Link Popularity

You really need inbound links to your site from sites that the engines consider as high quality sites. Since Google introduced the BigDaddy and Jagger updates you seem to need these more than ever. Where should you begin? Well, I can say that if you're a member of a recognised industry trade association or similar then you will benefit from having a link to them on your site and you'll further benefit from their site having a link to you. You'll benefit from the last one a lot more, in fact.

It really is essential to include a links campaign in your marketing endeavours, these days more so than ever. Best way is to get links from specialist sites and directories; after all, they want to link to you anyway, so why not help them by letting them know of your url?

Method is as follows. Call up your search engine of choice and in the search field enter the following;

"your main keyword phrase" + "add url" . Then start the search. This will bring up any number of directories related to your subject and should present you with the page to add your url to. Further directories may be found by the following variants;

"your main keyword phrase" +"submit url"
"your main keyword phrase" + directory
"your main keyword phrase" + resource
"your main keyword phrase" + links
"your main keyword phrase" +"surf tips"
"Suggest link" +"your keyword(s)"
"Suggest a link" +"your keyword(s)"
"Suggest site" + "your keyword(s)"
"Suggest a site" + "your keyword(s)"
"Suggest URL" +"your keyword(s)"
"Suggest a URL" +"your keyword(s)"
"Suggest an URL" +"your keyword(s)"
"Suggest Website" +"your keyword(s)"
"Suggest a website" +"your keyword(s)"
"Suggest your website" +"your keywords(s)"
"Add link" +"your keyword(s)"
"Add a link" +"your keyword(s)"
"Add site" +"your keyword(s)"
"Add a site" +"your keyword(s)"
"Add your site" +"your keywords(s)"
"Add URL" +"your keyword(s)"
"Add a URL" +"your keyword(s)"
"Add an URL" +"your keyword(s)"
"Add Website" +"your keyword(s)"
"Add a website" +"your keyword(s)"
"Add your website" +"your keywords(s)"
"Submit link" +"your keyword(s)"
"Submit a link" +"your keyword(s)"
"Submit site" +"your keyword(s)"
"Submit a site" +"your keyword(s)"
"Submit your site" +"your keyword(s)"
"Submit URL" +"your keyword(s)"
"Submit a URL" +"your keyword(s)"
"Submit an URL" +"your keyword(s)"
"favorite links" +"your keyword(s)"
"recommended links" +"your keyword(s)"
"cool sites" +"your keyword(s)"
"cool places" +"your keyword(s)"
reciprocal +"your keyword(s)"
directory +"your keyword(s)"
directorys +"your keyword(s)"
directories +"your keyword(s)"
exchange +"your keyword(s)"
resources +"your keyword(s)"
links +"your keyword(s)"
"your location" +"add url"
"your location" +"suggest a site"
"your location" +"submit site"
"your location" +links
"your location" +"reciprocal links"
"your location" +directory
"Submit Website" +"your keyword(s)"
"Submit a website" +"your keyword(s)"
"Submit your website" +"your keywords(s)"
"favorite links" +"your keyword(s)"
"favorite sites" +"your keyword(s)"
"favorite places" +"your keyword(s)"
"favorite websites" +"your keyword(s)"
"recommended links" +"your keyword(s)"
"recommended sites" +"your keyword(s)"
"recommended places" +"your keyword(s)"
"recommended websites" +"your keyword(s)"
"cool links" +"your keyword(s)"
"cool sites" +"your keyword(s)"
"cool places" +"your keyword(s)"
"cool websites" +"your keyword(s)"
"link exchange" +"your keyword(s)"
"vendor list" + "your keyword(s)"
"supplier list" + "your keyword(s)"
"vendor directory" + "your keyword"
"supplier directory" + "your keyword"
"vendor directory" + "your keyword"

allintitle:key phrase equipment

allinanchor:key phrase equipment

allinurl:key phrase equipment

allintext:key phrase equipment

Google News - key phrase equipment

Google News Archive - key phrase equipment

Yahoo! News - key phrase equipment

Technorati - key phrase equipment

Del.icio.us - key phrase equipment + del.icio.us/tag/key phrase and del.icio.us/tag/key phrasing

