Incoming links are important
The more quality incoming links, the
better the search engines will rank you.
Here are step-by-step instructions to set
up your own Add URL page.
Exchanging links with sites of a similar
topic is the most effective free form of advertising
I have ever found. It really is the most direct
way to improve your web presence. This is
the nature of the Internet... The more paths
you have to your site, the more traffic you
will have. If you don't have a link exchange
program, start one today.
What? You don't want links to other sites
on your corporate or e-commerce site? No problem.
I addressed that in another article called
"A Tale of Two Sites". You can find it here:
http://www.edu-marketing.com/newsletters/
Now that you have an active link exchange
program, I can get on with the real topic
of this article. I want to talk about the
importance of having an "Add URL" page and
the important elements of your own Add URL
page.
What is an "Add URL" page?
It is a page where you describe how you would
like others to link to your site and invite
them to submit a link to be listed on your
site. Here is an example which illustrates
most of the points I'll make in this article:
http://www.edu-marketing.com/links/addlink.html
It is a lot of work to get your first 200-300
inbound links to your site by finding and
soliciting link exchanges from other sites.
Once you do that work, you deserve a reward.
Having an "Add URL" page like this one is
part of your reward. After doing all that
work, you will have enough traffic that you
will start receiving link requests from your
own "Add URL" page with no work to go find
these sites. Pretty cool; huh?
The important elements of your "Add URL"
page, so you maximize its effectiveness:
1. Place a link to your Add URL page on
the navigation bar that you use on every page
of your site. This page is important enough
to warrant its own place on your navigation
bar.
2. Make your link say "Add URL", not "Submit
Site" or "Add Link" or anything else. Trust
me on this. I have already performed all of
the click-thru analysis on every combination
of words imaginable. You will receive your
best response if the links to your Add URL
page use the words "Add URL".
3. At the top of your "Add URL" page, use
your major keyword in a large heading. The
major keyword for the example page is "Marketing".
You'll notice that it says "Marketing Index
- Add URL" in large type at the top of the
page. This will help the search engines know
what your page is about. After some time,
you'll start getting traffic directly to your
"Add URL" page from the search engines for
phrases like "[your keyword] add url".
4. Next encourage your visitor to link to
your site before requesting a link. You'll
notice that the example page starts right
out with "First link to my site". Don't be
tempted to start making your visitor jump
through hoops to prove that they have already
linked before going on. You want them to submit
their link even if they don't immediately
link to you. If everyone refused to provide
a link before the other site linked to them...
well... no-one would ever link up, would they?
5. Guide them in how to link to your site,
but leave it up to them to create a link of
their own if they want. There are as many
different kinds of webmasters as there are
different kinds of people. You need to recognize
that some are lazy and are only willing to
copy/paste some code you provide... while
others have a very specific format for links
on their site and want to do everything for
themselves.
6. For those who want to just copy/paste,
provide them options... but not too many options.
You will want about three text based links
of varying lengths. You will then want at
least two standard banner sizes. The two most
common are: 468X60 pixels and 125X125 pixels.
You may also want to create 120X60 and 88X31
smaller banners. Stick to these IAB standard
sizes because many sites are laid out to require
exactly these sizes. If you don't provide
exactly these sizes, the webmaster may pass
you over for exchanging links.
7. Provide an easy way for the webmaster
to copy/paste the code along with a sample
of what the link will look like on their page.
8. In each text link, make sure your
major keyword is in the click-able part of
the link text. Many search engines use
the click-able part of the link text for links
on other sites to determine the appropriate
keywords for your site.
9. For the banner links, make sure the
"Alt" tag contains your keyword. This
is what will be displayed for surfers who
are surfing without graphics capability (or
who have turned off their graphics capability).
It is also what the visually impaired will
hear when they "read" the page with their
equipment. It is also what some search engines
will use to determine the topic of your site.
10. Also include a text link below each
banner with your major keyword. Many webmasters
will delete this part, but some will keep
it. Text links receive a much higher click-thru
rate than banners. You want to give every
opportunity for the webmaster to give you
a text link... without forcing the issue.
You don't want to give up a banner link if
that's all the webmaster is willing to offer.
11. Have a simple form to request a link
on your site. Ask the minimum amount of information
you need to provide a link. The example asks
for URL, Title, Description, and Category.
If you don't need any other information, don't
ask for it. Some webmasters will turn away
if they are faced with a daunting form asking
for a bunch of nonsense information.
12. EXCEPT: Ask for their email address.
This is important. You want the ability to
contact them if your link disappears from
their site. You also want the ability to send
them a reminder to link back to you if they
haven't already.
13. Add the link right away when you receive
a link request from your form. Send a confirmation
email letting them know that you added their
link and where they can find it on your links
pages. Some webmasters have dozens of sites.
They will submit your form for just one site.
When they see how fast you add their link,
they will be back to exchange links with perhaps
dozens of other sites.
14. Check the links you receive in this
way periodically to ensure that they are still
linking back to you. If not, send them a friendly
reminder. Often dropping your link will be
a simple oversight during a site redesign.
Don't assume otherwise.
15. Never use their email address for anything
else. Trying to sell your product to your
link partners is NOT very effective and will
likely annoy them. You may lose your link
on their site or worse. Be responsible with
their email address and only use it to communicate
about your link exchange.
That's it. If you follow all of these steps,
you can start receiving inbound links without
doing any of the work to go find sites to
exchange links. Of course, you will have to
do that work in the beginning to get enough
traffic to your "Add URL" form, but then you
can rest a little and reap the rewards of
your hard work.
About the author
James D. Brausch is the Vice President of
Marketing for Target Blaster, Inc., an Internet
Marketing firm specializing in targeted
traffic. http://www.TargetBlaster.com
Link strategies
131 (Legitimate) Link Building Strategies
Find out how many incoming links to your
site
AltaVista
and type this into the search box...
link:www.anysite.com (where AnySite
is the domain name of the website whose links
you're wanting to find, of course).
For Google
and Lycos, the search expression is the same
as AltaVista's... link:www.anysite.com
For Excite and AllTheWeb, the search expression
is... link:anysite.com
For Hotbot, MSN and AOL, the search expression
is... linkdomain:anysite.com
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