Link To Get Traffic - Not Search Engine Rankings!

Link To Get Traffic - Not Search Engine Rankings!
By Jack Humphrey (c) 2004

There have been a lot of changes on the web since I wrote the
first edition of "Power Linking Your Way to 1 Million Hits" in
2002. Back then I told everyone that the only thing that will
never change, despite search engine shake-ups and search
technology improvements, is that links will always be the most
important part of any website promotion campaign.

In fact, the people best able to withstand major changes and
shifts in the search engines that affect their rankings are the
people who have a broad, multi-faceted marketing campaign.

In order to weather any drops from single-sources of traffic to
your site, you must have a lot of irons in the fire (links).
People you have targeted as your best prospects should be able
to find your site virtually everywhere they surf.

Web site owners who rely solely on search engine ranking are
leaving 90% of the marketing pie on the plate! For long-term
stability and steady, predictable traffic, you simply must
broaden your reach and utilize a host of different publicity
tactics in order to keep sales up.

One of the most effective tactics I talk about is article
publishing. It is also one of the most misunderstood and abused
tactics I teach. If you don't get it, don't do it. Below is my
explanation of why we write articles and other short publications
in the first place.

Publishing and Syndication of Your Articles

A lot of people miss the boat on this one. And it's too bad
that many people see that articles and other published works
are important, but they don't produce quality work, therefore
their work doesn't get picked up by big web sites and newsletter
owners.

You see, most people focus on article publishing as a way to get
a link published to their site (solely for search engines to
find). Problem is, once they have syndicated their article to
tons of free content sites, all they have at the end of the day
is a link pointing to their site.

No one is READING the articles! Why? Because, honestly, they are
terrible. Or they are just short of being blatant ads. People
pick up on an amateur article within the first sentence or two
and move on. Didn't you write your article to get traffic?

Produce shoddy work and there is no click on the link. There is
no traffic produced. The webmasters who focus totally on getting
links as a tool to increase their pagerank in Google are missing
the point entirely.

The point of Power Linking and all the tactics in the system was
never to get high search engine rankings. Getting ranked well in
the search engines was and still is a BY-PRODUCT of a properly
executed Power Linking campaign.

When I talk to my clients about getting links, what I am talking
about is getting links placed in places where human beings will
see them and click on them. Not just link directories which are
created solely for boosting link popularity with Google.

So when you publish an article, take the time to think about
what people in your market need or want to know and give it to
them. And write a GOOD article!

Linking is not just something that looks like this:
www.power-linking-profits.com. Real linking is networking and
making connections with future customers on an emotional level
through your publicity pieces.

Linking is about respect. You gain respect by being published
and being seen as the expert in your field. And it goes without
saying that your published work needs to stand up to basic
quality expectations of savvy readers in your target market.

Come off looking like a hack who is only interested in getting
a link published at the end of their cruddy article, and you
lose all respect. So even if someone does click on your link,
they have reservations about you right off the bat before they
even get to your site. This is no way to sell products and
services.

If you remember nothing else, please remember this: No matter
what linking method you work on this week, keep in mind that the
most important links of all are the links intended for real
people to see and click on!

Get linked in content directories and on web pages that get hit
by as many of your target prospects as possible. And link to get
traffic, not search engine rankings!

People focus too much on search engine marketing. If you do your
job as a marketer, you will naturally rank high in the search
engines. There is no need whatsoever to focus your marketing
campaign on search engines entirely.

Focus your marketing efforts on people, your customers, and you
will have what I call "Natural Search Engine Rankings." You see,
Google wants the most relevant results. That's where their bread
is buttered. Well, what I have been trying teach thousands of
customers all this time is that you need to focus your marketing
campaign on your customers so that you are the MOST relevant site
on the net in your market.

Don't worry about Google. They WANT you to be #1 if you deserve
to be. How to be #1? By marketing to your customers directly on
sites they surf the most and being the natural relevant result
in their search.

Good search engine rankings will follow a great marketing
campaign. By the time you get your #1 position on Yahoo though,
you should have so much traffic and sales because of a properly
implemented marketing campaign that you hardly notice you
finally made it!

That's the REAL power of linking.

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Jack Humphrey is the author of Power Linking 2: Evolution, now
in it's 4th revision at http://power-linking-profits.com. He is
also the CEO of http://EquipMint.com, a membership site for
anyone who sells anything online.
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This article was originally published in SiteProNews, one of the
Net's most widely read webmaster newsletters. An online version
of this article and other articles can be found at:
http://www.sitepronews.com/archives.html
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