Secrets of Reciprocal Linking Strategy

Whether you're new to the internet or a seasoned online marketer,
developing a plan to increase the number of reciprocal links back
to your website can help you bring more highly targeted traffic to
your website as well as improve your ranking in the search engines.

Link popularity is becoming an increasing important criteria for
better search engine ranking. So the better your popularity, the
better your ranking. You may be thinking that you'll loose traffic
to your website if you link to other websites. Sure, that can and
will happen, but you should gain as many or more NEW visitors
that you not have otherwise visited your site.

Keep in mind that in addition to more visitors via linking that another
big benefit here is a potential increase in your websites' Search
Engine positioning. As an online business owner you realize that
their are a variety of advertising and web promotiontechniques you
have available to you. Linking to other websites is a well know but
little used tool that can produce significant traffic for your website
as long as it is done properly.

Understanding how to link to other sites is as important as any
advertising you do. The time and energy you put into developing
links to your business can pay off for weeks, months, even
years to come!

**First Rule of Linking**

"Know Thy Self" or at least know what you want to accomplish
on line, whether it's selling products or services of your own or
as an affiliate, distributing or disseminating information on the
Internet or even just having your own personal webpages.

Unfortunately what I see all of the time are people who end up
jumping around from one program, or provider or afiiliate program
after the other without any focus on what exactly they want to
accomplish, other than make money online, etc.

Now, not later, is the time to look into exactly what you want
your website focus to be. Decide what primary category(s) your
website will fit into and what secondary or peripheral sites will
compliment it. Once you've decided your focus you'll be well
on your way to using reciprocal linking strategies successfully.

**Second Rule of Linking**

"Know What Kind of Websites Will Compliment Yours". There's
been a lot written about how to choose websites to link to. But
I think the one thing that can often be overlooked is the fact that
people all around the world have diverse interests and although
they may be looking for specific information, etc on one day
doesn't eliminate them from clicking on a link to a website that
is totally different from what they wanted to look at yesterday.
They may not be targeted to your website but their interest
brought them to you.

You would be surprised to find the information you may be
searching for on a website that compliments yours but does
not directly compete with you. It happens all of the time.
This is where your list of primary and secondary categories
for your website will help you decide what webmasters you
want to contact to set a reciprocal link with.

**Third Rule of Linking"

"Know who is Linking to Your Website". You can do this very
easily by going online to www.linkpopularity.com It's FREE.
There's no strings attached and it's quick and easy. Usually
it doesn't take more than 2-3 minutes to check your website
links. You may find that you have several links back to you
that you didn't know about, some you like and maybe one or
two you don't. The next thing you might want to do to help
you narrow your focus is to view a comparison of your site's
link popularity to your competitors and other popular websites
at http://64.232.113.195/publinkpop/.

**Enough With The Rules Already**

Before you go contacting webmasters, now would be a good
time to set up your Main Links page on your website. On this
page you are going to describe how a webmaster can add their
link to your Links Pages. You can call this Favorite Links,
Personal Links or something similar. Basically anything that
lets visitors know you have a Quality links page available.

Your Main Links Page should have several categories for
visitors to choose from. Each category should link to a
separate page on your site where the category links can
be viewed. Remember to set each link so that it opens in
a new window when a visitor clicks on it because you don't
want them leaving your site altogether and forget where they
started out from.

On this page you'll invite your visitors to apply for the privelege
of linking to you. Why should they have to apply? Because
you want to screen their website to be sure it doesn't directly
compete with yours and that it also compliments yours in
some way. You can see my links page at www.cashway.com .
Just click on the Resource Links at the top of the page.

You also want to indicate to your visitors that a reciprocal link
back from their website is a requirement for obtaining a link
on this page. Those who are serious about Reciprocal Linking
will understand and be willing to place a link on their page.

Why not just use a FFA website and link to 1,000's or millions
of webpages?

FFA pages play a small role in your advertising but they
shouldn't be included in a Reciprocal Linking strategy because
people rarely see the FFA sites or their messages and the
Search Engines don't recognize them in their criteria for
determining link popularity. It's best to stay away from them
as a way to develop reciprocal links for your website.

**Contacting Webmasters**

Again the best webmasters to contact are the ones
whose websites compliment yours in some way. How
do you find the sites and contact the webmasters?

The simplest way is to go to one of the major search engines,
enter in the terms that describes websites you want to link
to and let the search engine bring up the lists for you. You
can get several hundred email address just by visiting
these sites and contacting the webmaster.

It is always best to send a short email to the webmaster
introducing yourself and stating the reason you're contacting
them. You may want to give the information for them to add
your link to their Link Page or simply start a dialog to see
if there is a mutual interest in linking.

For best results I like to find websites that compliment mine,
then add them to an appropriate link page and then send
the website owner a personal email telling them I liked their
site, have added it to my Quality Links page and ask if they
would link back to my website. I also like to tell them of
some of the benefits of Reciprocal Linking and even go as
far as helping them set up their own page if they don't have
a good quality links page. Some willlink back to you and
some won't. If they don't simply delete the link.

Implementing a reciprocal linking strategy does take time
and effort, but it is easily manageable. Combined with an
overall web promotion strategy it can be a powerful way
for you to develop relevant, targeted traffic to your web
pages as well as help to increase your websites overall
position in the search engines.