We all know the importance of incoming links to our web site. The more incoming links you have, the better your position in search engines. A measure for incoming links is the google PageRank (PR), which you can see on the google toolbar. Another good measure is the linkdomain command in Yahoo search. To know how many links there are to your web site, type linkdomain:www.mydomain.com and see the number of results. The number of incoming links is also sometimes called link popularity.

The number of links is not all that counts: There are good and bad quality links. A link is generally of good quality if the linking page has a high PageRank.

Many people think that the best way to increase the number of incoming links is participating in link exchanges. But I would advise against this. There are much better ways to increase your link popularity.

1. Distribute freeware

One good was to increase your number of incoming links is developing software or an ebook and giving it away for free. Put up a dedicated web page on your web site, and make sure this web page links back to your web site’s home page. Then submit your free products to all freeware and download sites. You can use specialized software or services to do this. You can find an example at Rudenko Software.

However, one important thing to keep in mind: Make sure that what you are giving away is valuable. Stay away from junk. Junk will give you a bad name.

2. Distribute articles

Another good way to increase your link popularity is by distributing articles. Write a large number of articles and submit them all using a specialized service. This can give great results.

3. Press releases

Distributing a press release is very similar to distributing an article. The results are very similar. You can distribute your press releases for free with PRWeb.

4. Blogging

Blogging offers several ways of increasing your link popularity. First, you can submit your blog to blog directories. Second, you can write follow-ups to popular blogs and post trackback links. Third, your readers may write about your blog and post links to your blog. Of course, for this to be effective, make sure that all pages in your blog link to your web site’s home page.

Be very careful to stay away from spamming. When you post a trackback, make sure that your posting is relevant and that your comments will be appreciated.

5. Wiki pages

This is often overlooked, but it’s a very simple idea. You can search for wiki pages relevant to your web site and edit them to include a link to your web site. The idea is simple, but you have to be very careful here. Don’t spam. Only post a link on highly relevant pages. Don’t overdo it.

6. Online forums

You should also participate in online forums. Don’t post blatant advertisings in the forums, but participate in the discussions and answer questions. Make sure the other participants start to know and trust you. Put the URL of your web site in your signature.

Posting comments to blogs is very similar and can also work, but be extremely careful here. Blogs are being spammed so much that most bloggers will not appreciate any comments that look even a little bit suspicious. Don’t do anything beyond posting very relevant comments and including your URL in the From line.

Using a combination of the 6 techniques just discussed allows you to have a very large number of incoming links, and to have a wide variety in links. Each technique will give you links from a different type of web site. Having all these diverse web sites link to you will give amazing results, beyond anything you ever expected.