What so great about it?

As it’s regularly asked question and thought it might be worth putting together a page to define RSS and hopefully shed some light on the topic.

Wanna to keep up to date with the latest posts on Djarot.com?

We have a number of ways that you can subscribe to this site and receive updates. The main one that our readers use is our RSS feed. But what is RSS?

What the heck is RSS?

RSS is a technology that is being used by millions of web users around the world to keep track of their favorite websites.

In the ‘old days’ of the web to keep track of updates on a website you had to ‘bookmark’ websites in your browser and manually return to them on a regular basis to see what had been added.

The problems with bookmarking

1. You as the web surfer had to do all the work
2. It can get complicated when you are trying to track many websites at once
3. You miss information when you forget to check your bookmarks
4. You end up seeing the same information over and over again on sites that don’t update very often

Well, RSS Changes Everything

What if you could tell a website to let you know every time that they update? In a sense, this is what RSS does for you.

RSS flips things around a little and is a technology that provides you with a method of getting relevant and up to date information sent to you for you to read in your own time. It saves you time and helps you to get the information you want quickly after it was published.

RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’. Many people describe it as a ‘news feed’ that you subscribe to.

I find the ’subscription’ description helpful. It’s like subscribing to a magazine that is delivered to you periodically but instead of it coming in your physical mail box each month when the magazine is published it is delivered to your ‘RSS Reader’ every time your favorite website updates.

How RSS actually technically works is probably a lesson for another day but the key today is for you to understand why it’s good and how to use it.

Let me say right up front that I’m not the most technically savvy guy going around – but even I can use RSS. At first I found it a little strange to make the change from bookmarking to RSS but I found that when I started that I just couldn’t stop.

How to Use RSS

Get an RSS Reader – The first thing you’ll want to do if you’re getting into reading sites via RSS is to hook yourself up with an RSS Feed Reader.

There are many feed readers going around with a variety of approaches and features – however a good place to start is with a couple of free and easy to use web based ones like Google Reader and Bloglines. Either one will do if you’re starting out (I use Google’s Reader) – as I say there are many others to choose from but to get started either of these are fairly easy to use and will help you work out the basics of RSS.

Both of these feed readers work a little like email. As you subscribe to feeds you’ll see that unread entries from the sites you’re tracking will be marked as bold. As you click on them you’ll see the latest update and can read it right there in the feed reader. You are given the option to click through to the actual site or move onto the next unread item – marking the last one as ‘read’.

The best way to learn how to use either Google Reader or Bloglines is to simply subscribe to some feeds and give it a go. Both have helpful help sections to get you up and running.

Note: other options to tracking websites that you might already be familiar with include using pages like MyYahoo, MyGoogle and MyMSN.

Find Some Feeds to Subscribe to – there are two places to look for a site’s feed:

1. On the Site
2. In Your Browser

On Site Subscription
Over the last few years you may have noticed a lot of little buttons and widgets appearing on your favorite sites and blogs. Little orange buttons, ‘counters’ with how many ‘readers a blog has, links called RSS, XML, ATOM and many more.

They come in all shapes and sizes. Here are a few you might have seen :

There are plenty more – but any time you see any of these buttons or anything like them it means that the site you are viewing almost certainly has a feed that you can subscribe to. In most cases it’s as simple as either copying and pasting the link associated with the button into your RSS Reader or clicking the button and following the instructions to subscribe using the feed reader of your choice.

Browser Subscription

Many internet browsers now have the ability to find and subscribe to RSS feeds built right into them.

When you surf to a site you can usually tell if it has an RSS feed by looking in the right hand side of address bar where you type in the site’s URL.

Here’s how it looks for Djarot.com when you’re using Firefox :

See the little orange icon on the right hand side? Click that and you’ll be locating Djarot.com’s RSS feed.

Using Safari Browser it is a blue RSS icon :

Other modern browsers will have similar icons.

To quickly and easily subscribe by clicking these icons you’ll want to set up your browser to do it with your feed reader of choice as by default they will probably subscribe you using the in-browser reader. You can do this by going to the ‘preferences’ to your browser and choosing ‘Google Reader’ or ‘Bloglines’ etc as your feed reader.

Once you’ve done this and have subscribed to a few feeds you’ll begin to see unread items in your Feed Reader and you can start reading.

