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After the change in how reciprocal links are valued by the search engines, there were a lot of questions about existing link directories. This post attempts to address some of those issues.
What should I do with my link exchange directory?
This is a question many people are asking. Having a reciprocal link exchange directory, even if the pages have been deindexed by Google, has not been shown to affect ranking in Google. There is also no indication that Google will penalize a site for having such a directory — they just may not pay any attention to it.
And, if you use a tool like this MarketLeap Link Popularity checker, you will probably find that Yahoo and MSN are showing reciprocal links coming to your website. So, unless evidence arises to the contary, our advice at this point would be to just leave your directory alone. Google is probably not punishing you for it, and the other search engines are recognizing those links. [UPDATE: There is now evidence that the search engines are penalizing sites if they have a large number of link exchanges on pages devoted to listing other real estate agents. This is especially true if you have a large number of links to sites that you are related to in some way - for example, Advanced Access sites that linked to a large number of other Advanced Access sites. It is still true that striking a balance between various types of links is the best strategy. Fewer quality incoming links will be more effective than large quantities of links that seem to have no purpose!]
This is especially true if your site is new, or newly optimized. You need incoming links to get found and indexed by the search engines. You will need to be more careful now to make sure that reciprocal linking isn’t the major player in your link strategy.
Expand your link exchange strategy
There are a variety of other ways to obtain incoming links - one way and content-based reciprocal links. You can trade real estate articles with other webmasters. And you can submit articles to online article sites such as www.GoArticles.com and www.EzineArticles.com, among many, many others. Those two sites allow live links in the body of articles, and both have Real Estate categories. You need to carefully review the author guidelines on each site in order to set up the articles to get the most benefit.
There are also a lot of directories that you can submit to. We have a list of directories we consider to be authority sites for real estate marketing. And, check out this list of real estate directories compiled by OverlyReal.com.
Other alternatives include publishing press articles on sites such as PRWeb.com.
If you’ve got a great way to obtain quality incoming links, please let us know!
so what happens if you have a point2 professional site and you don’t change any of the headers, does it take longer to be recognized?
Frank - When a Point2 site is first generated, it has some standard pages on it to give you a start. To get recognized by the search engines you need original content pages that are optimized for keywords that will bring you targeted traffic. And, if you want the pages that Point2 gives you to count, you’ll need to make the content on those pages original and targeted at specific keywords also.
And, when you get the code for your MyBlogLog widget you have a chance to change the width of it. Try it about 150px wide or so and it will fit into that left column just right!
Kathleen
I see. So should I go through each page and check the wording? also, do I just right click on the widget now and change it? I see you went to the site, constructive critique is highly appreciated. (I’m not sensitive….)
You’d probably be better off updating the home page since that’s key, then add some pages that are targeted at your area. Here’s an example of the type of information that can help make your site sticky and attract search engines at the same time.
For your blog log display, you’d need to go to your MyBlogLog account, to the widgets page. Somewhere there is a place to control the width, color, etc. Change the width, copy the code that is generated and replace it for the code that’s on your site now.
Kathleen
kathleen, I failed to thank your for that last bit of advice, I did the changes you suggested, so we’ll see. Still trying to figure out the widget thing. Thanks again.
Frank, thanks for stopping back by. For the MyBlogLog widget, it’s best to go to http://www.mybloglog.com and set up your own account. Then, you can get the code for the widget at the width that will work best for you. On a Point2 site, put that code in an Advanced Content module, not a Custom Content module. The Advanced Content is specifically intended for HTML code.
Best of luck!
Kathleen
Thanks Kathleen, and thanks for the advise, I’ll save this email and take care of it. Good to know there are still people out there to help you out, you’re a star!
Aw shucks. Thanks!