There are literally billions of web pages out there. Everything you can imagine, businesses selling all sorts of goods and services, information for free and for sale. Saying that the internet is a phenomenon is not doing it justice. The internet has, in fact, changed everything. It may sound cliché, but there has arguably never been an invention in the history of humankind that has such a major impact. Indeed, the only thing that may even come close is the advent of agriculture millions of years ago. Understanding the sheer power of the internet is the first step to using it to your advantage and learning how to use the benefits derived from text links is another. There is a universe of opportunity out there if you know how to harness and utilize it and one of the ways to harness the opportunities offered on the Internet is to take advantage of text links to increase your page ranks.

That being said, how do you get your business and your web page noticed among all the billions of other web pages. You may have a product or service that you think is unique, but in truth there are probably many other businesses around the globe selling the exact same product, service, or information that you are trying to sell. Before the internet, all but the largest companies only had to worry about competing with people in the same town; now even smaller businesses have to figure out how to make a name for themselves on the world marketplace to compete.

Start by doing an experiment. Go to your favorite web-based search engine: Google, MSN, Yahoo, Excite, ICQ, Dog Pile, etc. Any one will do for your purposes. Now, type in the keywords for your business, let’s say you sell aromatherapy soap, so you should type in aromatherapy soap into the search engine window. How many different web pages come back? Well, for aromatherapy soap, a search on Google returns nearly 4.5 million web pages. If your potential customer specifies shop in their keyword search, that number dwindles to 1.75 million web pages. That is still a heck of a lot of competition.

It is a well-known fact that people tend to only look at the first page or two of results to find what they are looking for. That means that for your business to succeed on the internet, your business needs to appear as close to the front of that search as possible, in other words, you need to increase your page rank. When people type in the keywords for your business, your business web page needs to appear on the first page or two of the search results. So how can you accomplish this? Keyword density helps, but it will only get you so far. What you really need to increase your page rank is links. You need other sites, many other sites, to provide a link to your site. Not just any other sites either, you need popular sites to link to your website, you need to tap into a network of popular websites. This is by far and away the best way to increase your page rank on Google or any other search engine for that matter.

This may sound like a daunting task, but it really doesn’t have to be. You can get all sorts of links to your website with a minimal amount of effort by making sure you submit your pages to many different web directories. There are many web directories out there on the internet. There are some that are free, while others you have to pay for. Not only are their general interest directories, there are also directories that exist for specific areas. Taking the example used earlier of the business selling aromatherapy soap, you can submit your links to general interest web directories, health and beauty related directories, arts and crafts directories, just be creative.

Another way to increase the number of pages that link to you is to ask appropriate people to review your product. Just like book reviews can propel a book to the top of all the best-seller lists and positive movie reviews can increase box-office sales, positive reviews on you and your product can increase your page rank. Ask people who use your product and liked it to write positive reviews on it. You can offer incentives like a discount, and it would be well-worth it. There are websites that serve as places where ordinary consumers can review products they purchased on the web. Oftentimes, they can post a link to your webpage within their review. Keep in mind, however, that posing as a customer when you are the site owner is not only unethical, it will probably get you shunned from that particular board if you are ever found out. Again, be creative, there are literally thousands of message boards out there designed for the general population to share information about a particular product. Having positive reviews and links to your website will increase your page rank, and the positive reviews will convince people that your product is the best.

Another way to increase your page rank through text links is by placing links to popular, related (but not competing) websites in the text on your webpage. Deep linking, that is linking to a page buried in a particular site is frowned upon, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with linking to the front page of a site. For example, say you are still selling that aromatherapy soap. You can link to the webpage of noted psychologists or other professionals that will vouch for the efficacy of aromatherapy soap. Or say you use only animal-friendly products; you can link to a page that is considered an authority in cruelty free products. By putting the links to popular websites within your website, you are increasing your own page rank.

These are just a couple of the ways that you can use text links to increase your web page’s rank on all of the major search engines. The same rules apply now that have always applied, have a good product and provide great customer service. If you think about it, networking on the web isn’t so different from getting business via word of mouth in your hometown; you just need to go about it a little bit differently.

About The Author

Daniel Smith writes about Text Links and Page Rank http://www.LinksAttack.com.