Methods of Hyperlinking:
Google has given importance to backlinks ever since it existed. However, getting links from just any other site is not the solution to be on the good list of Google. The trick here is to get as many “Authority Links” as possible. Authority links are those which have been considered as websites of highest value by top search engines. In other words these web pages have high page rank and appear on top when you search for related keywords. It is for the best to avoid getting backlinks from sites that have been banned by Google. Text links are better option than banner links or image links so use text link using keyword anchor text. It is important you know the various methods of website linking or hyperlinking in regard to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for building back links.

Reciprocal Links:
In this type of website linking two websites interchange links to ensure mutual traffic. For example: A and B have websites. If A’s website links to B’s Site and B’s website links to A’s, the websites are reciprocally linked. There are many reciprocal linking websites where one can get many reciprocal linking partners. Some of the popular ones are: www.linkexchanged.com, www.linkpartners.com.

• Three Way Linking:
  Three way linking is a special type of a reciprocal linking where you don’t have to give a link back to link partner but place his/her link on any other third party site. Three way linking can be explained as: Site A àSite B àSite CàSite A. Site A gives link to Site B, B places A’s link on a third party Site C which in turn links to Site A. This method is adopted to get link partners and save own site’s page rank. There are many websites that provide this service for free.
• Automated Linking:
  There are many automatic link exchange services launched in order to take advantage of the need for inbound links to rank well in the search engines. In this you agree to have several links added to all their web pages in return for getting similar links back from other sites.
• Link Exchange:
  Link exchange is an alternative to automated linking where you will advertise on the sites you want to get links to and you in turn offer reciprocal or three way links back to the sites that link to you.

One Way Link:
One way links are hyper links which directly points to your site without reciprocal linking. One way links are given more priority by search engines since it looks more natural. One of the best way of building one way links is by distributing articles on various content sites and article directories. The other forms of one way link building includes: directory submission, blog, press release, blog comments, creating RSS feeds, newsletter distribution, forums etc.

Multi Way Linking:
Multi way Linking evolved from reciprocal linking where link exchange occurs between 2 websites. In this technique websites may create similar one way links that each involves 3 or more partner sites. This provides each website with a one way non-reciprocal link. According to Google and Yahoo’s latest search engine algorithm, more preference is given to websites that maintain a high level of incoming non-reciprocated links. The term ”multiway” simply refers to the fact that the link exchange is between 3 or more websites, however each link is singular by only pointing to one other website. Other means of linking that may increase your web presence may also include other indirect methods such as loading images, videos, content or RSS feeds from a third partners website.

Incestuous Linking:
When a number of sites all link to each other in order to increase their search engine ranking it is known as Incestuous Linking. Incestuous linking is an SEO strategy used by a webmaster to promote a collection of their own web sites, or those of close friends. Since search engines like Google give priority to those sites which have incoming links from highly ranked sites, lots of websites inter-link to artificially improve the ranking of a website without merit i.e. without valuable content.

Link Campaign:
Link campaign occurs when you want to increase traffic to your website and for that you ask your strategic partners, professional organizations, suppliers, customers etc. to place links from their websites. A link campaign may include mutual link back and may or may not include reciprocation of links. Building a link campaign is very time consuming. It involves searching for links on the internet, composing emails and sending them to prospective linking partners with all your linking information, and then you might need to add a reciprocal link to your link pages. The solution to this is the availability of link management software which automates the whole process.

Overlinking:
Overlinking in a webpage or hyperlinked text is the characteristic of having too many hyperlinks. It is advisable to avoid overlinking.

Underlinking/ Null linking:
Null linking or underlinking is the opposite of overlinking which are phenomena in which hyperlinks are reduced to such a degree as to remove all pointers to a likely-needed context of an unusual term, in the text-area where the term occurs.

