10 Mistakes to Avoid When Setting Up a Link Directory
When adding a link directory to a web site there are important mistakes to avoid, or else you'll be storing up big problems for later on. I know, because I made some of these mistakes and didn't have anyone to offer any advice or tell me what I'm about to tell you.
Don't create a directory page with all your links on one page. You should have no more than 30 - 40 links to a page. The reason is that some sites will not link to you if a page you put their link on has too many links, because it dilutes the value of the link to them. To understand why, you need to know about Google Page Rank and how it's passed to another site from your link page. That's a subject too lengthy for this topic. Plan your link directory on paper first and decide what names you are going to give each category in your link directory. Make the names fit with the theme of your site and try to avoid adding categories which are nothing to do with what your site is about.
For example if your site is about Making Candles and Candle Accessories, don't have link categories for Computers & Games, or Search Engine Optimization etc. The reason is that if you want your site to achieve a good ranking with the search engines your site should be built tightly around your theme, in this example Candles. Only link to web sites that relate to your site theme and have something to offer your visitors. This refers to item 2. If you don't have categories for unrelated topics, you'll be less tempted to link to them because you don't have a category to put them in. Choose names for link categories that you want to use now and in the future, because you can't easily change them later on. Once the pages are created by your link manager software, it will use the category names you give it. So if you have a category called "Candle Power" it will create an html page called Candle-Power.html or something similar, using your category name. Once this page is found and indexed by the search engines, in time it will gain Page Rank.
If later, you change the category name to "Candle Lights" the link manager software will create a new page called Candle-Lights.html and you will lose the page rank you had gained for the earlier page. If your link partners linked to you because the page you put them on had a good page rank, renaming the page will cause this page rank to fall to zero. As a result your link partners may drop the link they have back to you, which is not what you ever want to happen. Avoid having sub-categories or sub sub-categories in your directory from your main category pages. The reason for this is again to do with how search engines will rank your directory pages. If your directory pages are more than two levels or two clicks away from your main index or home page they will either not be indexed by some search engines, or if they are indexed they will achieve a lower ranking. Some web sites will not link to you if the page you are to put the link on is more than 2 clicks away from your home page because these webmasters know what I've just told you. Ensure each page of your link directory has a link back to your home page.
Once again the reason for this is to do with how search engines will rank your directory pages, so make sure these links are in place. Don't be obsessed at linking only to web sites that have a good ranking with the search engines. Look first at whether the site has anything to offer your visitors. If it has poor or unrelated content don't link to it. If it has good related content that compliments your own content but has zero or low page rank, consider linking to it. Later on you may be glad you provided a link, when it's page rank improves. Don't use link directory software that doesn't automatically check links to your web site are still present on the other sites. Doing link checking manually can be tedious and you have to remember to do it. Software that you can set a schedule to check links and automatically send out emails to webmasters when links are not found will save you a lot of time. Link management software that will automatically suspend links and delete them if they are repeatedly not found is an added bonus. Don't use standard templates that come with any link manager, link directory management software. You need to modify these templates to match the look and design of your own web site. This requires you know something about editing a web page using an HTML editor. Also don't use the standard email templates, personalize them in some way, even if it's only to add your name. Don't assume you're finished once you've set up your link directory and done all the things I've said. You must test and retest every aspect to ensure everything is working properly, before visitors arrive.
This means making an add a link request, as if you were a visitor to your own web site. Setting up test links and making sure these links are being checked by the software so it detects when links are removed or defective. Making sure it sends out email notices correctly and check the formatting is correct when they are received. You should also check you can make backups of your link directory database and be able to restore it in the event of a problem.Tony Simpson, Has been doing Web Site Design, Promotion and Optimization for 5 years. He provides advice, product reviews and products at Web Page Add Ons to Make Automation of Your Web Site Work for You.
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Free Traffic Course - Day 2
This is the 2nd day of "Free Traffic Course" and it will explain how you can save much time and efforts on looking for the targeted joint-venture partners and affiliates for your web site.
Viral Marketing Technique Creates a Chain Reaction with One-Time Action!
Suddenly your site's traffic multiplies. You get "Money Waiting" emails from your Payment Processor; more sales than you can handle. Your downline increases radically - potential entrepreneurs join your sales force.
3 Proven Free Marketing Methods Guaranteed To Improve Your Website Traffic
Why would you pay for advertising if you could just get it for free? Well, the truth be told, most free advertising methods are mostly alot of hype. You often get what you pay for: nothing! Even the good free methods are often misunderstood & not used to their maximum benefit.
