Search Engine Optimization is Not Always the Answer
Search engine optimization has a purpose. Keyword targeting
lets search engines link their users to your website when
they look for your keywords. They will not do this
satisfactorily without optimizing your site with proper web
design techniques. Unfortunately, however, it is more
complicated than that. Have you ever wondered why Google
will almost always place Ebay on the first few pages when
anything is entered into the search field accompanied with
the word buy?The word buy has been targeted from more sites
than you could count so what makes Ebay special.
For example, take the word bike. If a person uses Google by
searching for the string buy bike, a page from Ebay will
usually be listed before any of the major bicycle makers.
It goes without saying that any of the major bicycle
dealers have spent a great deal more time targeting
keywords related to bikes than a site that manages hundreds
of thousands of different products. The answer to this
problem is the nature of this article.
Can My Website Compete?
The answer is to increase the importance of your site in
the eyes of the major search engines. Ebay gets searched
before many other sites because it has been decided by the
search engines to be more popular with internet users. So
what I am offering the little guy is a way to do what Ebay
and the other 'big dogs' have done to become popular.
The world of search engines boil down to the stereotypical
high school hierarchy. Search engines pay more attention to
those that are popular. In high school, teens usually
become popular by having popular people associate with
them. The online world is no different. But how do search
engines know that popular sites are associating with you?
That is an easy one - they link to your website. The three
biggest search engine players all crawl the web indexing
links to and from all the websites that they have found.
They create a ranking system based on many factors, but the
most substantial one is how many sites link to you. It
could be argued that an optimized site is key, and my
opinion expressed here is based on the assumption that your
site has been built with proper design techniques. It is
also assumed that you have well written content based on
your main products or ideas. If you feel that your website
does not currently qualify as well written or properly
designed, I recommend that you rectify these issues before
attempting to build your popularity as it may turn out to
be a waste of time.
Do Not Jump Right into Getting Links
There are many tempting ways to get other sites to link to
you that are very unsavory. I choose to address these
first. These include:
* sites that promote linking as a primary activity.
* sites that have illegal or inappropriate content.
* sites that are entirely unrelated to your target market
Sites that do nothing more than link to other sites may
look like a great option but a site without content is not
very popular with the search engines. They need to offer
something to internet surfers in order to be important. If
they are not important to the search engines then a link
from them should not be important to you. Link marketing is
based on quality links not the amount of links. I advise
staying away from these sites all together. Next it goes
without saying, sites with illegal and inappropriate
content are never a safe bet.
Getting a Good Start with Link Marketing
Most of us do not have a lot of expendable income starting
out so I do not spend much time explaining the options that
involve paying large sums of money. In my experience,
webmasters with that kind of money contact a company to
handle this for them (I have had enough of them as clients
to know). I intend on putting out another article to cover
this option more in depth, however this article only covers
the less costly options.
There are 3 cheap ways to get get some link popularity:
* Ezine articles
* Field related forums
* Banner/Link exchanges
Ezine Articles
Ezines are online magazines. Ezine articles offer two great
benefits. First and foremost, they allow you to link to
your site from your article or resource area. Also, they
offer a chance to show off the knowledge you have in your
field. Although this is essentially a free way to get a
quality link, it does come with some work. You must be able
to write a content rich article on a topic related to your
site. Most Ezine sites do not mind giving you the
opportunity to get your name out there but you need to
provide them with a well written article that offers
something to their users. Searching for ezine databases on
any major search engine should provide you with a list of
great sources for this linking method. Be sure to consult
the guidelines of an ezine site in which you decide to
submit articles.
Related forums
Forums are another great opportunity to get your site out
there without paying up. Again, it does take some time.
Find forums that cater to questions about your field. For
instance, if you sell natural supplements for joint pain,
search for forums related to arthritis. Find strings that
are talking about different options for arthritis or ask
about what works. This opens a perfect opportunity to link
to your site. It is important to know that most forums are
not keen on letting sales pitches post for long. The trick
here is to offer up quality information on these posts. You
could compare your arthritis product to others, you could
even provide a plug for a competitor (attempting to prove
yourself superior, of course). This makes your post look
less like a sales or link pitch and helps make the internet
more content driven like it was intended to be.
Banner/Link Exchanges
There are usually two main ways you can get a banner or
link on another site without offering any content. You can
pay them a fee, or you can offer a trade. Like the other
two options, only target sites that are related to you in
some way. Exchanges require a little research on your part.
You want to search for your potential link partner to see
that they are worth the trade. A easy rule of thumb is to
check their pagerank compared to yours. You can use this
free tool to compare at http://www.checkpagerank.net. Put
your web address in and check your pagerank as well as
theirs. If you are paying for a link and they have a
pagerank of zero it would be wise to save your money. If
you are trading links, use your better judgment. If they
have a quality site it may be worth the exchange in hopes
that their site takes off and they can share a little of
their success with you.
Take note that a link from no single site will boost your
website's importance significantly. Every quality link
helps a little bit so you need to practice all methods for
some time before you see the results you want. Stick with
it and be patient.
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Mason Curry
Lead Designer, Vexart Studio Web Design
http://www.vexart.com
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