Linking Your Way to the Top of the Search Engines.
:by Daniel Kane
Other than offering worthwhile content, there is no more important prerequisite to achieving high search engine rankings than getting good websites to link to yours. And, because it costs nothing, and is not difficult, all you need is a la few hours a week and a little persistence. The first step in any good linking campaign is finding websites which may be interested in carrying your link. Here's how.
One method is to search for sites with information related to the subject(s) of your website. If your site is about home gardening, you might choose search terms like "eradicating weeds", "hearty plants and flowers", or "gardening tips" to find websites potentially interested in linking to yours.
Or, you can take another route. Just identify a related site which is already highly popular, and find the websites which link to it. You can do that with a search in Google, Alltheweb or MSN for "link:" (without the quotation marks) and the complete URL of the website. For example, link:http://gardening.com (and don't forget the colon after the word "link").
Then, just go to the websites, collect the email addresses of their webmasters, and request a link via email. To get good results, your email must:
1. be brief, well written, and polite. Always use "please" and "thank you".
2. describe your site in no more than 50 words and explain why the webmaster's visitors would find your site interesting or useful.
3. offer the webmaster something in return. For example:
a. a banner or text link somewhere on your website.
b. information about how to submit their website to 300,000+ search engines, directories, and links pages for free. When they agree to link to you, send them to: <http://www.college-scholarships.com/free_search_engine_submission.htm>;.
If you email just ten webmasters a day and have a ten percent rate of success, you'll gain thirty links a month.
If you use the techniques above you should see at least small gains in traffic to your site in as little as thirty days. The more important benefit, higher search engine rankings, may take longer, depending on how competitive your desired keywords are. But, your search engine rankings should continue to rise as more websites link to yours and the search engines therefore perceive your site as being increasingly relevant.
If you are persistent, your link campaign can bring you great results. Many sites that began as hobbies became highly profitable as a result of good linking campaigns.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the Author
Daniel Kane is a university dean. Through good content and aggressive link campaigns, his websites on online colleges and financial aid have earned top ten search engine rankings.
