One of the trickiest aspects of search engine optimization is the process of building high quality incoming links. And, as you’ve undoubtedly heard, it’s also the single most important thing you can do to improve your rankings. The more inbound links a page has, the more popular it is - and search engines like popular pages.

The challenge for most sites is to accumulate enough incoming links to appear relevant to the engines without tripping any one of the many spam filters and penalties that are applied to sites that cheat. So, the secret to getting it right is to…

take the search engine’s point of view
when building your incoming link structure.

The key point to remember is that search engines like natural link structure - they hate artificial link structure.

Natural vs. Artificial Link Structure

natural link structure

inbound anchor text varies

inbound link count increases gradually

site links-out to only reputable pages

links are rarely reciprocal

artificial link structure

inbound anchor text identical

inbound link count increases suddenly

site links-out to link farms or web rings

high percentage of links are reciprocal

Natural vs. Artificial Links
Natural links vary in anchor text while artificial links tend to be identical. Natural links increase gradually as referral sites add links one by one over time; artificial links can sprout in great numbers all of a sudden.

Sites designed around natural links don’t usually swap links, so their outgoing links tend to point to pages that are known by the engine to be in good standing. Oftentimes these pages have been indexed for many years and may even be white listed - a term that identifies trusted sites not to be penalized. Sites designed around artificial links will often participate in link swapping and have outgoing links that point to pages that resemble link farms, web rings, or isolated nodes (i.e. page groups linking to each other but lacking inbound links from outside trusted sites).

Natural links tend not to be reciprocal. Artificial links, however, rely heavily on link exchange tactics, suggesting that the sole purpose of the link is reciprocity - having little or nothing to do with adding value for the site visitor by way of providing worthwhile content.

Keeping these facts in mind, one should strive to build the most natural-looking incoming-link structure possible. From a search engine’s point of view (SEPOV), the best kinds of links are unrequested links. The engines are looking to bestow high rankings on only those pages that people voluntarily link to due to great content - not because some webmaster has spent a lot of time swapping links. Read on for tips and tricks on how to build the best incoming-link structure and boost your PageRank dramatically.

Choose Your Links Wisely
While it’s true that almost any link from anyone will add something of value to your page popularity, it’s best to get links from authoritative pages. Such pages are considered important and are usually identified as such by Google within their PageRank scoring system. The higher the PageRank, the better the link. Directory examples would include sites like Yahoo and DMOZ. Others like PBS.org, National Geographic, CNN, or ZDnet would be exceptional authoritative site links regardless of topic since each has been assigned a PageRank of 9 or better on Google’s ten-point scale.

Your next best option is to acquire links from pages that are trusted. Trusted pages are sites that have been indexed for a while and have already been assigned a Google PageRank - usually PR=5 or better. It helps even more if these pages are on-topic - i.e. they match the topic of your page. Links from on-topic trusted pages can give you a significant boost in rankings.

The Number of Links on the Referring Page Matters
Another point to remember is the fewer the number of links on the referring page, the better. Ideally, the referring page would have only one link and it would be to your page. Of course, that’s rarely practical. But, having your link on a page with 100 other links is almost pointless because the value of your link will be divided by the number of links on the page - a condition we call link dilution.

While easier said than done, the ideal would be to get your incoming links from popular, on-topic pages that have few outgoing links within trusted sites scoring PR=6 or better. Now, short of the ideal, bear in mind that every link you can get is likely to help you somewhat - and if you can control how those links appear (in terms of incoming URL-format and anchor text), you’ll be in even better shape.
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Maintain Consistency in the Format of Your Incoming Link URL’s
Question: Are you aware that…

• http://your-site.com
• http://your-site.com/
• http://your-site.com/index.html
• http://www.your-site.com
• http://www.your-site.com/
• http://www.your-site.com/index.html

…are all technically SIX different URLs even though each will land the site visitor on the same webpage?

That’s right. And, if those who link to you use six different URL formats to point visitors to your “home” page then your PageRank is being diluted by a factor of six - not good!

You simply must do everything in your power to standardize your incoming URL-format in order to consolidate your PageRank. Doing so will produce the maximum relevancy-boost possible from your incoming links.

Get Your Keywords into Your Anchor Text
It’s very important that you get your keywords into the text of the link (anchor text) that other sites are using to point visitors your way. True, this may be difficult with directories unless the name of your company includes your keywords. Regardless, the boost in keyword relevancy is significant enough that it’s worthwhile to contact everyone who is linking to you with a specific request regarding the text being used in your link.

