by Shelley Lowery

Over the last month some major changes have taken place regarding how Web sites are 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 also the overall popularity of the site. 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 it 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 him. 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 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 that 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 with 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 site and include live links to the author's site.

About 80% of all Web site traffic originates from the Search Engines. It is well worth your time and effort to develop as many links to your Web site as possible. Not only will these links bring you additional traffic, but you'll increase your ranking with 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 site by giving them a link. In addition, tell your eZine subscribers about them. By supporting your favorite sites, you can show your appreciation for all of the hours and hours of hard work that go into developing a 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.