| The last
two month's I've discussed various ways to increase
the number of sites linking to your own Web site:
http://www.webposition.com/mp-0500.htm#ONE
http://www.webposition.com/mp-0600.htm#SIX
As you may recall, increasing the number of links
to your Web site not only increases your traffic,
but can be a crucial factor to improving your
rankings on many search engines. If you've updated
the content of your Web site to match the advice
in the Page Critic and are still not ranking well,
most likely you are being pushed down the list
by external factors like your link popularity.
One effective way to increase the number of links
to your site is to offer an award, or recognition
to other Web sites. You've probably seen sites
that proudly list the logos of various Web site,
product, or company awards they've received over
the years. Most of these logos also include a
link back to the site that presented the award.
In many cases, the whole reason the site offered
the award was to gain brand name recognition and
to increase the number of links back to their
own Web site. The cost involved is minimal. Generally
you just send an e-mail congratulating them on
receiving the award and attaching an award logo
and link they can place on their Web site.
The idea of offering an award to gain brand recognition
for your own business is not new. Companies have
done it for years, long before the Web was born.
Unfortunately, some sites have cheapened the concept
by offering "Best Web site of the Day" or even
"Best of the Hour" awards that have no real criteria
for winning.
Take the higher ground and actually review the
Web sites you consider for the award. Require
it to meet specific goals before giving the award.
Outline WHY the recipient's site won the award
when you send your e-mail. This will add credibility
to your award and reduce the chances of someone
mistaking it for spam. Include specific details
so the recipient can recognize that you really
visited their Web site before presenting the award.
In addition, make sure your award logo looks
sharp. Make it important and impressive looking
so that the receiver of the award will be proud
to display it on their site. We've received a
number of awards for www.webposition.com that
were so cheesy looking that I'd be embarrassed
to display them to our visitors. Make sure your
award links to a page on your site that describes
who you are and the criteria the recipient had
to meet to win. This further reinforces the credibility
of the award.
This article is copyrighted and has been reprinted
with permission from FirstPlace Software, the
makers of WebPosition
Gold. FirstPlace Software helped define the
SEO industry with the introduction of the first
product to track your rankings on the major search
engines and to help you improve those rankings.
A free
trial of WebPosition Gold is available from
their Web site.
Check our complete services for Search
engine promotion, Link
Popularity & PPC
management
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