Search Engines: Building Up Link Popularity

What can you do to increase your search engine ranking? Every website owner wants their website to rank high on the search engines. There are only ten or so positions on a search engine's first page that can be filled up with search results. Obviously there is fierce competition for these spots, so the search engines have to come up with some system that determines which sites to rank higher than others.

Be Relevant!

For the search engines it's all about relevance. Their users want accurate results for their queries. If a search engine does not deliver up to the expectations, it will lose out against its competition. That's why the search industry uses algorithms that calculate, or should I better say estimate a website's value for a specific set of keywords.

It is not just important that you use meaningful keywords: You should have fresh content on your pages that is actually about what you want to promote. You want to make your case to the search engines. They need to find out that your site has some significant relevance. The more relevant they find your web page to be, the higher it will rank. But on top of that there is something very important, and that is called link popularity:

Link Popularity: The Key to More Visitors

A website is considered popular when it has lots of incoming links from other websites pointing to it. It's kind of logical: A boring, irrelevant website will earn very few incoming links because who would want to visit it in the first place? A good, fresh website however will draw many links. Thus the search engines conclude that a site with many incoming links is more relevant for a specific set of keywords. According to that judgment it will be ranked higher than others.

Building Up a Link Base

The bottom line: To build up the ranking of your website, you should increase the link popularity by asking all your business friends and partners to point a link to your website. Submit your website address to the local chamber of commerce and the Town's business directory. Think who in your industry would help you promote your website: Perhaps the business association you are a member of or the supplier who really should be grateful that you prefer his products over his competitor's? You get the idea. Building up a good link base takes a while. That's why older websites typically rank better than younger ones. It's like a good wine, so to speak.

Free and Paid Search Engine Traffic

Contact me at Pinpoint Graphics for an in-depth analysis. There is a good mix of free promotion tools and paid online advertisement at your disposal that can be used to broaden your footprint on the Internet.

I have kept this article fairly simple. There is a lot more to say about search engine optimization but that will be saved for another day.

Previous Page Top Of Page Instant Contact Posted: Sep 16,2005 By: Henning Geiler