by marciookabe

SEO Link Building – Knowing What Matters

In this article, we discuss search engine optimization link building strategies that you can implement.

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Perhaps you’ve read an article or two by search engine optimization (“SEO”) experts stressing the importance of link building to the visibility of your web site on the major search engines. If, for example, you happen to navigate the Google online documentation to the “Webmaster Help Center” you will see the Google response to the question “How can I improve my site’s ranking?” The Google response includes the statement “In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages.2”

“Link building” then, is the process of developing “inbound” links to your web pages in order to drive traffic to your site and improve your search engine ranking. Sounds simple, but there are so many different complex online link building programs and strategies it’s mind boggling! And, some techniques, even legitimate techniques implemented incorrectly, may actually render inbound links completely useless.

I started this article intending to cover the 5 W’s – who, what, when, where and why. But, at the risk of detracting from the clever title, I felt the need to add “How?” in order to make it more useful. So this article is designed to provide insight into the following questions:

1. Who should link to my web pages?

2. What should the link entail?

3. When should I add a link to my site?

4. Where should a link appear?

5. Why should you care?

6. How can businesses develop their own inbound links?

No doubt, reasonable minds can disagree with some of the opinions and strategies contained in this article. I direct your attention to footnote references to several online articles that I found helpful. I encourage you to review these articles so you can draw your own conclusions. I do hope you conclude that there are a number of legitimate link building strategies that you can tackle!

Why Should You Care?

Sorry, I have skipped over who, what, when and where to begin instead with “Why?” After all, if I cannot make the case that link building is important, you certainly will not read the rest of this article!

It is believed that, in the eyes of the major search engines, the number and quality of the incoming links that point to your site are indicative of the worthiness of your site. I know, it sounds like a popularity contest – perhaps this stirs up memories of the disdain you had for your high school prom king/queen election process. Popularity and Page Rank aside, you are interested in driving qualified traffic to your web site and developing relationships with businesses that offer complementary products and services. Link building techniques are designed to accomplish this.

Who Should Link to My Web Pages?

It is believed that links from “authoritative” websites and “related” industry sites carry the most weight. An “authoritative” site might be an educational organization (.edu), a publication, a government agency (.gov), a known subject matter expert or an organization/association in yours or a related industry.

As for “related” sites, partners, vendors, but not competitors are good “reciprocal linking” (discussed later) opportunities. Their sites should be related to the products and/or services you provide.

Make sure to set your standards high! Analyze the inbound links to the page where you would like to see your link. Are they in fact authoritative and relevant sites? How do you research inbound links to your potential linking partner?

There are some excellent SEO link building tools out there! Netconcepts provides a free “Link Popularity Checker” at http://www.netconcepts.com/linkcheck/. Another site is LinkPopularity.com. Use these tools to assess the quality of the links to the page before you ask for a link! While you’re there, check out the link popularity of your web pages and those of your competitors.

Note that many SEO experts believe that you should stay away from a web page that already has too many links. How many is too many? According to an article in Website Magazine, “… it is best to shy away from any pages with more than 20 outbound links.3”

You’ll recall that we mentioned the term “PageRank” earlier in this article. The Google PageRank scoring system is used to quantify the relative importance of a web page. You can determine PageRank by downloading and using the free Google ToolBar (http://toolbar.google.com).

Should you consider PageRank while determining whether to ask for a link on a page? One contributor to the online article “Over 125 (Legitimate) Link Building Strategies”, Dixon Jones, suggests that the PageRank of the web page where you would like your link to reside should be between 3 and 10.4 In his article “The Nitty Gritty of Link Requests”, Chris Boggs suggests that PageRank is not as useful as it used to be but “PageRank is still a good guide.5”

Many Internet marketing professionals continue to suggest that you submit your site to the appropriate category within the major directories as well as to vertical engines and industry directories. Examples of popular general directories include Yahoo!, Open Directory (dmoz.org), GoGuides, Gigablast, JoeAnt, Gimpsy and BlueFind. Many allow you to submit your website URL for free. Some may require you to add a reciprocal link to their directory.

In his article, “SEO: Weaving a Web of Links”, Stephan Spencer cautions against seeking links from “free for all” links pages that are packed full of links.6. Again, pay attention to PageRank and topic relevance. Watch out for automated submission programs that submit to irrelevant search engines and directories.

What Should the Link Entail? What Should You Put on Your Link Page? Once you have targeted an inbound link opportunity, you will want to suggest the link location and the exact link language you wish to appear on their site. Make it easy to implement your link – place HTML on your site that your partner’s webmaster can cut and paste onto their web page.

Embed your keyphrases into the link text. Although the subject of web page optimization is beyond the scope of this article, make sure the page the link points to (the “Target Page”) is “optimized” for those keyphrases. The target page need not be your website home page. Not sure how to determine the best keywords for your business? I discuss this very issue in my article “Web Page Keywords – Do’s and Don’ts” which you can review at http://www.ebizmachine.com/seotips.html.

