Search Engine News :: Optimise Web Sites for Organic Search

Tuesday, August 26, 2003

Link Building Tip - Google Alert: "The Google alert tool (http://www.googlealert.com/) keeps a watch on new entries within the top 50 on Google for one of up to 5 keywords or/and a total of 150 query requests. How it works is it will email you every time a new entry enters the top xx (where xx is the number of results you wish to test) for a chosen keyword. So I have used for example as a related term to my website the keyword ‘web design’.

Each time a new site enters the top 50 with that search term I get an email with the domain and the exact rank.
The webmaster of this website makes for a great potential link partner.

"Here's Why
1. The webmaster is obviously active as his/her ranking didn’t just enter the top 50 because he sat on his thumbs. This signals a willingness to change things.

2. The webmaster may not know he has just entered the top 50 so you could be the one bearing good news and informing him/her the ranking may get higher with an exchange of links due to Pagerank factors. Which you can imagine be quite effective :-)

3. The site may well be new, so you might be the first to be asking for a link exchange. This is always good news of course as you get in before the space runs out or whatever.

4. If the site is ranked in the top 50, it is fair to assume the site has a reasonable Google PageRank. Normally above 3 or four for semi competitive phrases."