It doesn't manner if you are a seasoned online marketer or a newbie you MUST have traffic to your website. One of the two best, and most inexpensive ways, to generate targeted traffic is by using what is called "Reciprocal Linking".
Reciprocal Linking is where you link to website "A" and website "A" also has a link to your website on their website! A lot of people ask - Why not just use a FFA website and link to 1,000's or millions of webpages?
FFA pages will actually do more harm than good in your advertising. They simply should never be used as part of a reciprocal linking strategy. Why?
1) Rarely do people ever see these FFA sites, or their messages and
2) More importantly the Search Engines will penalize you for using these as links because they are non-relevant!
I can tell you from personal experience that this method works and it is responsible for over 30% of my current traffic. I have verified this from my server logs and my website traffic has steadly increased, on my websites, every month for over three years.
Search Engine ranking is becoming more dependant on relevant link popularity as one of their more important criterias. By increasing your link popularity you are increasing your search engine ranking status. You're probably thinking that you will lose valuable traffic to someone else's website if you link to them. Yes, that could happen, if you don'y have your links open in a new window. Irregardless your gains of more NEW visitors will far outweigh the losses you might
incur.
Why?
The visitors you gain are visitors you probably never would have gotten in the first place! The Search Engines give you points for linking to relevant sites.
If you don't have a written plan you MUST develop one immediately. Start looking for sites you can link to and sites that will link back to your website. It will help to bring you more highly targeted traffic to your site AND improve your ranking with the search engines. Why?
You must remember that in addition to more visitors, through the links you have established, another huge benefit is a big increase in your sites Search Engine Ranking Position. All online business owners realize, sooner or later, that there is a myriad of advertising and web promotion techniques available. Most of these, unfortunately, cost a lot of time, or money, or both!
Cultivating good links with compatible websites is a well known, but little used tool. It will produce a significant return on the time invested. The secret, of using this method to generate traffic, is that it must be done properly.
Understanding the ins and outs of how to link is more important than any advertising you may ever do. It is a NO COST method that only takes some time and a little energy. The time you invest into the development of proper links can pay off for many times over year after year!
Rules of Proper Reciprocal Linking:
Rule 1 - Know what you want to accomplish.
Is it selling your own products or services, operating as an affiliate for someone eles's products/services or just putting up a personal webpage.
Most of the websites I visit are owners who just jump from one program to another. In other cases they are promoting some afiiliate program that is the same as a 1,000 other affiliate program sales pages palstered all over the Internet.
If you don't have a well defined focus then decide now what is the primary category your website fits into. Secondly decide what sites will compliment your site. Once you've made those decisions you will then be ready to start using reciprocal linking strategies successfully.
Rule 2 - Know What Websites Will Compliment Your website.
There has been several good books written on how to choose websites that you can link to. One of the things that you should not overlook is that everyone has different interests. They may be looking for a very specific item, ot piece of information, but that doesn't necessarily mean they want see something different that may interest them and click on a different link to your website - even though it may be about a totally different item, or subject, than their original search. Even though they weren't originally targeted to your website their interest brought them to you anyway.
You will be surprised to find information, while searching, that may compliment your website and yet it doesn't compete with your website. It happens all the time and this is why your list of primary and secondary categories is so important to help you decide whom to contact about reciprocal linking.
Rule 3 - Know who is already Linking to You.
This can be very easy by going to www.linkpopularity.com It's NO COST. No strings and its quick and easy to use.
It only takes a couple of minutes to check all of the website links. You might even discover several other sites are already linked back to you. Some of these links you may already know about but you might discover new ones you weren't aware of at all.
The second step is to view your own sites link popularity and compare it to any competitors you have identified. You can view a comparison of link popularity to your site, your competitors and even other popular websites at the link popularity website previously mentioned.
Important points to remember:
If you don't already have a links page at your site you need to set up one first. Call it your favorite links or Other Resources Page or something similair. Do NOT put these links on your main page. Set this page up BEFORE you start contacting other webmasters. It can be called anything but you need to let your site visitors know you
have a links page with quality and relevant links available.
Whatever you call your Links Page you should break it into several different categories for your visitors to look over and choose what interests them. The best way to set it up is to have each category link to another page at your site where those particular link categories can then be viewed. It is also best to have each link set up so that it opens that link in new window. In that way if a visitor clicks on a link they still have your site open. This way they don't
leave your site entirely.
Somewhere on your links page you will want to invite your visitors to make an application to link to your site. Why?
You do need to screen which websites are linking to you to be sure that:
A) It's not a direct competitor
B) It fits in with your site and compliments your site according to Rules 1 and 2 above.
C) Also point out to your visitors that a reciprocal link is expected, and required, to obtain a Link on your site. Also state that the link from their page to yours will be verified FIRST before a link is put on your page back to their site. This goes a long way in eliminating those that are not serious about reciprocal linking!
Here are some research tips to use when lookng for link partners:
1) The best webmasters to contact are the ones with sites that will compliment your site in some way. But how do you find these sites and how do you contact the sites webmasters?
2) The easiest way is use the major search engines. Enter in your keywords and let the search engine bring up lists of potential websites for you. Look at these websites and track down who is linking to them. You will easily find hundreds and almost everyone will have a contact email address for contacting the webmaster.
Send a short introduction email to the webmaster introducing yourself and state the reason you have contacted them. Be sure and give the information about your link for them so they can add it to their webpage. Be sure and mention that you have already added a link on your links page back to their site.
For the best results try to find websites that actually compliment your site. Add them to the appropriate link(s) page on your site. In your email explain to the web site owner that you liked their site and you added it to your links page, be sure and give them your links page url.
Explain to them the benefits of this reciprocal linking. Some of these will link back to your site but some will not. If they do not link back simply delete the link and go on to the next site on your list.
Implementing this type linking strategy takes a lot of time and effort, if it's done manually. The rewards will last for years however! The rewards will be an increase in targeted traffic and an increase in your websites ranking with the major search engines.
Michael Domeck is the editor of the Beacon News and has been marketing on the Internet for over 3 years. I consult with clients on Internet marketing for the Home based business. Having sold my other sites my curent site is http://www.the-best-light-houses.com |
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