The question “What should you put on your link page” presumes that the linking relationship is “reciprocal”. Not all links will be reciprocal – we’ll talk more about link building strategies that involve the creation of useful online content encouraging “natural” link growth without reciprocal arrangements. However, your arrangements with partners, alliances and some directories may well be “reciprocal”. In other words, “I’ll point to you if you point to me.”

Before you approach a partner for a reciprocal link, you may wish to create your link to their site in advance demonstrating the techniques described in this article. “One good turn deserves another” – include one or two carefully drafted paragraphs of descriptive information for each link.

When Should I Add a Link to my Site? But for my need to have a catchy title, this section is better named “How often should I add inbound links?” Experts these days are writing about “natural growth of inbound links” and “organic link gaining” and “Emulating Natural Growth in Link Building”, as search engine optimization authority Chris Boggs recently wrote in Website Magazine.7 Sounds downright “earthy”, doesn’t it?

It’s clear that link building is a slow and steady grass roots process and some experts maintain that link growth should follow a natural, free range, pesticide-free progression (OK, I added the italics for fun). Boggs writes that efforts to rapidly gain links “are sometimes easy for search engines to discern…, especially if the links are in a

by marciookabe

One of the best things a business or individual can do to promote a web site is contact a link building service. Needless to say, high-quality, relevant links are very valuable, and a solid link building campaign has the potential to have a high return on investment. Because of the importance of links in today’s search algorithms, businesses and individuals should not take choosing a link building service lightly. The following are a few tips to help sort out the good link building firms from the bad.

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1. Webmasters seeking a link building service should look for expertise first. The link builder should have a grasp of advanced link building algorithms (such as VIPS and TrustRank). Reading through the link building service’s web site with the utmost care is a must. Quite simply, the link building service should demonstrate knowledge and understanding of SEO, marketing, search engine algorithms, and appropriate business practices. Experts in the field of link building will undoubtedly make their expertise known on their web site.

Additionally, it is advisable to look at the link building service’s web site as a whole. Is the design professional and user friendly? It may seem like a waste of time investigating the web site design of the company, but it can be a very telling representation of what type of link building service owns that site. Experts in any field take the highest pride in their work. An expert link building service would want to present itself in the most positive light. Since the web site is indeed the portal from the link building service to the customer, its design and usability are quintessential. If a link building service is haphazard with their web site design, they will certainly be more likely to haphazardly build links.

2. When searching for a link building service, one should look for examples of proven success. A solid link building service will make past successes available for all to see. When coming across the proven success statements on the web site, be sure to follow up on the claims of the link building service. If the service claims to be ranked number one in Google for “widgets,” be sure to follow it up. Search “widgets” in Google and see if the service is truly number one. If it is, then that link building service might be a good choice.

3. The reputation of the link building service should be taken into account. People in the SEO industry understand high quality link building, versus low quality. A recommendation from peers should be considered to be very valuable, because colleagues can often be the best judges and offer the most objective opinions. The SEO industry is relatively small, and most SEOs are familiar with others’ work. A link building service that is well known in the industry is certainly worth consideration.

4. Any link building service should be honest about how links are obtained. There are straight foreword ways of building links (observing search engine guidelines) and there are ways that are considered to be “black Hat” (not observing search engine guidelines). Depending on preference, one should consider how the link builder would obtain links. If your web site has a reputation to protect, then hiring a “black hat” SEO could be a gamble. Additionally, search engine algorithms are always improving in order to shield themselves from black hat SEO tactics. That being said, a link obtained dishonestly could end up hurting the web site rather than helping.

Essentially, the best link building service will proudly display past successes and offer all pertinent information about its link building service. A top-notch link builder will have expertise on the subject, and wonderful presentation (professional web site design). The link building service will make past successes available, and inform the client about how links will be obtained. The link building service should also have a good reputation within the SEO industry. The best firms will demonstrate knowledge, understanding, and initiative in link building practices. Searching for a high-quality link building service can be tedious, but if carried out correctly, the rewards will far surpass the effort.

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by toprankonlinemarketing

Link building is a very important component of any successful SEO strategy. Link building is one of the most effective methods of securing high rankings in the search engines.

So what is Link Building? Link building is the process of creating inbound links that direct towards one’s own website from third party websites. This can be done via reciprocal links, being listed in e-zines, newsletters, directories, search engines, etc.

In any comprehensive Search Engine Optimization strategy, 20% of the SEO activity consists of on-page optimization and the rest 80% is off-page link building.

Link building is a tedious, research based task and there are a whole range of factors that differentiate a quality link from a general one. The process of link building is best left to the hands of a qualified link building services company and is advisable to hire a full time link building professional who works only on your assignment.

