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Posts Tagged ‘Link’

The Key to site Promotion

posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, July 17, 2011

Directory Submission: The Key to site Promotion

Most website owners fail to differentiate between a directory and search engine, failure to do so has resulted in failure to harness the powers of Internet directory effectively.

Search engine uses the spiders – (an automated software program) to locate and collect data from web pages for inclusion in a search engine’s database and to follow links to find new pages on the World Wide Web. While directories depends on human editors, who in most cases examine every single new listing before they are added to their directory. Most major search engines these days use links from human edited directory to measure the quality of the site they index. That is why you should place emphasis on the type of website or directory you list to and how to do that effectively.

However, there are some significant differences between the two link sources, Directories have only one purpose in life and that is to provide links to other sites. Directories are an established source of authority in regard to various subject matters. Being listed in directories serves as a level of measure as to the site’s worth.

A Directory Submission Service, in my opinion, is a company that will submit your website to directories. Now, the client must be careful when selecting a company. Many I have seen say something along the lines of “We submit you to over 800,000 Search Engines and Directories”. This statement alone lets me know that they are not trustworthy. We can all fire up ANY free/shareware submitter and boast the same statement. What I LIKE to see, when checking my competition, is a listing of directories they will submit to. And, of course, no one can guarantee inclusion.

There are several ways you can submit your RSS newsfeed to directories. The first, obviously, is by hand. You can get a list of the directories (http://www.rss- software.net/rss-directories.php), then go to each website and add your feed manually. Since there are many RSS directories, this can take quite a while. To save the webmaster time, two ways of automated directory submission exist.

While the article directory submission site is growing, granted yes, they may not get as much traffic as the big guys. But that means that the visitors that they do get, are more likely to see and READ your article. This means your article can find its way to ezines that want unique and fresh new content.

Search Engine Optimization is a fuzzy art in which the rules and techniques change as quickly as the Internet changes. Nonetheless, a good SEO consulting expert will always be able to help move your website towards better search engine placement, greater visibility, and consequently higher levels of targeted traffic. When it comes to choosing any professional — a dentist, doctor, travel agent or hair stylist, it may take you a couple tries to locate the right SEO professional for your business, but it’s usually better to focus on what you do best, and hire experts who spend all their time staying informed and practicing effective website promotion.

When Will Backlinks Show Up In Google

posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Friday, July 15, 2011

Link Building: When Will Backlinks Show Up In Google

Many times website owners who are new to link building simply don’t know what to expect when it comes to the timeframe for registering backlinks.

Here’s a common question I get:

“I’ve just started marketing my brand new website, and I know I have backlinks coming into my site, yet when I do a check for incoming links, nothing shows up. Am I doing something wrong?”

Probably not–A backlink check will tell you how many incoming links are registered with a particular search engine, but it will not tell you how many backlinks you actually have.

Why is that? Well, it usually takes search engines months to re-evaluate incoming links, so if you do a backlink check today, there are likely links that are going into your site that haven’t yet been calculated in.

It would be nice if we could build links and then immediately have them show up in a backlink check, but that’s just not the way the internet works.

As you’re building links to your site, here are some ways to keep track of your progress and build links effectively over time:

- How To Do A Backlink Check

It’s incredibly easy to do a backlink check for your site. In Google, just type this into the search box (replacing the ‘yourwebsite.com’ part with your URL):

* link:http://www.yourwebsite.com/

The results of that search will bring up a list of sites that are linking to your website address. In the upper right hand corner of Google you’ll be able to see a total count of your registered backlinks.

An even better tool is Yahoo Site Explorer https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com which provides a list of your registered backlinks and much more detailed information. Both of these backlink checking tools are free, so you can try each one out (or do both).

- Why Are Backlinks Not Showing Up For My Site?

Let’s suppose you know that you’ve build links to your site, but nothing is showing up when you do a backlink check (frustrating, I know!).

There are some logical reasons why backlinks may not be showing up:

1) Perhaps your website is brand new and has not yet been indexed by Google

When you launch a new site it does not automatically appear in Google–it usually takes several months for Google to realize that the site is there and to index and categorize it.

Until your site is indexed, it will not show up in any search engine searches and no backlinks will be registered. You can even do a search for your exact site name or URL and nothing will show up–that is how you know that your site has not been indexed yet.

If this is your situation, don’t fret! This waiting period is something that all website owners go through, and Google (and the other search engines) will eventually index your site.

It can take anywhere from 3-5 months for a new website to be indexed.

I remember the last time I was launching a new site it took about 5 months for the site to be indexed in Google. On that 5th month, all of the backlinks that I had been building over the preceding months finally showed up–whew!

2) Not enough time has elapsed since building the links

Even if your site is already indexed, it usually takes search engines several months (3-4) to recalculate the backlinks. So, if you have been doing article submissions for the past 2 months and you know for a fact that you have quite a few incoming links, those links will not show up in a backlink check for another month or two.

This doesn’t mean the links aren’t there–they are! The search engine just hasn’t registered them yet.

As you can see, one necessary component of any link building campaign is PATIENCE. There will be a time delay from when you build the link to when you see the fruit of your labor in Google.

Keep in mind, this time delay does not impact your marketing campaign–whether the links have started to show up or not, you should continue to market your website and submit articles. Immediate results are not the goal–you should be going for a long lasting impact on your search engine ranking for your keywords, rather than a brief shot of traffic that fades away after a day or so.

When you’re link building, you need to market your site consistently–develop an article submission schedule for yourself and stick to it, submitting articles each and every month.

You will be rewarded in the long run with an increased search engine ranking for your major keywords, which can of course build traffic dramatically for the long-term.

Free and Easy Link Building Tips

posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Free and Easy Link Building Tips

Okay, you’re the proud mama or papa to your brand new website. Now what? This isn’t like the movies – just because you built it doesn’t mean they’ll come. The Internet is a huge limitless space with ever-growing numbers of websites. You are just one small website among millions. How will anybody ever find you? How do you become visible? Right now, you just exist out in the web, untethered. You need to become visible when someone searches for you and one way to become visible to people is to become visible to search engines. And one way to become visible to search engines such as Google, Yahoo, or MSN is for your site to be tethered, or linked to other sites.

If you’ve spent any time reading Internet marketing blogs you know that link building is a huge part of a marketing campaign. Backlinks – links that point to your website – are a major factor in determining your popularity or ranking with the search engines. And of course, just like in high school, you want to be popular.

You can buy your way into links, but here we’re talking about a few free and easy ways. An obvious and natural way to build links is through content. When you start a link-building campaign for your new website, focus on attracting links that will add value for your website visitors and best represent your most important keywords too. It is invaluable to have visitors go to your site and share your content.

Here are a few easy and mostly free ways to build links for your website.

* Blog-Based Link Building

One way to get natural links back to your website is by setting up a blog for your company. Make sure you network online with other blogs that complement yours. If you share industry news and have useful and relevant content, you’ll attract links. Reference other bloggers in your content and link to other blogs in your industry.

For blogs, content is extremely important. Every time you add words to your blog or website, you are presenting yourself to a potentially huge audience. How does your blog’s content reflect your company? This content could be the page that carries your company’s name around the Internet world. Cheap content is just that – cheap. Create content that people want to read and that will make them come back again and again.

Reviewing products and services and posting those reviews on other sites is another way to build links. Your honest evaluations and smart opinions can also build your reputation as an expert in your field.

* Link Building with Social Media

Another way to build natural links to your website is through social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter. These sites allow you to set up a user profile where you can add information about you and your company including a link to your website.

