Web Design

Site Popularity is often used by search engines to determine your sites ranking. The more websites that link to you the more popular your site will be considered by search engines. However not all links are treated the same. Links coming from sites with related content are given higher weight than othersPaid Links Reciprocal Links Directory Submission Article Submission Social Bookmarking Forum Signatures Reciprocal LinksReciprocal links are not as effective for search engine rankings as they used to be but can be effective for driving traffic to your site, especially if the site you are linking to has a high volume of traffic.On reciprocal link methodology that is effective is 3-way linking. A three way link structure would look as follows:Site A ==> Site B ==> Site C ==> Site ADirectory SubmissionDirectory submission is still effective in generating backlinks to increase your sites popularity. Some of the top search engine directories to submit to are:www.dmoz.org www.searchsite.com dir.yahoo.com www.jayde.com Paid Directories vs. Free DirectoresWhile many people think Paid Directories are a scam, and most of them are for the price to page rank ratio, not all are a waste of time. Paid directory listings can be of benefit on a prominent directory as they general allow you more prominent positioning in the directory, and faster review time, all of which can generate residual traffic. Some factors to consider on paid directory submission are as follows:Age and PageRank of the Directory The PageRank of the page to be listed on Quantity of outgoing links are on the page to be listed on Are the links marked as rel=nofollow or obfuscated? Avoid Directories that Require Reciprocal Links You want to choose reputable directories to submit your site to, this is generally done by verifying the age of the directory and the PageRank of the homepage. Poorly trafficked directories get shutdown daily, so by using the above method when choosing what directory to submit to you are less likely to waste your time submitting in vain.The PageRank of the page you want your site to show up in the directory is of great importance. The higher the PageRank, the more weight will be passed to your site, and thus help increase your sites position.Equally as important to the PageRank of the page is how many outgoing links are on the page. PageRank that is passed to the pages being linked to is diluted if there are too many outgoing links. Don’t pay for a directory submission on a site that has more than 20 links on the page you are submitting to.Lastly, NEVER pay for a directory submission if the links are marked as nofollow. You will not receive any increased positioning in the search engines for a nofollow link, or gain any PageRank. You can check a page to see if the links are nofollow by right-clicking the page and viewing the source. Then search for a outgoing URL that is currently listed on the page. If you see “rel=nofollow” in the anchor tag, then don’t waste your time with the directory. Another thing to watch out for is sites that obfuscate the outgoing URL, rather than showing the true URL. You can check this by hovering over a hyperlink in the directory. If the URL displayed appears something like the example below, then it is obfuscated, and equally as worthless for search engine positioning.Obfuscated URL Example:

http://www.exampledirectoryxyz.com/link.php?site=www.yoursite.com

When submitting to a free directory it is just as important to consider the factors discussed above, but since you are not paying for the submission the only factor that should really be considered here is whether the page uses obfuscation of the rel=nofollow attribute. The only downside to most free directories is they are generally very low PageRank. Regardless they still help some as long as your anchor text is optimized for the keyword you are targeting.An additional note about directory listings is don’t waste your time with directories that require a reciprocal link. This will only reduce the rank of your website.Finding Quality Directories to Generate BacklinksThe following are example search queries you can input into a search engine to find directories related to your niche. By using this method you can generate hundred or thousands of quality backlinks to your site.”Add link” +”your keyword(s)” “Add a link” +”your keyword(s)” “Add site” +”your keyword(s)” “Add a site” +”your keyword(s)” “Add your site” +”your keywords(s)” “Add URL” +”your keyword(s)” “Add a URL” +”your keyword(s)” “Add an URL” +”your keyword(s)” “Add Website” +”your keyword(s)” “Add a website” +”your keyword(s)” “Add your website” +”your keywords(s)” Article SubmissionArticle submission is an excellent way to generate many quality backlinks to your website. How many backlinks you generate depends on how well written your article is and how original the subject is.When submitting an article to an article directory ensure that your article has a resource box on the bottom that links back to your website, and used optimized anchor text that uses the keywords/keyphrases that you are targeting. Many webmasters with sites relating to the content of your article, will reproduce these articles on their own websites and keep the resource box intact thus giving you quality backlinks!Top Article Directoryes (Ordered By PageRank):www.ezinearticles.com — PageRank 6 www.articlecity.com — PageRank 6 www.articledashboard.com — PageRank 6 www.buzzle.com — PageRank 5 www.articlesbase.com — PageRank 4 www.searchwarp.com — PageRank 4 www.amazines.com — PageRank 3 www.goarticles.com — PageRank 3 In addition to having good PageRank these sites also have a fairly decent amount of traffic and gain you residual visitors. If you want your article to be picked up and gain lots of relevant backlinks start submitting your quality articles to these sites.Social BookmarkingSocial Bookmarking can be a very lucrative source for traffic and quality backlinks. The below are sites that can help you generate more traffic and increased search engine ranking:Social Networkswww.myspace.com, www.facebook.com, www.xanga.comThese websites contain a massive amount of users that share common interests with each other. You can successfully market your website to the right niche of people and generate a huge amount of backlinks by posting bulletins linking back to your website.Video Sharingwww.youtube.com, www.streamme.tvThese sites contain user uploaded video content that are of interest to visitors. You can generate backlinks and extra traffic to your website by uploading interesting videos with a link to your site in the video.Photo Sharingwww.flikr.com, www.photobucket.comThese sites allow people to share photos with other people with like interests. Groups exist for people to trade like photos. By including the URL in your photos you can generate more interest in your website and generate related backlinks.Social News Siteswww.digg.comThese sites accept submissions of news articles and press releases. The more interesting and unique the submission the more users will “digg” your article. If your article lands on the front page for the section you submit to you will most likely gain a temporary traffic explosion, and can generate many quality backlinks.Forum SignaturesAnother great method for generating high quality one-way links to your website is using a forum signature with a link back to your website. Make sure the forum is related to your niche, and that your signature link contains the keywords that you are optimizing for.