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Posts Tagged ‘links’
Monday, January 21st, 2013
A few short years ago, bloggers scrambled to get rid of the reciprocating links in their sidebars because it was announced that Google was not going to let those links be used for SEO purposes. Many people called it a penalty. It wasn’t a penalty, but Google was adamant that they wouldn’t reward such links either. Recriprocal links became the pariah of SEO tactics.
In fact, if you link to your buddy and your buddy links to you, those links won’t really help you a lot in the search engines. You likely won’t be penalized, but you can do better with your link building strategy.
Here’s another way you can go about building links. It’s not really reciprocal link building. It’s building good will that leads to reciprocating action.
Make a list of people you like and admire. These should be people you’d have no problem promoting because you like what they do. Send them an e-mail and ask them what they’ve done lately that they’d like to get promoted. Then, write about them on your blog and share their content in your social media circles. Don’t ask them to do the same for you. Just do it because you’re nice.
A certain number of those people will feel compelled to do the same for you. Somewhere down the road they will start sharing your content and promoting you.
These aren’t really reciprocal links. But you get the idea. Promote others and they’ll promote you.
Tags: link building, links, reciprocal links
Posted in SEO for Small Business | No Comments »
Friday, October 5th, 2012
There are different types of links. When it comes to your blog, linking for the benefit of your reader is the most important type of link you can create, and you should create as many of these as you can. Don’t be chintzy about your links.
If you want to know how to use links in your blog, here are 4 types of blog links that you should be creating every time you write a blog post. You don’t need each type in every blog post, but you should have at least one of these types of links in most of your blog posts.
- Internal website links – Write a blog post where you discuss a subject that is written about on your blog. Reference your web page on that subject and link to that page. Internal links are great ways to boost your SEO, but it’s also a great way to keep readers on your website longer.
- Previous blog post links – If you write about the same topic on your blog post more than once, add links to previous posts on that topic. This works really well when you write about something with varying nuances.
- Call to action – Sometimes the most effective link is the one where you command your reader to “click here” or use a similar phrase designed to inspire clicking through to the target page. It’s particularly effective when you have something to sell or give away for free. You can use calls to action to sell services, get opt-ins to your newsletter or mailing list, increase your downloads for an e-book or mobile app, or to promote an affiliate product.
- Link to a resource – You don’t always have to link to yourself. You can also link to another blog or a website created by someone else that is a great resource for your readers. Be helpful above all else.
If you want to write a helpful blog for your readers, find ways to link to other content – either your own or someone else’s.
Tags: blogging, internal links, links, SEO
Posted in Blogging for Small Business | 4 Comments »
Saturday, July 28th, 2012
Every website has bad links. If you’ve been online for more than a couple of years and/or you’ve done a fair amount of link building, then you no doubt have some bad links. You might have to go and clean those up a bit. That will include getting rid of some of them or it could mean you just need to clean up your anchor text a bit.
Be forewarned: Link clean up is an activity that takes a lot of time, so make sure it will be a worthwhile endeavor for you before you begin.
For instance, if you have 1,000 links and you notice that 200 of them could use some clean up, that’s a 80/20 ratio in good links to bad. You might be just as well off, or better, to do some positive link building focusing on acquiring links that are good. Then you’ll dilute that ratio and improve your link portfolio.
On the other hand, if your link portfolio is just the reverse – 20/80 good links to bad – then it will definitely be in your favor to clean up those old links.
The first step is to identify the bad links, then you must go through and determine what makes them bad. Is it the anchor text, the page they are linking to, are they sitewide links? Ask the hard questions.
Link clean up is time intensive and could be costly. Many webmasters won’t spend any time helping you fix your links unless you pay them. You’ll have to decide if it is worth it to make that investment and whether or not each link is worth what the webmaster is asking for in payment. It’s not an easy task to accomplish, but link clean up could be an important task and one that you’ll have to spend some time on – if not now, then in the near future.
Tags: anchor text, bad links, link building, link clean up, links
Posted in SEO for Small Business | 3 Comments »
Friday, July 27th, 2012
Great content is everyone’s goal. That is, everyone who attempts to market their business, product, or service online. But why is great content so important? Can’t you do the same thing with mediocre content?
