Preparing Your Website for the New Search Engine Ranking System

Jan 2
22:11

2024

Shelley Lowery

Shelley Lowery

  • Share this article on Facebook
  • Share this article on Twitter
  • Share this article on Linkedin

In the past month, significant alterations have been made to the way websites are ranked by search engines. A new ranking system has been adopted by major search engines like Alta Vista, Excite, Google, Lycos, and the search component of Yahoo. This system ranks sites based on the number and quality of links pointing to them. This change could significantly impact the effectiveness of current techniques used to achieve high rankings.

mediaimage

The Importance of Quality Links

The new ranking system not only considers keyword relevancy,Preparing Your Website for the New Search Engine Ranking System Articles meta tags, title, and text, but also the overall popularity of the website. Establishing quality links to a website has always been an effective way to build traffic, but now it has become a necessity. By obtaining a few links from high-traffic websites, your traffic will increase considerably. The more high-traffic links you receive, the more traffic you will receive and the higher your website will be ranked in the search engines.

If you have a quality website, chances are you're already being linked to and don't even realize it. That's a great starting point, but you must build on that by finding targeted websites that may be interested in exchanging links with you. A targeted website will have similar content to yours, but will not be in competition.

How to Find Potential Link Partners

One way to find these websites is to visit a search engine and type in one of your keywords. Visit some of the top-ranking sites and gather information such as the owner's name, email address, and a little bit about the website. Contact the owner personally and discuss a link exchange with them. Mention the owner's name, website, and what you liked about his site. In addition, tell him why you think a link exchange will benefit both of you and a little bit about your website.

Other Ways to Obtain Links

Requesting a link exchange is not the only way you can obtain links to your website. Here are some additional ways:

  • Ask Your Visitors to Link to You: Make linking to you as easy as possible. Create a page on your website that includes your banners and text link descriptions. Put a link to this page on your main page that says "Link to Us."
  • Provide a Valuable Service: Give your visitors a reason to link to your website. If you provide a valuable service, you can be sure your visitors will tell their visitors, and so on. Word of mouth is one of the best forms of free advertising.
  • Give Away Free Ebooks: Everyone loves getting something of value for nothing. Create a free ebook and allow it to be freely distributed. Provide complete instructions in regard to linking to your website, including a description of your ebook.
  • Write Articles: Write an article and allow it to be freely published. With each article you write, you are entitled to include your author bylines. These bylines are nothing more than an advertisement for you, your products or services, and your website. Many website owners will publish articles on their website and include live links to the author's website.

About 80% of all website traffic originates from the search engines. It is well worth your time and effort to spend some time developing as many links to your website as possible. Not only will these links bring you additional traffic, but you'll increase your ranking at the search engines as well.

Supporting Your Favorite Websites

Websites come and go each day on the Internet. If you visit a website and find it to be a great resource, show your support for that website by giving them a link. In addition, tell your ezine subscribers about them. By supporting your favorite websites, you can show your appreciation for all of the hours and hours of hard work that goes into developing the website and help ensure it will be there the next time you visit. Without your support, many of your favorite websites may not be there in the future.