Link Popularity Software
Automating Your Link Directory
Link popularity has become increasingly important to search engine placement and must be part of your traffic building strategy. Simply put, link popularity is related to the number of sites linking to your website. You should be aware, however that the search engines are also looking at the quality (relevance) of incoming links. Ten quality incoming links can deliver more qualified traffic, from both your link partners and the search engines, than 1000 links that have no relevance to your site's theme.
Implementing a good linking program can be a very time consuming task. You need to find quality link partners that have sites that are related to the main theme of your site. You will need to actually visit the potential link partner's site and assess it's suitability. Ideally, you should also locate the name of a contact so you can send a personalized email request for a link partnership. Form letters just don't cut it and most of them get deleted. The webmaster will want to know that you actually took the time to visit the site.
Once you have a link program in place you will then be faced with the task of maintaining it. Regular checks, for broken links or link partners who have removed your link form their site, are a must. Nothing looks more unprofessional than a lot of broken or obsolete links on your site.
You can do all of this manually (very time intensive), pay someone to do it for you ( can be very costly) or you can automate much of the work involved using link popularity software such as Zeus or Arelis. I personally prefer the software because you have total control over your linking strategy.
These programs can find numerous potential linking partners with content relating to your site's theme. They can locate and record email addresses for possible contacts. They also allow you to run regular audits to ensure the integrity of all of your links. The programs will build and maintain nicely structured link directories according the categories you define. Templates are included so that you can give your link directory the look and feel of your main site design.
There are a number of pitfalls that surface with automated link popularity programs. Avoid falling into these traps, the programs will serve you very well.
The first is that many webmasters don't take the time to set up the templates and their link directories look like hundreds of others. It is well worth the effort to learn to use the templates and customize them for your site. The templates are there for a good reason. Use them.
The next problem is that people will use a robot, like Zeus, to collect hundreds of links and then build a directory and leave it at that. . Many of the sites may not be suitable. You need to do at least a cursory scan of the site to make sure it really does relate to your theme and eliminate those site that are suspect. If you don't look at the site you have no way of assessing it's suitably as a link partner. If you do a few each day it is not difficult to check the sites that your software has located.
Finally, many webmasters, after collecting hundreds of links, will then just use the software's built in mailing feature to send out standard form letters requesting a reciprocal link. This is a waste of time. These programs allow you to (and recommend) customize the messages you send. Ideally you should visit the site so that you can make a positive comment about it when you send a personalized request for a link partnership. This will greatly increase your response rate.
The bottom line is that link popularity software can save you tons of time but they can't do everything for you. You have to spend the time to learn to use these powerful programs effectively. If you do, your investment in either of these link popularity programs will be repaid many times over.
Both Zeus and Arelis are available in free trial versions
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