Some sites, Facebook for example, also have a way to promote your business with a page, ad or group. Just keep in mind that there are good ways and bad ways to promote your business on social sites and you should observe proper etiquette when you do.

* Link Building with Organizations and Directories

If your industry has professional organizations or associations that you belong to, check with them and see if they have an online directory with links to member sites. They may or may not charge a fee for this. If they do, it shouldn’t be much.

Check with your local Chamber of Commerce or Better Business Bureau. Links from sites like these can be very helpful. Check with other local businesses and organizations that have lists of businesses and request links from them, too.

Online directories are another opportunity to look into. Yahoo! Directory is a good one. If your business is in a specific geographical area, you might also find some local directories to submit to that will boost your local visibility.

* Links from Charities or Non-profits

If your company makes charitable donations to organizations and non-profits, see if they have a “donors” list on their website and ask if they will link to your website.

* Links from Press Releases

Has your business just started or have you just launched a new product? A press release is a great idea to announce your news. There are quite a few press release distribution services available and some have a free first time offer.

* Links from Partners

If your website offers information about other partner websites like business directories, you should make sure to use all your linking potential. You could have a badge that your partner could put on their site linking to you and one for your site that links to theirs.

If you have an RSS feed or a widget on your site that has good value to visitors, those can be taken from your website and displayed on another person’s website, linking back to your site.

The Internet is constantly evolving and there are thousands of ways to build links. Look around at other websites and see what they have and how they work. Look at your business, think outside the box and you might come up with other ways to develop links. If it all seems like too much, there are many online consulting companies that can help with link building, SEO optimization and brandcasting.

Who Is Your Website’s Biggest Competitor?

posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Link Building: Who Is Your Website’s Biggest Competitor?

* Have you ever noticed that competitive runners achieve their best race times when they are pitted against worthy competitors?

You can be an excellent sprinter, but odds are you will not run your personal best on a track by yourself–most of the time it’s the spirit of a heated race and a determined runner breathing down your neck that makes you dig down deep give it all you’ve got.

The quest for a higher search engine ranking and more website traffic is much like athletic competitions. When you’re trying to get your site ranked higher in Google, you are not operating in a vacuum–you have competitors, whether you acknowledge them or not.

Your progress is not only dependent on your own efforts at marketing your site, but the efforts of your competitors–if other website owners are more consistent, more reliable, and more focused in their marketing, there’s a good chance that they will outrank you.

With website rankings, there is a constant jockeying for position, so it is extremely helpful when you’re trying to market your site and get a higher search engine ranking if you will use your competitors to your own advantage.

Before you start your next link building campaign, take a look around the playing field and gather some intelligence about those you’re running against.

* How Can You Tell Who Your Competition Is?

It’s actually quite easy to tell who your top competitors are–just do a search for each of your keywords in Google.

- What site is at the #1 position?

Unless it’s you, that website is your top competition. Repeat this search for each one of your keywords.

When you’re starting out, you may want to limit yourself to 3 main keywords whose competitors you’re keeping track of. That way you have 3 competitors to keep track of, and that will give you a good idea of how you’re progressing and also how far you need to go to catch up to the #1 position.

- What Type Of Information Should You Keep Track Of?

Alright, now that you know who your top competitors are, it’s time to do a little investigating. Here are the main bits of info that will help you get an idea of where your site stands in relation to site holding the #1 position.

1) How many backlinks does the competing website have?

You can do a backlink check by typing the word “link:” (following by a colon) and then the competitor’s URL into the Google search box. The results will be a listing of sites that are currently linking to their site, and at the top of the page you can see a total number of backlinks.

2) What is their search engine rank for the keyword?

For the first month at least, their ranking is #1.

Another thing that will be interesting to you is to see how the site that is ranked at #1 can fall if they are outdone by another site further down in the ranking. If you are consistent with your link building campaign, you can see your site climbing up the rankings each month, until finally your #1 competitor drops from the number one position and your site takes over.

3) What is the other site’s PageRank?

PageRank (PR) is a tool Google uses to reflect the authority of a web page. The rankings go from 0-10, where 10 is the best. You’ll likely notice that a website does not need to have a PageRank of 10 in order to hold the top ranking for a keyword–many times sites with lower rankings hold the top position. Why is this?

Remember, it’s all about competition–the top ranking website may have a PR2, but the other sites who are competing for top listing for that keyword have lower authority. Of course, there are many other factors that go into determining who has the top rank in Google, and only Google knows all of their criteria for judging.

At any rate, it is helpful to know the other site’s PageRank, especially in comparison to your own. If you see that the competing site has a PR4 and your site has a PR2, you can set a goal for yourself to achieve PR4 or higher.

With all of these indicators, it’s nice to get an idea of what you’re shooting for. Being aware of your top competitor’s stats can help you strategically jump up the rankings and keep your motivation going to earn the #1 spot.

Using Back Links to Improve Your Website SEO

posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, July 2, 2011

Using Back Links to Improve Your Website SEO

Using Back Links to Improve Your Website SEO Put simply, back links are inward-bound links to a particular internet site or page. What this means is that the other site has a hyperlink “pointing” directly to your website. Regarding search engine optimisation, you want as many back links pointing to your site as you possibly can, even more so if the site is directly related to your area of interest.

As the number one goal of a website is to achieve traffic, i.e. people actually looking at the site, it follows that you must make the website visible. Generally speaking, to make your website visible, people must be able to find it when they search for keywords directly related to your product, niche, service or whatever else your website represents. Individuals tend to be seeking such information via the big search engines, whose operators have rather complicated algorithms to help them decide whether a certain website is applicable to the searcher’s request, or not.

Although they will not divulge exactly how they go about composing these algorithms, the search engine operators do assure us that relevancy, as viewed by others, is most important. If they see that you have a back link or a number of back links from other websites that have some relevancy to yours, this is a plus. In addition, if the site linking to you has a fairly high “page rank”, this helps as well. Page rank is Google’s proprietary method of allocating a number (zero being lowest and moving up to ten) indicating how important a site is within its particular niche of operations.

There are a number of ways to achieve back links for your site:

* Article Marketing

As Bill Gates once said, “content is king”. Article marketing is known as one of the most solid Internet marketing methods. By writing highly relevant and informative articles and submitting them to high profile article directories you do several things, not the least important of which is to help establish you or your site as an expert in your niche. Within your article, published in the article directory, is a resource box which contains your details – who you are and what you do, and a link back to your site, the all important Back Link.

* Social Bookmarking

There are many hundreds of social bookmarking sites, and their primary motive is basically to provide a way of informing people about the existence of content related to any niche or interest in a very manageable format. You can sign up and initiate a process of notifying social bookmarking sites about fresh content, including back links in many cases. You should note at this stage that some webmasters apply a “no follow” tag which can void the effect of a back link, as the tag instructs the search engine spider not to give you points, or what’s called “link love”.

* Social Media – Twitter

Whilst Twitter and other similar sites are becoming increasingly more powerful in marketing terms, you should know that to include links within your “tweets” or in your URL profile box is not a powerful back linking strategy, as these are all allocated the dreaded no follow tag. However, you may find that it is possible to link within a bio box and get some link love this way. Also, if you syndicate, your Twitter feeds are updated via the RSS aggregators, earning you back links.

