Obtaining links is a major part of search engine optimization and marketing. Whether you try reciprocal linking, news releases, or writing articles in your area of expertise, different strategies to improve your search engine ranking and attract traffic to your site is an important part of your marketing efforts. Here are three linking strategies to help your search engine ranking.
Exchanging links with sites that have similar topics or themes can be quite useful for both your sites. There are some site directories that will even register your site and search for sites with comparable content. Some examples include SiteSell Value Exchange, Zeus, and IBP Link Builder. Be careful not to use these sites for contacting potential exchange sites as the emails are likely to be impersonal and spam-like. Instead, visit the site and assure yourself of your compatibility, then use the contact information on their site to contact them. If they don't respond, try a phone call. Search engines pay close attention to links, so be very, very sure to exchange links with a site that is complimentary to yours. Exchanging links is called reciprocal linking and while it doesn't cost you, it can be awfully time-consuming and tedious.
One subcategory of viral marketing is writing articles on topics related to your business that you distribute to article sites such as EzineArticles.com or GoArticles.com. Typically, you can include a simple "author's bio" that can contain a link back to your site. This has the double benefit for you of establishing trust and proving your expertise to potential customers as well as providing them a link to your site. Over time, this will produce a good amount of traffic for your business. Also a form of brand recognition, articles are a way to increase your visibility in search engines and ultimately give you a higher PageRank. If you can't write well, or don't have the time, many marketing companies offer this service for a price per article. Did you see the recent study about TASERs? Finding and sending out news releases about recent events, studies, or updates in your industry can garner you links that can remain for months on databases and increase your link popularity. Including a link to your site at the bottom of the news release can temporarily improve your traffic as well.
Showing posts with label links. Show all posts
Showing posts with label links. Show all posts
14.9.09
SMO Instead of SEO
If you are tired of hearing the term SEO (search engine optimization) maybe you should start to focus on SMO. SMO, or social media optimization, is an exciting way to breathe new life into any website, even those that have been left on the back burner for a few years.
SMO utilizes the power of people to drive traffic to a website. At the conception of the Internet, only businesses had the money and computer power to build and host websites. Today, it takes literally five minutes to build a website and only a few more to upload some PLR content. These cookie cutter websites are not going to rank in the Google or Yahoo top 10, but they represent how easy it is to build a generic website out of nothing.
The real gold in website building today is SMO. With the popularity of FaceBook, Twitter and other social networks, the webmaster or business needs to ensure their content can be readily shared easily. the SHARE button can be added quickly to website content, but is your content worthy of being shared?
The Pro of SMO is the Con
The power of user generated content is developing rapidly, but with that growth is the need to deliver content that search engines love and the user will want to share with their friends and family. How can both be accomplished?
Description - The description posted just above the article is the first line of site for the search engine bots and the reader. This small paragraph needs to include the relevant keyword and attract the reader to read on. The reason this section is so very important is the fact that when the article is published to a social network, it is usually the snippet that is included for others to read. If they like the description, they will click through to your website.
The articles shared on social networks are not indexed by search engines, but that does not mean they don't count as a backlink (considering a new definition for the word). The article is linking back to your website and with search engine advances soon could be considered a viable backlink. What happens when the Google algorithm decides to include social links? Will your website be ready?
Questions to Ask Yourself and Your Website
In an effort to better understand how SMO can help a website, ask yourself these simple questions.
1) Where can I find people who are interested in my niche?
2) Where is sharing a link considered a GREAT thing?
3) What is the most popular form of communication online right now?
The answers to all of these questions is the social network. Building a brand online when there are millions of daily active viewers who sign on just to read what other people are doing is the right choice for today's Internet.
I Don't Have the Time to Backlink with SMO
There are usually fewer hours in the day than the marketer needs to establish the "right" number of backlinks and as we all know, quality backlinks take time. Link building services are changing and expanding to include social media and networks. Help is there for those who find another marketing avenue just too time consuming.
SMO utilizes the power of people to drive traffic to a website. At the conception of the Internet, only businesses had the money and computer power to build and host websites. Today, it takes literally five minutes to build a website and only a few more to upload some PLR content. These cookie cutter websites are not going to rank in the Google or Yahoo top 10, but they represent how easy it is to build a generic website out of nothing.
The real gold in website building today is SMO. With the popularity of FaceBook, Twitter and other social networks, the webmaster or business needs to ensure their content can be readily shared easily. the SHARE button can be added quickly to website content, but is your content worthy of being shared?
The Pro of SMO is the Con
The power of user generated content is developing rapidly, but with that growth is the need to deliver content that search engines love and the user will want to share with their friends and family. How can both be accomplished?
