While link popularity and Page Rank are definitely the subjects on everyone’s minds when considering effective SEO for websites, how, exactly do you determine whether your links rate high in the popularity category or not? The basic premise is that if other (quality) sites are linking to your own, it must be a winner, deserving a boost in rankings. After all, most people link to good sites rather than bad ones, right?

Review Constantly

If you are vigilant about constantly reviewing how your site stacks up against those at the top, then you probably do such things as completing link requests, making blog or forum posts, commenting on blogs, sending press releases, posting articles and placing advertising on a regular basis. Try to do all these things on a regular basis, then wait a few days and check the results. If your numbers increased—great—you are obviously doing something right. If they dropped, focus on the links, and try going back to your old pages, at least temporarily.

PageRank May Not Necessarily Reflect Link Popularity

Many do not quite understand the distinction between Google PageRank and link popularity, believing them to be one and the same. The difference lies in the fact that PageRank focuses more on the number of links, as well as their relative popularity while link popularity focuses more on the quality of the links on your site. Increasing your link popularity may come down to your ability to acquire links from other sites which focus on the same keyword phrases your site focuses on as well as links from relevant sites which are listed in major directories. If you are gaining tons of links whose focus has little to nothing to do with the topic of your own site, your link popularity is probably not going anywhere fast.

Do Reciprocal Links Count in the Popularity Game?

Reciprocal links have lost some favor with Google, and, in fact, some say reciprocal linking is near-dead, and the benefits are minimal. While this may be an overstatement, you do need to be careful when using reciprocal linking to avoid having Google rate it as spam. While exchanging links is a relatively easy way to get links to your site, don’t approach reciprocal linking in a random manner. Do your homework, and only request link exchanges with other webmasters whose pages are highly relevant to your own, are of the highest quality, and are currently ranked at least as high as you are, preferably higher.

How Much Should I Obsess Over Link Popularity

While link popularity is certainly important, it is, after all, only one aspect in the search engine algorithms. At this point in time Google places more emphasis on incoming links than the other search engines do, however how much incoming links actually boost your site’s rankings is debatable, and also depends on the words which comprise your anchor text. In many cases, having only a few links which are highly relevant and are comprised of strong anchor text can significantly increase your overall link popularity. Perhaps the best—albeit most time-consuming—strategy for increasing your link popularity is to consistently offer the best site on the Internet in your particular niche. Give your readers a well-written, high quality site which answers their questions in the most thorough yet expedient manner possible, and update constantly. If you can accomplish this, you probably won’t even have to go out looking for links—they will come to you in droves.

If your goal is to create an effective, internal linking strategy it will be helpful to have some strategies to make the task more manageable. Internal linking will help your website to have more authority which in turn will allow them to get indexed more frequently and overall, just carry more weight with Google.

Benefits of an Internal Linking System

Internal linking systems give your online visitor value, allowing your readers to find related materials within your site quickly. When users can easily navigate your website it increases their overall user experience, keeping them on your site for longer periods of time and decreasing your bounce rate. Search engine spiders don’t always index sites comprehensively, however they are really good at indexing text and following links, so when you provide internal linking you vastly increase the odds of having your site indexed by Google and other search engines. While internal linking won’t automatically put you in the prized first slot in the search engine, it will allow you to gradually move up the ranks.

How Do I Build Internal Links?

A sitemap details your website’s organization for your visitors. Sitemaps are usually placed at the footer of your site and will contain such pertinent details as your contact information and technical information. WordPress and other websites have plugins which allow you create a sitemap which is automatically updated anytime your site expands, although in some cases you will have to manually create your sitemap. Your sitemap will offer useful internal links which can get your visitors quickly from one spot to another, meeting their specific needs more quickly.

FAQ Page

A frequently-asked-questions page is informative as well as a valuable way to add internal links to your site using your most highly targeted keywords. Create a series of questions which you believe a large portion of your readers would find helpful. When doing this you must think like a visitor to your site rather than the owner who already knows the answers to the questions. It could be helpful to get a friend or relative to jot down any questions they might have after visiting your site. Partially answer the questions, providing a link to one of your articles or blog postings to provide further answers. When phrasing your questions, use the specific keywords you would expect your visitors to use in order to get to your site and use your keywords in the anchor text of the links to your articles and blog postings.