Don’t want to Use an RSS Reader? Email is an Option

If the above explanation all just seems a little too complicated for you then please don’t worry. Many sites also enable you to subscribe to RSS feeds via a more familiar medium – Email.

Here at Djarot.com we know that not everyone is into the RSS thing so at the top of our right hand sidebar there is a field where you can enter your email address and get a daily email with a summary of our latest posts. You can unsubscribe at any time and your email will be kept private and not used for any other purposes than to send these daily updates.

There you have it. Yeah, that’s what RSS all about. Cool huh!
Uh huh, it is.

Busby SEO Challenge is a Worldcup SEO contest created by Busby Websolutions.com. It started from June 1st 2008, ended in August 31, 2008. The keyword is busby seo challenge.
You ‘ve all know about an SEO challenge right? It’s a contest to win the first place of search engine position result, in a challenged keyword.

Rules

1. Start date is 1st June 2008, 12:00 midday, Perth, Western australia at which point the phrase will be posted on the Busby website.
2. End date of 31st august 2008, 12:00 midday, Perth, Western australia.
3. Only ethical SEO techniques may be engaged and the judges reserve the right to review the techniques engaged by the winner to ensure they comply.
4. No pornography, no discrimination and no illegal behaviour is permitted.
5. The competition is only open to domain and sub domain names that do not include the key phrase in any form.
6. Only registered entrants are eligible to compete and win the prize. Busby will maintain a list of entrants which can be view on the Entrants list page.
7. Registration is free, open to anyone of any age, gender, race and domicile and can only be made through Registration Process.
8. all entrants pages must have a visible link back to www.busbywebsolutions.com with the following text (including the hyperlink) in black arial 10 font: Participant in the Busby Web Solutions Search Engine Optimisation Challenge
9. Only one prize per person.
10. Employees, franchisees and licensees of Busby (and each of their family members) are eligible to enter but are not eligible to win any prizes.

The Prize

First Prize : $5000
Second Prize : $2000
Third Prize : $500

Support Indonesian Fighters!

I just browse around the Busby website, and found out there ‘re some Indonesian contestants joined already. Well, the well-known are Pogung177, RayofShadow, BrokenCode. There are others though, can’t list them all. Me? Nah.. I ‘m still ways far behind those legendary Seo Experts above. I ‘ll sit back and fasten my seat belt in this Supporters Seat.

So support them!

How to do that? → Give them backlinks in your site or blog.
How to give them backlinks? → Write a post about them and include their link, or, add their link in your blogroll.

They’re proud to be Indonesian, I ‘m proud to be Indonesian, We ‘re all should proud to be Indonesian! They’re all fighting for “Keharuman Nama bangsa Indonesia” (and the $5000 prize, ofcourse, LOL). We should all proud to be in the same nation as them!

So give them backlinks, and let us sing along together, ” Indonesia Tanah Airku.. Tanah Tumpah Darahku.. Disanalah Aku berdiri, Jadi Pandu Ibuku.. ” Let this Indonesian Pride exploded in our heart!

Good luck Brothers! We ‘re on your backs! I ‘m on your backs!

All we ever hear is numbers numbers numbers. So and So has this many links, we need this many links, how many links can you get us, buy 100’s of links cheap, get your link on 100 pages, argghh!!

The Numbers Game Died

The numbers game died a few years ago. There’s another line of thinking out there that you might not know about.
It’s not always “He with the most links” who wins the game. Often, “He with the right links” can win the game as well. Really, pretty often. He with the right 10 links can beat the guy with 1000 of the wrong links. I see this last one, all the time.

I’m sure most of us have looked at search results, and followed it up by checking the backlinks of the top 10 sites, and then scratched our heads and said “Uhm, why is that site in the top 10? It only has X amount of links! Doesn’t make sense.” I know I used to do that a lot. Upon closer inspection I’ll usually find that the sites with fewer backlinks that rank on the first page of search results have links that are more relevant, or more trusted, or seem to come from the “right places” (trusted industry related sites).

Sure, there’s different ways to play the game of SEO. Go for volume of links or go for Trusted links. But few go on the angle of “get the right links” and you might not need as many links as you thought you did.

Problem with the Volume War

See, a problem with going for volume is that you can’t stop. You and your competitors might be running in a dogs race always trying to get one more link than the other guys….you buy ‘em in volumes…you trade ‘em in volumes, you 3 way ‘em, you site-wide ‘em. You do what ever you can to get your total backlinks up, up, and away.

