|
Utilizing Award Sites
|
By Claude Beavers
[Hits: 5119]
|
|
Why Award Sites?
Award sites are, in essence, directories that hand review sites,placing the ones with the most or best content and services atthe top of the list. These sites are an excellent source of highquality, targeted traffic, and should be utilized by any sitelooking to promote themselves online. High rankings on thesesites are not based on the amount of links you have or thevolume of traffic your site maintains per month, but rather onwho has the best site in their opinion. This makes it one of thebest places to start off your promotion campaign for yourwebsite.
To get high listings in these sites, you will generally want tohave a lot of high quality, topic related content, as well as alayout that is easy to navigate and pleasing to the eye. With ahigh ranking on these sites, you will generate quite a bit oftargeted traffic to your site, as well as get a nice link out ofthe deal. These sites are generally very popular, as well,helping out your rankings in the search engines while bolsteringyour traffic.
Some awards sites require a link back to their page in exchangefor a ranking on their site. You can opt to not exchange linkswith these sites and move on to the "catch-free" sites, but inall fairness, a simple reciprocal link is well worth the trafficand reputation boost you will receive with a high listing. Manyweb browsers will stumble onto these sites in search of the"best" site for whatever subject they are interested in, and mayfind your site the most appealing to them. The only way for themto find you early on, however is through links from other hightraffic sites.
Finding a Related Award Site
Finding an award site is not difficult at all, depending on yourtopic. Try your favorite search engine with the phrase "top 10 sites." More than likely you will receive a myriad ofresults. Skip over the sites that are not award related, andfocus on the award sites for now. Make a list of the mostappealing award sites / top 10 sites to you, as these will mostlikely be the ones that are most appealing to other webbrowsers. Later you will be trying to get in the top listingsfor as many as you can, so don't skip over any just yet. Beforeyou get started submitting, make sure the content on your sitehas been read through and looks good. Typos throughout yourarticles and pages can be a major detriment to your rankings onthe award sites out there. You might also want to include a fewextra pages with simple articles to be sure that you have plentyof unique content. This will help enormously with your rankings,both on awards sites and on the major search engines, so takeyour time and do them right.
Submitting to Award Sites
Once you are sure of your content and services / productsoutline, go ahead and begin submitting to your list of awardsites. Many of these, as stated above, will require a link totheir site before linking to you, so have your links up andready before you begin. It will save you time in the end, andwill reduce the chances of accidentally not adding a link andgetting denied by the site you submitted to.
If an email is required to have your site listed, be sure towrite a short, but descriptive letter to their site. Includewhat the site specifies, and it always helps to add a paragraphstating that you already have a link to their site on yours.Don't forget to include a link to the exact page you placedtheir link on, so that it is easy to find. With a reciprocallink placed already, most sites will not have any problem withlinking back to you as soon as they get your email. Don't bediscouraged if your site is not within the top 10 on their siteafter just submitting it. With a little bit of time and effortyou can always raise your ranking on an awards site.
Also, be sure to keep a list of which sites did link back toyou, and delete the links for the ones that did not. This willkeep your links page clean and neat, increasing your chances ofgetting a higher listing in the award sites you have linked to.
Getting Higher Rankings on Award Sites
Now that you are listed in a few award sites, it's time to startfocusing on getting a higher ranking in them. Always keep freshcontent on your site. This will help your ranking not only onthe award sites, but on the search engines and directories aswell. With new, unique content and constant updates to yoursite, you will stand a much better chance of being seen as an"expert" in your field, and your site will never grow stagnantor outdated.
Periodically send an email to the award sites you are listed on,informing them of updates since your last email. If the sitessee that you are updating and improving your site daily, theywill be much more apt to rank you higher on their list.
Another good tip is to keep the links to the award sites towardthe top of your link page, or on a separate page altogether,linked from your main page. This will increase traffic to theaward sites, further improving your relations with them. If youare sending three times as much traffic to their site than thecurrent #1 listing, chances are good that the #1 will soon be #2on their list.
Always keep in mind that there is lots of competition on theinternet, regardless of which product or service you arepromoting. The important thing is to remember that "you get whatyou pay for." In other words, the harder you work at something,the better the results are going to be.
|
|
|
|