That seems like a silly question, but there is a lot of mediocre content on the Internet. And a lot of bad content. After all, not all content can be great.
Great content is that content that sets itself apart from the rest. It’s content that gets attention without effort. In other words, if you write a blog post and find out three days later that it has attracted thousands of unsolicited links, there’s your great content. But what made it great?
That’s the million dollar question. Greatness is in the eye of the beholder.
Great content is not necessarily well-written content. It can be content that connects on an emotional level with a lot of people. And then, because it’s great, it attracts a lot of links. Those links are not what makes the content great. They are the evidence of its greatness. But that’s not to say that all content with a lot of links is great content. Sometimes, bad content can get a lot of links because the content creator went out and built a lot of links to it thinking it was great. They just wanted to increase their search engine rankings.
Not everyone can create great content. And no one can create great content all the time. So when you sit down to plan your content, don’t think in terms of what will make it great. Instead, think about what questions your readers are asking, then answer those questions.
Tags: content, internet marketing, link building, links
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 4 Comments »
Saturday, June 16th, 2012
If you’re looking for evergreen SEO tactics – those methods of optimizing your website that worked ten years ago, work now, and will continue to work long after most people have forgotten when they started, – then I have some good news for you. Here are 5 ways you can SEO your website that will always work.
- Page Title – Let’s face it, web pages will always need a page title. How you optimize your page title may change from time to time, but optimizing your page title will always be an essential SEO element. Pick a keyword, write a title using it, and make sure it elicits a response from the reader.
- Inbound link anchor text – I don’t see Google ever letting go of the philosophy that inbound links are votes. And anchor text is an important way for them to see what a web page is always about. But be careful, you can overdo it.
- Internal linking – Links within your website are just as important as links coming in from other places. And, yes, anchor text on those links are important too.
- On-page content – Your on-page content needs to be written toward a specific topic. Use keywords, but don’t stuff them. Just lightly pepper your content with the right keywords and a few closely related phrases. That should be good.
- Images – Websites will always need images. And those images will always need to be optimized. One very important way to optimize an image is with a caption. Most SEOs will tell you to use an alt tag. You can, but image captions are better.
Use these 5 SEO tactics and you’ll have a website that does well under any circumstances.
Tags: content, links, SEO, SEO tactics
Posted in SEO for Small Business | 9 Comments »
Monday, January 2nd, 2012
If you look at several websites, you will see different links that will take you to related content. This is a great way to pull your website into the related content. How do you do it? It’s actually quite simple and you will be amazed at why you have not used links more.
There are a lot of different techniques but the main one is using document sharing sites. On document sharing sites like Scribd, you can upload your documents into a pdf file. They can then be distributed all over the Internet. Create links in the document back to your website. This increases your chances of getting found in the search engines.
At the same time, you can also search for relevant content to add to your website. This is a great way of sharing information and using various ways of getting back to your site.
It’s also important to link to previous content within your own website. You may have written an article or something a couple of years ago. But it is still relevant and will get readers to read that as will.
Link building or link marketing has been around for a while but it is still a very resourceful tool for your online business. You can always visit with consultants to find out which link building technique or sites that are best suited to your needs.
One thing to remember, where you get back links is more important than what you do. Be sure to use multiple sources to get the best exposure.
Tags: content, internet marketing, link building, links, online marketing, small business
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 5 Comments »
Saturday, December 10th, 2011
How many times have we all gone to a website only to have a dozen things flying off the page at you or taking over your screen and you inadvertently click on something wrong? It happens a lot. A lot of people do not like these fly-in pages.
Not everyone is computer savvy and many people don’t even know what those pages are. Users want a clean, simple and user-friendly site. That will clearly state what the website is about and list some of the items that may be for sale if it is an e-commerce website.
Navigation is also key. Have clear, easy-to-read links to other pages within your website. This way, viewers can easily navigate from one page to the next. It is also important to make sure you have a clear place for reader comments. Be sure to read them and answer them. They may very well be a question about something they want to buy or maybe a suggestion about something. Interaction with online customers is just as important as face-to-face customers.
