t invest in big link exchanges as search engines prefer one-way links to reciprocal links.
• Invest in public relations. Press pick-ups will result in high quality sites linking to yours.
• Make sure your web pages link and cross link to every subpage to ensure that subpages enjoy some dTrying to understand link popularity is a bit like trying to think five moves ahead in a chess game. It’s easy to do unless the search engines make a move you don’t expect. Search engines want to find a reasonably impartial way of ranking web pages but marketers want to find a reasonably predictable way of boosting their own ranking. The result is this: the search engines are following Google in their increasing use of off-page criteria for their rankings. Link popularity is the prevalent criteria. What this means is that a web site can be ranked by the degree to which it is linked to by other sites. More to the point, a web site can be ranked by the degree of “quality” sites that link to it, where quality means reasonably impartial sites (instead of some obscure, personal site). The principle behind this is that if your site’s content is good, then more people will be linking to it.

What does this mean in terms of trying to optimize your linking strategy? Here are a few suggestions:

• Get linked in major directories like Yahoo! and the Open Directory Project.
• Solicit links from non-spamming sites (which are not trusted by search engines)
• Don’t invest in big link exchanges as search engines prefer one-way links to reciprocal links.
• Invest in public relations. Press pick-ups will result in high quality sites linking to yours.
• Make sure your web pages link and cross link to every subpage to ensure that subpages enjoy some de

ble way of boosting their own ranking. The result is this: the search engines are following Google in their increasing use of off-page criteria for their rankings. Link popularity is the prevalent criteria. What this means is that a web site can be ranked by the degree to which it is linked to by other sites. More to the point, a web site can be ranked by the degree of “quality” sites that link to it, where quality means reasonably impartial sites (instead of some obscure, personal site). The principle behind this is that if your site’s content is good, then more people will be linking to it.

What does this mean in terms of trying to optimize your linking strategy? Here are a few suggestions:

• Get linked in major directories like Yahoo! and the Open Directory Project.
• Solicit links from non-spamming sites (which are not trusted by search engines)
• Don’t invest in big link exchanges as search engines prefer one-way links to reciprocal links.
• Invest in public relations. Press pick-ups will result in high quality sites linking to yours.
• Make sure your web pages link and cross link to every subpage to ensure that subpages enjoy some d

by other sites. More to the point, a web site can be ranked by the degree of “quality” sites that link to it, where quality means reasonably impartial sites (instead of some obscure, personal site). The principle behind this is that if your site’s content is good, then more people will be linking to it.

What does this mean in terms of trying to optimize your linking strategy? Here are a few suggestions:

• Get linked in major directories like Yahoo! and the Open Directory Project.
• Solicit links from non-spamming sites (which are not trusted by search engines)
• Don’t invest in big link exchanges as search engines prefer one-way links to reciprocal links.
• Invest in public relations. Press pick-ups will result in high quality sites linking to yours.
• Make sure your web pages link and cross link to every subpage to ensure that subpages enjoy some d

to it.

What does this mean in terms of trying to optimize your linking strategy? Here are a few suggestions:

• Get linked in major directories like Yahoo! and the Open Directory Project.
• Solicit links from non-spamming sites (which are not trusted by search engines)
• Don’t invest in big link exchanges as search engines prefer one-way links to reciprocal links.
• Invest in public relations. Press pick-ups will result in high quality sites linking to yours.
• Make sure your web pages link and cross link to every subpage to ensure that subpages enjoy some d

t invest in big link exchanges as search engines prefer one-way links to reciprocal links.
• Invest in public relations. Press pick-ups will result in high quality sites linking to yours.
• Make sure your web pages link and cross link to every subpage to ensure that subpages enjoy some degree of increased popularity.

Of course, the best way, just as the search engines theorize, is to make sure your site has excellent and popular content. Good content will always be the key to higher rankings.