| Let's face it, most webmasters reading this paper are just starting out and have few resources relative to their
highly exposed competition. In many cases these websites have great content... but nobody knows about it because of low search engine rankings.
Where you rank in the search engines is determined largely by your Google Page Rank, a proprietary score developed by Google and based on 'votes' in the
form of links from other sites to yours. The more inbound links you get to your website the more apparent it is that you have something worthwhile
to offer the internet community. |
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| While there are many ways to get backlinks to your website, the most common way is to exchange or trade links
with another webmaster. Here how it works... I put a link to your website, usually from my 'links' page and you put a link to my website from yours.
Seems easy enough, but there is a catch. In the beginning while you have little or no traffic or Google PR few websites will want to link with
you. Likewise, those that do are usually in the same boat with you... no traffic and no Google PR. Nevertheless, it's still important that you
get these links. |
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| Of course you should link with websites that compliment your own and you should always avoid 'link farms'
and FFA pages. Follow the rules of good linking because Google imposes a penalty for associating with 'bad neighborhoods'. Nevertheless, don't
avoid linking with a website just because it has a low Google Page Rank. Hopefully the webmaster is like-minded and wants to push his website to the
top of the SERP's. As he does so, you will also benefit by his ever increasing Page Rank. |
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| As your website matures and your traffic grows more and more websites of better quality will want to link
with you. Once your Google PR reaches a 3 or greater you'll find that people even start to proposition you for links! It's around this time
that you'll want to become even pickier about who you link with. Examine each linking opportunity in detail for both content and quality and choose
what's best for your business. |
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| Lastly, always remember that content is king! What's even better than exchanging links is for a
webmaster to backlink some useful content on your site! Some examples of great content are widgets, articles or newsletters. Think out of
the box and give something away for free. People like freebies even if it's just information! You can also construct 3 way and 4 way links
for the illusion of a one-way backlink. Whatever you decide, keep on linking and growing! |
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