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Author: Claude Beavers Article source: http://www.selfseo.com/. Used with author's permission.
Why Award Sites?
Award sites are, in essence, directories that hand review sites, placing the ones with the most or best content and services at the top of the list. These sites are an excellent source of high quality, targeted traffic, and should be utilized by any site looking to promote themselves online. High rankings on these sites are not based on the amount of links you have or the volume of traffic your site maintains per month, but rather on who has the best site in their opinion. This makes it one of the best places to start off your promotion campaign for your website.
To get high listings in these sites, you will generally want to have a lot of high quality, topic related content, as well as a layout that is easy to navigate and pleasing to the eye. With a high ranking on these sites, you will generate quite a bit of targeted traffic to your site, as well as get a nice link out of the deal. These sites are generally very popular, as well, helping out your rankings in the search engines while bolstering your traffic.
Some awards sites require a link back to their page in exchange for a ranking on their site. You can opt to not exchange links with these sites and move on to the "catch-free" sites, but in all fairness, a simple reciprocal link is well worth the traffic and reputation boost you will receive with a high listing. Many web browsers will stumble onto these sites in search of the "best" site for whatever subject they are interested in, and may find your site the most appealing to them. The only way for them to find you early on, however is through links from other high traffic sites.
Finding a Related Award Site
Finding an award site is not difficult at all, depending on your topic. Try your favorite search engine with the phrase "top 10 sites." More than likely you will receive a myriad of results. Skip over the sites that are not award related, and focus on the award sites for now. Make a list of the most appealing award sites / top 10 sites to you, as these will most likely be the ones that are most appealing to other web browsers. Later you will be trying to get in the top listings for as many as you can, so don't skip over any just yet.
Before you get started submitting, make sure the content on your site has been read through and looks good. Typos throughout your articles and pages can be a major detriment to your rankings on the award sites out there. You might also want to include a few extra pages with simple articles to be sure that you have plenty of unique content. This will help enormously with your rankings, both on awards sites and on the major search engines, so take your time and do them right.
Submitting to Award Sites
Once you are sure of your content and services / products outline, go ahead and begin submitting to your list of award sites. Many of these, as stated above, will require a link to their site before linking to you, so have your links up and ready before you begin. It will save you time in the end, and will reduce the chances of accidentally not adding a link and getting denied by the site you submitted to.
If an email is required to have your site listed, be sure to write a short, but descriptive letter to their site. Include what the site specifies, and it always helps to add a paragraph stating that you already have a link to their site on yours. Don't forget to include a link to the exact page you placed their link on, so that it is easy to find. With a reciprocal link placed already, most sites will not have any problem with linking back to you as soon as they get your email. Don't be discouraged if your site is not within the top 10 on their site after just submitting it. With a little bit of time and effort you can always raise your ranking on an awards site.
Also, be sure to keep a list of which sites did link back to you, and delete the links for the ones that did not. This will keep your links page clean and neat, increasing your chances of getting 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 start focusing on getting a higher ranking in them. Always keep fresh content on your site. This will help your ranking not only on the award sites, but on the search engines and directories as well. With new, unique content and constant updates to your site, you will stand a much better chance of being seen as an "expert" in your field, and your site will never grow stagnant or outdated.
Periodically send an email to the award sites you are listed on, informing them of updates since your last email. If the sites see that you are updating and improving your site daily, they will be much more apt to rank you higher on their list.
Another good tip is to keep the links to the award sites toward the top of your link page, or on a separate page altogether, linked from your main page. This will increase traffic to the award sites, further improving your relations with them. If you are sending three times as much traffic to their site than the current #1 listing, chances are good that the #1 will soon be #2 on their list.
Always keep in mind that there is lots of competition on the internet, regardless of which product or service you are promoting. The important thing is to remember that "you get what you pay for." In other words, the harder you work at something, the better the results are going to be. You can see other articles by Claude Beavers on this topic at: SuperFaster.com - Free Web Promotion Articles and Resources
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