What is Link Popularity?
Copyright 2007 by F. Terrence Markle
Link popularity is simply the total number of web pages that link to your web
page. Link popularity is an extremely important factor that is used by most of
the major search engines to rank web pages and web sites. In general, the major
search engines consider link popularity a key factor in their algorithms to
determine the relevancy of your web page to a particular keyword search query.
Good link popularity is important because it can increase the visitor traffic
to your web page. The reputation of your web site (i.e., votes of confidence
from other web sites) is a measure of the site’s link popularity. Your web page
rank (i.e., the position your web page occupies in a search engine’s results
page) to a particular search query can be improved by increasing the number of
relevant and quality web sites that have incoming links to your web page.
An incoming link is considered to be relevant if it is meaningful and relates
to your web page. If you sell golf clubs online, relevant incoming links could
be from: golf club manufacturers, golf apparel sites, competitors, golf-related
directories and so forth. In addition, internal links (links from web pages
within your web site) are considered relevant and essential because they help
your web page visitor to navigate your web site.
It is not enough to just have web page links coming into your web page (link
popularity). The quality of the incoming link is also critical. A search engine
will put more emphasis on a high quality web page (ranked high by a particular
search engine) than on a low quality web page (ranked low by a particular search
engine). It will take many lower quality incoming links to approach the level of
a single high quality incoming link.
The major search engines do more than match the content of your web page to
the keyword search query to determine if there’s a good match for a particular
search. They look at the quality of the links to your web page. The reason is
because there are thousands, if not millions, of web pages that contain the
search query’s particular keyword or keyword phrase in the web page content. The
search engines want to deliver a list of relevant and ordered web pages to meet
a user’s query search.
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In addition to the link popularity, search engines also look at the anchor
text contained in the incoming link to your web page. It will consider your web
page more relevant to the keyword query search if the text in the incoming link
to your web page contains the queried keywords.
The number and quality of incoming links to your web page can be an excellent
source of targeted and consistent visitor traffic to your site. In addition,
search engines are more likely to index your web pages on a more frequent basis
if you have many incoming relevant and quality links. The search engine spiders
have a higher probability of finding you through the external incoming links to
your site as your link popularity increases.
Reciprocal linking or link exchanging involves another web page linking to
your web page and you linking back to their web page. If you select targeted and
relevant web pages to exchange links with then you have a higher probability of
gaining increased visitor traffic to your web page. In addition, your web page
ranking on a search engine keyword query is also likely to improve as mentioned
earlier.
Your overall marketing plan should include a link exchange campaign to help
improve your search engine rankings and the visitor traffic to your web page.
Spend the necessary time and energy to locate and exchange links with link
exchange partners that provide a good match with your web page. Review the
potential link partner’s web site theme and content to determine if their link
would be relevant to your site. Consider only those web sites as exchange
partners with themes or topics that complement or relate to your web page.
It is important that you have a good link exchange strategy in place and a
process to manage the reciprocal links. Don’t link to a web page if they are not
linking back to your web page. Link exchange campaigns require your attention
and monitoring. You can perform the link exchange management manually or you can
use a computer program that will do it for you.
There are a number of good programs that perform link exchange management
functions. However, there are some programs that do a poor job. For example,
some management software programs will perform automated search engine queries
to harvest prospects that are not relevant for linking to your web page. Do not
use “link farms” in your link exchange campaign. These sites provide hundreds of
non-relevant links with no meaningful content to your site that the search
engines can detect and potentially use to ban or penalize your site.
The vast majority web site owners that participate in a link exchange program
do not understand the issues and benefits of the exchange. As a result, they do
not maximize the potential value to be gained from the link exchange. Learn and
implement the proper strategies and your web page will potentially benefit from
improved search engine ranking and increased targeted and qualified visitors.
Every web site that provides links to other web pages should have a links
page. Your links page will be an excellent resource for the visitors to your web
site. Your web site will be more helpful and credible to your visitors if you
provide useful and relevant links on your links page. You can start utilizing
the power of your links page when it becomes a service to your visitors rather
than a tool to obtain higher search engine ranking.