* Blog Commenting

First of all, you will have to locate blogs or forums that are relevant to your area of expertise. This is fairly simple to accomplish as a straightforward and pertinent search will locate hosts. Once you find these blogs you can sign up and create a profile. Often you will be allowed to create what is called a “signature”, and within that signature you incorporate your links. Note, you should check to see if there are any no follow tags, as these will appear occasionally.

Enter into the spirit of the place by interacting with other members and making entries and posting comments that are relevant, useful and educational. As well as a back link being displayed each time you post a comment, you’ll also create a potentially profitable bond with other members – and this has the potential to lead to all kinds of new possiblities.

Backlinks for Search Engine Optimization

posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, June 30, 2011

Backlinks for Search Engine Optimization: How Important are They?

Backlinks are a key component in search engine optimization. Search engine consultants talk about the importance of backlinks for achieving higher search engine ranking. That’s because the more one-way backlinks you have leading to your website, the more important the search engines believe your page to be.

There are two types of backlinks: one-way links and reciprocal links.

One-Way Links are basically backlinks that only go one direction. Maybe it’s a link that goes from your website to another website. Or maybe it’s a link that goes from another site to yours. Either way, it’s only going one way.

Reciprocal Links are backlinks that go from one website to another, and then back to the original website.

It’s important to differentiate between one-way back links versus reciprocal links. Many search engine optimization experts believe that one-way back links are more valuable than reciprocal links because they’re much harder to earn. The thinking is that since they’re harder to earn, they must be more valuable, which means other people think very highly of your site. If people think highly of your site, it must be an important site, which means the search engines will give it a higher ranking than those sites that do not have a lot of one-way backlinks.

As search engines like Google grow and improve, they’re putting more emphasis on how popular a website is, not whether they use all the right keywords. This popularity is measured through one-way backlinks. They’re like votes to Google, and search engine ranking is more like a popularity contest: have a lot of links to your site and your site achieves a high ranking. The easiest way to find the number of backlinks that lead to your site is to visit Google or Yahoo! and type in the following command:

link:www.yourwebsite.com

You will be shown a list of all the websites that have backlinks to your own domain. If you want to see who has links back to a particular page on your site, then type in the whole URL to that individual page.

Although no one can be sure of the exact algorithm Google and Yahoo use to rank sites, it’s commonly believed that if a website has more backlinks, it will achieve a higher search engine ranking. There are other factors that go into the whole search engine ranking, but backlinks are one of the more important ones.

But it’s important you have good quality backlinks, not just links that appear on any page you can find, like a link farm or sticking a comment on a page that has nothing to do with your website at all. That is, if you sell hammers, don’t put any backlinks on a page that sells children’s shoes.

That’s because search engines like Google have started cracking down on link farms and backlinks spammers. The search engine spiders know how to tell the difference between backlinks on a link farm and links on a quality website. If you are caught spamming, you will be dropped in the rankings, or possibly even dropped completely from Google’s index.

So you need to pay attention to the quality of your backlinks, now more than ever. One way to do this is to make sure you use the proper anchor text in your backlinks. For example, do not ever hot-link the words “click here.” What you’re basically telling the search engine spiders is that the website is about Click Here. Instead, use the keywords about the site that the backlinks are leading to. If you’re creating backlinks to a site about hammers, put the word hammers in your links. “Click here” isn’t about hammers.

In short, if you want some great search engine results, be sure to include backlinks as part of your search engine optimization strategy. You’ll see it pay off with improved search engine rankings.

How Many Links Does It Take To Get To The Middle Of Google Page One?

Everyday it seems, people are asking me the optimum numbers of inbound links they need to acquire for their website in order to rank well in Google.

My answer is going to seem a little flip, but it is the honest, best answer.

Answer: You need more inbound links – of equal or higher quality – than what your competitors have.

Albert Einstein argued that any mathematical formula that required pages of calculations did not contain within it “the mind of God”.

So when Albert Einstein developed E=mc2, then Einstein had fulfilled the promise of a simple formula that could encompass the brilliance of God.

When people wonder as to how many inbound links they might need to acquire in order to rank in the Top 4 of Google’s search results or even the Top 10 of Google’s SERPs, they are generally hoping that someone will be able to give them a numeric answer, so that they know whether they can afford to undertake the process or not.

I understand the WHY of the question, but there is no canned answer that will work for everyone.

Remember, your competitor may be asking the same question and undertaking the same processes as you are, trying to accomplish the same goal.

No one can truly begin to understand the answer to this question, until one has take the time to do an Inbound Link Comparison Analysis of all of your competitors in the Top 10 spots of Google’s SERPs.

* You need to look at the Top 10 listings in Google for a particular keyword.

* You need to do backlink checks for all ten URLs in Google’s search listings, and you need to check those numbers across a variety of sources, including Google, Yahoo and any other tool you can find to do a check. (Google and Yahoo both tend to understate the actual link counts. While Yahoo will show you more than what Google does, they also show a number of “no consequence” links in their results.)

* You need to look at the quality of a few of the pages that offer links to the URLs in the search results.

This is not an easy process to undertake. I have done it before, but the best you can hope for is a “snapshot” of what is out there, and therefore, what you need to accomplish.

Note: If Wikipedia turns up in your search query, few people with small budgets will ever be able to dislodge Wikipedia in the search results. What they make up for in a small number of inbound links, they more than make up for with links from dozens or hundreds of PR4, PR5 and PR6 pages. Wikipedia is the king of Internal Linking, and they use that to a great degree to rank extraordinarily high in Google’s search listings.

Your analysis should seek to uncover how many links a page has to it.

As a general rule of thumb, Google will show you less than 1% of the existing number of links for a web page. Yahoo will sometimes show closer to 5% of the existing number of links for a web page, but they will not show you the highest quality of those links.

So, as you strive to gain a “snapshot” picture of the playing field, you want to take Google’s Inbound Links number and multiply that by at least 100. Then you want to take Yahoo’s Inbound Links number and multiply that by at least 20, then cut the number in half to acknowledge the number of worthless crap links they have in their database. Once you have achieved these two numbers, then I tend to call the truth “somewhere in the middle”.

With your “somewhere in the middle” number in hand, then you need to look at the quality of links to a few of those search listings, to get an idea of whether those links exist on higher quality pages or simply junk pages.

If those links are on junk pages, then the goal could be achieved by just working the numbers. But if there are a lot of high PageRank pages in the mix, then whatever number is in your hand, should be multiplied, perhaps 100-fold, to overcome the quality of pages that link to your competitors.

If you get the idea that my simple formula leads to a complicated answer, then you are right.

All of the numbers that I have included in my sample formula are based on rough speculation, as the “snapshot” offers you your best hope of understanding the challenge in front of you.

While the number of inbound links may be relatively easy to determine, the link quality is a factor that is really hard to pin down.

* If you determine that you only need 300 inbound links to rank with the big boys, you may be right.

* Your 300 inbound links number should also be quantified against the number of links that Google will count worthy, so you may need 1200 links to get 300 links that Google will deem worthy. This calculation depends more on the “quality of your content”, rather than the “quantity of your content”.

* When all is said and done and your 300 Google-worthy links have not yet put you on page one, then you know that the quality of the links pointing at your competitors is greater than the quality of the links pointing to you.

If you were hoping for an easy answer, I am sorry that I could not help you with that.

But with this explanation of the challenge, you may be better prepared to answer the big question, the question that is really on your mind:

Are my hopes of achieving good rankings in Google within my reach?

I tend to throw “worry” to the wind and just start working. I don’t worry if I can afford to do it or not. I simply start doing, and I know that in one month, one year or five, I will have built enough value in my website that my competitors are going to be the ones who are trying to figure out if they can unseat me!