If you happen to be selling model airplanes, then anchor text such as airplane models or model airplanes will be infinitely more valuable to your relevance efforts than anchor text simply saying ‘click here’. From an SEPOV, the former states the theme of your page while the later gives the engine no clue whatsoever what your page is about.

A word of caution: it will look more natural from an SEPOV if the text links that are pointing at your site are not identical. Strive to maintain slight variations as would occur if the anchor text were being generated independently by the sites that are maintaining them. Of course, the nature of your business and the name of your company might dictate the range of options available to you. However, do everything in your power to insure that the text being used to point visitors and engines to your site looks natural from an SEPOV.
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This strategy can make a HUGE difference. Generally speaking, from an SEPOV, it’s the anchor text that determines the theme (topic) of your webpage.

The Best Place to Start Getting Links
Rather than swapping links (which should always be your very last strategy), consider some of your alternative options for acquiring incoming links. Probably the best place to start is by submitting your site to web directories. Here’s a list of links to the most important general-topic web directories:

• http://dmoz.org
• http://dir.yahoo.com
• http://www.joeant.com
• http://www.skaffe.com
• http://www.bluefind.com
• http://www.zeal.com/
• http://www.goguides.org
• http://www.gimpsy.com
• http://www.wowdirectory.com
• http://www.sevenseek.com
• http://www.thisisouryear.com
• http://search.looksmart.com

Some of them are free and some charge a fee which, when considering the value of your time, might be worth it to get a new site’s foot in the link-popularity door. Yahoo, LookSmart, and JoeAnt are popular directory sites that fit this description of directory sites that charge but may very well be worth the fee in exchange for the trusted inbound link.

To add your site, look around on the main page of each of these directories for a link that says something like Add URL, Suggest URL, Add Your Site, or Suggest a Site. Follow that link to get details about exactly how to add your site to their directory.

By the way, to avoid unnecessary delays in getting listed, be sure to submit your site to the proper category within each directory. Submitting your site to the wrong category can result in a ridiculously long delay or simply not getting listed at all. Remember that the directory editors receive an enormous number of site submissions. So, save yourself some grief by carefully considering exactly which category your site belongs in before submitting.

We highly recommend reading the Zeal Style Guidelines, which provides detailed information about submitting your site to directories - http://www.zeal.com/guidelines/style/

You should also review the DMOZ Submit FAQ at: http://dmoz.org/help/submit.html

Starting out, it’s time and cost effective to focus on getting into the major directories listed above. Each one that links to you substantiates your site in the eyes of the engines. You get an incoming link from a trusted site and another new source of targeted traffic. However, you need to know that after you get into a few of the major directories the relevancy boost from being listed in general directories drops off pretty fast.

At this point you should start tapping into the power of getting on-topic links. Again, directories are the quickest and easiest way to accomplish this task. For a list of topic-specific directories, go to: http://www.isedb.com/html/Web_Directories/Specialty_Directories/

By the way, when getting listed in topic-specific directories, be sure they provide a direct, static link to your site. In other words, you do not want a dynamic link - one that is processed or created on-the-fly by some software the directory has running on their server. This is not a concern with the major directories as they all tend to use static links. However, many smaller directories like to create their links dynamically. Although this will add to your traffic count, it does nothing to help your search engine ranking efforts. That’s because engines fail to see the connection between the dynamic link and your site’s actual URL.

Link Outside the Box
Figuring out where to get your incoming links from is like solving a puzzle. It takes a little creativity coupled with following formulas and patterns. Ask yourself, who else has a site that might benefit from linking to me?

Suppliers you do business with or professional organizations you’re involved in might be willing to list you on their referrals page. Legal advisors, accountants, or financiers you do business with might also like to list you as a client or maybe showcase your business in their online portfolio. Your employees may have blogs or personal homepages that could link to you, and so forth.