Making sure your links are working properly in addition to working shopping carts. This is the single most aggravating thing for a viewer. They have gone through the process, get to check out and the shopping cart is empty. Instead of going back and doing it again, they will just leave the site. You have then lost a sale. Another thing no one will wait on is page loading times. If your pages load too slowly because of the graphics, people will leave.
Take some time to visit your website and see what your visitors see. You will be able to determine where you need improvement.
Tags: internet marketing, link building, links, website, website development
Posted in website development | 4 Comments »
Friday, October 7th, 2011
Google+ just seems to keep getting more and more popular. But should we consider it content marketing?
That’s an interesting question and it really gets to the heart of what exactly is content marketing. So let’s answer that question.
Content marketing goes beyond your own Web properties. When you build a web page for your website, that’s content marketing. When you write a blog post for your blog, that’s content marketing. But is that all there is to it? In a word, no.
Content marketing is any effort you undertake to draw attention to your content, your products, your services, or your brand. In that regard then, links can themselves be a form of content marketing. Social media is a form of content marketing.
That extends the concept into farther reaches. When you put a Like button on your blog, that’s a kind of content marketing. It allows your readers to show their approval or their affinity for your content through their own social media profile on Facebook. As a result, your content gets pushed farther that it could or would otherwise.
Google+ operates on the same concept. You write a blog post and share it on Google+. That content has the potential to go places that it wouldn’t go by virtue of your extended network on Google+.
When you think of content marketing, you have to think about it terms of its full potential. Don’t get sidetracked into thinking it’s only what you produce on your Web properties.
Tags: content marketing, google, links, website
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 6 Comments »
Saturday, September 17th, 2011
You’d think that SEO is some kind of magic if you listen to some professionals in this field. Only an expert SEO can do this. Watch Ma, no hands!
The truth is, SEO is no voodoo science. There’s no magic bullet. No magic words you can say to make your pages rank well in the search results. It just takes good old-fashioned hard work.
Of course, there are different ways to get the job done.
Some SEOs swear by their keywords. Others swear by their links. But you need both. Keywords and links.
Usually, SEOs talk about on-page SEO factors and off-page SEO factors. The on-page factors include things like page titles, meta tags, internal links, alt tags, etc. Off-page SEO factors generally are a reference to links.
But even within those two categories, there are a variety of factors that can influence your search rankings. Quality, age of domain, age of link, anchor text, etc. Your job as SEO is to think about all of those factors.
Some SEOs develop a formula. Do they work? Probably, to some extent. But there is no SEO-by-the-numbers routine that works for every web page. You have to understand the principles at work and play up to those. If you do it well, you can make any web page rank respectably.
Tags: keywords, links, SEO
Posted in SEO for Small Business | 4 Comments »
Friday, September 16th, 2011
A very prominent SEO and veteran Internet marketer recently said that keywords are no longer necessary. Just write content, he says. The search engines will rank you.
Is there wisdom in that or is it a bit misguided?
I certainly believe that social media has changed the stakes of the game. You can feasibly build a business model completely around social media marketing, in which case keywords are not necessary. You could promote your content through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Klout, Foursquare, YouTube, and every other social media giant out there and do just fine. No keywords necessary.
But I subscribe to a holistic view of Internet marketing. What I mean by that is, you want to give yourself every bit of an edge that you possibly can – in social media and in the search engines. To succeed at building yourself an edge, keywords are certainly helpful.
Many SEOs proclaim that keywords in titles are helpful to your on-page SEO. I’ll have to agree. That’s been my experience.
The prominent SEO mentioned above says keywords in titles aren’t necessary because it is your inbound links that are pushing you up in the rankings. But I’ve seen pages rank prominently without the links. So, no, I’ll have to say that’s bad advice.
I’m not saying links aren’t necessary. I’m not saying they aren’t helpful. I’m saying links alone are not going to give you the edge. Nor will on-page keyword stuffing. You have to focus on the big picture and that means honing your on-page content with SEO in mind.
Tags: keywords, links, SEO, Social Media
Posted in SEO for Small Business | 6 Comments »
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