Problem with that is, is that you often get links from non-trusted sites (artificial backlink sites) or you get them on “Links” pages. Which this officially tossing a sign on your site saying “Google, kick me, I’m an artificial SEOd trying to artificially inflate my backlinks”. You get them for 200 directories, which another “Google kick me, I’m an artificial SEOd” sign.

And the more you get, the more you fall. The more you fall, the more you cry : “I must need more, more, more”. That’s when the more further you slip. It’s really a bad SEO trap that’s been laid out for you.

Getting trusted backlinks, Map the Neighborhood

Now, getting trusted backlinks is way better. Finding sites that have “Real backlinks” (not SEO’d sites), and getting your links on real pages is really cool. Winning by trust can be done, until the engines start to say “here’s the neighborhood, but you’re not in it” and wa-la, yea, you’re trusted too. Just not by your peers, and your rankings slip again.

I truely believe that the engines are trying to find the neighborhood. And that the numbers game is dying big time. So, remember that site that ranked high, yet had few backlinks?
Take a look at the drawing below:

Ok….see the dot I pointed with the red arrows? Those sites might not have the most backlinks, BUT they’re in the center of the activity. They got the right links, the hubs and the authorities. They don’t have a link from everyone, but They got the right links.

Getting a few of the right links, from the right places can be more valuable than getting 100 links from the wrong places.

( Jim Boykin, Internet marketing specialist, and CEO of We Build Pages )

Our Day 7 discussion is the Love for Lists. There’re 5 things you need to take a closer look about lists.
Here goes..

1. Build a “101 list”.

People tend to love lists. 101 lists, 10 easy tips, top 10 myths.. They seem to drive the most traffic.
These get Dugg all the time, and often become “authority documents”. People can’t resist linking to these .

2. Create a “10 easy tips” articles.

10 easy tips to improve your Alexa rank, 10 easy tips to help our pagerank boosted, 10 easy tips to help you gain more adsense earning. You know, that kinda stuff.
These are exceptionally easy to link to.

3. Create extensive resource lists for a specific topic.

Provide users some useful lists they might need in a particular area. List of Competitive Research Tools, list of Weblog Promotion Tools, list of SEO and Web Development Sales Tools, and stuff.

4. Create a list of the top 10 myths for a specific category.

Ever heard a myth? Or have heard some myths? List them, sort them, create a top 10 or top 5 or top whatever. Chosen category is yours to choose. Make sure it still the same as your site ‘s niche.

5. Create a list of gurus/experts.

If you impress the people listed well enough, or find a way to make your project look somewhat official, the gurus may end up linking to your site or saying thanks. (Sometimes flattery is the easiest way to strike up a good relationship with an “authority”.)

As you guys can see, I did it all the time, and is one of the greatest strategy of link building.

Here’s the Day 6 topic. “8 Things to Avoid!” Why should we? Well, some of us still practicing these 8 things below in this link building area. Bad things happened. Got penalized, hurt our site’s reputation and stuff.
Make sure to read each, so they won’t happened to yours.

Don’t participate in link popularity farms.

Don’t participate in link popularity farms. Don’t participate in programs that send out e-mails soliciting people to swap links (link spamming). Never place a link on your own site for the sole purpose of trading link popularity. Only place links that are valuable to your readers. Never try to get low-integrity Web sites to link to you. The link will actually hurt your site, not help it.

Create your link directory to be tightly themed. DO NOT include directory listings unless they match the themes or subjects of your Web site.

Tell people to LINK OFF.

Yes, it’s really odd. Turns out my marketing site was also known for wicker furniture and adult chat among other things. What?

Yes, a couple of sites thought it would be a good idea to link to me, just because I do well in the search engines. The problem was their links didn’t make sense as they were totally off topic. We both ended up getting penalized.

Usually you cannot make people remove incoming links, unless they are infringing on some kind of patent. But if you kindly explain that what they are doing is actually giving their site a penalty and hurting their findability, the links come down pretty fast. What they are doing is building the reputation of my page with what they say in their outgoing links. If what the links say do not match the topic of my page, the search engine gives the page containing the link a penalty.

Simply put:
Reputation is what a page is known for. What incoming links say the page is about. Topic is what the page is really about. The actual content of a page. The Reputation must match the Topic.