Site Link Popularity (Site Poularity)
Just imagine ... your website having high PageRank and a TON of high quality links in. Impossible?
Link Exchanges
Should link exchanges be used? What are link exchanges? Do they really work? These are just a few questions that most webmasters come across at a link exchange. In this article I will try to help you understand link exchanges and if they truly work like some say.
You Dont Have TIME to Sit and Wonder When The Traffic Will Come!
There is so incredibly MUCH you can do to successfully promote your website starting in just a few minutes. In fact, the steps I will give you below can be repeated DAILY for 30 days, an hour a day, for 30 hours of hard-core, tested, proven, traffic-nabbing, sales-producing, profit-driving, marketers' bliss.
5 Tips For Increased Website Traffic
There are lots of ways to get traffic to yourwebsite however most people are interested in gettingthe most traffic for the least amount of money, preferably for free.
Traffic Genereation: The Number One Skill That Will Generate Cash Flow (Part 2 of 3)
If you're feeling a bit of confusion and frustration about how to get visitors to your website and generate more sales, I know exactly how you feel. I felt the same way until I stopped listening to every "big time" marketer that came along with the latest traffic generating trick.
Keeping Track of Your Link Exchanges
All of us want to increase traffic to our web sites. It helps our search engine rankings, and provides us with potential new customers. One of the best, and certainly least expensive, ways to do that is by exchanging links with sites similar to our own. However, you don't have to accumulate very many links before it becomes difficult to keep track of them all. Many of them have similar sounding (or identical!) names, descriptions and even URL's. Let me suggest a simple way to keep track of them so you don't embarrass yourself and annoy others by requesting to exchange links with someone more than once.
Free Traffic Course - Day 6
We will start with one Internet Marketing myth - the pop-ups do not work today. They give no effect to the web site, they do not bring any traffic, just distract the attention. This myth is partially true: old-fashioned pop-ups do not work. Modern pop-ups have advanced much further: today they give fresh look to the web site.
Getting Free Viral Traffic Using Automated Visitor Referral Systems
Would you like to get unlimited viral traffic to your site, for free?
TARGET PRACTICE - Generating The Website Traffic That Matters
But a mere increase in the volume of website traffic is not the end all and be all of a successful marketing campaign online. There are countless instances of sites garnering thousands of visitors a day, with not a single sale to speak of. Surely, there would be something wrong if a marketing strategy is purely focused to increase website traffic.
Finding and Managing Quality Reciprocal Links: A Tutorial for The Newbie
All of us want to increase traffic to our web sites. It helps our search engine rankings, and is a very cost-effective way to provide us with potential new customers. One of the best, and certainly least expensive, ways to do that is by exchanging links with sites similar to our own, or that contain content our own visitors are likely to find interesting and useful. It is important to restrict our exchanges to such sites because if we indiscriminately exchange with everybody and anybody we become what is known as a "link farm" and wind up being banned by the search engines.
How to Drive Traffic to Your Website
Everyone wants to know the big secret to driving traffic to their website. Every day I see an article or an ad talking about driving people to your website. Driving traffic to a website has become the "holy grail" on the internet. People are realizing that 'if you build it, they won't come... unless you give them a reason'. Website traffic just doesn't happen by itself. Your website is just one of many millions on the web and people rarely just stumble upon your site by accident.
How to Build a Website that Get Free Traffic
How to get FREE traffic and vistors to your website without spending advertising cost? The answer is to get good search engine ranking. But how to get your keywords ranked high? Here is the process you can follow for every web page:
A Beginners Guide to Exchanging Links
Reciprocal linking is an effective, free way to get more visitors to your website.
Link Popularity and Your Add URL Page
With all the buzz going on about the importance of a site's link popularity, the "look and feel" of your Add URL page (or whatever you have named your add URL page) has taken on an increased importance as well.
How to Drive a Stampede of Laser Targeted Traffic Using Postcards
How would you like to make $4 for EVERY visitor who hits your site? How about $8? Would you be interested?
Ten Tips for Generating Traffic To Your Website
I know what you're thinking, oh great another article about generating traffic to my website. Well it is important for your website to have traffic. It makes absolutely no sense to have the most informative website in the world that no one knows about. This article lists ten low cost ways to generate traffic to your website. Enjoy.
How to Identify Bad Link Exchange Transactions
Now that more emphasis (to get better ranking in SERPs) is put on the quality of links rather than the quantity, I will try, in this article, to identify the signs that may be precursors of bad link exchange transactions.
|