Ask.com Blog Search - key phrase equipment

Google Blog Search - key phrase equipment

Wikipedia Search - key phrase equipment

DMOZ Search - key phrase equipment

key phrase equipment directory

intitle:directory "key phrase equipment"

inurl:directory "key phrase equipment"

key phrasedirectory

key phrase* directory

directory * key phrase

key phrase catalogue

key phrase equipment catalogue

"list of key phrasing sites"

"list * key phrase"

"list * key phrase* sites"

key phrase websites

key phrasesites

"key phrase sites"

"key phrase websites"

"recommended links" key phrase equipment

"recommended sites" key phrase equipment

"favorite links" key phrase equipment

"favorite sites" key phrase equipment

key phrase forum

key phrasing forum

"key phrasing forum"

intitle:forum key phrasing

inurl:forum key phrasing

key phrasing blog

intitle:blog key phrasing

inurl:blog key phrasing

"add comment" key phrasing

"post comment" key phrasing

key phrasing members

key phrasing join

key phrasing tag

intitle:tag key phrasing

intitle:post key phrasing

key phrasing group

intitle:group key phrasing

key phrase equipment "add url"

key phrase equipment "add site"

key phrase equipment "add website"

key phrase equipment "add your site"

key phrase equipment "add a url"

key phrase equipment "add * url"

key phrase equipment "add * site"

key phrase equipment "add * website"

key phrase equipment "submit url"

key phrase equipment "submit site"

key phrase equipment "submit website"

key phrase equipment "submit your site"

key phrase equipment "submit a url"

key phrase equipment "submit * url"

key phrase equipment "submit * site"

key phrase equipment "submit * website"

key phrase equipment "suggest url"

key phrase equipment "suggest site"

key phrase equipment "suggest website"

key phrase equipment "suggest your site"

key phrase equipment "suggest a url"

key phrase equipment "suggest * url"

key phrase equipment "suggest * site"

key phrase equipment "suggest * website"

These will bring up all manner of related sites. Some will demand a reciprocal link. If you think they're useful to your visitors, then by all means give them one. I can be wary though of directories who charge for the privilege of inclusion but, if you think it's worth it, then by all means go ahead. Some of these, being human-edited, can be very good value.

You could go through these links below. Use them as a shortcut to sites you'd find eventually anyway through the above processes. Remember, keep notes. I maintain a database myself.

Speciality Search Directories

Google's Directory of Custom Search Engines

More of the same

The DMOZ category for speciality directories

The How To Get Incoming Links Site

The Silencer's Directory List

Best-Web-Directories.com

The You-You List

The ISEDN List

The Strongest Links List

Directory Archives

The Internet Search Engine Database

The Pheedster List

The Quanta List

Neighbourhood Links

These are the kind of links you should be specifically seeking, sites that are related by locality or by theme.

Industry trade associations and any related organisations.

These are straight-forward, assuming you're a member in good standing, many should have no problem in giving you a link in return.

Information sites about your industry.

Does your industry have a history? Is there a related scientific aspect, or is it born of any specific contemporary social phenomenon? No doubt there'll be learned essays on the web somewhere, links to them, perhaps even with brief excerpts (bearing copyrights in mind of course) will increase your standing in the engines' eyes.

Your suppliers.

No doubt they'll also be pleased to reciprocate.

Sites that sell products/services relating to yours, but not in direct competition.

If you sell widgets, then a link to a reputable company manufacturing widget grease might be a good idea. It would, of course, be a good incentive for them to link back to you.

It's a sad thing to say, but we have to bear in mind that we live in litigious times. It might be as well to have, tucked away in some discreet but available corner, brief mention that while you are happy for your visitors' convenience to link to So-and-So's site linking to them does not constitute endorsement of their products or their service and neither are you to be held liable for any consequence arising from their use etc.
I would that this were not the case.
But there you are.