Links to Related Posts and Links to Sidebar

If you want your visitors to be able to find additional content on your site which is of interest to them, link one post to another related one. If you are blogging, include links to other specifically related posts which are in your sidebar. This is an excellent way to build your internal linking system as well as increase your overall page views.

Write a Series of Articles

A relatively easy way to build your internal links is to write a series of articles with an underlying theme. As each article or blog posting in the series is written and published, you can add links to the others. Long articles can be broken down into a series, however be careful to use this tactic judiciously so your readers won’t feel as though they are being used to further your SEO. Once a month, or even once a week, wrap up the prior period with a posting which links to your recent posts, offering a brief description of each of them. While this obviously adds internal links, it also gives readers who may have missed an article which would have been of interest to them the opportunity to use the link to go directly to the article. You can also include internal links in your footer space, or add a promotional link at the end of specific articles which offers your readers something of value. While there is much more involved in internal linking, these basics can get you started, jumping you ahead of your competitors.

So, you’ve decided on search marketing and are venturing into search engine optimization in order to make your site a rousing success. One of the things you will have to consider is not only how, but where you will obtain the necessary backlinks to strengthen your rankings. Link exchanging can effectively direct traffic from the links, build strong networking relationships with other websites and contribute significantly to search engine optimization. While there are tons of methods out there to promote your website, link exchanging is one of the least expensive ones around.  There is a protocol, however for link exchanging, and what it doesn’t include is a hastily scribbled blanket e-mail to hundreds of sites requesting an exchange. Follow the rules, be polite, go above and beyond what is expected and you can end up with plenty of high quality reciprocal links to give your SEO campaign a decided boost.

Stay Close to Home

When exchanging links, you will have the best luck by partnering with websites and blogs which are approximately the same age and PageRank as your own. New websites are more likely to accept your request, but do your homework before requesting a link to ensure the site is relevant and of value. Eventually, as your site increases in popularity and rank, you will be able to approach the more highly ranked sites—after all, a website which has a very high PageRank really gets nothing in return for linking to your fledgling site.

Making Contact

Your initial contact e-mail message should be polite, yet straight to the point. Don’t try to tell the other website owner about how great such an exchange will be in terms of SEO—it is likely he already knows this and you don’t want to appear condescending. Some feel that you should link to the other website prior to writing your introductory e-mail, giving details on where he can find the link. Others feel like it is more polite to ask first. If you do add their link prior to sending your e-mail tell the other webmaster where he can find his link—making sure the URL is correct!   Also ensure it is relatively easy for the website owner to exchange links, and outline the process clearly. (along the lines of “click this, go here and fill out this” if you agree to exchanging links). In our every more busy lives, anything that takes longer than a couple of minutes will be promptly discarded.

Be Personal

When you are sending out your link request e-mails, it is imperative that you take the extra time to personalize each and every e-mail. Don’t slap in a generic subject line such as “Attn: webmaster,” but rather take the time to find out the name of the webmaster and some personal details about the website itself. Using the webmaster’s name will get you tons further than addressing your e-mail to “Dear Site Owner.” Personalizing your request e-mail means making certain it will not be mistaken for an automated form e-mail which will likely be immediately deleted. Proofread diligently (just as you would a letter on paper) prior to mailing and make sure there are no grammar or spelling mistakes.  Never forget that you are essentially asking for a favor, and all rules of politeness and courtesy apply.

Finally…

Add your name and phone number in your request e-mail to appear trustworthy. Don’t ask for a link from another webmaster if their site is totally unrelated to your own. Make sure you are not asking for a link exchange from a site which already is overrun with existing links—the benefits to your site will be minimal. Blogs are a good source of links, so invite new blog owners to visit your site and write about it—not only have you given them new ideas for blog entries, you get a nice link in return. Pursue reciprocal links, but approach them with respect and good manners and your site will benefit.