Schewanick Computer Services

Over the last month some major changes have been taking
place in regard to how a web site is ranked in the Search
Engines. There is a new ranking system that is now being used
by Alta Vista, Excite, Google, Lycos and the search portion of
Yahoo. This new system will track and rank sites according to
the number of links pointing to a particular web site. Not only
is the number of links considered, but the quality of links is
considered as well.

With these new changes now in effect, not only are web sites
ranked by keyword relevancy, meta tags, title and text, but
the overall popularity of the web site as well. These new
changes may have a great impact on the effectiveness of
some of the current techniques used to achieve high rankings.

Establishing quality links to a web site has always been an
effective way to build traffic, but now has become a necessity.
By obtaining just a few links from high-traffic web
sites your traffic will increase considerably. The more
high-traffic links you receive, the more traffic you will
receive and the higher your web site will be ranked in the
Search Engines.

If you have a quality web site, chances are you're already
being linked to and don't even realize it. That's a great
starting point however, you must build on that by finding
targeted web sites that may be interested in exchanging links
with you. A targeted web site will have similar content to
yours, but will not be in competition. A good way to find
these web sites is to visit a Search Engine and type in one
of your keywords. Visit some of the top ranking sites and
gather information such as, the owner's name, email address
and a little bit about the web site. Contact the owner
personally and discuss a link exchange with them. Mention the
owner's name, web site and what you liked about his site. In
addition, tell him why you think a link exchange will benefit
both of you and a little bit about your web site.

Requesting a link exchange is not the only way you can obtain
links to your web site. Here are some additional ways:

Ask Your Visitors to Link to You

Make linking to you as easy as possible. Create a page on
your web site that includes your banners and text link
descriptions. Put a link to this page on your main page that
says "Link to Us."

Provide a Valuable Service

Give your visitors a reason to link to your web site. If you
provide a valuable service, you can be sure your visitors
will tell their visitors, their visitors will tell their
visitors and so on. Word of mouth is one of the best forms
of free advertising.

Give Away Free Ebooks

Everyone loves getting something of value for nothing. Create
a free ebook and allow it to be freely distributed. Provide
complete instructions in regard to linking to your web site,
including a description of your ebook.

Write Articles

Write an article and allow it to be freely published. With
each article you write you are entitled to include your
author bylines. These bylines are nothing more than an
advertisement for you, your products or services and your web
site. Many web site owners will publish articles on their web
site and include live links to the author's web site.

About 80% of all web site traffic originates from the Search
Engines. It is well worth your time and effort to spend some
time developing as many links to your web site as possible.
Not only will these links bring you additional traffic, but
you'll increase your ranking at the Search Engines as well.

Web sites come and go each day on the Internet. If you visit
a web site and find it to be a great resource, show your
support for that web site by giving them a link. In addition,
tell your ezine subscribers about them. By supporting your
favorite web sites, you can show your appreciation for all of
the hours and hours of hard work that goes into developing
the web site and help ensure it will be there the next time
you visit. Without your support, many of your favorite web
sites may not be there in the future.

About the Author
Shelley Lowery is the Webmistress of Web-Source.net.
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