Stay out of “Bad Neighborhoods”

Be careful about who YOU link to. Stay out of “bad neighborhoods.” Don’t submit to FFA (Free for All) sites or join link exchange programs or farms. Using bulk submission programs won’t increase your link popularity either.

Never send out a “Blanket” e-mail

Never send out a “blanket” e-mail to hundreds of sites asking for a reciprocal link. Make each e-mail personal. Mention something that you like on their site. Give the URL for their links page. Discuss one of their products. Ask them a question. Do ANYTHING to make it clear that this is a personal request and not a mass-generated e-mail.

Don’t apply to sites that have hundreds of links on one page
Just like with the search engines, “If you’re not in the Top 10, you’re Cyber-Road Kill” ( Quote from Ginette Degner of Search Engine Services )

Don’t solicit sites that have their reciprocal links pages so deep in the site it’s difficult to find. If you have trouble finding the pages, so will the spiders.

Don’t solicit sites that have nothing to do with your business.
Keep your link directories clean of 404s or dead links.

Alrite, it’s the day 5 of our 30 Days Backlink 101, the in-depth discussion for the oh so called backlink. Fasten our seatbealt, coz we’re on our way to begin the discussion to this Day 5 Topic, “7 Ways to Be a Content Provider.”

How come, being a content provider could be such a way in link building subject. Well, read on. You ‘ll found out the why and the how pretty soon.

1. Provide the best resources on a particular topic

The bottom line is the easiest most obvious answer. It’s also the toughest to do. Give people a reason to link to you. Think about it. Sites get linked to for a reason: usually if they provide the most information or the best resources on a particular topic. Is there any reason WHY people should link to your site? How is your content? Even if you are not a writer, ask the writers if you can use their stuff. The answer is usually yes. The writer gets a link from you. And you get great content. Now people will start linking to you.

2. Providing an Asset

We all want to get on the top ranking sites listed in Google with few, if any outbound links. But what if they don’t have a links program in place? Here’s one way to get yourself linked from these choice sites. The top sites in a keyword category often don’t have a links program, but they do have an e-zine or content library on their site. So… Write a 300-500 word article on a topic of real interest to their target market and submit it to the Webmaster, as well as to other e-zines reaching the same target audience. Include in your article sig file (or credit box) your site link and an enticing description. In other words, give the site owner something they can use that delivers real value to their constituents.

By providing them with an asset, you’re reaching them in a new way that goes beyond a simple link request. A couple of notes:

• Don’t market in your article. Deliver real value instead.
• Before writing anything, subscribe to their e-zine first or go through their site content. Fill any gap you see create something new that they don’t already have on file.
• Market in your sig file only – and be sure to include your full site URL!

3. Become an “expert” in your particular field and write related articles.

Become an “expert” in your particular field and write related articles. Market those articles to online content providers. Be sure to include your byline at the end of your article, including your name, company name, and URL’s, and make sure to use appropriate keyword-containing link text. Coachmaria.com has this list of places that accept articles.

4. Write a testimonial for a product or service

Write a testimonial for a product or service that you particularly like in your topic area. Many companies will put testimonials throughout their site, with links back to the company providing the testimonial. (Robin Nobles of Search Engine Workshops, Online Search Engine Marketing Courses, and the TNT-Guides for Successful Web Sites.

5. Create teaser articles

Create teaser articles. See if you can get the first third of the article listed on their site with a keyword rich text link leading back to your site where they can find the rest of the article. Be sure you get the bio with an additional link to your homepage as well.

6. Offer something free

Offer something for free (such as a downloadable report), and then ask for a link back to your site if the person finds value in the free item. This works because you’re giving away something of value, and when people find it valuable, they’re likely to reciprocate.

7. Use emotional content

Use emotional content to give people a reason to link to you. A site built on a single theme may often benefit from using content which employs:

• unique theme-related information which appeals to the emotions
• original and appropriate humor
• content of extremely useful nature (references materials)
• original cartoon work
• animation that appeals to the senses or tells a short story
• something with an uncommon emotional element

Web sites that employ emotional elements often find that other sites with a similar theme will automatically link up to them just because of that emotional appeal.

Next is, Who Should You Target? Well, there’re 14 pointers from the seo pros, we could take a look at to.
You may need to pay more attention on each below, to get things in its proper way.