Here are a few more ideas to help you spark that creativity:

• Many online business owners write articles about topics related to their sites. Then they offer to let other sites use them as content in exchange for a link back to the author’s site. You’re probably an expert in the business you’re in and therefore an authority on certain subjects that may lend themselves to interesting reading that becomes worthwhile information for a basket of ancillary products and services.
• “Swap” links with a partner company that you closely do business with - or whose services compliment your own. Look for business partnerships with other websites that are useful to your own customers and whose customers are useful to you. Look for compatible (but not competing) businesses, then form a partnership where you link to each other actively through mutual promotion. Not only can this bring in new traffic and boost your PageRank, but you may also develop important business relationships this way.
• Press releases are an excellent way to gain relevant links to your company’s site. Again, be creative - chances are that there’s a number of reasons (product launches, staff additions, promotions, partnerships, new services, etc.) you can find to release news about your company to the press. Press releases are quickly picked up by the engines and the links contained within them are typically trusted. They also tend to remain on the web for a good long time.
• Another interesting way to promote your own site is to submit testimonials, along with a link to your site, about products you are really enthusiastic about. If the testimonial is well-written, the company will often post it on their site.
• One of the more under-utilized “secrets” for gaining incoming links is to participate in forums that allow a text link to your site within your forum signature. Look for subjects in which you are knowledgeable and begin posting - asking and answering questions. Be sure to make legitimate contributions and you’ll find that your participation will be a welcomed addition in spite of the plug for your site.
• One of the most potentially productive tips - Find out who’s linking to your competitors and convince them to link to you instead. Go to Yahoo and enter:

linkdomain:www.your-competitor.com -site:www.your-competitor.com in the Yahoo search box and you’ll learn who you should contact.

Bear in mind that whenever you’re successful in getting someone to switch, you gain twice. Once for gaining a new link, twice for reducing the incoming link count of your competitor.

If the link is an especially good one (authoritative site in good standing with great incoming links, few outbound links, and high PageRank, then pay them if you have to. Offer them a better deal than the one they have (if any). Do whatever it takes to get those quality links! Write it off under the cost of advertising.

By using your imagination and dovetailing the nuances of your own business into the mix, you’ll no doubt discover a plethora of opportunities for gaining legitimate incoming links.

The “Problem” With Reciprocal Links
When all else fails, you may begin considering reciprocal links. We don’t like this strategy all that much because search engines are continuously getting more sophisticated about detecting artificial linking patterns. Unfortunately, one of the most artificial linking patterns is reciprocal links, since natural link patterns are not typically reciprocal. If Yahoo lists a site in their directory, that site doesn’t routinely link back to Yahoo. Of course there are plenty of exceptions, but, regardless, the engines are looking for pages that rank well due to popularity based on content - and they want to avoid sites where it appears the webmaster has spent a lot of time swapping links.

So, look at things from the search engine’s point of view. If CNN runs an article about how great your company is and your company’s site links back to the CNN article, does that look normal from the SEPOV? …sure it does. Besides, CNN is an authoritative site that is white listed. They can do no wrong in the eyes of the engine and the link exchange looks like a natural link structure from the SEPOV. And, your site’s page can expect a substantial boost in ranking.

On the other hand, if your site (with its PR=4 or 5) is linked by Joe Blow’s homepage with a PR=1, 2, or 3 and you link back to Joe’s page, you shouldn’t expect much, if any, boost in your rankings. In fact, it’s entirely possible the two links are discounting each other based on an assumed link exchange arrangement that looks contrived because neither page is “authoritative” from the SEPOV.
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Now, if you had, say 50 similar link arrangements and the links were on-topic, and none of the pages involved had tripped the spam filters, then your page should get a reasonable boost in rankings. Still, you’d fair better simply by getting a single killer link from an authoritative site like CNN, Yahoo Directory, DMOZ, ZDNet, and so forth.

The point is; focus your efforts on collecting all the links you can from authoritative sites. Most importantly, be very careful about who you link back to because you might just be diminishing any benefit that would otherwise be derived from your incoming link. And, in terms of building page relevancy, there is rarely, if ever, any benefit to linking back to sites that are insignificant, untrusted, or suspected of behaving badly in terms of SE protocol. It can even hurt you.

Be Careful Who You Link Back To!
Gaining links from off-topic and perhaps not-trusted sites may not be your first choice, but, reportedly, it won’t exactly hurt your rankings - they might even help a little. However, beware of getting yourself into a link exchange relationship with these sites and remember that you should not link back to them. Currently, the rule is that incoming links won’t hurt you but outgoing links to sites that behave badly, can.

