Website
promotion by linking to other websites.
Website
Value
A
new website has no worth or value until someone knows that it exists.
It
doesn't matter whether the site is a new creation costing less than
$20.00 or is a premium domain purchased from one of the many after
market domain name businesses....the site itself is still
worthless.
The
owner of the site may have invested in design, hosting, an email
marketing campaign or even paid for search engine
optimization....yet, the site is still worthless. Value is created by
attracting visitors and until that happens the site is still
worthless.
Once
the site has visits from more than accidental web surfers it starts
to gain merit, recognition and value. A website without promotion may
never be found. Google, MSN and Yahoo do
not use a random name search to locate new websites. The hundreds of
other less frequented search engines don't either.
The
effective ways to promote a website are pro active submission to
search engines and by more time consuming means such as an email
campaign. You could hire a billboard on a busy street, but the cost
might be better spent.
Linking
The
fastest and most effective way of promoting a website is by linking
to existing sites in the hope that visitors to those sites will see
your site's name and click on a link. This is perhaps what the
Internet was intended
to be: a collection
of computers with information and links to each other.
Evolution
has created the situation where huge site numbers require a dedicated
system for the exchange of links. The aim is still the same....”You
ask one site to send visitors to your site”.
Human
nature dictates ( in most cases ) that one good turn deserves
another, so the process has now matured to “I will send my visitors
to your site if you send your visitors to mine”.
It
is hard to imagine CNN or The Washington Post publishing a
recommendation to visit www.DiamondValleyFaucets.com. The real world
situation is that a plumbing related business will send visitors to
each other for mutual gain.
How
does this help a new website.
Left
alone without promotion, we have seen that a new site will not be
found.
Submitting
the site to search engines will let them know that the site exists
but it will not help to create traffic because the site is still
worthless... no traffic equals no value.
Google
at least, may not even grant your new site the privilege of official
recognition. In the case of one of my sites, Google cached the site
six weeks before it appeared in a search. Even then, the appearance
was uninspiring; Search Result Page 789 with around 10 per page was
not a good beginning.
I
instinctively contemplated bagging Google
for withholding my new site from the index, but on reflection, the
probation period is a fair thing. Visitors to Google, MSN & Yahoo
want a valuable answer to a query. A new site without value is not
something Google and the others want to present as a valid answer to
a search.
Search
engine operators run a business. It is bad for any business to
recommend a dud. Sites often close after a few weeks, others may
change focus or move from faucets to carpentry. Search engine
businesses therefore let the Internet itself sort out the “wheat
from the chaff”. As we have seen a web site without traffic has no
value. Google uses the expression “democracy of the Web”to
describe the website validation process.
The
Internet creates website value by recognizing
the worth of the content of new websites. It is not unlike a beauty
contest. “Here I am look at me.” The reality is that Miss Potato
Head will not get many votes.
The
Internet is the same.
Website owners have
to present themselves to the panel of judges. Potential link partners
are the judges.
Presenting
a website.
New
websites have to been seen. The first “beauty pageant” is the
linking scene. The website owner has to ask other websites ( voters )
to inspect the “wares” with a view to deciding whether or not the
site is worth recommending to visitors.
The
new site owner can send a polite email to CNN asking for a
recommendation. The reply may not be overly encouraging, but a
similar letter to a website with a similar subject or product may
elicit agreement to provide a link to the new site.
After
a time, the new site may have accumulated many links to and from
related product websites. It is then that Google, MSN & Yahoo
will discover that the new site is recommended by other sites.
Those
links have therefore created traffic ( value ) as well as the
attention of the search engines. The search engine computers will
determine that the new site has been recommended. Therefore it has
value. It has passed the “Internet Beauty Pageant”. Instead of
being presented on Google search page 789 it will appear above a lot of
“Miss Potatoes Heads” on say page 341. This
is still not good, but the new site is now “in the game”.
Linking
Techniques.
There
are many businesses that operate what are called “Link Exchanges”.
These
sites use data bases to make lists of sites that do or will later pay
to present them as potential linking partners in particular
industries. Link Exchanges will have travel sites, real estate sites,
in fact any type of site on their pages in groups.
The
owners of websites pay a monthly fee for
unlimited access to the list or are given free membership ( as bait )
granting access to just a few per day. Sites wanting links, send out
emails via the exchange to potential link partners. After a time, the
new websites of the world may each have hundreds or thousands of
links.
Linking
to avoid
Some
sites do not require a selection process. For a fee, the site
arranges for a thousand instant links in return for the new site
owner placing a thousand unselected website links on its pages.
The
result is that www.DiamondValleyFaucets.com
has links on its pages to brides from the Philippines.
Google,
MSN & Yahoo may decide that those links are worthless and are not
genuine recommendations. The result is that it sends your website
back to search result page 789 or worse....deletes it from the
index...!
Had
the link to a Philippine bride site been on
a matchmaking website it would have
been considered as relevant and of value.....and therefore a valid
link or vote.
Linking
Advice
Create value for your site by
promoting it. Use emails to selected related
industry websites to seek links and recommendations.
Those
links will send traffic to you one day & those links will make
the search engines notice you faster than if you do nothing.
Avoid
the temptation of a thousand free links. There is a price. Your site
will lose credibility and probably search result demotion.
Go
to a legitimate link exchange. These sites will charge for their
services as the complex computer programs they create
cost a lot of money and staff charges are also a factor that makes it
essential to charge a fee.
One
way to test the worth of a link exchange is to look at its Alexa rank
and its Google Page Rank. If a site gets a lot of traffic, but is a
PR 0 then it is a good guide that the search engines are not happy
about some aspect of the business.
Write
an email to each Link Exchange and ask the operator to tell you why
you should join their service.
Finally
Without
traffic, a website is worthless. Linking with other sites will create
value by a selection process. Those sites that pass a validity test
will get a link and a link means a visitor sooner or later.
Linking
takes time but it is effective and indispensable.
If
you would like help with a link exchange recommendation
or if you wish to comment on website value, linking or search engine
optimization, send an email to Greg Rogers editor@FAXTS.com
This article may
be reproduced with email link intact.
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