1. Inktomi’s link analysis program policy is that sites that link to its relevant topic category page on Yahoo! receive improved hub factor rankings because of Yahoo!’s popularity. A reciprocal link with Yahoo! is even more beneficial. Get your site listed with Yahoo!; it is easier today than before with the Business Express option.
( Detlev Johnson with The Ascendant Group )

2. While you’re at it, link back to the search engines. Does it help? I don’t know. But what if it does? What if the search engines check if your site leads back to them? What if they give 1% boost if you do? Would 1% matter if everyone else had 99% relevancy and you got an extra 1%? Hmmm, something to ponder. I always link every important site back to the major search engines and directories as a little thank you gesture.
( Michael Campbell with Internet Marketing Secrets )

3. Get a link in an appropriate category from an About.com Guidesite. The popularity of About and the extent of their quality links positions the network as a mandatory stop in a marketing campaign. Also, make sure to thoroughly annotate links on your Web site with targeted keyword phrases. This will aid Google and other engines in their partial indexing.
( Marshall Simmonds of About.com )

4. Your homepage is not the only part of your site that you can get links for. If you offer an online newsletter, there are directories just for newsletters you can get links from. If your site has multimedia files, there are multimedia search engines you can submit to. If you have other files, like .pdf files or even image files, there are search engines you can get links from.
( Eric Ward, President, NetPOST and URLwire )

5. Go to Google and search for “submit a link” AND “put your keyword phrase here.” You’ll be shown a list of sites that have link pages on them in your keyword area, and some of them may be worth writing to. “Submit a URL,” “add a URL,” etc., will work too.
( Elbert Flores of Position Research )

6. Think in terms of related fields as opposed to actual competition. Are there any organizations or associations connected with your industry? What about educational establishments? Publications? News sites? (Robin Nobles of Search Engine Workshops, Online Search Engine Marketing Courses, and the TNT-Guides for Successful Web Sites.
How many links do you need pointing to your site? More than your competition.
( Stephen Mahaney of Planet Ocean )

7. Find as many themed directories to submit to as possible. Make sure the directory is already in Google, has a good PR, and doesn’t use dynamic script in the address. Think about your theme. If you are a marketing firm, look for marketing directories/hubs/portals/vortals, do the same for business to business or b2b. If you are niched or focused on one aspect of marketing, then also look to that for your directories. You can probably stretch it to advertising directories. Be creative but stick with your theme. Once you are listed, it’s good to have a page on your site that you use to feed the spiders: a “Where we can be found on the Web” page. Link directly to the page you can be found on.
( Debra Paynter with Promotion Strategies )

8. Ask your upstream or downstream suppliers to link to you and you to them. If you are a wholesaler, you don’t sell to the public, only to retailers. List your top 10 retailers as a reward to them. Same with retailers, link to your main wholesalers, unless they have to remain a secret for some reason. Advertising agencies and printing shops can link to their customers and vice versa.
( Michael Campbell with Internet Marketing Secrets )

9. Paying for a link at Overture.com (formerly GoTo.com) that is not in the top five in the search results is, in most cases, a waste. Results of six and lower are not made available to the Overture partner sites, which collectively have millions more users than Overture does alone. Like AOL, for example. If the cost increase is just a few cents, get in the top five, and your site could be found across all of Overture’s partner sites rather than only at Overture.com.
( Eric Ward, President, NetPOST and URLwire )

10. Download Google’s Toolbar (http://toolbar.google.com) to ensure that inbound links are from decent sites, with a minimum of 3 out of 10 on the toolbar.
( Dixon Jones with Receptional )

11. Link quality simply means how well positioned are the pages that link to you. There are also boosts and penalties involved. If you are linked to by a spammy link farm, you get a penalty. If you are linked to by a directory like Yahoo, LookSmart, or Dmoz you get a boost. What about the hundreds of free directories? Yes, they all help. In my Vault, I list about 80 search resources. Dozens of them are directories. Take a few days and MANUALLY submit your site to every directory that will take it. I was surprised to find several directories for my own city. Regional directories can often supply plenty of incoming links. Every relevant link helps.
( Michael Campbell with Internet Marketing Secrets )

12. Go after authoritative sites. Look for vertical engines and directories in your topic areas. Look for popular sites. One or two authoritative sites linking back to you will do you more good than 1,000 irrelevant links. Visit Search Engine Guide and Beaucoup for a listing of vertical engines and directories.
( Robin Nobles of Search Engine Workshops, Online Search Engine Marketing Courses, and the TNT-Guides for Successful Web Sites. )

13. Work on building rapport with other Webmasters. By building up a “working rapport” with other local Webmasters or affiliates, there are lots of ways that you can mutually benefit by trading links with several similarly themed sites, which are non-competing. Once you start working with other Webmasters, it’s surprising what synergies may develop. Remember to give your very best to your fellow Webmasters as these relationships are win/win.
( John Alexander with Search Engine Workshops, TNT-Guides for Successful Web Sites, and Beyond-SEO ).

