One way of increasing your ranking with search engines (which is key to driving visitors to your site) is by the use of links. The first thing you want to do is place internal links on your own site. In this way, you will drive visitors from one part of the site to another with related information. If you are posting articles, try linking to the previous or next one offered. If you have a series of related articles, be sure to link them together to assist visitors in finding the information that they need.
If your site includes a site map, be sure to put a link there as well. The advantage of this course of action is that web crawlers will spider all the pages in your site, not just your main page, which will lead to a higher ranking. In addition to internal links, you will also want to have some links to other sources of information on the Internet. For this, you would want to choose a handful of sites which you consider to be definitive sources of information on a related topic to yours.
Write a brief review of each one and be sure to include why someone would want to visit these particular places online. Do they have articles, quizzes, a discussion forum, or a newsletter? Make note of these features so your readers will have an idea of what to expect before they click on the link. List them as sources of more information, favorite places on the Web, or "online resources". You will also want to let other webmasters know you have linked to them and ask them to post a link to your site in return. Send each webmaster a personalized e-mail; sending bulk e-mails simply isn't appropriate in this case. Introduce yourself as the owner of a newly-launched site and explain that you have taken the opportunity to review their site and were quite impressed with it (otherwise why would you be asking for them to link to you?).
You have already added a link to their site to your web page and would appreciate a reciprocal link. Some sites provide a banner or button to use for this purpose. Some individuals "sweeten the deal" by offering other webmasters a free product or service in return for a reciprocal link. You will have to determine whether this is appropriate to your site. Still another way to use links to increase page ranks is through the use of deep links directories. These directories are unique in that they only list pages other than a site's main page.
If you have a series of articles on your site that are on separate web pages, you may choose to submit each one individually to the directory for inclusion.
Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Beach, Florida. Find more about this as well as a web site promotion for small business at http://www.gorillawebsitemarketing.com