How to Get in with Social Influencers to Build Links

posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Monday, June 27, 2011

How to Get in with Social Influencers to Build Links

Cultivating online credibility requires currying favor with Google, which is best done by link-building. So let’s think: If your business and website were top of mind and authoritative, where would you expect to be listed or referenced on the Internet? Are your competitors referenced there already?

The most powerful and credible links on the Internet are placed by individuals who have influence over your online target audience. Often, these are bloggers, editors, industry experts – those with numerous social media followers. Wouldn’t it be good to have an industry influencer who likes you and promotes your stuff by mentioning your business to his or her vast audience? In many cases, that’s the magic touch a business needs to step up to the next level.

Social media sites can be a great source for identifying these key individuals. They act as a virtual trade show, streamlining your ability to “meet” and build a relationship, and win them over to actually promote your ideas to their audience(s). If you’re in the sports industry, it’s kind of like having Michael Phelps or Tiger Woods (ahem) say good things about you. When this happens, you will have many new relationships, followers and links to your site.

Here are some of the keys to building relationships with influencers online.

1. Know what the influencer likes or wants before you introduce yourself. The fastest way to get ignored by the influencer is to try to sell them your idea before they even know who you are. (Think spam filters). Instead, get involved in the group and listen to what’s being said. If it’s appropriate, provide interesting, thought-provoking comments or responses. Some influencers aren’t a bit shy and will tell you flat-out what they are looking for. If you possess what the influencer is looking for, it’s time to make your introduction.

2. Introduce yourself by letting them know that you have something they might want and then give some details in a respectful way. Remember: you want to pique their interest, not bury them in details. If they’re interested, you’ll know it soon enough.

3. Wait for their response. If they don’t respond in a reasonable timeframe, find another way to introduce yourself: phone calls often work, but it’s best to speak face-to-face.

4. At this point, it’s assumed that you really do have what they want and that the influencer will act on it immediately. Otherwise, it’s back to step one again; in some cases, it’s over for your shot with that influencer.

In my industry of SEO professionals, getting in front of an influencer can be very tough, but I’ve done it several times by writing articles that deal with issues few others write about. In particular, I try to write articles that editors of well-known blogs will want to publish.

I recently contacted the editor of a popular blog because I learned that he was interested in good SEO articles. I provided a sample of my writing; he liked it and gave me access to his blog to post my next article.

A few weeks later when I posted my article in the drafts section, the editor liked it so much he asked if he could publish it in another blog he edited that was much more popular than the one I had already been approved for.

One thing that helped to get my article accepted involved closely reading and following all of the guidelines for guest blog posting. Don’t make an editor postpone your article because it didn’t meet one of the guidelines. I also used a professional copywriter to tweak the article after it was written. A professional can give your article that extra polish it needs to stand out – and get you noticed.

Within a few days of my article going live, my post was tweeted 15 times – by the editor as well as several other industry influencers – and I got some encouraging feedback in the comments section.

What about links? Not only did this blog post link to my site, but the post itself is linked from a few places, adding even more power to the links in the post.

For those of you who like to keep track, that initial successful relationship with an industry influencing blog editor yielded:

* My name and business on 2 blogs aimed at my target audience

* 15 tweets, and re-tweets from additional industry influencers

* Several high-quality links to my website

* Instant credibility within my industry (now I can boast a bit, “see my article on this respected industry blog”)

* A new relationship with an industry influencer (to get more quality links to my site)

* A foundation for building more relationships with influencers in my industry

Sure, it takes some work to figure out who’s who in your field, then to spend time with them socially, learning what they like (and want). But it can pay large dividends for your credibility and business.

5 Tips For Great Traffic

posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Friday, June 24, 2011

Targeted Web Traffic – 5 Tips For Great Traffic

Targeted Web Traffic is the “holy grail” of webmasters who want good sales results at their sites. It’s a simple concept.

You want traffic. Otherwise your site sits unobserved and unvisited in the blackness of cyberspace.

But you don’t need just ANY type of traffic. You want, for your “rain umbrella” site, customers coming to you that typed in, ideally, “buy rain umbrellas.”

Now, one of the problems with generating targeted web traffic is the fact that there are a LOT of webmasters out there trying for the same thing. Competition, in other words.

It can appear daunting, but if you keep these 5 tips in mind, and you work at it, you can increase traffic to your site and have the happy coincidence of “better quality” traffic from what we call in the business, “buyer keywords.”

1. Know thy target!

You need to know certain things about your typical buyer, but the one most important thing to know is “Which keywords do they use to search for what you are selling.” Right there is an “aha!” moment.

And don’t neglect putting content on your site that is highly relevant to your targeted audience so that they will find your site informative and interesting and return to your site in the future.

2. Writing Articles

A good strategy for making articles work for your site, and thereby pushing the site up in the rankings for certain keywords, is to write an article that… a. Interests your target and… b. targets your keywords.

Here is the “aha!” moment for the prospective article marketer.

There’s a “resource box” at the bottom of the article and in that box you are to put links back to your site! But here’s the nugget, those links are to be “keyword text links” wherein “your keyword here” is the clickable link. Google loves keyword links and you WANT Google to like you.

3. Links – One Way And Only One Way

One of the surest ways to get your site ranked high on your specific keyword is to get “one way links” from high PR sites that are relevant to yours. Google loves this. Google sees the one way link as a “vote” for your site for that keyword.

You’ll accomplish building one way links with the article strategy above, but you need a variety of links, and many sites that are relevant to your target will NEVER publish your article.

An awful lot of the article sites are of low page rank (PR). There are many hundreds of article submission sites and out of all of them all there probably isn’t 50 with good PR. Those are the ones you want!

I highly recommend Ezinearticles and Goarticles and especially Sitepronews. A mass submission company like Submit Your Article can be a real help, too!

A blog comment works too. Find a high PR relevant blog and make a comment! Easy. You can get a link back to your site on the comment. Make sure it’s a good, meaningful, well written comment with relevant copy.

So, backlinks count. And from higher page rank sites…all the better. Pass the link juice, please. Targeted web traffic can be right around the corner.

4. Optimizing Your Website

Search engine marketers are looking for targeted traffic and they insist on having the basics of search engine optimization in place on their site. This is made up of good and relevant content in the form of articles and posts.

This, and your link building efforts can put your page at the top of page one, resulting in a great flow of targeted web traffic.

5. Building A List

A list is typically made up of people that decided to get onto your list because they were interested in what you have! You can’t get much better “targeted” than that. So build one. It’s a grand experience and can be very profitable, too!

One of the things we all like about targeted web traffic from the search engines is that it generates a higher quality prospect AND it’s free! You really can’t beat it.

Tips On How To Promote Your Site

posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, June 19, 2011

Tips On How To Promote Your Site

If you’ve got your own web-based business, you might be asking yourself how you can market your site. There are lots of ways to make this happen, and this article talks about all the demonstrated strategies that would make you have favorable outcomes in this particular field.

The traditional way of promoting a business venture would be to pay for want ad space in your local newspapers. This would let everybody know about your website, but carrying this out regularly would make your overhead costs go up.

A lot of people utilise the web to obtain details, plus the constant progression of the internet means that there will always be many different strategies to market your webpage. Among the choices that you could utilize is pay per click advertising, wherein you will spend money in order to put your ad on the results pages of search engines. While this is a proven way to market your site, it can get costly if you are bidding for keywords that are popular. One other way to publicise your webpage is by making use of weblogs. Crafting blog entries about your products or services and also placing the right amount of information in your weblog would draw in potential customers.

