One of the most effective methods for building link popularity today is by getting links from blogs. This might make one wonder why so many blogs tend to develop strong Google PageRank over time.

The reason is because blogs are updated frequently. This means that they are spidered and indexed on an ongoing basis. And that is the primary reason the major search engines, as well as dmoz (The Open Directory Project) , include so many blogs in their listings.

Many bloggers freely and willingly link to other blogs that publish content they like. They will also make posts on blogs if they disagree with something, or just plain think their readers will be interested in a subject.

Bloggers tend to view the web as a community. Their approach to the web is more sociable than webmasters who see the Internet as a collection of business competitors.

Therefore, you can get links to and from other blogs by providing thoughtful comments that relate to the subject. Sometimes, simply letting the blogmaster know you publish a blog on their topic can be the beginning of a theme-based link exchange that's 100% natural.

While Google may be getting more fussy about how much importance it assigns to reciprocal links on static sites, that fussiness doesn't seem to extend to blogs, so far. Just check the backlinks for any blog that accepts comments, and you'll see an explosion of reciprocal links.

Since most new blog links appear on the home page, spidering is fast. Also, most blog software automatically assigns each post a "permalink." This is an unchanging link and allows older posts to remain "alive" in the search engines long after they are no longer shown on the home page.

How-To

To get the most link benefits from a blog, follow these simple rules:

(1) Make sure you host your blog on your own domain rather than a free service. WordPress (www.Wordpress.org) is the most commonly used blogging platform. It is open source and is easily installed if your web host offers Fantastico as a built in script library.

(2) Be sure to post to your blog frequently - at least two times per week, and preferably more often.

(3) Link from your blog's home page to your static site once your blog's PR matures. By doing this, you can maximize the impact of the high PR by linking your home page with good anchor text.

(4) Make sure you do more than just blog. Networking and social interaction is part of the "blogosphere." Let other blogmasters in your niche know about your blog.

(5) Modify your blog to include the equivalent of a sitemap and/or a "most popular" page. Because virtually all blog software lacks a real sitemap and strong link structure, PageRank tends to "sit" on the home page and not infiltrate into your internal pages.

NEVER engage in comment spam - Your comment of "me too," or other irrelevant comments are not going to get you anywhere but banned from the site!

(6) Submit your blog to directories. Be sure your RSS feed is working properly so you can add it to directories that accept feeds.

(7) And last but not least, always make blog links just one part of your overall link strategy. They are, after all, just a special type of reciprocal link - and as such, could take a hit from an algorithm update just like any other link tactic.

The number of special "blog only" directories is experiencing phenomenal growth. Static web sites can't get into these directories, but blogs can. So even if you're unconcerned with the indexing power of "blog and ping," don't underestimate the linking and PR enhancing benefits of a blog.