| Do you know what kind of sites are suitable
link partners for your site?
If you do give yourself a gold star since many seem not to.
At least based on the questions I get.
You see most think small. Too small. And limit the
potential universe of perfectly good linking partners.
In fact many seem to think relevant means "sites
exactly like mine". So if they had a site about "juggling midget circus
clowns" the small thinkers would say they could only trade links with other juggling
midget circus clown sites.
Hogwash.
I call this stinkin' linkin' thinkin' and frankly it drives
me crazy! Because there are any number of related sites that have little to do with
juggling midget circus clowns but are still perfectly good link partners. Because their
visitors are just like the ones the owner of the clown site covets.
Remember too you typically get three things out of any
link trade:
- PR
- Traffic Link
- Reputation (from the link text you use)
Almost any link trade should give you PR and Link
Reputation. While trading links with relevant sites will get you traffic. Some more than
others naturally.
But Here's the Big Idea: When you think relevant you
really want to think in terms of related families of sites.
In the case of juggling midget circus clowns that would
include:
- personal clown sites
- clown training
- balloon sculpting
- face painting
- clown costumes
Broadening the scope a tad:
- circus companies
- family circus
- ringmaster schools
- circus books and videos
A bit further afield would be:
- juggling sites
- juggling suppliers
- juggling training site
plus if any such sites exist:
- lion tamers
- trapeze artists
- mime
- fire eating
But I'd even go as far as:
- kids entertainment
- birthday party sites
- magicians
All of which says the juggling midget circus clown site
owner has a whole world of potential link partners that would be able to deliver up
appropriate traffic. And even if one didn't flood her site with traffic getting two out of
three (PR and Link Reputation) still ain't bad.
Okay but say you're drawing a blank when it comes to
related sites. Here's a short cut that can light your linking efforts on fire. Since it
gives you a quick feel for appropriate types of sites to approach for links.
Type "YOUR KEYWORD resources" (with the quotes)
into the Google search box and hit enter. Obviously replacing YOUR KEYWORD with your focus
or theme keyword phrase.
This search will return all sorts of links pages and
directories. Clicking on the listings returned will quickly reveal related types of sites
others are using as link partners.
For instance entering "clown resources" returned
among others this site www.clownresourcedirectory.com/. By itself this one alone would
give the owner of the juggling midget circus clowns all the relevant site ideas she'd ever
need. Plus it can turn up some decent linking partners too!
So banish stinkin' linkin' thinkin' from your mind right
now. Don't handcuff your linking efforts by thinking small. Instead think big. Expand your
linking universe like this and soon you'll expand the number of links you've got to ride
to higher Google rankings.
Copyright: John Gergye 2004 |