Links to and from your site are a factor in how well you are ranked at search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, and so on.

LINKS TO YOUR SITE

If someone links to your website from theirs–even an obscure page–when Google “spiders” (searches deeply) all of their webpages, the spider will find a link to your website, and go search through your site, too.

Then, you’ll be listed at Google… but often you’ll be very near the bottom of their links in your categories. And that’s where you may stay for six to eight months, if the current reports are correct.

Your ranking improves as more people link to you. (I mean quality websites, not “Links4All” kinds of sites, which can actually cost you points at Google, etc.) And, when people click at Google to visit your site, that can help too.

I suspect that it doesn’t hurt to include Google AdSense on some of your webpages, too. But, that may backfire if Google goes out of its way to look impartial regarding AdSense pages. I often use AdSense ads because the links are generally helpful to my readers, and because it’s a good income source. (As of early 2008, the usefulness of the links is a better reason that income.)

It’s not easy to get links from others’ sites, especially well-ranked sites. Most people don’t link to many sites now. I mean, logically, why on earth would you want to send one of your visitors to someone ELSE’s website…?A link from someone’s index.html is excellent. A link from a secondary page is also ideal. However, when you’re starting out, your site link can be buried deep within any popular site and Google will find it.

LINK TO OTHERS’ QUALITY WEBSITES

You can also get a higher rank by linking from your site to really good, highly-ranked sites in your own field or related fields. So–and this is NOT a hint–if you link to my site, http://www.aisling.net/ from yours, it may help just a little.

Or, if you found this page and others at this site helpful, you might link to http://www.arts-careers.com/.

In fact, a page of quality links can sometimes move your site–or at least that links page–to a good spot at some search engines. And, once people arrive at your links page, they may stay and read more at your website.

ALSO USE KEYWORDS

Keywords are vital… starting with what you call your webpage. That is, the words in the Title line… are they what people are likely to type in, when they’re searching for a site like yours at Google?

In other words, “Welcome to my site” isn’t a great title for a webpage, but “How to fix widgets and discover the meaning of life” might get you a pretty good position at Google.

If you follow this advice and have a good, content-rich website, you have a far better chance at getting a good spot in search engines.

Get links to your site, even if you post your link in a forum that you visit. Link to others’ quality websites, too. And last but not least, make sure that you name your webpages with the kinds of words that people use when they’re looking for a site like yours at Yahoo, Google, and so on.

For more information about a successful website, be sure to read my other pages in this section.