Let’s get to what you need to do to achieve supreme link popularity and improve your rankings to stellar status on all the popular search engines.

There are a few things you should be aware of. The first is that just linking up with a large number of other websites will not achieve link popularity. In fact, it may have quite the opposite effect. This is particularly true when pertaining to websites that are nothing more than "link farms". These link farms have pages containing line after line of indiscriminate links. Search engines may aggressively discriminate against your website if you are associated with a link farm, so steer clear of them.

The next thing to bear in mind is the quality of the site you’re linking to. Never link to a page you have reservations about your visitors seeing. The last thing you want your website to appear as is indiscriminate and cheap. Linking to sites of poor quality will only lessen your link popularity, if not completely destroy it.

The first step t get started, and the fastest way to get your foot in the door, is to get a listing in a popular directory, such as Open Directory Project and Yahoo. If your site is business-related, you will want to be listed on Yahoo. Despite the fact that it will cost you around $300 a year, it will be money well spent. If your site is non-commercial, the listing will be free but it will take time and follow-up to actually get it listed. Open Directory (DMOZ) gives you a free listing whether you are business-related or non-commercial, but be prepared to wait a long time. They are notoriously slow and always backlogged for months.

You are aiming to get listed in the highest level of appropriate category and this just takes some commonsense. For example, if your company ships earthworms from an earthworm farm located in the middle of Nowhere, Tiny State, do NOT submit your listing to "Retailers from Nowhere, Tiny State." BIG MISTAKE! All you have to do is look a little deeper - and submit your listing to the "Fine Earthworm" category. You will not only associate yourself with culture and quality, but you will be listed in a national category.

After submitting to these two directories, start on the next step. Don’t waste time waiting to see if your submission goes through - move ahead now.

The next step is to locate other quality sites that will increase your link popularity. Try to find sites that are in some way related to yours, so not only will your link popularity increase, but your customer base may also be expanded. You want to avoid your competitors and look for sites that are useful to your site’s visitors.

Let’s look at the earthworm site example. Linking up to a site that sells fishing supplies would be helpful to your visitors and the chances of the fishing supply site wanting to link up to your site are also greater. By linking to a related site that is relevant to your website’s traffic, you are increasing both of your site’s business prospects - and both of your sites’ link popularity.

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