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Let Other Sites Improve Your Search Engine Ranking
by Les Goss ©Copyright 2002-2003

Getting listed on the first three pages of search engine 
listings is a goal for many business web sites. It's also 
difficult to achieve, which explains why an entire industry 
has recently sprung up devoted to improving web site rankings.

If you elect to work on it yourself, there are three main ways 
to improve your web site's ranking:

#1 Pay Search Engines Directly 
Sending $299 to Yahoo for a yearly listing or pay-per-click at 
Overture are two common choices. You can read more about these 
options here: http://www.zmoon.com/search.html.

#2 Use Key Words Correctly 
Fill your text with words and phrases that people are typing 
into search engines looking for businesses like yours. See my 
earlier article on Optimizing Your Search Engine Ranking.
(http://www.zmoon.com/articles/optimize_site.html.)

#3 Get Quality Sites to Link to Your Site 
That's today's lesson!

WHY LINKS TO YOU HELP YOUR RANKING

If your web site is well made and filled with useful information,
other sites may want to link to it as a resource for their
clients. If you have several quality sites linking to yours, that
should give you a boost over your competitor who has none, all
other things being equal. The folks who operate the search
engines believe that if other businesses are willing to send
their customers to your site, you must be very good indeed. Just
the type they'd like to recommend to their searchers.

GETTING QUALITY LINKS TO YOUR SITE

Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com/) and The Open Directory Project
(http://www.dmoz.org/) have actual humans instead of robots
evaluating web sites for inclusion, so getting listed in either
of these is considered a quality link. Yahoo currently charges
$299 to have your site considered for listing, but there's no
guarantee it will be included. They have very high standards you
must meet. The ODP also has high standards, but they are not
charging for a listing at this time.

A good place to start looking for sites willing to link to yours
is with businesses that complement yours but aren't direct
competitors. For instance, if you own a company that builds
backyard ponds, you might ask for links from an aquarium supply
shop, a nursery that carries water plants and a landscaping
outfit. The key is you all share the same customer, but do
different things for that customer.

Another category is your suppliers and providers. If you run an
insurance agency, for example, you might have a few businesses
you often work with, such as a realtor, a mortgage lender, a
roofing contractor, an auto repair shop and a remodeling
specialist. Assuming they have quality web sites, a link from
each of these should help your search engine ranking.

And of course, you will probably get some business directly from
those links to you from the other sites.

HOW TO GET PEOPLE TO LINK TO YOU

First of all, make sure your site is the best it can be. No one
will link to a poor site since it will reflect back on them.

Next, link to these other businesses from your web site before
you ask for a link back. When you write to the owner, be sure to
compliment something specific about their site so they know
you've actually looked at it. You don't want them to think your
email is spam.

Mention that you think your customers will find their site useful
and so you've put a link to them on your site. Include a link to
the appropriate page so they can easily see it for themselves.
When you ask for a return link, give them a reason why it will
benefit their customers.

LINKS FROM EMAILS AND NEWSLETTER ARTICLES

Two other ways to get links to your site involve your email
signature file and offering your newsletter for free posting on
other sites. If you participate in online discussion groups, be
sure to include a link to your site in your email signature file.
Not only will people in the group visit your site, those messages
are generally archived for several months where the search
engines can find them. Each of your emails adds up to another
link to your site.

If you send a newsletter to your clients, others may be
interested as well. Getting your newsletter published on other
sites is another way to spread your web address around the
internet. I'll provide ideas on how to do that in another 
article.

CONCLUSION

Once your well-made site is in the search engines, one way to 
get a higher ranking is by having quality sites link to you. 
There's no fast and easy way to achieve this, but with a quality,
frequently-updated web site, and a bit of work on your part, you
should be able to find those secret admirers out in cyberspace
and let them help spread the good word!

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Les Goss is the head honcho at ZebraMoon Web Design, where he 
educates his business clients as he builds their web sites. To 
subscribe to the free email newsletter list or to find out more 
about how we can serve you, please come to: http://www.zmoon.com/
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