Good link popularity is more important even than keyword density. The search engines seem to change their algorithms now and then and your position in the search engine database depends on satisfying those algorithms. Good content coupled with a solid strategy for soliciting incoming links from related websites will help your position in the search engines as well as drive traffic from your linking partners to your own site.
Three kinds of links exist. These are internal links, outgoing links and incoming links. Of these three the incoming links are the most valuable, but you can use internal and outgoing links in certain ways to make your site more marketable.
Internal Links
These are the links that lead from one page to another within your site. You can get extra mileage out of these links by increasing your keyword density in the writing of the link. When you write the code for these internal links, add a title and description of the link with in the code. Use your keywords in these titles and descriptions to increase keyword density.
Check your links to assure that they are correct and that you do not link to a "coming soon" page or a blank page. You can also link within a page to bookmarks. They are a secondary navigation system for your site and help your focus your content as well as enhancing your keyword density.
One of the most valuable ways to link within your site may be the site map. The search engines find sitemaps and can index all of your internal links from this page. A site map helps your visitor understand your site better. It is also your own hand cultivated "link farm". Your site map should use your keywords and have page descriptions along with the codes within the title rather than just having a list of links.
Outgoing Links
These are links from your site to outside sites. Since you have the ultimate control over these links, you should be assured that they lead to quality sites that augment your own content. You can use these links as a "carrot" when requesting reciprocal links for your site. You can link to an authority in your field, which may give you more credibility and status on the engines. As an artisan, you might want to link to publications in your field, museums, craft show schedules, galleries that show your work, style or trend resources, lifestyle sources or raw materials information sites. Links to your competitors will not hurt you, but provide little benefit to your linking plan.
Here is an example of an optimized internal link to Ornament magazine using a title and description within the link and explaining where the link takes the visitor. The statement causes the link to open in a new window so your site visitor does not leave your site permanently.
Ornament Magazine The magazine for people interested wearable art, jewelry and other accessories.
Incoming Links
These links to your site from outside sources are links that you can not control, but try to attract to your site. The search engines rate links that relate to your site as more valuable than those that are unrelated to your content. You should request links from publications in your field, fashion or style publications, newspapers, stylists, interior decorators, galleries, museums, your suppliers, etc. A link from Vogue Magazine if you are a jeweler or Home Interiors if you are a potter would be of more value than one from the local plumber. Reciprocal links from Visitor's Bureaus, Chambers of Commerce and local business organizations are valuable and should be cultivated
The growing trend is that relevant, quality links certainly can drive direct traffic to your site. Search engines consider links when they are determining your positioning in the database of websites. Link popularity, the number of links to a website from other sites, is important. Some links are said to be more beneficial than others. You will receive offers by businesses who provide linking services. Some are reputable while others just get links on websites, known as link farms, that are set up for the purpose of linking. This type of linking can get you banned from the search engines as a spammer.
The best strategy for obtaining good incoming links for the best benefit to your website involves your own choices of links to request. You set up the link on your own site to their site and make contact with the webmaster of the site showing him or her where the link is to their site and requesting a link back to your own site. When you do this, include the linking code and description for the webmaster's convenience and your own input. You can also provide a page on your website with a form for webmasters to request links to their own site and code for them to link back to you.
Time spent visiting sites, setting up your linking goals, making a list of linking partners and contacting the webmasters requesting reciprocal links will be worth it, but it is a step-by-step detailed process. A simple spread sheet detailing which sites you have contacted, dates and responses will help keep you organized.
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