Free Attract Visitors to Your Site: The Mini Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald Page B

gently suggest that you think your website would be of great interest to http://www.101ChocolateRecipes.com/ readers.
    Tip: Reciprocal linking can require a little finesse. It’s best to look for sites that complement yours, but don’t necessarily compete with it. You’ll also have more luck if you approach web peers, sites of similar quality or with a similar amount of traffic to yours.
    Figure 1-1: Google has a little-known but valuable search keyword that identifies sites that link to your site (or anyone else’s for that matter). It’s the link: operator. If you type in link:http://www.disneylandparis.com/ , for example, you see all the sites that link to EuroDisney’s home page. You can use any URL you want (for example, try link:http://www.disneylandparis.com/uk/introduction.htm/ to find out who’s linking to the English-language intro page).
    Once you enter into a link agreement—even if it’s just an informal exchange of emails—remember to keep your end of the deal. Don’t remove the link from your site without letting the other webmaster know about the change. It’s also a good idea to keep checking on the other site to make sure your link remains prominent. If it disappears, don’t fly into an Othellian rage—just send a polite email asking where it went or why it disappeared.
    Reciprocal links are also a good way to start working your way up search engine rankings (see “Rising up in the rankings” below). That’s because one of the criteria Google takes into account when it determines how to order the results of a web search is how many other sites link to yours. The more popular you are, the more likely you’ll climb up the list.
    Note: There are some companies that sell reciprocal link services. The basic idea is that they try to pair up different websites (for a fee) in a link-sharing agreement. Don’t fall for it. Your traffic might increase, but the visitors you get won’t really be interested in the content of your site, and they won’t hang around for long.
    Web Rings
    A web ring is similar to a reciprocal link, but instead of sharing a link between two partners, it binds a group of websites together.
    For example, imagine you create a brilliant new site featuring reality TV trivia. To get more exposure, you can join a web ring dedicated to reality TV. You agree to put a block of XHTML on your site that advertises the ring and lets your visitors go to other sites in it. As payback, you become another stop within the ring (see Figure 1-2 ).
    Figure 1-2: Many Web ring sites don’t list the formal address of all the member sites. Instead, visitors move from one site to the next using previous and next links. This sequence of sites makes up the “ring.”
    Sadly, the majority of web rings consist of gaudy, amateurish Web disasters. Pair up with these nightmares and your site will be deemed guilty by association. However, with a little research, you may find a higher-quality ring. Maybe. To search for one, use Google (enter the topic followed by the words “web ring”).
    Note: The biggest disadvantage to Web rings is that they usually require you to add a fairly ugly set of links to your page. Before you sign up, carefully evaluate whether the extra traffic is worth it, and travel to all the other sites in the ring to see if they’re of similar quality. If you’re in a ring with low-quality sites, it can hurt your reputation.
    Shameless Self-Promotion
    To get your website listed on many of the Web’s most popular sites, you need to fork over some cold, hard cash. However, some of the best advertising doesn’t cost anything. The trick is to look for sites where you can promote and contribute at the same time.
    For example, if you create the website http://www.HotComputerTricks.com/ , why not answer a few questions on a computing newsgroup or discussion board? It’s considered tactless to openly promote your site, but there’s nothing wrong with dispensing some handy advice and