Posted by arlene

Like real-world gambling casinos, Web sites often work best when they have many entry points, lots for users to do, and as few exit points as possible. (This last item is quite different from providing newsletter subscribers with a way to unsubscribe. In that case, an exit point is comforting to the user and inspires trust.) Getting listed in search engines and sending out e-mail newsletters are both methods for creating Web site entry points. Another set of methods involves getting other Web sites to link to yours.

Boosting your site’s popularity can improve your ranking in search engines, and that can provide entrée to your site for even more users. So the effort can be worth more than the sum of its parts. It often costs only time and persistence (and perhaps the placement of reciprocal links on your own site).

Check your backlinks

Perhaps you want to check out how many backlinks your site already has. Several online search engines offer ways that you can search for links to your site. To try this out using AltaVista, follow these steps:

1. Using your favorite browser, open AltaVista (www.al tavista.corn).

2. In the text box, where you would usually type the subject of interest to conduct a search of AltaVista’s database of Web sites, instead type the following (all in lowercase characters):

Www.yourdomainname.com/ -host:yourdomainname.com

Note that the - is a minus sign, and be sure to replace “yourdomainname” in both places with your actual domain name. If yours is a dot org (or dot something else) instead of a dot corn, replace . corn with the correct suffix.

3. Click the Search button.

The list that appears shows the URLs of all the Web pages in the enormous AltaVista database that link to your site. (It doesn’t show backlinks to pages within your site, however. To run a search for backlinks to any important internal pages on your site, replace yourdomainname.com with the page’s entire URL.)

HotBot, Google, and other search sites offer similar check-yourbacklinks services, along with instructions for using them.

Get backlinks

Build a wonderful Web site with strong, targeted content or unique, well- delivered services, and you will find that other sites (once they know it exists) link to it. Such links are called backlinks. Lots of backlinks means lots of entry points. Lots of backlinks also implies more popularity, which makes your site more attractive to search engines and the press. Getting backlinks can happen magically (as in the case of some sites that are so unusual or intriguing they generate intense word-of-mouth interest). It can also be a process of persuasion, negotiation, and . . . well, swapping.

Trade links

First, if you link to another site, tell the person running that site. Many sites list those that have recognized them, along with links to those sites, and even requesting such a link is no faux pas. Traded links are known as reciprocal links.

You can also actively seek out sites related to or complemented by yours (vendors, professional groups, colleagues, your college alumni association) and ask the people running those sites to link to yours. When you approach others about linking to your site, send a polite e-mail, telling them why your site might be of interest and requesting the link. Remember that they are more likely to link to your site if its content or offerings deepen, complement, or add interest to their own. (If your company has some leverage with the big search-engine companies or some other big-time Web sites, you can use that leverage as well to get links, positive reviews of your offerings, and so on.) Phrase your request to underscore what additional value linking to your site will provide to their site, and if possible, offer a reciprocal link. ReciprocalLink (www.reciprocallink.com) offers the opportunity to announce your interest in exchanging links along with a matching service that helps you find sites on topics like yours.

Remember, always, to trade links at their actual value. For example, if the page on your site where another company’s link appears has more traffic than the page on its site where your link appears, you may want to ask that your link stay on their site longer than theirs or ask for a link to your site on more than one of their pages.

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