To Link . . . or Not to Link? 
Yes! Links, Especially Incoming Ones, are the Most Effective Way to Build the Volume of Visitors to Your Site.

What's a Link? It's a hypertext statement that, when clicked, takes the viewer to another page or web site. The following is a link to the home page for the Wordpix.com web site: Home 

There are three kinds of links -- Internal, Outbound and Inbound. The internal link (like Home) will take you to another location within your own web site, perhaps within the same page. The outbound link will take a viewer away from your web site and to someone else's web site. The inbound link is most important. It's a link that a viewer finds on someone else's site that, when clicked, takes him to your site!

Why are Inbound Links so important? There are two reasons: (1) They let people know about your web site and bring you more visitors. (2) Some search engines interpret many inbound links to mean your site is popular, which means they give your site a higher ranking in a search. (3) The people who click your links on other sites are usually looking for your type of product or service, therefore, they are already potential customers.

If I'm listed in 300 search engines, I'll have 300 links, right? Well yes, and that could help your position - or it could harm your position. The number of links is not as important as the TYPE of links. Search engines like Google place a higher priority on those links if they (A) come from sites whose content is relevant to your site content, and (B) are themselves highly ranked. And your site could even be penalized if the backlinks are from sites that have been created for the sole purpose of selling links or trading links to get better positioning!! So get lots of links, but make sure they are from sites that relate to yours in some fashion. And if you can get a link from a site that has pure informational content (rather than simply a directory that displays categories or links), you'll be better off in the long run.

For example, If you have a site about senior health care and a link from a site offering a page of tips for people caring for elderly parents, where the content of the page consists of paragraphs of text, will look more legitimate to the search engines than one that merely displays links to sites about elder care. Search engine spiders have "eyes." They are programmed to look for comparisons in content within links. Don't try to fool them by simply getting hundreds of links in search engines, directories and link farms.

What's the best way to get inbound links? Call all your friends, your brothers, sisters and children....Well, actually, we're somewhat serious. Sit down at your computer or with pad and pen and write the names of everyone, every business you have a speaking association with, who owns a web site. Pay particular attention to those with whom you may have a business "connection", i.e., it would be logical to assume that a florist might have a connection with a web site that provides a gift-giving service for consumers. You are looking for sites that would complement yours -- or simply add a link to your site out of the generosity of their heart. You should also look at sites that link to your competitors' sites, for they are possible linking partners as well. Want to see who's linking to your site? Go to: www.linkpopularitycheck.com or www.soople.com and follow the instructions for "Look who's linking to your site."

How does the link get installed? First, send an email, fax or phone call to the other web site and mention your feeling that your site could complement theirs in some way and provide additional help to visitors to their site. Provide the URL/domain name of your web site, and invite them to take a look at your site and get back to you if they wish to install a link to your site. if they agree to put a link to your site on theirs, take this next step:

Send an email to your webmaster with the following information:

• This is the page where the link should appear: (list the URL for the page)

• This is the text to tell people about the link: (perhaps the name of an organization, company or product; something like "More details about ABC Gadget" or "The WizzyWig Club" is fine.)

• This is the URL for the link: (List the precise web page location you want the link to go to.)

Let the linking site know when the link has been installed and invite them to take a look.

It may be advisable to create a "Links" or "Resources" page on your web site, however, search engines like Google may subtract points for this type of approach, assuming the links are being traded and are reciprocal with another site for the purpose of getting higher search engine positions for both sites.

What if the other site wants you to use a graphic image as a link from your web site to theirs? No problem. They will tell you in an email message the URL where the graphic can be found. Just forward that email message to Wordpix and we'll take care of the rest.

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