Linking, How to make productive listings?

Again I'm a novice at this Linking, can anyone recommend some guides.

[Funky_will]

I have been told that linking is by far the best means of getting a top ranking. If any body can recommend some good guides to linking please let me know.

Again thanks to all at Webmasterworld, you've been a great help.

Will.

[edited by: engine at 6:12 pm (utc) on Sep. 21, 2003]
[edit reason] No urls, thanks. See TOS [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]

[ZeusGuy]

The Do's and Don'ts of Linking

1 ) Create your link directory to be tightly-Themed. DO NOT include listings unless they match the themes or subjects of your website.

2 ) Use proper logic and sense when choosing which websites to ask for a link. Do not link to junk sites or sites that are trying to trick the search engines. Only link to quality sites with quality content. Don't ask sites for a Reciprocal Link unless they have outgoing links or a link page.

3 ) Use good descriptive text and keyword phrases for the categories describing each Link Directory page. No more than 2 or 3 words.

4 ) Be sure the text words in the link pointing to you from your Link Partners, contains good keyword phrases that describe your web site.

5 ) Keep the directories clean of 404s or dead links

6 ) Keep your directory clean of 0 PageRank Google bar websites.

7 ) Follow these email guidelines:
If you are including websites in your Link Directory just because you want to send an send an email and possibly get a link, then you are spamming in mind and spirit. The webmaster who receives this kind of email is not a happy camper. This is spam. Remember the phrase reciprocal links? Please change it to Reciprocal Themed Links. This is important! Only send out reciprocal link requests to those websites that already have links on their websites AND are actively looking for more Link Partners. Send one email and if they don't want to trade links, DO NOT send them anymore requests that might bother them. Before you can send a reciprocal link request, you have to explore their web site, and decide if you want to include them in your link directory.

Good Luck :)
Jason

[dougs]

6) Don't worry too much about this. 3 reasons are the toolbar is sometimes lying, a 0 now can be a 7 next week, in the REAL world of the web people do link to PR0's.

Don't get caught up in this too much.

Dougs

[nakulgoyal]

A growing number of search engines use link popularity in their ranking algorithms. Google uses it as its most important factor in ranking sites. HotBot, AltaVista, MSN, Inktomi, and others also use link popularity in their formulas. Eventually every major engine will use link popularity, so developing and maintaining it are essential to your search engine placement.

Link popularity can do a lot for your site. Not only will many search engines rank you higher, but links from other sites will also drive more traffic to you.

Link popularity is much more than a measure of how many links point to a site. Search engines use far more sophisticated formulas to gauge how popular sites are. In general, however, link popularity is measured by the following factors:

1. Number of Links - The more, the better. Although lots of irrelevant links are less effective than a few relevant ones, they're better than nothing. Inktomi, a company that provides search results to engines like HotBot, still values the number of links more than anything else.

2. Link text - The text used to describe a link can also affect your rankings. These three links all point to the same URL but use different text:

Yourwebsite.com
Your Keywords
Click here

Search engines' spiders figure that any words other sites use to describe your site are particularly relevant. So, if lots of sites linking to you use keywords in their link text, search engines will boost your ranking for those keywords.

[clearvision]

Hello Everyone. I don't post much, but wanted to add my 2cents to this topic.

What is to be said for sites that have only 3 links back and they come up ranking #1 in 8-10 of their most popular keywords? As they were saying above it can't all be about links... alot of it is appropriate "themed content" text on an adequate number of pages.

Some thoughts: If you request recip. links from a high PR site, be sure the page you are offering for their link is of equal or greater value. Also, be sure you don't have 100 other links all on the same page. It is like saying "we will just add you to the farm!" If they will get lost in your link structure, with no click payback, it is like offering them nothing.

Thanks for allowing a voice!

[instand1]

The easiest and cleanest way to get links is: Submit to directories. Not all of them are as difficult to get in as dmoz is, at least recently...

If the directory is about your theme: Then it will be very good, even if the PR is low. If you have the choice of several categories (matching with your theme), take the one with higher PR and less links on it. (I would advise all directory editors to make more pages with more specialized sub-categories. However, take care that the PR of the sub-category pages does not get too low. Good sitemaps with less than 100 links can take care of that.)

[killroy]

I'd just like to add that I don't agree you should only communicate with sites that already have some linking in place. I usually find sites without any linking to be much more interesting. they usually aren't SEOed t ohell and back and also often contain quality, non-profit info, perfectly complimentary to my own sites. And more often then not they are happy to link if my site is on topic and high quality. I hate seeign my site burried somewhere on a page with 20-200 other links-

SN