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Guest post by: Sarah Chantigian Become an Author

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Since my first web design in 1998, I've always added a "links page" on my client's sites. Many of them didn't bother to ask what that was, and I used this page as a place to house links from other sites that were linking back to mine. At that time, reciprocal linking was the way to go as a form of friendly networking and at the same time helped improve a web sites exposure on the internet.

A few years later, link popularity was the buzzword used in search engine marketing. The big 3 (Google, Yahoo and MSN) began to include link popularity into their algorithms as a way to determine what web site ranked better than another. Companies "specializing" in link popularity sprang up overnight, and banner ads strewed the web with offers of "submitting your site to 1,000s of links for free". It was link 'hysteria'.

So what do you really need in terms of links for your web site? Nowadays you have to be very careful in selecting where you submit your links. Search engines have become even wiser to determine what a good link is and what is not and too many bad links can cause your web site to drop, even disappear in its rankings.

Some will argue that only one-way links are the true method. This involves only a link coming in from a web site to yours and you not returning the link back. 3 way linking is another, newer method where a webmaster owns multiple sites and tries to build up traffic to one of their specific sites by offering link exchanges from their other sites back to the main site they are promoting. Sounds confusing? It can be, and is something I don't suggest you do. I believe 3 way linking is on its way to the 'black hat' trick list that so many of us SEO pros steer clear of.

A combination of both one-way and reciprocal linking is the best way to start. Stay away from sites that offer to submit you to 1,000s of links (often this is referred to as link farms or FFAs). Submit your site to both general and industry-related directories. If they require a reciprocal link, check them out a bit before doing so; do they rank well? Do they link to a lot of irrelevant sites or seem to just link to anything (Viagra, casinos, free posters?). Utilize a links page on your site. Call it links, useful resources, recommended sites, whatever.

Keep in mind, link popularity is a continuous process. You should be submitting to a handful of sites weekly or every 2-3 weeks. Some sites may not link back right away and it can take several weeks, even months for a search engine to crawl a website and recognize the link coming to your site. Submitting too many at once can also trigger a red flag to a search engine.

There are many methods and tools that can be used to successfully manage a website's link popularity.

Good luck and happy linking!

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