Description - The description posted just above the article is the first line of site for the search engine bots and the reader. This small paragraph needs to include the relevant keyword and attract the reader to read on. The reason this section is so very important is the fact that when the article is published to a social network, it is usually the snippet that is included for others to read. If they like the description, they will click through to your website.
The articles shared on social networks are not indexed by search engines, but that does not mean they don't count as a backlink (considering a new definition for the word). The article is linking back to your website and with search engine advances soon could be considered a viable backlink. What happens when the Google algorithm decides to include social links? Will your website be ready?
Questions to Ask Yourself and Your Website
In an effort to better understand how SMO can help a website, ask yourself these simple questions.
1) Where can I find people who are interested in my niche?
2) Where is sharing a link considered a GREAT thing?
3) What is the most popular form of communication online right now?
The answers to all of these questions is the social network. Building a brand online when there are millions of daily active viewers who sign on just to read what other people are doing is the right choice for today's Internet.
I Don't Have the Time to Backlink with SMO
There are usually fewer hours in the day than the marketer needs to establish the "right" number of backlinks and as we all know, quality backlinks take time. Link building services are changing and expanding to include social media and networks. Help is there for those who find another marketing avenue just too time consuming.
9.9.09
Search Engine Optimization and Reciprocal Links
SEO is a delicate balance between on page optimization and off site popularity. One way of quickly increasing your Google ranking is to build effective links back to your pages, a long debated subject is the effectiveness of reciprocal links. Google's advice is to generate back links that are natural in creation, this is why there is a big question mark over reciprocal links.
A reciprocal link is when you link to another page and a mirror link points back to your page, however this is not the only type of reciprocal link. Many sites have a links page, this is used to build links pointing to various sites around the web in return for a link back to the home page, it is also know as a link farm and is punished significantly by the engines.
A very popular way of building links is to exchange links with popular directories . In my opinion this is an ineffective way of building links. Remember Google wants these links to be natural and listing your page with a directory in return for a link back is not a natural link to your site. It is artificial and Google is not going to award this link the same as it would a naturally acquired link.
If you're going to build reciprocal links then there is only one real way to accomplish this naturally. Firstly you need to publish quality content on your own site, once you have done this search for other articles, blog posts and forum threads around the web to potentially consider exchanging links with.
For a link to be natural it needs to be relevant and of the highest quality, think to yourself, if Google were to review this link manually would they see anything wrong with it? If you can honestly answer no to this then you are on the right tracks. Even though this is a natural way of building a reciprocal link Google is always going to give a one way link more weight, this is because it is almost guaranteed to have been awarded because of quality and usefulness.
Another aspect you need to worry about it is the depth of links. Reciprocal links are never going to look natural if they all point back to the home page of a site. Try to build your links to deep pages of your site, this will help your overall domain profile and increase rank on deeper pages.
A reciprocal link is when you link to another page and a mirror link points back to your page, however this is not the only type of reciprocal link. Many sites have a links page, this is used to build links pointing to various sites around the web in return for a link back to the home page, it is also know as a link farm and is punished significantly by the engines.
A very popular way of building links is to exchange links with popular directories . In my opinion this is an ineffective way of building links. Remember Google wants these links to be natural and listing your page with a directory in return for a link back is not a natural link to your site. It is artificial and Google is not going to award this link the same as it would a naturally acquired link.
If you're going to build reciprocal links then there is only one real way to accomplish this naturally. Firstly you need to publish quality content on your own site, once you have done this search for other articles, blog posts and forum threads around the web to potentially consider exchanging links with.
For a link to be natural it needs to be relevant and of the highest quality, think to yourself, if Google were to review this link manually would they see anything wrong with it? If you can honestly answer no to this then you are on the right tracks. Even though this is a natural way of building a reciprocal link Google is always going to give a one way link more weight, this is because it is almost guaranteed to have been awarded because of quality and usefulness.
Another aspect you need to worry about it is the depth of links. Reciprocal links are never going to look natural if they all point back to the home page of a site. Try to build your links to deep pages of your site, this will help your overall domain profile and increase rank on deeper pages.
6.9.09
Link Building in Search Engine Optimization(SEO) Service Schemes
Websites and online businesses today basically run through search engine hits. The difference between a popular website getting millions of hits per day and an normal website could primarily be attributed to the search engine presence of that website.
Having an adequate amount incoming links 'fronting' to your site, could set the difference for your website's presence amidst the top search results or showing no such presence at all for any given keyword. The more popular your incoming link is, the more popular you are to the search engines. The more number of times your website is linked back, the higher the chances of your website being shown in the top search results grouping for your key term.
Pages that are linked to by many thousands or perhaps millions of pages (URLs) are deemed 'Juicy', which is superior or important and thus, when they also link to other pages, those pages (URLs) must, by association, also have immense weight.
