Links to Success

Did you know that web linkage is responsiblefor a significant amount of web traffic?

Search engines are still extremely importantbut many of the most successful e-commerce sitesclaim that linkage programs offer a tremendoussource of web traffic.

It makes sense. The nature of the World WideWeb encourages serious web surfers to navigatefrom site to site through the links to otherrelated sites and resources "found" on the sitesthat are visited. People sometimes forget thatthe name "web" itself is based on an extensiveinterweaving of sites, similar to links in achain.

It's important for any site owner to seek outand invite related web sites to "exchange"reciprocal links. The site being invited shouldbe interesting, provide good links and presentuseful, relevant information that complementswhat you are already presenting.

A web site with an extensive listing of qualitylinks offers several advantages. First, thesite is perceived as being a useful resource,and justifies revisits. Second, it's moreeffective than just placing banner advertisingon other sites, since a reciprocal hyperlink isconsidered to be more believable. Finally, ithelps your site's ranking with search enginesthat place some importance on link popularity.This is especially important with Google.

Business-to-business web sites require extensiveresearch to seek out, invite and establishappropriate reciprocal links with other sites.For others, "non strategic," or general linksto other sites can be established quickly bychecking out some of the reciprocal link exchangeservices that exist for free on the Web.

A word of caution about reciprocal links. Be sureyour site includes navigation within the HTML codeto prevent your site visitor from leaving entirely.A simple method to prevent this is to modify thelinks so that a new browser window opens. This canbe done simply by adding a "target" attribute tothe links, and set it to the value "_blank".

Geoff Caplan is an Internet marketing consultant and copywriter with 11 years of continuous experience. He has presented seminars and has worked with major web brands, including eDiets, and myTravelUSA. He can be reached at geoff@geoff-caplan.com. His site is http://geoff-caplan.com