company. Show them what you are made of and wow them
with your range of expertise about the subject, with that you
can build a reputation and build trust with the people in your
expertise and knowledge.

You can also make use of newsletters. Provide people with a
catalog of your products and interesting and entertaining
articles. If you make it really interesting and entertaining,
more people will sign up for your newsletter and recommend it to
other people. The more people who signs up for your newsletter,
the more people there will be that will go to your site
increasing your traffic.

Another great idea is trading links with other sites. You
don’t have to spend a cent. All you have to do is reach an
agreement with another webmaster. With exchanging links, the
efforts both sites do will benefit both sites. Every traffic
that goes to the site could potentially click on the link of
your site and visit your site as well. This works well
especially when both sites feature the same niche.

Write articles that could pique the attention of people that
have interest in your product. Try writing articles that will
provide tips and guides to other aficionados. Writing articles
that provide good service and knowledge to other people would
provide the necessary mileage your traffic flow needs.

Many sites offer free submission and posting of your articles.
When people find interest in your articles they have a good
chance of following the track by finding out where the article
originated. Include a link or a brief description of your
company with the article and there’s a great probability that
they will go to your site.

Write good content for your site. Many search engines track down
the keywords and keyword phrases your site uses and how they are
used. It is not a requirement that a content should be done by a
professional content writer. You could do your on but you have to
make content for your site that is entertaining as well as
informational. It should provide certain requirements as well as
great quality.
Generally, internet users use search engines to find what they
are looking for. Search engines in return use keyword searching
in aiding their search results. With the right keywords, you
could get high rankings in search engine results without the
costs.

All of these methods and more will drive more traffic to your
site for free. All it takes is a bit of effort and extended man
hours. Learn all you can about the methods depicted here and you
will soon have a site with a great traffic flow without the usual
costs that come with it.

You’re probably wondering what the blazes is popular about
a link! Well, in a word plenty! Link popularity refers to
the ranking assigned to your website by the search engines,
and it determines the ranking your page gets when keywords
are entered into a search engine. So, you’re probably
wondering, how do I make my link popular?

Search engines are discretionary, giving status and ranking
to sites that have links to their pages from related,
quality sites. It’s a simple formula, but a very important
one. Google created the system, and now virtually all the
most popular search engines employ it to rank your web
pages in their indexes.

The more commonly used your keyword is, the harder it will
be to achieve link popularity, but without achieving this
step, it is almost certain your site will never rank highly
on any search engine. But don’t be discouraged; there are
tried and true ways of achieving link popularity using the
most competitive keywords.

There are a few things you should be aware of. The first is
that just linking up with a large number of other websites
will not achieve link popularity. In fact, it may have
quite the opposite effect. This is particularly true when
pertaining to websites that are nothing more than “link
farms” – pages containing line after line of indiscriminate
links. Search engines may aggressively discriminate against
your website if you are associated with a link farm, so
steer clear of them!

The next thing to bear in mind is the quality of the site
you are linking to. Never link to a page you have
reservations about your visitors seeing. The last thing you
want your website to appear as is indiscriminate and cheap.
Linking to sites of poor quality will only lessen your link
popularity, if not completely destroy it.

So let’s get to what you need to do to achieve supreme link
popularity and improve your rankings to stellar status on
all the popular search engines.

The first step, and the fastest way to get your foot in the
door, is to get a listing in a popular directory, such as
Open Directory Project and Yahoo. If your site is
business-related, you will want to be listed on Yahoo, and
despite the fact that it will cost you around $300 a year,
it will be money well spent. If your site is
non-commercial, the listing will be free, but it will take
time and follow-up to actually get it listed. Open
Directory is gives you a free listing whether you are
business-related or non-commercial, but be prepared to make
a lot of follow-up inquiries before you see your site
listed.

You are aiming to get listed in the highest level of
appropriate category, and this just takes some common
sense. For example, if your company ships Alpaca wool from
an Alpaca farm located in the middle of Nowhere, Tiny
State, do NOT submit your listing to “Retailers from
Nowhere, Tiny State.” Big Mistake”! All you have to do is
look a little deeper – and submit your listing to the “Fine
Alpaca Wool” category. You will not only associate yourself
with culture and quality, but you will be listed in a
national category.

The next step after you have attained directory listings is
to locate other quality sites that will increase your link
popularity. Try to find sites that are in some way related
to yours, so not only will your link popularity increase,
but your customer base may also be expanded. You want to
avoid your competitors and look for sites that are useful
to your site’s visitors. Let’s look at the Alpaca Wool site
example. Linking up to a site that sells knitting supplies
would be helpful to your visitors, and the chances of the
knitting supply site wanting to link up to your site are
also greater. By linking to a related site that will be
relevant to your website’s traffic, you are increasing both
of your site’s business prospects and both of your sites’
link popularity.

Not all sites want to link to other sites, so you will have
to do some research when you are looking for possible
linking partners. Google is an excellent starting place for
your search. Make sure you enter keywords that you think
quality customers will also enter to find your own site.
Remember, your criteria are quality, highly ranked,
non-competing websites that have a links or resources page.
Go to these sites and objectively assess them. Look at the
quality of the product, the graphics, and the ease of use.
Then check out the other sites they are linked to, and
determine if your own site would fit in with the crowd.

When you decide you have found a good prospect, you must
set out to woo them. The first thing to do is to add a link
on your own links page to their site. This is an essential
first step; it shows good faith, and ups your chances
significantly of their reciprocity. After you have added
their link, you must contact the webmaster of their site.
Since this is almost always done by email, you want to make
sure it is immediately clear that your message is not junk
mail. This requires that you tell them right off the bat
that you have added a link to their page on your site. A
hook like this almost always insures the reader will read
on.

Next, be sure to be flattering and let them know how much
you appreciate their website. Make sure you emphasize that
you have actually visited their site, and that their site
is not just a random pick. Give them the address of your
links page, and ask them to check out the link for
themselves. It’s a good idea to mention that they will not
only benefit from the increased traffic your website will
direct their way, but you will also increase their link
popularity. Briefly, explain why link popularity is so
essential, but do this in a sentence or two so you don’t
sound like a professor! Finally, tell them you would
greatly appreciate if they would reciprocally add a link on
their own links page to your website.

Go through this process with as many appropriate sites as
you can find, bearing in mind the criteria of quality and
non-competitiveness. After you have emailed all relevant
sites, be sure to check these website frequently to see if
they have added a link to your page. Give it about a month,
and if no link appears, try another charming email. Then
give it another month, and if your site is still absent
from their links page, it’s time to remove their link from
your own links page. The only time you want to pursue a
link further than this is if you believe a site is crucial
to your link popularity and your business needs. Just
remember to keep all your communications complimentary and
cordial.

Then set up a schedule to check your ranking in search
engines frequently to see if your link popularity has
improved. This is not achievable in the blink of an eye. It
will take some time and a good deal of work. There is no
way around the labor-intensive quality of improving your
link popularity, which is why search engines regard it with
such importance.

By the way – make sure you have a beautiful, streamlined
site or you will never persuade anyone to link up to you.
Be prepared to keep plugging away at this process, as long
as it takes, until you achieve link popularity stardom!