Building Link Popularity is never easy. You have to work hard (as with most things in life) to establish yourself in the eyes of search engines.

In a pure Link Analysis system, the secret behind a successful web site is content. Before you start your Link Building program, you have to have a content rich site. If your site is not one, make it. Add articles that will be of interest to the visitors of your site. This needs a lot of effort and time. If you are too busy, hire someone to do it for you. However, doing it on your own will save you a lot of money. Do not do marketing for your web site in the articles, instead deliver useful information. Remember, in the long run the content of your site is your biggest asset.

DO's and DONT's of Building Link Popularity

DO's of Building Link Popularity

• A tried and tested way of increasing Link Popularity is to ask for a link. In doing this , you directly contact the owner of a site via email or other means asking for a link to your site. In your email, briefly explain why you think the link will benefit their visitors and offer to link back to them in exchange for this courtesy.

• Most people will link to web sites that offer unique and useful information. So, start developing more content if your site is lacking it and become a content provider. Write articles and tutorials about subjects related to the keywords for which you want to be ranked and give the visitors a reason to link to your site. By offering useful information, you increase the chances of getting links.

• Have a high quality newsletter or article section on your site. People will want to link to you to provide their visitors useful information.

• Submit your web site in the appropriate categories of the major search directories, like Yahoo, Google, etc. Do not forget to optimize your title and description with important keywords. Also submit to Netscape Open directory.

• Do a search for "Submit a Link" AND "your most important keyword." You will get a list of sites that have link pages related to your keyword. Post links to them.

• Submit to as many as theme directories as possible.

• Another way of getting a link from the top sites is to post an article in their ezine or content library section. Include a link to your site link and an attractive description in the signature of your article. This gives the site owner something that constitutes real value to the content of their web site. You also reach the audience of that web site in a way that is something more than a link request.

• Write articles that are related to the keywords you want to be searched for and market those articles to on-line content providers. Don't forget to include your signature and a link to your site along with a optimized title and description of your site.

• Start an awards program. This is one of the most successful ways to boost link popularity. The award is an image file that links back to your site and recognizes the site as the winner of your award program. This gives a strong incentive to the site that wins. The benefit is that another recognized site recognizes this site as a quality site.

• Participate in many award programs which are conducted on others site. If you win, the award site will link to your site as a bonus. And you get to place that award on the site which in turn will increase your credibility.

• Offer a small discount if a client agrees to link to your site from his site. This is probably not the most effective method but every small link helps.

• Create a discussion board. Ask sites, which are related to the same key phrase, to link to it.

• Sometimes write a testimonial of a web site. Ask the site owner to post it in their site in exchange for a link to your site. But remember to write a testimonial to a worthy site only.

• Ask for testimonials from other web sites. Remind them that you will also place a link to their site under their testimonial if they're willing to reciprocate.

• Remind every web site that is related to you, to link to your site. They can be the partners, resellers, etc.

• Submit your site to all on-line industry and general business directories, yellow pages, white pages that you can find.

• Submit your site to an appropriate category of About.com. The quality links within About.com will help to boost your link popularity.

• You can submit links to your newsletter to on-line directories that is reserved exclusively for newsletters.

• Since your direct competitors will not link to you. Brainstorm fields that are related to keywords but are not your competition. If yours is a software company, exchange links with associations connected with IT industry. You may earn a link from related publications or news sites.

• If you can, offer something for free, probably a useful script or a software program, or a downloadable report, and ask for a link back to your site. This works because you\'re giving something useful, and it is likely that they will reciprocate.

• Make it easy for people to link back to your site. Make the html code that will create the link available to the visitors, so that they can copy and insert into their own web pages.

DONT's of link building strategies

There are a number of things search engines considers to be spam, so be cautious not to use spam methods even by mistake. Whatever your intentions, if the search engines finds you using spam, they may penalise you.

• Don\'t participate in Link Popularity farms or programs that send out e-mail soliciting people to swap links. They call it link spamming.

• Do not make the mistake of placing a link on your own site for the sole purpose of trading links.

• Do not approach the low quality web sites to link to you, as it will harm your site instead of increasing Link Popularity. It is advisable to link to high quality web sites.

• Maintain distance from the sites that are treated as "bad neighborhoods" by the search engines. Do not submit to Free for All sites.

• Never send out an automated e-mail to many sites asking for a link. Make your e-mail personalized.

• Do not entertain web sites that have their reciprocal link page so deeply buried in the site that a visitor will have difficulty finding it. If people face problems finding the links page, so will the spiders.