In other words, if you’re left with only the option to swap links, be sure you do so carefully because linking to a site that has been penalized for policy infractions (i.e. search engine spam) can cause your site to be penalized as well. To help you avoid such a scenario, here are four cautionary steps you should take before linking to another site:

1. Search for their domain name on Google and Yahoo. If they’re not listed on one or either of the engines, that’s a bad sign. Linking to them could get your site penalized and possibly banned. Besides, even if they aren’t a so-called “bad” site, linking to a site that the engines don’t know about won’t help you in the rankings anyway.

However, if they are listed you can proceed to step two.

2. Determine who is already linking to them. The more incoming links they have, the better. And, the more important the sites that are linking to them, the better. Their PageRank score is one indicator of how important Google thinks the site is.

3. Beware of linking to sites or pages with a PR=0 (zero). This could mean that they’ve been penalized by Google. Granted, this test may not apply to very new sites, but if a site has been around for a while and lacks any PageRank, then you should be wary of linking to it.

4. Avoid linking to sites with controversial topics. Good examples of such sites would include gambling, adult, pharmacy, or loan/debt sites (unless you happen to be in one of these industries and the topic matches the content of your page)
Remember:

• You probably won’t be hurt by who links to you.
• However, you can definitely be hurt by who you link to.

Train Your Eye On The Primary Goal - Profits!
Of course, our biggest assumption is that you’re optimizing your site with profits in mind. That being the case, you’ll want to always focus your efforts on strategies and relationships that will generate the most revenue relative to effort. Therefore, look first for link relationships that will produce traffic that fits the profile of your customer market.

While it’s true that incoming links from just about any site provides a slight boost to your page popularity (leading to better search engine ranking), such links all-too-often fail to produce targeted traffic which is what you really should be looking for. This is one of the many reasons a link from a topic-related site is immeasurably better than a link from an off-topic site.

Summary
We’ve covered a lot of ground so let’s review where we’ve been:
1. Focus on creating a natural incoming link structure that builds steadily but gradually over time.
2. Focus on getting links from authoritative sites with high PageRank. If they also happen to be on-topic, then all the better.
3. Its ok to get links from less important sites but remember: the lower the PageRank of a referring page, the more you’ll want it to match your topic.
4. Strive to get your inbound links placed on pages with few outbound links…the fewer the better.
5. See to it that the URL format of your referring links is consistently identical.
6. Get your keywords into the anchor text of your incoming links as much as possible. However, avoid having all identical incoming link anchor text. Strive for some variety.
7. When starting out, focus on the major directories as a source of important links then shift to the topic-specific directories to solidify the theme relevance of your site.
8. Work your trade directories, press releases, suppliers, customers, and testimonials as an outside the box approach to building a gradual, solid, lasting, and natural incoming link structure. Think creatively.
9. Don’t waste a lot of time getting reciprocal links. Their value is diminishing in the current SE environment. We see a time coming when the value of reciprocal links between non-authoritative sites will be discounted or entirely canceled out.
10. Avoid reciprocal links with pages that are designed solely for exchanging links.
11. Avoid linking back to sites that are unlisted by Google or Yahoo. Seriously avoid linking to link farms, web rings or any site that exhibits behavior contrary to a search engine’s recommended protocol. Avoid linking to controversial sites unless they perfectly match the topic of your page.
12. Always remember that profits are your goal. More links does not always add more customers. Avoid wasting energy on projects that may increase link counts but add little or nothing to gain customers that generate profits.

There you have the top 12 essential strategies for building and structuring your inbound links. Of course, building such a natural incoming link structure takes time. That’s precisely why the engines tend to highly rank the sites that conform to this pattern. Over time, experience has taught us that overnight success strategies are fickle while the solid content and slow but steady link building approach remains the cornerstone for succeeding long term.

By Stephen Mahaney

A few weeks ago I was involved in a very strange conversation with some pretty bright people. One publishes a widely circulated industry magazine, another was an industry consultant, and the last was the CEO of a major corporation in the same industry. I’m not sure how the conversation evolved, but towards the end the consultant mentioned that another journal had done an excellent job syndicating their content through blogs and RSS feeds. The comment was quite unremarkable in and of itself. What happened next was not.

“What is an RSS feed?” asked the publisher; “I keep hearing the term ‘blogs’ and ‘blogging’ but have not paid much attention to them, what is a blog?” asked the CEO. A deep moment of silence ensued, it was broken by the consultant’s almost sardonic voice “Jeez man, an RSS feed means Really Simple Syndication you should know all about it, it is core to your business.” The CEO got off a bit easier.

