By David Notestine, Creator of the
Zeus Internet Marketing Robot.
Creating a link page or link directory is a great way of providing new
visitors, opportunities, content for your return visitors and search engine
traffic. Properly organized, tightly themed link directory pages can send your
website thousands of visitors on a daily or weekly basis. These mini-search
engines become immensely popular and it’s location is saved in thousands of
browser favorites, especially if you have a way for your visitor to
conveniently search for information with a search script. Once a visitor finds
a link directory pertaining to a subject they are interested in, they return
again and again.
You should require a reciprocal link to your site to be included, when
webmasters request to be included in your website’s link page or directory.
Websites want to be included and oftentimes you will get so busy adding
websites that you don’t have to market anymore in other ways.
Traffic THREE ways! Your Link Directory is providing traffic from your
reciprocal links, return traffic from it’s content and traffic from the search
engines because of the individually keyword-tuned directory pages.
Reciprocal links do help your placement in search engine listings but the
important thing is the link pointing to your website, not what it does for
your website in search engine marketing. Too much emphasis is placed on search
engine marketing and until webmasters understand this, they will never be
truly successful. I always hear marketing experts talk about how link
popularity improves your listing in the search engines. That’s a simple side
effect but the important result is the qualified traffic you get from the link
itself. Search engines are just one of a thousand different ways to get
traffic. If you rely solely on them then you might as well be just relying on
a listing in the WHITE PAGES Telephone Book in your real-world business. I’m
not cutting the search engine form of marketing, I just think it narrows a
webmasters thinking to just that. I have three very successful and profitable
websites and if I just relied on the search engines, I would be making 4 cents
for every dollar I currently make. Remember that a listing on a search engine
is a link to your site that you cannot control. I call it passive marketing,
waiting for visitors to come and leaving that decision in someone else’s
hands, hoping for them to send you a trickle of traffic.
I do not spend much time optimizing my pages or on search engine marketing,
especially with what I know now, since using the pay per click-through
services, and owning so many keyword phrases, with all of those appearing in
the number one spot. If I would have wasted time trying to influence them with
page optimization etc, I wouldn’t have gotten any traffic anyway as I’m not
getting the numbers I need now to survive by buying them. Search engines are
only a piece of the whole in creating a web presence. It all adds up. If you
rely on search engines for your visitors, you are depriving yourself of the
opportunities you must have to be successful. Quit wondering how links will
affect your listings with the search engines. It’s not how links affect the
search engines; it’s the links themselves. One good link will send you a many
visitors as the largest search engine. The search engines will wonder why so
many links point to your website, then they will start sending you traffic. By
that time, who cares? It’s nice but will only be a small part of your traffic.
Go out and put links to your site throughout the Internet. Don’t think too
small by just considering normal hyper-links. Links can be anything as long as
a user can reach your site through it. Reciprocal links, advertising, the
printed page, search engines, word of mouth, people talking about you on the
forums and message boards, banners, affiliate programs, writing articles
giving yourself credit, referral scripts etc. All of these add up and are
roads back to your website. No one of these will make you successful. If you
rely on just one, you won’t have much traffic. Each one will bring you a
little traffic and closer to your goals.
