If you’re trying to improve the ranking of your website on the top search engines, you are likely involved in some sort of link building. After all, links account for at least 50% of the overall organic strength of a website.
Links are important, but how do you get them, and how to you ensure that they stick around? There are a variety of methods to gaining links; from blogging and building social profiles, to renting links and mass submitting your site to directories. But there are two critical elements you should build into your link strategy:
* Permanent links

* One way links

Permanent links never go away. Years down the road, a permanent link may still be recognized by search engines, and be counted toward your site’s popularity score. A residual effect occurs as these links build over time.
One way links are important, as search engines have become accustomed to ignoring an abundance of reciprocal links. This is because too many webmasters over the years have simply said ‘you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours’ – and began sharing links back and forth across the web to build popularity.

Linking back and forth between two sites, does little to show popularity of any one website, thus search engines discount them, or ignore them altogether. Instead, search engines prefer to see one way links. These links tell an engine that the site the link is on, must recognize the importance of the site its linking to. You want as many one-way links pointing to your site as possible.
So how do you gain permanent, on-way links? In other words, how to you build your portfolio of links that will stick around… possibly forever – and ones that do not require reciprocal linking?

Unlike rented links, where your link disappears as quickly as you stop paying for them, permanent links are embedded in a site and may be there till the end of time. There are many ways to get permanent links, but the easiest method, and probably the one with the best ROI, is to hire a professional service to place one-way permanent links across the web.
A permanent link service will look to a variety of quality sites to place your one-way links:

* Article sites

* Social Bookmark sites

* Blog review links

* Local directories

* And many others
These permanent link sites, and others like them, build upon the content that is generated by users. These articles, blogs pages, and directories continue to post content that site visitors insert. The sites grow larger and larger, but they rarely, if ever, remove content. Therefore, a link placed on such a site would inevitably still be there years later. These types of content sites and blogs also do not ask for reciprocal links, so each link will also be one-way. This is a great way to cover both elements in your link strategy at once.
As you place these links, it’s important to look at the relevancy of content on each site, ensure the ability to add a target keyword within the anchor text of each link, and track the effectiveness of your link building activity over time.
Permanent and one-way link building takes a great deal of time and effort. But if done correctly, this strategy will provide great long-term results for your website.

About the Author

Scott Orth is a writer for TextLinkBrokers.com, a Link Building Company in specializing in links since 2003.

Search engines are the gateway to the Internet; they are the first tool that potential customers use to find the products and services they need. This is why link popularity is so imperative. If the customers do not find your website, you have no possibilities of making any sales.

You’re probably wondering what is popular about a link! Well, in a word – plenty! Link popularity refers to the ranking assigned to your website by the search engines, and it determines the ranking your page gets when keywords are entered into a search engine. So, you’re probably wondering, how do I make my link popular?

Search engines are discretionary, giving status and ranking to sites that have links to their pages from related, quality sites. It’s a simple formula, but a very important one. Google created the system, and now virtually all the most popular search engines employ it to rank your web pages in their indexes.

The more commonly used your keyword is, the harder it will be to achieve link popularity, but without achieving this step, it is almost certain your site will never rank highly on any search engine. But don’t be discouraged; there are tried and true ways of achieving link popularity using the most competitive keywords.

There are a few things you should be aware of. The first is that just linking up with a large number of other websites will not achieve link popularity. In fact, it may have quite the opposite effect. This is particularly true when pertaining to websites that are nothing more than “link farms” – pages containing line after line of indiscriminate links. Search engines may aggressively discriminate against your website if you are associated with a link farm, so steer clear of them!

The next thing to bear in mind is the quality of the site you are linking to. Never link to a page you have reservations about your visitors seeing. The last thing you want your website to appear as is indiscriminate and cheap. Linking to sites of poor quality will only lessen your link popularity, if not completely destroy it.

So let’s get to what you need to do to increase your link popularity and improve your rankings to a high status on all the popular search engines.

The first step, and the fastest way to get your foot in the door, is to get a listing in a popular directory, such as Open Directory Project and Yahoo. If your site is business-related, you will want to be listed on Yahoo, and despite the fact that it will cost you around $300 a year, it will be money well spent. If your site is non-commercial, the listing will be free, but it will take time and follow-up to actually get it listed. Open Directory gives you a free listing whether you are business-related or non-commercial, but be prepared to make a lot of follow-up inquiries before you see your site listed. You are aiming to get listed in the highest level of appropriate category.

The next step after you have attained directory listings is to locate other quality sites that will increase your link popularity. Try to find sites that are in some way related to yours, so not only will your link popularity increase, but your customer base may also be expanded. You want to avoid your competitors and look for sites that are useful to your site’s visitors. Let’s look at the Alpaca Wool site example. Linking up to a site that sells knitting supplies would be helpful to your visitors, and the chances of the knitting supply site wanting to link up to your site are also greater. By linking to a related site that will be relevant to your website’s traffic, you are increasing both of your site’s business prospects – and both of your sites’ link popularity.

Not all sites want to link to other sites, so you will have to do some research when you are looking for possible linking partners. Google is an excellent starting place for your search. Make sure you enter keywords that you think quality customers will also enter to find your own site. Remember, your criteria is quality, highly ranked, non-competing websites that have links or resource pages.

Go to these sites and objectively assess them. Look at the quality of the product, the graphics, and the ease of use. Then check out the other sites they are linked to, and determine if your own site would fit in with the crowd.

When you decide you have found a good prospect, you must set out to woo them. The first thing to do is to add a link on your own links page to their site. This is an essential first step; it shows good faith, and ups your chances significantly of their reciprocity. After you have added their link, you must contact the webmaster of their site. Since this is almost always done by email, you want to make sure it is immediately clear that your message is not junk mail. This requires that you tell them right off the bat that you have added a link to their page on your site. A hook like this almost always insures the reader will read on.

Next, be sure to be flattering and let them know how much you appreciate their website. Make sure you emphasize that you have actually visited their site, and that their site is not just a random pick. Give them the address of your links page, and ask them to check out the link for themselves. It’s a good idea to mention that they will not only benefit from the increased traffic your website will direct their way, but you will also increase their link popularity. Briefly, explain why link popularity is so essential, but do this in a sentence or two so you don’t sound like a professor! Finally, tell them you would greatly appreciate if they would reciprocally add a link on their own links page to your website.

Go through this process with as many appropriate sites as you can find, bearing in mind the criteria of quality and non-competitiveness. After you have emailed all relevant sites, be sure to check these website frequently to see if they have added a link to your page. Give it about a month, and if no link appears, try another charming email. Then give it another month, and if your site is still absent from their links page, it’s time to remove their link from your own links page. The only time you want to pursue a link further than this is if you believe a site is crucial to your link popularity and your business needs. Just remember to keep all your communications complimentary and cordial.

Then set up a schedule to check your ranking in search engines frequently to see if your link popularity has improved. This is not achievable in the blink of an eye. It will take some time and a good deal of work. There is no way around the labor-intensive quality of improving your link popularity, which is why search engines regard it with such importance.

About the Author

Tom lives and works in the UK. He Started online by providing training programs for newcomers to online business especially through attraction marketing via Magnetic Sponsoring. He has an informative blog which is regularly updated called Internet Marketers Resource.

http://leadmarketer.blogspot.com