14. I am not a fan of reciprocal links unless they are complimentary. Portals and directories will naturally work better. My logic with outbound links is, “You have already lost the client for today, Dixon, so get a better product tomorrow.”)
( Dixon Jones with Receptional )

Strategy Number 1

1. First, build a content rich site, narrow in scope.
Say half a dozen high potential keywords, with a smattering of lessor important but still related keywords.

2. Then, contact other sites that have the same scope as yours does, and ask for a reciprocal link.
After you have already linked to them, of course!]. If you build a site that is content rich, informative, and above all else has unique content, then all your peers will beat a path to your door, asking you for a link!

3. Get your site listed at Yahoo
Yes, it does force you to yank out your wallet, but it IS one of the best links you can get. Do the research necessary to find the most appropriate category [which is where the Link Relevancy comes from], and get that title and description optimized!

4. Get into the ODP.
Do the same research as you did at Yahoo for the best category.

5. Find out which of the thousands of specialty SE’s and directories that your site is a good fit for, and submit to them.

6. After you are done with 1 – 5, build another content rich site.
And on this one, concentrate on your next batch of kw’s. Cross link the home pages. Repeat.

7. Even though blogging is all the rage these days, I think it will go the way of link farms in the not-too-distant future, especially if/when the SE’s determine that it is just another case of spamming.
We are staying away from it, and concentrating on the 6 tactics above.

8. Of much less importance is cross linking within each of your individual sites.
I have gotten away from heavy cross linking, relying instead on good site maps [which addresses spiderability, not link pop].

(Rocky Rawstern with 7th Wave)

Strategy Number 2

Like Links:

9. Identify useful linkages.

If you’re a Web developer, break your clients (or willing contacts from the industry) into relevant linked groups: e.g. realtors, travel and tourism, technology companies.

10. category-page.html.

Build a link list for each group (one for realtors, one for travel and tourism, etc.), plain html, listing a keyword-relevant title for each description which links to the site for each client, with one or two paragraphs about the site. Example: “Travel accommodations and resorts in Australia”

Save this page as say, travel-sites.html, and perhaps to remember where it lives easily, and make it easily updateable, save it in a directory like www.yourclientsite.com/accommodations/travel-sites.html

11. Make each of the pages different within each site.

Now apply your site template for each site in the list, to that raw html page, (in other words cut and paste the list into a blank version of one of your existing pages for each site and save it as /accommodations/travel-sites.html) so that you have different look, feel and byte size, for each of the pages built, in line with the look of each site. This will stop most SE’s viewing pages as duplicate content when in fact what you’re validly doing is provided useful related links to other resources on the Web.

12. Make a site-map.html.

Build a site map within every site in the above list, if you haven’t already. In each site, have the site map linking to every internal page, set out like the one above, with at least a one paragraph description of what is on the page, with relevant keywords, which is also useful to humans. Hyperlink the main keyword/phrase to the pages within your site. Also include a link to the above link page (/accommodations/travel-sites.html) which lists all the other related sites. Save the site map as something like site-map.html.

13. Make a link to the site map from each home page.

On your home (index/default) page include a link to the site-map.html page.

14. Submit to search engines.

Submit your home page to major SE’s if it hasn’t been submitted in a while. So now you have a link to a site map on your home page, with that site map listing one paragraph descriptions and hyperlinks to all the pages in your site, including your new accommodations/travel-sites.html (which now looks just like the rest of your pages in the site).

