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Linking is Queen 
By Shawn Campbell

If content is king, then linking is the queen that shares his 
throne. We have all heard about adding content to your site to 
give the search engines fodder to consume. But the secret to 
luring the search engines is the links to your site. Today's 
search engines look very carefully and critically at who is 
linking to you, and what it is that they are saying about you. 
A link from a leader in your industry carries a lot of weight 
and means that your site is important. Two links from industry 
leaders means your site is even more important. 100 links from 
random web sites, from industries you are not even related with, 
means almost nothing. Thus, getting links is only the start; the 
important thing is getting good links from quality web sites. 

Why Do Links Matter? 

Since the arrival of Google and their PageRank, search engines 
have put a lot of weight on links to a site. There used to be 
simple ways to get good rankings: Meta tags, titles, keyword 
density, etc... Today, things have become more complex, with 
search engines now using a very complicated algorithm that 
involves:
 
- links to your site, 
- what is written in those links, 
- who is linking to the site that links to yours, 
- what are the keyphrases used in those links, 
- what is the quality of the site that is linking to yours, 
- how many other links does that site have, 
- how many links out (and to what sites) does your site have, 
- and other such criteria. 

To use a rather appetizing analogy, these new criteria are 
added to the stew that is your site, along with the quality 
and quantity of the content. Left to simmer on the worldwide 
web, this stew is then eaten up by the search engines depending 
on how well your site matches the aforementioned criteria. Put 
differently, the king and queen must join together to turn 
your site into a number one result. 

How Do We Get Links? 

It all starts with content. No one will link to you unless you 
offer quality information about a particular subject. If you 
are in real estate, you must offer information about the area 
you sell. If someone wants to buy in your area, first s/he will 
want to learn about it, so you will need to have good resources 
about that area. The next step is to find new sites that would 
benefit from your site's information; new sites whose clients 
would potentially buy your real estate. For example, one of our 
clients (www.monlac.com) sells real estate in the Laurentians 
area of Quebec. Their site has content on activities in Quebec 
and the nearby Laurentian mountains. Thus, we will be soliciting 
links from web sites such as the nearby water parks and ski 
hills, nearby towns, lake and boating associations, and local 
construction web sites to name just a few. To these web sites, 
not only will linking to www.monlac.com make their customers 
happier, but it is in their best interest that the site sells 
real estate since it brings in more business for them. 

How Do You Solicit Links? 

To solicit sites you have to use a lot of elbow grease. Send out 
personalized emails to these sites. Don't send out mass emails 
or spam. Be friendly, and point out the benefits of linking to 
your site. If you are lucky, maybe 1 in 3 emails will get a 
response. It is frustrating and discouraging, but keep your 
spirits up. Many times a site is perfect but they don't ever 
update it, so your site won't get the link in because nothing 
ever changes on the solicited site. Don't waste too much time on 
sites that haven't been updated in years. It is also important 
to follow up. Until you get a flat out denial, keep saying "Hi", 
and keep it personal. Keep track of who you have contacted and 
what you have written or said because you have to make it seem 
like they are the only person you are contacting. As soon as 
they get a sniff that you are sending out a mass email, or that 
you are using the exact same approach with other sites, you will 
probably lose their respect - and their business! 

Do not forget to submit to the directories such as the Open 
Directory Project (www.dmoz.org), because getting listed here 
counts for a lot in all the big search engines. Take your time 
and choose the right category to submit to. Also, read about how 
they want their descriptions and titles written, and write them 
that way. These are the keys to getting into the directories. 

Soliciting links is a very time-consuming (and frustrating) 
venture, but it is essential to getting good rankings in the 
search engines. It takes a lot of patience and a lot of time. 
Getting your first link is like getting your first sale. It 
is just as hard - and just as satisfying. 

Good luck, 
Shawn Campbell

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Shawn Campbell is an enthusiastic player in the ecommerce 
marketplace, and co-founded Red Carpet Web Promotion, Inc. 
(http://www.redcarpetweb.com/). He has been researching and 
developing marketing strategies to achieve more prominent 
listings in search engine results since 1998. Shawn is one of 
the earliest pioneers in the search engine optimization field. 
Contact: shawn@redcarpetweb.com 
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