But the fastest method to publicize your site is to write content pieces and also submit them to many different article publication sites. The reason why this strategy gives the most results is due to backlinks: if your content is posted, you’ll be required to include a backlink. This particular link will let your readers visit your site if they want more information about your services and products, and you will acquire more page views.

You need to create articles that are short and educational, and you have to come up with lots of articles so that you’ll be seen as a specialist in your chosen field. Article directory websites will always be in need of new and also excellent content since this would help them receive better search engine rankings, and people will always be on the lookout for specialized information for their own webpages. When your content piece is published in an online directory and that specific article directory website acquires a high page ranking, that result could be achieved by your webpage as well since you will lead your readers to your site through your posted write-ups. In other words, everybody wins in this scenario.

But there are a few vital things to bear in mind when composing content pieces. You have to make an effort to compose around three to five articles every day, as well as restrict your write-up to 300 to 500 words; people will not read through content pieces that go past that restriction. Also, originality is of high importance. Never ever reproduce a posted content piece online or in publications and call it yours. Plagiarism isn’t accepted in any industry, plus your write-ups wouldn’t be posted if you’re caught. You can borrow an idea from another article and extend it, but remember to cite your sources.

If you do not have the time or ability to craft your own articles, you can employ freelance content writers or maybe content creation services to make your content pieces for you. Aside from offering you extra time to pay attention to various other aspects of your internet business, outsourcing this endeavor would mean getting a lot more write-ups for you to send for publication.

The main ideas guiding this specific site publicity tactic would be to provide valuable material and compel your audience to take a look at your site to obtain more details on your products and services. The secret is to make them desire more of what you are offering.

Quick Link Building Tips

posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Friday, June 17, 2011

Quick Link Building Tips

Link building is the most dreaded task of all serious SEO’s. Here are five quick and easy backlink building tips that you can apply today!

* Link Building Tip #1 – Get Active in Your Community

I’m not talking about joining the local country club here (although that would be fun…), but rather about joining forums that are relevant to your niche. You want to find a forum (or forums) that is active and well ranked, and place your link in your “signature” section. This way, whenever you contribute to the forum (i.e. say something), you’ll be building backlinks. It is vital that your posts are of informational and educational use, and that you don’t just abuse the system in order to gain links. You’ll get banned quicker than you can say “backlink” if you do this. Contributing to the community is of the essence here.

* Link Building Tip #2 – Suss Out Your Competition

Write down the website addresses of the top five results for your desired keyword. Then, using Google, type in “link:website” (replace website with the actual website address). This will show you where each site is getting their links from (well, most of them in any case) and hopefully spark some ideas for your site.

* Link Building Tip #3 – Get Writing…

Writing and submitting articles is definately one of the most popular link building tactics around. You simply write a short article (400 – 600 words) and publish it on as many article directories as possible. Each directory will allow you to place your link in the “resource box”, thus growing your number of backlinks. You might be wondering “But what do I write about?”. The answer is simple – write about your area of expertise. So if you’re a handyman, write about some basic DIY tasks that people can carry out. Write how-to’s, 101’s and the like – Just give it some thought, it’s well worth it…

* Link Building Tip #4 – Submit To Directories

Wherever there is an industry, you’ll find directories, especially on the internet. Do a search for your keyword and the word “directory”. Sign up to as many of them as possible – it’s a free link every time, and you might even find organic traffic (people) finding you on these directories (that’s what they’re there for, after all).

* Link Building Tip #5 – Get Blogging

My final tip is to get blogging, or at least commenting on other people’s blogs. Have a look for relevant blogs and post some useful comments where suitable. Each comment will earn you a free link, plus potential direct traffic if the blog is popular and well followed. A word of warning though – make sure that the blogs don’t use “nofollow” tags, as this will render your link null and void in the eyes of the search engines.

And there you have it! Five easy link building tips that you can apply today. Best off all – they’re all absolutely free… Remember, link building is an ongoing exercise, and the more you make it a habit, the easier it will become. The only cost is your time and effort.

Link Back To Your Site In Simple & Effective Ways

posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Friday, June 10, 2011

Link Back To Your Site In Simple & Effective Ways

You have finally set up your own site & are eagerly waiting for your business to flourish. But have you given a thought to how users online will know a site like yours exists? Well, if no one knows your site exists how would you sell your product or get more clients? The entire e-business world relies on one simple thing to gain visibility and get more profit. Yes, search engines like Yahoo, Google and Bing determine which sites are visible and which are not. And for a search engine to place your website at the top, you need to have good backlinks.

The high page rank that you crave for is attainable only if you have done your homework and set up good backlinks. Making your site appear in the top pages of a search engine requires a great deal of backlinks which will ultimately ensure that you have traffic in your website. And the procedure is simple. There are many legal ways to create backlinks to your site. First you have to learn how to create a backlink. An anchor text is all you need. It should look something like this:

<a href=”your” website url>Your keywords here</a>

Now let’s take a look at the various ways you can create backlinks to your website:

• Submitting articles to directories:

This is one of the most trusted methods of getting great backlinks to your site. All you have to do is write an article with good content and submit it to the many online article submission directories. While you are at it here are some points to look out for:

1. Add Variety: Content is king. So make sure that you don’t just submit the same articles to every directory. Chances are there that the search engines will mark them as ‘duplicate content’ and all your hard work will prove futile. So have good content and variety in your articles.

2. Submit Manually: True time is money, but to save time don’t get lured by the many ‘automatic ‘submission software. Instead submit the articles manually and only to the relevant directories where you know the search engines will look first.

3. Always Link To Your Site: Make sure that your backlinks contain your own website URL and also throw in a keyword that which in turn links to that specific keyword related page in your site.

• Using Social Media:

Make use of social media like Facebook & Twitter to spread the word. Upload videos of your site and add them to YouTube channels. Or you can also use your articles in an innovative way by converting them to slideshows which can be submitted to many websites. Also posting to forums in communities helps spread the word. It’ll surely generate more traffic to your site.

• Posting to Blogs & Sites:

With the huge no. of blogs that are being created every minute, you can surely link back to your site by submitting the backlinks to the blog with keywords that matches with yours. Use the many blogs and websites that allow you to submit your articles too and thus give you good backlinks in return. You can even make use of Google keywords alert that will alert you whenever a new blog comes up that has keywords useful for your site.

• Link Exchange sites:

If time isn’t what you have in plenty then worry not. Many link exchange sites have now come up that assure you a higher page rank when you submit your links to them. But make sure you opt for sites that have a good PR & are relevant to your keywords. And of course you need to shell out a few bucks too for this service.

• Using Comments Effectively:

A simple yet tricky method to link back to your site is to effectively use the comments section that you find in many blogs & websites. All you have to do is give a good comment and add the anchor text to it and now you have another backlink! But be careful not to end up marked as spam. Make sure that the site or blog is closely related to your comments & link. Don’t just go about commenting on home loans when the blog is about culinary skills!

So now that you have successfully added backlinks everywhere, watch the traffic flow to your site & get a better page rank. But don’t rest for too long as you need to keep updating and adding more links to ensure the PR stays good. Keep abreast of the latest changes so you wouldn’t lag behind when it comes to popularizing your site.

Increasing online visibility is the goal of most online business owners. After all, without visibility, you have no traffic and thus no business. However, when you start to research how to improve your online visibility, you discover many options, but find that there is little time for research and implementation. Where does an online entrepreneur turn first to get the visibility (and traffic) to promote an online venture?

