| (i) Link popularity is hard to understand | | | | any is transient. |
| The basic concept of link popularity is simple. If | | | | However, the aim of search engine has never |
| someone links to your site, you get a point. If you | | | | changed - great content, well-organized, well-published |
| link to another site they get a point. As mentioned | | | | and well-linked. If you give what the Search Engines |
| earlier, not all sites are equal and therefore not all | | | | want, they will give you what you want too. |
| links are equal. A link from a high traffic directory | | | | (iv) Little commitment is required |
| such as DMOZ is definitely worth more that a link | | | | Effective linking is a continuous process and you need |
| from a lowly ranked page such as Jack's Homemade | | | | to constantly add links. Once you have done the |
| Videos. | | | | fundamentals, naturally people will request to link to |
| PageRank is how Google measures the importance | | | | yous site, however this is not sufficient. You should |
| of a particular page. On a scale of PR0 to PR10, a | | | | continue to provide content and resources for the |
| site that is ranked PR7 will get much more 'influence' | | | | sites that already link to you and you should spend |
| than a site that is ranked PR2. This is important as it | | | | some time every week looking for new links. |
| affects ranking of the sites with inbound links to and | | | | As your knowledge and experience grow you will be |
| outbound links from a site with a high PR. | | | | able to further develop and expand your linking |
| Google, Altavista, Excite and Hotbot all use variations | | | | strategy. |
| on link popularity when ordering their results. | | | | (v) Automated software is as good as human effort |
| (ii) The more inbound links to your site the better | | | | Software at most can facilitate article sumbission to |
| This sounds convincing. When you have more links to | | | | article directories, however it is unable to replace |
| your site, people will have a greater chance of | | | | human interaction that is the bedrock of effective |
| stumbling upon your site? However, bear in mind that | | | | linking. With advanced trash filter in email inboxes, |
| if you spend a lot of effort creating links from sites | | | | anything without your name in the body will go |
| that are not deemed 'important' by Google, chances | | | | straight into the trash bin. |
| are that there is little chance of people finding your | | | | Therefore by selecting a few good sites, emailing |
| site too. Effective linking is not about getting as | | | | them individually with details of exactly what you can |
| many links as possible: it is about putting your | | | | offer and where you think a link might fit in with their |
| resources into getting quality links that will drive | | | | existing content, you will not only get a greater |
| traffic to your site. | | | | response rate, but the links you get are sure to be |
| (iii) Cheating Search Engines is easy | | | | far more valuable. |
| Since the time Search Engines exist, people have | | | | Despite so, there are a couple of software that can |
| been trying to fool the Search Engine using black-hat | | | | automate the link-request process. These are |
| Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques, and | | | | primarily Arelis and Zeus, both of which have similar |
| Google has constantly been modifying its search | | | | functionality. They find relevant sites using your |
| algorithm to better guard itself against these malicious | | | | chosen keywords and save them in a database from |
| sites | | | | which you may automatically send out link requests. |
| History has seen the rise and fall of keyword | | | | They also automatically create a reciprocal links page |
| spamming, free-for-alls, link farms, hidden links and | | | | if you wish. |
| others. The effort involved is huge and the success if | | | | |