However, being steady and patient in the total link building process is considered pivotal to improving your website's presence within search engines. It must be noted that Search engines such as Google recommend that webmasters solicit relevant links to their sites (conduct a link campaign), but avoid participating in 'link farms'.
According to Google, a site that participates in a 'link farm' may have its search rankings penalized. Links from related sites carry more weight than those from irrelevant sites, and the best practice is still considered as the manual way of exchanging links with other websites or the addition of your site to non automated human edited directories or sites(pages) and not the expeditive building of links. Linking building in a rapid manner could blotch your website to the search engines as Google and instead of having a strong presence your website might end up as blacklisted.
Having an adequate amount incoming links 'fronting' to your site, could set the difference for your website's presence amidst the top search results or showing no such presence at all for any given keyword. The more popular your incoming link is, the more popular you are to the search engines. The more number of times your website is linked back, the higher the chances of your website being shown in the top search results grouping for your key term.
Pages that are linked to by many thousands or perhaps millions of pages (URLs) are deemed 'Juicy', which is superior or important and thus, when they also link to other pages, those pages (URLs) must, by association, also have immense weight.
However, being steady and patient in the total link building process is considered pivotal to improving your website's presence within search engines. It must be noted that Search engines such as Google recommend that webmasters solicit relevant links to their sites (conduct a link campaign), but avoid participating in 'link farms'.
According to Google, a site that participates in a 'link farm' may have its search rankings penalized. Links from related sites carry more weight than those from irrelevant sites, and the best practice is still considered as the manual way of exchanging links with other websites or the addition of your site to non automated human edited directories or sites(pages) and not the expeditive building of links. Linking building in a rapid manner could blotch your website to the search engines as Google and instead of having a strong presence your website might end up as blacklisted.
3.9.09
The Three Keys of Link Value
Link value is the total sum value of a link on any given page, it can be deduced by adding together the three keys of link value.
By knowing these keys we can assess the value of a link to our site and as such value all indexed incoming links.
Link value is important because some links may be considered valuable, however if they fail in 2 out of three keys of link value then they may not quite be as valuable as expected.
The first key value is the page rank of the page the the given link is situated on. The higher the page rank, the more valuable the link, or so it would seem. All things considered even, a high page rank link is good, or even great as a vote or confidence.
Page rank however is not the be all end all to link value...
Link dilution considers just how many outbound links are situated on the page in question. This is because a page full of page rank is valuable, but each link shares in the value, hence the more links, the less value they share.
A link from a PR 9 page is excellent, but if that page has 500 links on it, then each link is sharing some heavily diluted page rank.
A link from a PR 9 page with only 10 outgoing links would be worth far more, around 50 times more (50x10=500).
What's the point of having a link if it's on a page that's not indexed? The answer - Zero Point!
If a page doesn't get indexed then any links you have there are worthless. For this reason, you may want to check on any articles you have at article directories and make sure they are indexed, because if they're not, they are unfulfilled potential. Get links to those articles and get them indexed.
In Conclusion
If you want to get maximum value from a page it would contain all three key factors of link value. A good PR page, with few links and is indexed. Get all three of those factors working in your favor and you've go a link worth more than a bundle of non-indexed, low pr or page diluted links.
Make sure you check out some of your inbound links and see what you think of their value now!
By knowing these keys we can assess the value of a link to our site and as such value all indexed incoming links.
Link value is important because some links may be considered valuable, however if they fail in 2 out of three keys of link value then they may not quite be as valuable as expected.
1. Page Rank
The first key value is the page rank of the page the the given link is situated on. The higher the page rank, the more valuable the link, or so it would seem. All things considered even, a high page rank link is good, or even great as a vote or confidence.
Page rank however is not the be all end all to link value...
2.Link Dilution
Link dilution considers just how many outbound links are situated on the page in question. This is because a page full of page rank is valuable, but each link shares in the value, hence the more links, the less value they share.
A link from a PR 9 page is excellent, but if that page has 500 links on it, then each link is sharing some heavily diluted page rank.
A link from a PR 9 page with only 10 outgoing links would be worth far more, around 50 times more (50x10=500).
3. Indexed Links
What's the point of having a link if it's on a page that's not indexed? The answer - Zero Point!
If a page doesn't get indexed then any links you have there are worthless. For this reason, you may want to check on any articles you have at article directories and make sure they are indexed, because if they're not, they are unfulfilled potential. Get links to those articles and get them indexed.
In Conclusion
If you want to get maximum value from a page it would contain all three key factors of link value. A good PR page, with few links and is indexed. Get all three of those factors working in your favor and you've go a link worth more than a bundle of non-indexed, low pr or page diluted links.
Make sure you check out some of your inbound links and see what you think of their value now!
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