You need to categorize your links if you have a lot of outgoing links. Don’t
try to put all your links on one links page where it has the appearance of a
link farm (i.e., no valuable content or relevance) to the search engines that
want to index the page. Create a useful links page that shows only the link
categories with separate links that take your visitor to an individual link page
for each category. The intent is to provide a resource for your visitors that is
useful and can be easily navigated. Search engines love this type of structure
that they can fully index.
The incoming links to your web page and the outgoing links to other web pages
should be structured in a clear manner. Provide your link exchange partners with
the exact HTML code to be included in the link on their web page. This code
should include your URL, your anchor link text with the appropriate keyword or
keyword phrase and a concise description that incorporates your web site name
and the appropriate keyword or keyword phrase.
Copyright (C) 2004 F. Terrence Markle – All Rights Reserved
Get my F.R.E.E multi-part series on generating targeted and quality traffic
to your web site.
http://www.QuikSystems.com/WST/TrafficSeries.htm
About The Author
Copyright (C) 2004 – F. Terrence Markle has worked for over 20 years with
public and private companies. He has an MBA in marketing and finance. He has
been involved with Internet-related businesses for over 3 years. His primary
focus is the marketing of affiliate programs.
tmarkle@QuikSystems.com
How to Write B2B Ads That Catch Customers
Copyright 2007 Steve Koons
Are your business-to-business ads working for you? If they are not making
sales, are they at least generating interest in your company? Are they making an
impression on your potential customers by making you stand out in a crowd? If
not, then you should take a look at this article and get those ads working hard
for you.
Don’t just fish for customers, catch them!
- ALWAYS include your company name in the first sentence, preferably as
the first word. Don’t start out with ‘we’. And briefly state what you do
right away. For example: “Solinc designs plastic injection molds.” You want
them to know who you are right away. Also, many B2B sites don’t allow
visitors to view the total ad without paying or registering. You want
everybody to at least be able to search for you on the Internet. This can
also help your ad to appear on some search engines.
- You need a ‘hook’ to reel in your readers. There are probably plenty of
other ads right next to yours so you need to get them within the first
sentence or two. Use some great adjectives. Which is better: “Solinc designs
injection molds.” Or “Solinc expertly designs high quality, precision
injection molds.” Now they know who you are, what you do, and why you are
special.
- Ask a question about why your reader should choose you and answer it.
Questions such as “Do your customers demand high quality?” “Are you looking
for a total solution package?” Then tell them that’s what you deliver,
you’ve got what they need.
- Clearly state what you do step-by-step. Use bullets, numbers or short
dedicated paragraphs. Make a list of your products and services. Then tell a
little bit about them. Don’t forget to use your adjectives here. Give them a
‘line’ to find the bait.
- Give them some food for thought. It’s time to ask them another question.
This time ask them about a problem they might have that you can solve. For
example, “Are you completely satisfied with your current supplier?” “Are you
frustrated with late deliveries?” “Are you looking for faster and more
reliable service?”
- Give them a call to action. This is your ‘sinker’. Offer them the answer
to their questions by contacting you today. Don’t let them get away.
If you follow these steps you are on your way to catching some customers. But
you need a few more pieces of bait to land the big catch.
- Include your keywords and company name throughout the text. This can
help your ad land in the search engines. Avoid using the words ‘we’ and ‘it’
and ‘our product’.
- Use ‘you’ often. It pays to include your potential customer in your ad.
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Adland Digest Sponsor Message |
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Be a sponsor. Place your ad
here. (Spot III) |
- Be entertaining or subliminal, but don’t be boring! This can be a bit
tricky in some areas of business, especially manufacturing. A good trick is
to use a product noun as a verb and couple it with an adjective. An example
would be for injection molds. Not the most entertaining subject, but:
“Inject some speed into your production with high quality molds by Solinc.”
And you’ve got a line with pull.
- Be sneaky. Some B2B sites don’t allow you to put in your email address
or URL in the ad copy. However, if you spell out “dot” or “at” in your
addresses your potential customers can find you.
- And finally, be polite. Never use all caps or more than one exclamation
point at a time, be careful of poor grammar or bad spelling. Show your
potential customers you care.
Don’t forget, practicing and proofreading lead to good ad copy, which leads
to good sales.
About The Author
Steve Koons works in the marketing department of Solinc Die and Mold and
lives in Seoul, Korea. To read more of his stuff visit his blog:
http://www.injection-molds.blogspot.com
http://www.solinc.net
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