Do submit your site to the Open Directory Project (OPD or DMOZ). A listing in
the OPD is considered golden as the ODP feeds so many other directories,
which will result in multiple listings for your site.
Do submit your site to Yahoo. It costs $300 a year to be reviewed and listed
on Yahoo but this is a pretty small price to pay once a year compared with
the number of people that use Yahoo.
Do submit your site to Business.com if you have are a B2B (business-to-
business) site. It costs $100 a year to be listed here but is well worth it for the
quality of traffic you get.
Do exchange links with all sites that offer similar or complementary services
to yours, with specialized portals (vortals) and directories, and with industry
associations.
Do create your own Related Links page rather than have it automatically
generated by a program. Google has been known to penalize sites that
generate Links pages using "cookie-cutter" template pages.
Do include a link to your site in your "signature" line when you post in forums,
blogs, or newsgroups. This also applies when submitting articles or sending
out newsletters.
Do link to each page on your site from your home page (or your sitemap
page) and back again. This will help funnel PageRank to your most important
pages.
Do include inline links on your site. Inline links appear in the body of a
paragraph rather than in a navigation menu. Google likes the neighboring text
that surrounds inline links.
Do use simple A HREF format links rather than JavaScript to generate the
link. Google may have a harder time deciphering your link otherwise.
Do actively monitor who links to you. You need to track this on a regular basis
to make sure your link is added oo sites you have agreed to trade links with.
DON'T
Don't use "click here" as the text link for any link, ever. Otherwise, Google
may decide your site is about "click here."
Don't exchange links with link farms, link free-for-alls (FFAs), or other sites
that are obvious spam.
Don't exchange links with unrelated sites simply to boost the number of links.
Your customers won't be on these sites and it don't help with Google.
Don't have broken links on your site. While not as critical with Google, Yahoo
routinely checks your site for broken links. Plus, it is unprofessional.
Don't "hide" your links using JavaScript, forms or other methods, unless you
have a legitimate reason for doing so.
Don't have your Links page automatically generated by a program. Google
has been known to penalize sites that generate links pages using "cookie-
cutter" template pages.