Link Bait:
Link Bait is the process of attracting visitors to your site through interest, anger or knowledge seeking. Matt Cutts defines link bait as anything “interesting enough to catch people’s attention.” Linkbait is content written to educate or entertain your prospective readers. These articles create buzz and this buzz virally spreads in form of comments that others make about. These inbound or backlinks are used by search engines to rank your website. Link bait could be

Informational: You provide information that educates the readers
News: You provide updates about the latest happening on different topics
Humor: You provide funny stories, humorous pictures, videos, cartoons etc.
Controversy: You can criticize or drop in your point of view about someone and
Tools: Youcanbuild a good tool that is useful enough for people to link to it.

The other methods include: Link Doping, Link Popularity, FFA (Free For All) e.t.c. These linking methods help you increase your page rank. Try the appropriate ones and get great links to increase visibility and traffic to your website.

MAR 27, 2008 ISSUE #3

The popularity of internet seems to rise immensely in the past few years. It brings along a greater demand for websites. The new success formula is: “Successful Business = Successful Website”. It’ll be a waste if you build one of the best websites and yet it remains unknown. In order to gain success on the internet, visibility hence is a must. The website should be visible to both search engines and the users. The best way to draw attention is to be on the first page of search engines’ results esp. on Google, Yahoo or MSN. Most internet users rely on search engines to find what they are looking for. If you had built a website about 10 years ago, visibility was the easiest thing. A little bit of keyword stuffing and the search engines crown you the first page ranking. The Search Engines however have become really choosy on this aspect for the past few years. Keyword stuffing or other traditional methods won’t do much good to impress them.

So how do you really impress search engines these days? The first thing you need to do is SEO (Search Engine Optimization). The other thing you can do is build inbound links. Inbound links are still given much preference by search engines. Getting one way links from popular sites have mainly two advantages: first your site gets indexed when the search engine spiders crawl the popular site and second is search engines think your link is important as it has been placed on a good ranked site. There are many methods to gain inbound links. The simplest way is to request the site owner to place your link on their website. It is simple but websites with high page ranks do not readily agree to place your link for free. You might have to pay them, exchange links with them or just look out for other websites since your page rank is not good enough for them. Yes it can get really depressing at times but hey no worries, I am here to help you with that. The other ways to increase your inbound links are as follows:

1. Pay Per Click (PPC):
If you cannot get on the first page of Google, Yahoo or MSN then PPC or Pay Per Click could be the thing for you. You bid for certain keywords and according to the clicks or the highest bid your advertisement with your URL will be listed on the search engine pages. This also is a good form of getting backlink or inbound link.

2. Social Networking:
Social networking is now the target for many marketers. With millions of users worldwide social networking is the best place to let the word out about your website. Go ahead open your own profile, let people know about you, your website, your expertise field and lots more. Here’s the list to start socializing on the internet.

3. Social Bookmarking:
Social bookmarking is similar to bookmarking in your browser. Wikipedia defines it as a method for internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet. These bookmarking sites are the best way to get one way links. The idea is to get your website bookmarked. The more it is bookmarked the better it is for your website. Here’s the list of popular social bookmarking sites.

4. Blog Comments:
It’s time to get a bit creative here. Smart comments, suggestions are usually welcomed by bloggers. If you love to read then this is the best way to get backlinks for your website. Read the posts, drop your piece of mind, leave your URL and there you go, you got another easy way to get inbound links.

5. Forums:
You can participate on forums related to your business which is another way of marketing and getting backlinks for your website. If you are an expert in your field you can always be a forum authority. A forum authority is someone who is referred to as an expert in a certain field by the members. Forums are all about interaction, so communicate, provide tips, suggestions and people will respond to you.

6. Wikipedia:
There are very few internet users who haven’t heard about Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia. You can sign in for free and provide information about various fields. You can even edit contents of wikipedia. This is an informative site so anything that sounds like product promotion might be banned. It will be wise to go through their terms and conditions before posting your view on Wikipedia.

These are the 6 simple ways to get inbound links and advertise about your website. Even if you’ve made the best website in the world, no one would know about it until you spread the word. So go ahead, a little bit of hard work and creativity will bear fruit for sure.

MAR 19, 2008 ISSUE #2