New tricks and gimmicks come out every day, but unfortunately, most of them are like so many recording artists and become one-hit wonders. In my business, I’ve discovered that there are a handful that are able to stand the test of time. Some have been around for as long as websites have been around, while others are newer kids on the block. Here are my 10 most effective strategies to massively boost your visibility online:

1. Press releases. Press releases are a well-known marketing strategy that have worked for years with print and broadcast media. In recent years they have found new life as an online visibility tool. Just like in the old days, your release should carry some newsworthy angle that has been optimized with a select few keywords by which you want your business to be found. Don’t waste your time submitting your release to the free press release sites — the release simply sits on the site and goes no where else. Instead, invest in a fee-based service (I prefer PRWeb.com), which will ensure your release gets the recognition it deserves.

2. Social Networking. A “johnny come lately” to the online visibility scene, social networking now ranks near the top in terms of attracting visibility to your business for a very low cost. If you don’t yet have accounts on the two most popular social networking platforms, Facebook and Twitter, today is the day to hop on board and begin to network. Choose 1-2 social networking platforms where your target market hangs out, and then begin to work it by making connections, joining groups or networks, sharing resources, and asking questions. Dedicate 15-30 minutes each day to your effort to begin to see results.

3. Article Marketing. Writing and submittíng articles to major article directories has definitely stood the test of time for online visibility. Article marketing will drive traffic to your site, establish you as an expert in your target market’s eyes, and give you valuable content to repurpose into information products. For maximum effectiveness, your article needs to contain a strong resource box (author’s bio) that drives traffic back to your site, needs to contain useful content that solves a problem of your target market, and be written in a tips-based fashion, like this one, since it is the easiest format for a website visitor to read and digest.

4. Blogging. Business blogs (a web log or journal), have gained popularity over the last few years as an online visibility tool. Blogs use RSS feed technology to immediately get new posts and updates out to your blog subscribers through a feed reader. Unlike ezines or traditional websites, search engines index blog posts almost immediately, which help you generate traffic to your website. To use effectively as an online visibility tool, you need to post 2-3 times per week to keep your readers interested and coming back.

5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Optimizing your site or your blog for organic (naturally-occurring) searches has been around from the beginning of Internet marketing. Use a keyword research tool and create a listing of keywords applicable to your business. Don’t forget to add things like “how to”, “tips”, or short descriptions of your target market’s problems to your research. Then, take a look at your page titles, page descriptions, page headlines, and formatted text on a page (bolding, italicizing, underlining) and include your keywords in those areas, as well as sprinkling 1-2 keywords throughout the content of your page. Make the SEO appear to be natural, not forced, and the search engines as well as your visitors will love you.

6. Email Newsletter (Ezine). Regular publication of an email newsletter (weekly is most effective) will enable your prospects to get to know, like and trust you and have you be top of mind when they are ready to solve the pressing problems that fall within your line of expertise. If you make opting into your ezine the primary call to action on your website, you continually build your list with prospective customers. Best of all, if they like what you write, they are more likely to pass along the issue to their contacts, thus increasing your visibility yet again.

7. Signature Teleseminar/Speech. Have you created your signature speech or teleseminar that you can present whenever you’re asked to speak to any type of group (face-to-face or virtual)? If not, design a signature speech or teleseminar that demonstrates your knowledge and expertise without giving away the store (focus on the what and the why but not the how) that compels your listeners to visit your website or request your client attraction device and get on your líst.

Then, begin to research groups that contain your target market both in your geographic area and online. Once you’ve landed a speaking gig, strategize your best call to action for the group — do you want participants to sign up for your ezine, purchase a product, or book a consultation? Add that call to action to your presentation.

8. Videos. With the popularity of broadband Internet connections, it’s much easier for almost anyone to view online video these days. And, with high-quality yet low-cost web cams, video cameras, and screen capture software readily available, anyone can make a video today. You might record a live Q&A session on UStream.com and post it on your site. Or, perhaps you want to record a “how to” tutorial using screenshots from your computer and upload that to your YouTube.com channel. Remember to include your call to action in your video so that you drive traffic back to your site. Just think — your video may cause you to become the next YouTube star!

9. Expert question sites. Most people conduct online searches to find free information that answers their questions. Many online entrepreneurs are registering as experts on an expert or answers site, like Yahoo Answers or AllExperts.com, in an effort to get visibility online. To be an effective expert on these sites, you need to seek out questions that you can knowledgeably answer as an expert. Your answer needs to be very detailed and as specific as possible. The more thorough your answer, the better chance you’ll have of getting chosen as the “favorite” answer, which is the one rated highest on the site and in the search engines.

10. Viral marketing. Viral marketing involves creating a marketing piece (ebook, video, software) that gets passed along free of charge from person to person. Publicity Hound Joan Stewart does this quite effectively each year when she compiles the best tips she’s written about in the previous year in a “best of” ebook compilation that she gives away free of charge on her site. She also encourages her líst and website visitors to “regift” it.

You’ve got two options when you try to get online visibility: the “steady and effective over time” method or the “quick and short and probably get banned” method. I prefer to use methods that have stood the test of time and won’t result in my site being removed from the search engines. Use one or more of these time-honored strategies to get you the visibility you deserve online.

Just to cover the ground, lets go over what link building is quickly. Link building is the process of building backlinks to your site. The more backlinks (links from other sites to your site) a site has, the higher it ranks on the search engines. Link building therefore is a mission of all money makíng webmasters.

Link building methods have changed from time to time and a specific method that worked yesterday may not work today. This is due to changes in the industry over time and in some cases extreme abuse. If a specific link building method has been abused too much, then that method will not work anymore.

It is therefore very important to know which link building method works today so that you can spend your time in a most productive way.

There are many link building methods out there today that work with some working better than others. Below are some of the today’s popular links building methods:

Article Submission

If you are reading this article, then you know that you can publish your article in article directories. Not only do you gain backlinks to your site from your published articles (see bottom of this article), you will get some traffic as a bonus. Think of you reading this article. There might be many reading your published articles as well.

Article submission is a great way of building backlinks as it provides you with 100% relevant contextual backlinks that Google loves.

Directory submission used to work lot better before, but it is still a popular link building method that still works if done properly. How many directories are out there as of this date is anyone’s guess but one thing is certain: that most of the directories aren’t worth submitting to.

Google considers a Yahoo Directory link as a quality backlink so if you can afford and justify the cost, it is worth submítting to Yahoo Directory. Yahoo charges $300 for a yearly submission and there is no assurance that your site will be approved!

Directory Submission

DMOZ is another directory that is worth submitting to and can provide great benefit in your SEO campaign. It may take months to get the approval from DMOZ and the chance of getting approved is pretty slim. A lot of small directories use the DMOZ directory categories so getting listed with DMOZ would mean getting bonus listings on many other web directories.

Another good directory to submit to is the BOTW dírectory that costs $99 for a yearly submission and $299 for a permanent listing.

Other than the above, you should look for quality directories where you can submit your site. You can judge the quality of the directories by analyzing the number of sites listed, number of backlinks the directory has, PR, age of the directory, etc.

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking worked like charm only a few months ago. If bookmarked on authority and quality bookmarking sites like Digg, Mixx, Propeller, etc, then you can still make good use of social bookmarking. Other than backlinks, social bookmarking also offers you some bonus traffic depending on where you submit to. If you can manage to put together or collect a good bookmarking site líst, then social bookmarking can still be a useful link building method.