You know what? They are not alone in their ignorance. Most people don’t have a clue what blogs or RSS feeds are. Most don’t need to, but a lot of people who use blogs on a daily basis don’t even think twice about them, how they work or how powerful they are.

So, before we go any further; here’s a definition of what a blog is:
A publication of content and Web links, sorted in chronological order, with the most recent at the top. The content reflects personal or corporate interests, and is almost always written by an individual. Blogs were originally called web logs or weblogs. However, as “web log” can also mean a server’s log files, the term was confusing. To avoid this confusion, the abbreviation “blog” was coined, and became the common term.
Blog content varies dramatically. While often it reflects what is happening in a person’s life, there are many blogs used by companies to distribute content. Some aff�liate / reseller programs use them as a way to control what is published about their company and its offerings on partner sites.

There Are Literally Tens Of Thousands Of Blogs On The Internet Today
The natural question for most is, who started the first blogs, and when? While I have been unable to discover who the first blogger actually was, it does appear that they first appeared in the mid 1990’s. However, they only really began to emerge from the ‘underground’ in 1998. Even at that, they only started to become broadly used in 2001/2002.

Originally, blogs were simply standalone web sites dominated by links and peppered with personal commentaries and observations. They were little more than a person maintaining a personal web site; much like someone would keep a diary, with links pointing to items around the World Wide Web that had caught their interest along the way.

Today, blogs are much more dynamic. Some major corporations’ web sites contain internal blogs, where employees can post their thoughts, ideas and more; sometimes they are public, sometimes not. But mostly, blogs are hosted on independent web sites. When using one of these, the diary keeper, or blogger, logs in and starts posting his or her thoughts in real time to the Internet. Witnesses to events can comment on breaking stories faster than the mainstream media, which usually are at least one hour from being ‘live on the scene’. Thus, bloggers can publish reports and commentaries live on the Internet, and provide information to the world faster than traditional media, all without a publisher or editor to review or approve their work.

Think about it, Monks used to have to handwrite lengthy text to record events. Then Gutenberg came along, and revolutionized the publishing industry by making it possible to mass produce their work. Systems got faster and faster for a few centuries, and then along came the Internet. It became possible for anyone with a computer and a web site somewhere to publish their work and have it visible anywhere around the world in seconds. Today, anyone can spread their message, instantly. Aspiring and established writers alike can bypass the traditional publishing industry, and disseminate their work directly to the public.

Of course, this lack of editorial supervision means that writers, good and bad, no longer have to fear rejection. No one has control over how or what they write and there’s no one looking out for them to keep them out of trouble. As powerful as this may seem, the real power lies in syndication, which gives any writer the ability to broadly distribute their writings by plugging the content into an RSS feed: Really Simple Syndication.

Imagine the possibilities. You can have your content spread through the entire network in the twinkling of an eye, to build an audience overnight. You’ve just tapped into the ultimate in viral marketing and branding. This ability has brought forth a whole new type of guerrilla marketing. While at first blogging was simply seen as something neat to do, when the concept hit the mainstream, people realized that they could be used to build personal and corporate credibility that would attract customers.

If you are thinking about using a blog for your business, the key to remember in making a blog work for you is to focus on a topic that relates to your work and or expertise. Like any other communication medium, blogs’ effectiveness depends upon quality of content and execution. If you plan on starting one for your business, below are some easy steps to follow:

1. Keep it up to date: a blog which people will consider relevant should be updated every few days. Concentrate on providing the most current information on issues facing your industry, or information of interest to your marketplace at large. Also remember to post any breaking news you come across as soon as you find it.

2. Ask for Feedback: Successful blogs encourage reader participation. If you are afraid of criticism, or don’t want to host a debate forum on your ideas, or your company policies, stick to publishing informative articles on your website.

3. Link: to numerous outside resources and to other weblogs with like content. It shows your readers that you are keeping up to date on what is going on elsewhere too.

4. Keep it Simple: use very few graphics, and simple color schemes. Focus on the text; that’s why people come and read your content anyhow. If you discuss many topics, use categorical sections, and keep archives of older material.