Blog Comment Links

A number of people in your industry will have blogs. Most blogs allow comment and some of them will allow Page Rank to pass through those comments. I wouldn't worry about that aspect of it, if you can comment with authority then interested parties should follow the links to your site which will bring you traffic anyway - no need to rank higher if you already have good traffic.

Article Links

Getting links from articles you've written and distributed can get you some excellent links. I had a PR7 (for those of you impressed by these things) from Chantelle, Celebrity, RocknRoll and The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. At the moment you can write complete rubbish and get accepted in too many places but my feeling is that the whole articles scene is going to tighten up soon and a lot of the smaller sites will go out of business. If you can write yourself, all well and good. If not, then you may want to consider hiring somebody who can. I have a page written myself on the subject of articles for seo and you may link to it here.

Forum Links

Many industries have forums. Find a forum, join it, fill in your profile (you'll see - this is an online form where you store your details) making sure you mention your website details and you configure your sig so that it links back to your site. This can be a little more complicated than it sounds, the code used is normally a variant on the standard html and it can be fiddly to get right. I copy and paste the example, if there is one, and then alter it as necessary. Then observe who is saying what and comment where you can. Do this often and once again do it because you know what you're talking about and can assist, that way again you'll get traffic to your site quite apart from any link benefits that may accrue.

Here's an example link for you;
http://www.v7n.com/forums/seo-forum/41216-seo-software-big-scam.html

see my post (Big Bill) just down the page a way there... my sig, or signature, has SEO UK as the anchor text. I decided that anchor text for myself. When you join a forum, you're invited to set up your own personal profile. You can include details like your date of birth, whereabouts you live, your age group, whether you want your posts to be accompanied by a picture of yourself, maybe, or perhaps a small picture or graphic you feel to be representative, known as an avatar. I use the Silver Surfer character from Marvel Comics, as you can see. Also, you're asked to set up a sig to accompany your posts. This is usually done by what they call BB code. My code, in this instance, looks like this

[URL=http://www.kruse.co.uk/]SEO UK[/URL]

Yours could be

[URL="http://www.example-keywords.com/"]Example Keywords[/URL]

If you do that around a few example keyword-related forums you'll get some useful back links and very likely some traffic too. Setting up your sig correctly can be tricky when you aren't familiar with the procedure, but now you know how to do it!

Keeping track of your links

You're going to need to keep a list of who you've applied to for links. I use an Access database for this but you Johnny-come-latelys have it easy (at least where directories are concerned) as there's now 123Promotion's custom-built Directory Submission Manager which is useful for all kind of things. This is linkbait par excellence - some of you might learn a lesson here.

Cutting to the chase... the quick guide to getting the basic links you need

Get your site in shape. See it validates, or near-as-dammit-validates, make sure each page has an individual title and description tag, and that it's navigable by the engines. Don't even think about the next step until you've made sure of those essentials. Then submit the site to the Yahoo Directory and Best of The Web. At the moment, Business.com looks good too.

Then you need to get links from authority sites. The tool I use to find these is SEO Elite and it does a whole lot more besides. It's an essential tool for the DIY SEO, I know Brad Callan is a marketer but he's put his skills to very good use here and come up with a product that I couldn't replace. Go get one;SEO Elite! To cut short the process described above to find sites using "Keyword add url" etc. I use the online Solo-SEO tool. Then there's the Real Link Finder. I use this to find blogs related to the terms I'm searching for. I've used quite a few similar programs and frankly, this is the best I've come across. Lastly, I'll use Link Diagnosis on the competitor sites, see if there's anything I've missed or if I get new linking ideas from seeing the same information but presented in a different manner. Also, you want to try Touchgraph to see who links to the people who link to the people who link to (ad infinitum) your competition. Very good for getting secondary and tertiary links or avenues of exploration that, otherwise, you'd quite possibly never think of.