Blog Commenting

This is a link building method where lots of spamming has already been done so to make the best of it, you need to work a little harder here. It is best to find quality blogs related to your category and make on-topic relevant comments. Not only do your comments add value to the blogpost, you now have a greater chance of getting your comment approved and your comments have greater chance of staying on those blogposts.

Press Releases

Submitting to press release sites can get you some backlinks as well. It is however hard to put together a líst of good press release sites that are worth submitting to. If a good líst can be managed, then this method can give some quality relevant backlinks as well.

Social Media and Web 2.0 Pages

There are a lot of quality social media and Web 2.0 sites where you can publish your articles for backlinks. You should write articles that are relevant to your site and publish them on these social media and Web 2.0 sites with your keywords hyperlinked to your site. Some of the authority sites are Squidoo, Hubpages, Blogger, WordPress.com, etc.

Social media and Web 2.0 links are very popular these days because they work great. They give quality, relevant contextual backlinks that Google and other major search engines love. There are lots of other link building methods out there, but if you can utilize the above ones to their fullest potential, there is no need for any other methods.

Link Building in Online Marketing: Tougher Than It Sounds

posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 9:52 AM
Friday, January 22, 2010

Link Building in Online Marketing: Tougher Than It Sounds

You probably don’t need to read the latest advice from the online marketing consultants to figure out the basic idea behind link building. Without links, your site won’t develop authority. Without authority, it won’t move up on the search engines. But even the most savvy online marketing consultant would have to admit that doing that is just not as easy as it sounds.

More is Not Better in Link Building

Just going out and getting a bunch of links won’t necessarily help your site. You need quality links to get higher search rankings. But sometimes figuring out what makes one link better than another is tough. This is where you do need to keep up with what the online marketing consultants are recommending or you may just be wasting your time.

Targeted Anchor Text is a Must

When you start pursuing links on sites, you need targeted anchor text. However, you don’t want to use the same text everywhere. Google will notice that in a bad way. You want to use two or three different phrases and the proper name of your website. If you can’t get anything but an image link, make sure the site owner puts your anchor text or the name of your site in the ALT tag of the image.

Pay Attention to Links In and Out

Google looks at the site where your link appears and decides how much benefit your site gets back. A site with a lot of inbound links passes more authority to your site. At the same time, being linked on a site full of low-quality, outbound links probably won’t help you much.

PageRank Isn’t Everything

Don’t be one of those site owners who sees nothing but PageRank. A site with high PageRank can still have low link value. This is especially true of sites that sell links. Steer clear of sites that use phrases like “sponsored by” or “paid for by.” Google may not let that site pass PageRank at all. Move on. They’re not worth your time.

Concentrate on Site Relevance

Let’s say your site is about red widgets. You get a link on a site about purple doohickies. That link isn’t worth as much as one on a site about red widget management. Make sure you’re pursuing links in relevant places and look at how those places are optimized. If a site owner gives you a choice of having a link on a page titled “About Us” or one with the title “About Red Widgets,” which one do you choose? The link on the optimized page, “About Red Widgets,” has more value.

An Online Marketing Consultant Checks What’s Not Obvious

Take your cue from the pros and check sites in ways that aren’t obvious. For instance, in any search engine, you can type in “cache:” followed by a site url and find out if the site has been indexed and when it was last crawled. But what do those dates mean?

Chances are good that if the site hasn’t been crawled in 30-45 days, it’s not a good place for a link. But some domains have more value than others. For example, links from .edu domains are better than from a .com, but .info is worth less. All these factors should be weighed in judging a site’s worth in your link building efforts.

Does Social Networking Matter?

We’ve all seen the little link bars under blog posts and in forums asking people to Digg or Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, or StumbleUpon. Do you need to try to get links in places where social networking can happen? Yes. Alone those links may not have a lot of value, but Google is increasingly looking at the “active Web” in determining site authority.

It’s time consuming, but participating in forums and social sites and getting blog owners to run your articles with your linked anchor text included can be worth your time. But remember, relevance is a basic rule in online marketing consulting.

Are You Getting Clean Links?

When you get a link on a site, do you go look at the page’s source code? Is there anything extra in the “href” tag on the link? Is the site using redirect code? Is there a “nofollow” in the site’s meta data? If there is, the link is useless to you. It won’t pass any authority to your site because that code tells the search engines not to follow the link. Make sure you’re getting clean links.

When you’re on a tight budget and trying to develop your site and get higher search rankings, it can be a tough decision to work online marketing consulting into your thinking. The Web used to be pretty much a do-it-yourself place. That all started to change in 2004 when people began talking about “Web 2.0.”

It’s harder than ever to judge quality link building in the new world of Web applications and social networking. You can do it, but try to stay up to speed on what the online marketing consultants are recommending as good strategies. The Web is changing all the time. Good link building takes time and effort; you don’t want to waste those any more than you want to waste money during hard times.

Link-Building Strategies

posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Tuesday, November 3, 2009

 

Link-Building (Backlink) Strategies

Welcome to the Link-Building portion of Web University.  Link-Building is an extremely important, fast paced, quickly changing approach to raising your websites reputation and of course ranking on all major search engines.  Although some strategies such as ‘Press Releases’, ‘Anchor Text’ and ‘Directory Submissions’ don’t carry the same weight (power) they once used to, all major search engines still use the number of Backlinks to your site as a sign of how popular your website is on the Internet.  You’ll find this to be very similar to a High School popularity contest, the more friends you have, the more popular you become.

 

General Directories:

Directories give a website their first ‘authority’ links and they are also the second fastest way for search engines to find and index your website’s pages.  The following directories are the major players you want to submit to:

·         DMOZ (Open Directory Project) www.dmoz.org = Free

·         Yahoo! Directory www.yahoo.com = $299.00/year

·         Best of the Web = $99.95/year

·         Business www.business.com = $299.00/year

·         GoGuides = $69.95

·         JoeAnt = $39.99

If your competitors are in these directories, you should be too; if they are not, this will help you rank higher in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS).

 

Niche Directories:

Niche directories are directories that specialize on a specific industry.  Search the web for directories in your particular industry and submit each of your pages to them; this type of directories may yield more valuable links than general directories.  Niche directories will typically allow you to submit “Text Anchor Hyperlinks” which are much more powerful than their image counterparts.  This is a fantastic way to outperform your competitors as they may not have taken the time to research and submit their web pages to them.

 

Social Media Profiles:

Social media is one of the most powerful methods to quickly get your link onto the screen of hundreds if not thousands of users.  Creating a Social Media profile is easy and LinkWebServices.com will provide you with an advanced template containing all of the most popular questions they will ask you so when you start creating your profile all you have to do is copy and paste from your template.

http://www.linkwebservices.com/downloads/Link_Web_Services_Social_Network_Integration_Profile_Template.pdf

Secret Strategy: create three profiles: 1. Company Name, 2. Your Brand, 3. Your Individual (Personal) Profile. This will triple the number of people you can reach and multiply the number of backlinks to your website.

Most media sites DO NOT pass on Google Page Rank, but some of them do (i.e. Meetup.com); always keep an eye open for a stronger backlink opportunity with a site that allows anchor text and passes Google PageRank to your links.