5. Remember, you too were clueless about blogs: possibly not all too long ago. Many of your readers are probably clueless regarding blogs, XML, RSS. In fact, many may not know when they are even reading a blog.

6. Be Patient: expect a small readership initially, and allow your audience to grow organically. The better the content you provide, the quicker your audience will grow.

Whether blogging turns out to be a passing fad, or if it proves itself to be a whole new way to communicate with existing and potential customers, you owe it to yourself, and your company to examine what the potential is for you.

Another good reason to consider blogging is most businesses hit a wall at some point, wherein they have posted so much information on their business online that they struggle to find new items to post about themselves which keep their web site looking fresh and attractive, and encourage visitors to come back. For any businesses that have reached this point, blogs may prove to be an answer.

Content is a necessity for online businesses, because it gives visitors a reason to come back.

There are many ways to build a successful blog. What it really comes down to is offering readers relevant, interesting information, and providing links to resources and news. To succeed, it is essential that your blog provides readers more than just facts and links. You need to insert observations and commentaries. Your readers can probably get all the information you are presenting elsewhere. What they can’t get is your commentary or analysis. If it’s good, or humorous, people will remember it, and soon come to consider you an expert in your field.

By Richard Zwicky

It’s a fact. While most link partners are scrupulously honest a few are little more than link scam artists. They’ll take a link from you to them. Put up your link back. But then when you’re not looking take yours down.

They win. You lose.

Now I’m not saying this happens a lot. But it does happen. And if you’re the type this would irritate, you’ve got to have a way to keep your link partners honest.

You do so by monitoring your links. Not like a neurotic every day - unless you want to. But more like a checking the oil in your car. Maybe once a month. Or every six weeks. You know just to keep things on the up and up?

Now sure, if you’ve got nothing better to do, you can do this checking by hand.

• Keep a list of link partners
• Note the page your link appears on
• One by one go to the sites, scan the page and eyeball your link. Up front and personal.

Of course if you’re like me, you’re constantly running out of day before running out of work. So who has time for that?

Besides why do it the hard way when there are some ready made, inexpensive or free even, tools to automate the task for you? Some are loaded with features with a price to match. Others do one thing and do it well - monitor your links.

Here’s a quick list of some options.

• Link Check Pro http://www.link-check.net/
• Reciprocal Link Checker 1.0

http://www.rebrandsoftware.com/showsoftware2.asp?soft_id=18

• Reciprocal Link Monitor http://caribbean-marketing.net/reciprocal/
• Reciprocal Manager http://reciprocalmanager.com/
• Automatic Link Checker http://www.softbizscripts.com/automatic-link-checker-script- features.php
• Reciprocal Link Spider http://www.recip-links.com/

Now you can scurry off and check out each of these and try to decide which might be right for you.

Or if you prefer I can make it easy for you

The Envelope Please�

My favourite and the one I use is
Reciprocal Link Monitor http://caribbean-marketing.net/reciprocal/
I like this one because it runs on your desktop, it’s brain dead simple to use and it’s sole mission in life is to monitor links. Even better since it’s been sold with reprint rights, it can be found online dirt cheap. It’s so easy to use my 80 year old dad could almost do it. All you do is create a text file of the URLs where your link is supposed to be. (If you’ve got more than one site then create one for each.)

• Import that text file into Reciprocal Link Monitor.
• Add the exact URL you want it to find on your partners� page.
• Then unleash Reciprocal Link Monitor and let the software do it’s thing.
• No muss. No fuss. Check as often as you like.

The Runner Up
Like a junk yard dog Automatic Link Checker is ever vigilant. Ever watchful. What some may especially like about this one is it automatically checks your links for you DAILY. And sends you a report of what it does or doesn’t find. Plus it’s cheap. Even better the brilliant minds behind Automatic Link Checker will install it for peanuts. If you admire constant vigilance, then this one is for you.

But wait. There’s a second application here we don’t want to overlook.

You see, while it’s proper protocol to let your new links partner know you put their link up, you’ll soon discover not everyone can be bothered. Leaving that little pain-in-the-neck task of verification up to you.

Well, let’s eliminate it. Here’s how�
When on the prowl for new links (and you are nearly every day, right?) create a list of the links pages of recent link solicitations. Quickly check them with Reciprocal Link Monitor. That’s right let the software check for the presence or absence of new links each day or two. This way you’ll be aware of new links whether your new partner lets you know or not.

By John Gergye