This simple 6-step process is a popularity and relevancy boost for ALL the sites you have on the travel-sites.html list. Firstly, from the home page on each site, SE spiders and humans now have access to relevant descriptive links to all pages in your site and other related sites. They have the addition of some useful “related resource” information within the site content using the travel-sites.html page. And most importantly, they have “x” more relevant sites as incoming links. If all the sites are full of valid and unique topic-related content, you’ve built a nice little interlinked network of sites for very little effort. And with a resubmission to the major SE’s of this new content, you should see some increased results within 3 months when checking link relevancy. (Carl Watney with Unearthed)

Complete Strategy 3

Begin a Link Exchange Campaign to create high quality content, high PageRank links to your site by utilizing the following steps, in order:

15. Create a links or resources page on your site.

16. Establish a list of at least 50 related but non-competing, high quality content sites
with a high Google PageRank that you would like to exchange links with by doing the following:

• 1. Download Google toolbar (http://toolbar.google.com) to be able to establish PageRank grading for the sites that come up in the following search results

  2. Do searches on Google for:

  - terms that will show search results displaying sites that relate to your own site, but are not direct competitors

  Check out these sites, one by one, beginning with the ones listed first in the search results, for quality content, non-competitiveness, and Web master’s email address, and note down in a list the sites that meet these criterion, recording as well the site’s title and description from the homepage source code

  - terms that will show search results displaying sites that directly compete with your own site

  - terms that will show search results displaying sites that directly compete with your own site

Beginning with the ones listed first in the Google search results, check out each site with a linking tool (e.g. of tool, go to http://chatologica.com.) Click on Web Site Popularity Check at the bottom of the page to establish what sites link to theirs, and make a list of these linking sites. Then check out each of these sites that are linked to your direct competitor for quality content, non-competitiveness, and Web master’s email address, and note down on the same list you began in b., the sites that meet these criterion, recording as well the site’s title and description from the homepage source code. (Chris Genge with 1st on the List Promotion Inc.)

Be very clear with your request for reciprocal linking. After you have thoroughly researched a potential site to ensure they are appropriate and actually do have links to other sites, consider the following:

- Start with a very brief description of your site’s content and how it relates to their site.

- Provide the exact URL of their page you think the link would be most beneficial. Show them that you’ve actually visited the site and given some thought to the link.

- Finally, give the HTML code for the link so the Webmaster can cut and paste it directly into his page code. That gives you some control over the link placement and lets you include your keywords into the link text.

(Terry Plank with the Academy of Web Specialists and Search Engine Marketing Consultants)

Creating the Letter

Take care in crafting your reciprocal links letter. Make sure it’s the best it can be before sending it out. Remember, you’re asking for a favor (a mutually beneficial favor, but a favor nonetheless), so be polite and respectful in your letter. Otherwise, you’ll get nowhere fast.
(Gil Sery with Search Engine Optimization Pros)

Create a “Link Exchange Letter,” requesting a link exchange with your site, to each of the sites you have noted in your list. Make sure you’ve come up with at least 50 good quality content, non-competitive sites with a decent PageRank score of their own to email.
(Chris Genge with 1st on the List Promotion Inc.)

Example of a Link Exchange Letter:

( – End of sample letter – )

The above example is for a non-reciprocal link request, and it resulted in a link being obtained for my client. It could be changed easily to make it a reciprocal link request by adding one sentence that says where you gave them a link. (Eric Ward, President, NetPOST and URLwire)

In search engine optimization, “off page” factors have become more and more important as they relate to rankings. In particular, solid link popularity can literally make or break a site with the search engines.

Before we go any further, what is “link popularity”?

In very simplistic terms, link popularity refers to the number and quality of the incoming links that are pointing to your site. These other sites consider your site important enough to link to. So, in the engine’s view, your site is considered important as well. What is meant by “link popularity” can get much more complex, which will be discussed further in this topic series.

However, one of the most difficult areas of SEO is building link popularity. Why?

Because the engines don’t want “artificially created” (or useless) links, so there are no easy ways to build link popularity. The days of link farms and huge link exchange programs are over. Try those strategies now and you can easily find yourself booted out of an engine.

Rather, the engines want links from authoritative sites, or links from sites that share the same focus as your site.

But besides the link popularity you gain by getting an authoritative site to link to you, you also gain additional visibility for your Web site. So, when working on building link popularity, don’t forget those two basic reasons for requesting links.