 

SERP (Search Engine Results Pages) Link Building:

How do I get ahead of my competition? Easy! Do a Google Search for the top keywords you want your web page to be found by, take a look at the top ranking sites, find out who is linking to them and get them to link to you.  Also, see if the top ranking sites for your keywords would be willing to include a link to your site on their high ranking pages.  Take a look at their websites and find out if they have a “links” or “resources” page you can add your link to or just give them a call and ask them.  Remember, always create value for the other person before you ask for something (Anthony Robbins); brainstorm some ideas of things you could contribute to their site, a blog post, an article, a reciprocal link.

 

Blogging:

Blogging is powerful, efficient and fast! Once your blog is created and a few posts have been added, search the web for “Blog Directories” (another good place to search is Website Magazine) and submit your blog to them.  You MUST make absolutely sure you add your domain or sub-domain link to the post or your efforts will be for nothing; when the blog directories include your blog, that hyperlink becomes a powerful Backlink to your site. To maximize the blog’s potential, make sure your blog provides an RSS feed people can subscribe to.  If you don’t have the time to blog, consider a Ghost Writer or Freelance writer to take care of your posts for you; a great place to find them is at Elance.com.  Make sure you promote every single post through your Social Media Profiles and you’ll see people start to follow you on Twitter, Facebook and all other major Social Media Networks available.

 

Articles Targeting Social Media:

Articles are a fantastic way to create backlinks while it has the wonderful side-effect of advertising you as the expert in your field.  Articles can be time consuming and some people may consider them hard work, to whom I would recommend hiring a Ghost Writer or Freelancer to write your articles.  For this particular portion of Link-Building, it is best to already have your Social Media Profiles created and an active Friend/Follower network already in place. The idea here is to create content that is appealing to the people in the social media networks, thus, your topic has to be social media related.  Not all articles will return great results, but once one does, not only will it make up for the others, but it will give you a better idea of what people are interested in.

 

Link Farms:

Avoid them at all cost.

 

 

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Link Web Services Opens New Channel on YouTube!

posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 9:54 AM
Sunday, May 31, 2009

LinkWebServices.com has opened a new channel on YouTube!

View all of our customer’s videos at http://www.YouTube.com/LinkWebServices

Don’t forget to Subscribe to our Channel; we will let you know whenever we upload a fresh video!

Using Twitter For Link Building

posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 11:06 AM
Saturday, April 11, 2009

By Jason Lee Miller

Eric Ward illustrates

Links on Twitter are already nofollowed and most are shortened anyway by a shortener. What use can Twiitter be for link building? Link building Eric Ward says the site is perfect for finding niche experts.

It’s not about huge amounts of followers or traffic spikes. You can get that kind of traffic from Digg. But the advantage of Twitter, says Ward, is that

Google Offers Inbound Link Advice

posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 11:54 AM
Thursday, March 19, 2009

Want links? Google says be interesting

Google’s Maile Ohye concluded Link Week with a tutorial on
inbound links. It says basically what SEO experts have been saying
for years: content and inbound links are most important, and in
that order.

Just because it’s old news doesn’t mean it’s bad news. Google’s

How to Improve Your Link Pop on a Tight Budget

posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 2:58 PM
Wednesday, January 21, 2009

There are a lot of different ways to improve your link pop that don’t cost a cent.
Unfortunately, these methods can be very time-consuming. But, you get what you  put into it. And even if you only spend an hour a day constantly striving to increase your PR, it will be an hour well spent.
First, email all the websites you can and simply ask for a link. You’ll be surprised at how many people say yes.  Politely explain that you’d like to increase your traffic, and explain why you think his or her site’s users have 

Getting Your First Links Using Link Directories

posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 2:48 PM
Monday, January 19, 2009

What are Link Directories?
Link directories exist to help websites exchange links. These links are also called reciprocal links. If website A and website B want to exchange links then website A links to website B and website B links to website A. This way both the websites benefit. The value of reciprocal links in terms of search engine optimization may not be much.
But it is a good start.
Link directories exist only for one purpose. They are a meeting place for website owners who want to do link exchanges with like-minded people. The

Add Directory Link Submission To Your Marketing Toolkit

posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 2:29 PM
Monday, January 12, 2009

One of the quickest ways to work towards a number one ranking on Google and other search engines is to add directory link submission to your daily list of marketing tasks.
High ranking on Google and other search engines depends on two factors – on-page and off-page.
On-page factors include keyword density, optimized title and Meta tags, systematic internal linking, themed content and frequent updates.
Off-page factors are primarily related to qualified inbound linking. When you

Reciprocal Link Exchange is still a very popular practice.  It should be– after all there are still many benefits to organizing a link exchange campaign.
First and foremost, a Reciprocal Link Campaign encourages webmasters to explore the various websites in their genre.  It helps establish communication among web developers and creates strong online communities.  This can be a valuable tool for information sharing and promoting the advancement of a specific topic, like education or technology.
Reciprocal Link Exchange is still a very valuable practice.  For one, it is easier to acquire reciprocals than one-way links.  This follows the

Top 10 Ways to Improve Your Site’s “Link Pop”

posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 2:04 PM
Wednesday, January 7, 2009

10.) Post comments in discussion groups and on message boards.  Be sure to make useful, relevant statements based on topics being discussed.  Comments that only contain a link will usually be deleted or banned.  If you make valuable contributions, people will want to find out what else you have

Seven Things to Avoid When Looking For Link Partners

posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 1:59 PM
Monday, January 5, 2009

Designing a Reciprocal Link Campaign can be a tricky endeavor.  As a webmaster, you must choose your linking partners wisely.  Generally, a good rule of thumb is to ask yourself one question:  “Will this be a valuable resource to my readers?”  If you view it as a legitimate, valuable website, chances are Google will too.
Below you will find 7 tips for avoiding the major pitfalls new web developers

Why Link Farm and FFA Submissions Are a Bad Idea

posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:46 AM
Sunday, January 4, 2009

Are a Bad Idea

Before search engines got smart, a site’s page ranking was based on keyword match-ups.  When webmasters stock-piled their sites with keywords, the wrong sites were getting too much attention.  Google decided to focus on a site’s “popularity” instead.  The number of incoming links became the focus of PR criteria.  The theory behind this system was that if a lot of sites link to another site, that site would contain valuable content.

But again, webmasters got sneaky.  With this trend, we began to see the evolution of “Link Farms” and “Free-for-All” (FFA) sites.  These pages were

How Link Pop Affects Your Website’s Page Rank

posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:36 AM
Saturday, January 3, 2009

What is Link Pop?
Link popularity, sometimes referred to as “Link Pop,” plays a very important role in determining a website’s visibility among the top returned search results.  Your site’s link pop will be determined by the quality, quantity, and relevance of the other websites that link to your page.
What is Page Rank?
“Page Rank,” sometimes abbreviated PR, was developed by Google’s founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.  Here is how Google describes the “Page Rank”

Link popularity, often called “link pop,” can be a tricky thing.  In the good old days, search engines determined a site’s page ranking by the number of times the keywords appeared in the text.  Soon webmasters learned that if they squeezed an obnoxious amount of keywords into their site’s text, the site would eventually gain a very high page ranking.

Since search engines like Google gain users by providing quality webpage matches, they had to get smarter than the web developers.  Google decided

Once your website is up and raring to go, it is important to start formulating a marketing strategy.  The obvious goal is to attract as many visitors as you can.  One of the best ways to do this is through a “Linking Campaign”.

In order to begin your campaign, you must first understand the difference between reciprocal and non-reciprocal links.  A reciprocal link simply means that two websites are linking to each other.  Both sites generate traffic for each other simultaneously.  This follows the philosophy of, “You scratch

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