Two of your most crucial concerns will be to maximize the number of visitors to your web site and boost your position on a search engine, and a prime method of assisting in these areas is to create links from other sites directly to yours. I want to show you four manageable methods of creating these links and also demonstrate how to investigate your own site's popularity.

Essentially, there are two kinds of link that can be generated. The first of these is the inbound link, or the backlink as it is also known, which is basically where a different site provides a link guiding visitors to you. The good thing about backlinks is that it makes no difference whether or not the other site has similar content to your own; the link can still exist.

The other kind of link, and the one that it is most useful for you to attempt to develop, is the reciprocal link, which implies that you and the other site, literally, exchange links, guiding visitors to each other's sites. Reciprocal links need to be from sites which have similarities with your own as you might well find that search engines object if they do not.

The following suggestions are four ways in which you can find suitable websites to enable you to build up these invaluable reciprocal links.

1 Using Search Engines

First of all, consider the keywords or terms which you believe relate to your own website and then run a search for them on any one of the predominant search engines. This should provide you with a number of sites that you can then review in order to find those with a similar ethos to your own. Then, contact the webmaster of each of these sites, with a view to establishing a reciprocal link. Make sure that you carry out this quest thoughtfully; think about how you would like to be approached and go about it in the same way. Personally address your proposition and aim it specifically at whom you are writing - thus avoiding the 'one size fits all' blanket approach. The time spent personalizing the letter will be time well spent. Also, make sure that you illustrate how you would link to their site and give them the information you would want them to post in reciprocation.

2 Using the Links of your Competitors

If you don't already know who your on-line competitors are, then you really need to find out. Carry out a keyword search to identify your competition and then discover with whom they have recipocal links. It's not unethical for you to then make your own contact with those links, to offer them a similar reciprocal arrangement with your own site. You will find that they will invariably agree, as you are going to have related content with both their own site and the one they already have links with.

3 Building Good Relationships

A more subtle and time-consuming manner of developing links is to develop a good relationship with a particular site over a period of time. For example, if you know of a site that has similarities of content with your own, then it is a good idea to subscribe to their newsletter, or contribute to their blog or forum, or submit e-articles or testimonials relating to their products or services. In this way, you will be able to form a relationship with the site, and particularly its webmaster, and consequently develop a strong reciprocal link with them.

4 Using Third Party Software and Services

Although I am not going to recommend any specific software - after all, different things are suitable for different needs - suffice it to say that there is a large amount of suitable material out there for you to employ to help identify potential partners.

I can, however, mention that you can download, free of charge, an enhanced toolbar from Alexa, which can, amongst other things, estimate how much traffic a specific site generates. You can find this at alextoolbar-dot-com/site/download

On a related theme, if you go to AddMe-dot-com/popularity-dot-htm you can discover those sites that already link to you.

Obviously, the more effective, high-quality reciprocal links that you have, the better, as these can only increase the number of hits you are going to receive. It is abundantly clear, therefore, that your linking strategies must form a vital part of your long-term planning.