Direct Email Exchange Request

This is by far the oldest and best-known method of improving link popularity. Basically you email or contact the Webmaster of a site that is complementary but generally not competitive to your own. You ask them to link to your site while outlining the benefits of doing so. You would generally offer to link back to them in exchange for this courtesy. Be sure you have developed genuine content on your Web site of interest to the trading partner. Explain the advantages to them and to their visitors by providing a link to your content. Tell them where the link on your site will be or set the link up in advance with the stipulation that you’ll be glad to leave it there if they’ll add a link to you in kind. Take the time to look over their site and then suggest where a link to you might be appropriate. Most importantly, personalize your emails! You must distinguish yourself from all the spam they receive daily. If the link is particularly important to you, call them personally or write them a letter or send a fax to show them you’re serious.
(Brent Winters of First Place Software)

Here’s the simple means to find those good links :

Go to the major search engines. Search for your target keywords. Look at the pages that appear in the top results. Now visit those pages and ask the site owners if they will link to you. Not everyone will, especially sites that are extremely competitive with you. However, there will be non-competitive sites that will link to you — especially if you offer to link back. Why is this system good? By searching for your target keywords, you’ll find the pages that the search engines themselves are telling you are good, as evidenced by the fact that they rank well. Hence, links from these pages are more important — and important for the terms you are interested in — than links from other pages. (Danny Sullivan with Search Engine Watch)

SEARCHDAY NOTE: Search Engine Watch members have access to a long article by Danny explaining both link analysis and appropriate link building in depth.

When asking for a link:

• ALWAYS have a link already put on your own site BEFORE you ask for a link in return and give the location of the link. It’s harder to say no if you can provide the URL of where their link is.
• ALWAYS give them the exact link text to use, even going so far as to put it in HTML so they can just cut/paste it onto their page.
• MAKE SURE they actually have a links page!
• GIVE THEM as much information as needed in order to make it easy for them to link to you. If they have a big site that’s divided into sections, give them the exact URL of where your site would fit in. Then, provide the HTML for the link to your site.

(Robin Nobles of the Academy of Web Specialists and Search Engine Workshops)

Use voice instead of email to reciprocate and try contacting people by voice instead of email.
More people are inclined to respond to your request when you introduce yourself by phone and let them know that you were visiting their site. Ask permission to link to their site. In return, you might state that a link back is appreciated but not required. Assuming they say yes, then you simply link up to them and confirm by email once you have confirmed. Warm personal voice contact goes a lot further than a cold email or even a warm email letter. (John Alexander with Beyond-SEO and Search Engine Workshops)

Pre-qualify the people you solicit for reciprocal links.
They must have links from other sites like yours, and they must have the ability to make changes to their own site. If they don’t respond to your solicitation, at most send ONE second request. Otherwise move on and take their site off of yours. Send a thank you note if they give you a reciprocal link. (Gary Woods with Beautiful Santa Barbara Real Estate)

Search for sites that rank high for search terms that are important to you
Then look through the search results for sites that do not compete with you. These sites should be high on your list of link targets. Piggy back on their high ranking. (Eric Ward, President, NetPOST and URLwire)

Check the link popularity of your competitors

And find out who are linking to them. Contact those Web sites, and ask them to link to you in return for a reciprocal link. (Robin Nobles of the Academy of Web Specialists and Search Engine Workshops)

Search the sites of the people who have linked to you for other possible link partners. (Gary Woods with Beautiful Santa Barbara Real Estate)

Find URLs that are currently linking to one or more of your pages and ask the appropriate Webmaster if they might also find value in other pages on your site (that you might suggest). (Mike Adams, the Email Doctor)

Manually search for Web sites that have the same theme as your Web site.
When requesting a link, make sure to highlight what your site has to offer their visitors and why they should link to it. A compelling case will increase your success. (Becky Thompson with Inter@ctivate Inc.)

Review any Web site to which you want to link *before* writing to its Webmaster asking for a link.

Like all SEO, do it manually. Automating the task is asking for trouble, especially if you haven’t reviewed the site before asking for the link. (Gil Sery with Search Engine Optimization Pros)

If someone says they can not or do not wish to link to your site, I would still ask their permission to link to them. Instead of sending them a confirmation, try sending them a pleasant thank you for permission to link to their Web site. Don’t be surprised if they DO link back. (John Alexander with Beyond-SEO and Search Engine Workshops)

If you’ve moved your site and you’re asking those who have linked to you to change to your new URL, give them as much information as possible. I have over 300 pages on my personal site, but I still have people who will write and tell me to change their link to: http://www.mynewwebsite.com. Yet, they don’t tell me their old URL (so I can easily do a search), and they don’t tell me which of those 300 pages their link exists on. Do I have the time to dig through those 300 pages to find their old link? (Robin Nobles of theAcademy of Web Specialists and Search Engine Workshops)