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Home::Link Popularity
Utilizing Award Sites
Author : Claude Beavers
Why Award Sites?
Award sites are, in essence, directories that hand review sites,
placing the ones with the most or best content and services at
the top of the list. These sites are an excellent source of high
quality, targeted traffic, and should be utilized by any site
looking to promote themselves online. High rankings on these
sites are not based on the amount of links you have or the
volume of traffic your site maintains per month, but rather on
who has the best site in their opinion. This makes it one of the
best places to start off your promotion campaign for your
website.
To get high listings in these sites, you will generally want to
have a lot of high quality, topic related content, as well as a
layout that is easy to navigate and pleasing to the eye. With a
high ranking on these sites, you will generate quite a bit of
targeted traffic to your site, as well as get a nice link out of
the deal. These sites are generally very popular, as well,
helping out your rankings in the search engines while bolstering
your traffic.
Some awards sites require a link back to their page in exchange
for a ranking on their site. You can opt to not exchange links
with these sites and move on to the "catch-free" sites, but in
all fairness, a simple reciprocal link is well worth the traffic
and reputation boost you will receive with a high listing. Many
web browsers will stumble onto these sites in search of the
"best" site for whatever subject they are interested in, and may
find your site the most appealing to them. The only way for them
to find you early on, however is through links from other high
traffic sites.
Finding a Related Award Site
Finding an award site is not difficult at all, depending on your
topic. Try your favorite search engine with the phrase "top 10
sites." More than likely you will receive a myriad of
results. Skip over the sites that are not award related, and
focus on the award sites for now. Make a list of the most
appealing award sites / top 10 sites to you, as these will most
likely be the ones that are most appealing to other web
browsers. Later you will be trying to get in the top listings
for as many as you can, so don't skip over any just yet. Before
you get started submitting, make sure the content on your site
has been read through and looks good. Typos throughout your
articles and pages can be a major detriment to your rankings on
the award sites out there. You might also want to include a few
extra pages with simple articles to be sure that you have plenty
of unique content. This will help enormously with your rankings,
both on awards sites and on the major search engines, so take
your time and do them right.
Submitting to Award Sites
Once you are sure of your content and services / products
outline, go ahead and begin submitting to your list of award
sites. Many of these, as stated above, will require a link to
their site before linking to you, so have your links up and
ready before you begin. It will save you time in the end, and
will reduce the chances of accidentally not adding a link and
getting denied by the site you submitted to.
If an email is required to have your site listed, be sure to
write a short, but descriptive letter to their site. Include
what the site specifies, and it always helps to add a paragraph
stating that you already have a link to their site on yours.
Don't forget to include a link to the exact page you placed
their link on, so that it is easy to find. With a reciprocal
link placed already, most sites will not have any problem with
linking back to you as soon as they get your email. Don't be
discouraged if your site is not within the top 10 on their site
after just submitting it. With a little bit of time and effort
you can always raise your ranking on an awards site.
Also, be sure to keep a list of which sites did link back to
you, and delete the links for the ones that did not. This will
keep your links page clean and neat, increasing your chances of
getting a higher listing in the award sites you have linked to.
Getting Higher Rankings on Award Sites
Now that you are listed in a few award sites, it's time to start
focusing on getting a higher ranking in them. Always keep fresh
content on your site. This will help your ranking not only on
the award sites, but on the search engines and directories as
well. With new, unique content and constant updates to your
site, you will stand a much better chance of being seen as an
"expert" in your field, and your site will never grow stagnant
or outdated.
Periodically send an email to the award sites you are listed on,
informing them of updates since your last email. If the sites
see that you are updating and improving your site daily, they
will be much more apt to rank you higher on their list.
Another good tip is to keep the links to the award sites toward
the top of your link page, or on a separate page altogether,
linked from your main page. This will increase traffic to the
award sites, further improving your relations with them. If you
are sending three times as much traffic to their site than the
current #1 listing, chances are good that the #1 will soon be #2
on their list.
Always keep in mind that there is lots of competition on the
internet, regardless of which product or service you are
promoting. The important thing is to remember that "you get what
you pay for." In other words, the harder you work at something,
the better the results are going to be.
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