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Link Popularity
Link popularity is the name given to the measure of the number of inbound links from other websites the search engines find while spidering the internet and count, towards your websites popularity. The search engines treat websites in a democratic way, they consider inbound links like votes, the more links (votes) the more important your website must be.
Below you'll find some frequently asked questions about exchanging links. If you have a question that isn't answered below, why not send us an email?
Link exchange answers! |
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What is a link?
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A link is the html code on a web page which tells a visitor, and then subsequently the computer, which page to visit if the text or graphic is clicked on.
Search engines view links as a vote of confidence in your site by other sites. If another site is willing to point to your website by linking to it, they in affect are saying that your website has valid content, worth a visitors review.
Contact us to find out more about link exchanges! |
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What is a reciprocal link?
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A reciprocal link is a link from another website which points to your website, for which you have posted a link (reciprocal link) on your website, pointing back to the other website.
Contact us to find out more about link exchanges! |
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What is link popularity?
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Link popularity is the internet industry term used to describe the relevant strength of a website measured by the number of external websites which point to, link to, the website.
A website with no other websites pointing at it will have no link popularity. While a website that has many external sites pointing to it will have, at least some link popularity.
The number of links required to have sufficient link popularity is dependant on the link popularity of websites competing for the keywords, and search terms, relevant to your website.
A high level of link popularity is a large factor in how well your website will rank in the search engines. Search engines, like Google, factor link popularity heavily when calculating how each site will rank. Not having sufficient link popularity can prohibit a high search engine listing!
Many of the search engines, including Google, will not list your website if it has no link popularity.
Contact us to find out more about link exchanges! |
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What is an inbound link?
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An inbound link is a link pointing at your website from another external website.
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What is an out bound link?
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An out bound link is a link on your website which points to, links to, another external website.
Contact us to find out more about link exchanges! |
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How do I get inbound links to my website?
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You can request links from friends, business associates, suppliers, vendors etc.. Or you can exchange reciprocal links with other websites you find through the search engines.
Contact us to find out more about link exchanges! |
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What are relevant links?
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Relevant links are links from other websites, pointing at your site, which contain content similar or related to your content.
As an example, let's say your site contains content related to your restaurant. Ideal relevant links would be those from, other restaurants, food suppliers, cooking sites and so on.
Well you say, maybe the other restaurant websites in your town aren't interested in linking to your site, you of course are their competitor. Don't worry their are plenty of other restaurant related websites, outside your local area, that you may link with.
Does this mean that you should only have relevant links? In an ideal world perhaps. However, some of the search engines credit you for any link pointing to your website and therefore any external link, recognized by the search engines, is good.
Contact us to find out more about link exchanges! |
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Are all links equal?
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All links are not equal! For example, a link from a website that is not listed on all of the search engines is worthless. Any link recognized by the search engines is good!
Some search engines, like Google, will only show you links from other sites which have page rank (importance) above a minimum level. However, even Google, gives you credit for every incoming link!
Some in the industry suggest that relevant links are more valuable than non-relevant links. our experience does not prove this theory.
The text of your incoming link is important. It should include not just a description of what your site offers, but include your primary search terms in the description.
Contact us to find out more about link exchanges! |
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What about internal links on my website - do they count?
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Some of the search engines will give credit for internal links. Many only register one link per website. While others, like Google, will register all of your web pages it lists, once your site has gained sufficient page rank.
Contact us to find out more about link exchanges! |
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How long will it take for my link popularity to increase?
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The internet is huge! Even so, the search engines spider the entire internet in about a month. So you say, that in one month your new links then will logically be present. Not so fast!
Every web page page on the internet can have what is known as a "revisit meta tag" in the header of their pages. Most links pages will have this "revisit meta tag", which instructs the search engines how frequently to re-visit each page, set for 30 or 60 days. Add one month to visit all of the websites on the entire internet, plus up to 60 days for links pages to be revisited and presto - no more than 90 days later all your links will be present.
Hold on! Don't forget there is a human element involved. While you may request to exchange reciprocal links today. And the site you want to exchange with may be advertising the exchange of reciprocal links. The owner of the website you are exchanging links with may not even place your link on their page for weeks, if at all! Remember everyone is busy doing their main business and typically have to play catch up with things like their websites. The reciprocal linking website owner probably doesn't program his or her own site and there you go another delay, waiting for the link request to be transferred to a third party design firm.
It can take many months until all of your requested reciprocal links register with the search engines.
As you may imagine exchanging links is a very time consuming affair. Even more so if you are inexperienced. Why not let us run your link exchange program for you. Click here to see our plans!
Please note: that all reciprocal links do not register with all engines. Google for example currently only displays links coming from pages that exceed their minimum page rank! While it is said that they do give credit for all inbound links.
Contact us to find out more about link exchanges! |
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How many links do I need?
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The total number of links you'll need is dependant on five factors:
1. How highly optimized your web pages are for your selected keywords.
2. The keywords and search terms you are interested in.
3. The link popularity of the other websites which are competing for your selected keywords and search terms.
4. Your target market for example local, statewide, national or international. For example, if you sell widgets in New York only, you will need less links than if you were selling them nationally.
5. The rank in the search engines you want to achieve, top 5, top ten, top twenty and so on.
Therefore, if there is little competition or you have a smaller target market, then you will need less links.
Contact us to find out more about link exchanges! |
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If I add links today - am I finished working on my website's link popularity?
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Well yes and no! If you add a sufficient number of links to be competitive for the keywords and search terms and market you are targeting, then you are done.
However the internet is a dynamic situation with new websites being added frequently. If you add enough links to be competitive today and your competition does not add more links and newcomers do not become a factor then yes you are done.
However you may need to add new links in the future. For very competitive categories like real estate, links are added to the higher ranking sites on a weekly basis - in order to maintain their superiority in the search engine results for their targeted keywords!
Contact us to find out more about link exchanges! |
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What if I don't want a links page and out bound links on my website? |
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Well you could purchase links from other websites. The cost to purchase a link from another website is typically $35/year and up. So at a minimum you can see that 100 links would cost approximately $3,500/year.
A reciprocal link has a cost as well. It takes time to establish a reciprocal link arrangement. Normally a few emails must be exchanged to request, agree to and eventually confirm the links have been placed.
In either case the cost in time is about the same to find either potential reciprocal link partners or websites which sell outbound links and establish the links.
The difference is the annual cost of purchasing links versus the initial cost of establishing somewhat permanent links.
Contact us to find out more about link exchanges! |
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