There are many link building companies in India that provide outsourced link building services to internet marketing companies worldwide. There are many advantages of outsourcing link building services.  As mentioned before, the process of link building is a very tedious one and is heavily research based. A lot of time is consumed researching various third party sites with top PR ranks and also finding sites which have relevant content. Link building service professionals spend significant amount of man-hours researching high ranked PR sites with relevant content. Once the research phase is over, these link building services professionals contact these third-party websites and request for a link back to the parent site. There are many other ways to increase the number of backlinks, by either buying links or even exchanging links. The more the number of backlinks directing to your website the higher it is ranked by Google. At the same time it is very important to maintain the quality of these links.

Since the link building activity is very time consuming it is best to outsource the link building process. There are many professional link building services companies in India which take on outsourced link building services. It is very advantageous to outsource the entire link building process to such companies in India.

Few of the advantages of outsourcing Link Building services on a full time basis are:

•    You pay almost 60% lesser when you hire a full time link building professional in India than what you would pay locally.
•    Professional Link Building companies in India that offer link building resources on a full time basis take all the responsibility of quality output and timely delivery.
•    It is possible to maintain constant touch with the outsourced  link building services professional through advanced project management systems and via chat, email and telephone.
•    You don’t have to worry about expensive office infrastructure, workspace and administrative support and you pay only for the cost of the link building professional that you hire.

There are a few professional SEO firms in India like Ryzeup Internet Marketing that offer outsourced link building services to Internet marketing companies and digital firms worldwide. Internet Marketing companies around the world hire high quality link building professionals on a full time basis from Ryzeup.

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RyzeUp -
About the Author:

RyzeUp Internet Marketing is a boutique Digital Media Outsourcing SEO India Company that delivers International standard outsourced Search Engine Optimization, Link Building, PPC, SMO and Affiliate Management services to Digital Media and Internet Marketing firms worldwide.

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by jcolman

As visitor traffic analysis topic is mentioned here, you may think it is the matter of course that the analysis should be done for effectiveness of any SEO Internet Marketing activities. All may have agreeed upon this, but not all have done the visitor traffic analysis properly to obtain good results from their SEO internet marketing activities. Three below factors are important to be analyzed for SEO internet marketing campaign to achieve the set goals

First of all, let’s talk about targeted traffic on keywords. Tracking how your keywords are working effectively or not is very important. An SEO expert needs to track if the chosen keywords are attracting the targeted audience. A keyword can appeal targeted or generic traffic, but all the SEO professionals’ goal is to get the targeted audience. Besides analyzing the popularity, competition of the keywords for selection, it is necessary to research and select the keywords that are as best relevant to your services or products as possible. It is very clear that “creative internet marketing” will attract general traffic that needs to get information about creative internet marketing, but “SEO internet marketing” will be more specific; or “travel SEO” will target to the specific audience who is interested in SEO services for hotels.

Furthermore, a successful SEO Internet marketing campaign will brings the qualified traffic. Qualified traffic means targeted traffic that really enhances your conversion rate, and needs our great efforts in sourcing and selecting more precise and well defined keywords, location keywords, ect. A SEO expert must know the demographics and psychographics of the targeted traffic to bring the qualified audience. Let’s take an example, if you are offering SEO internet marketing services to small and medium business clients in Vietnam, keywords such as SEO Vietnam, cheap SEO Vietnam, small business SEO Vietnam, etc can be optimized to your website.

The last but not the least factor is the visitors’ activities analysis. Time on page and especially conversion rate play an important role in a successful SEO internet marketing campaign, so a professional SEO often keeps eyes on visitors’ activities on the specific landing pages. We need to scientifically design the menus, call to action buttons and content on website and landing pages for visitors’ ease to redirect and make decision. If you want turn your targeted visitors to buyers, you should spend time and thoughts on designing logic pages. A contact us, live support or add to cart button should be placed at a convenient position on your services or products landing pages where those who are interested in your services or products can contact and order your services or products. As long as you experience no improvement in their visitors’ activities on or conversion rate from your website/pages, you need to make adjustments or change to the landing page for better conversion rate. Conversion rate is the percentage of total traffic converting into actual sale or leads.

For now we can start a successful SEO internet marketing campaign with the above suggested visitor traffic analysis. Just focus your efforts on analyzing visitor traffic to gain targeted audience, qualified traffic and tracking visitors’ activities to achieve your final goal of high conversion rate for your website. The suggested factors are just in brief, but your practice for specific SEO internet marketing campaign will make perfect.

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SEO Internet Marketing -
About the Author:

Lacy Vu is associated with upLevo – a creative internet marketing – web development firm based in Hanoi, Vietnam offering creative internet marketing services inclusive of SEO internet marketing, online marketing strategy, creative web design and development, website services, and creative online marketing advice and tips.

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by cariaso

Auto Blog Samurai Software by Paul Ponna has to be just another internet marketing scam right? Most internet marketers think that just from reading the title, but we have all been told at some point in our lives not to judge a book by its cover. I unfortunately had to learn this the hard way. The Auto Blog Samurai Software just isn’t something I thought could help me.

To me, Paul Ponna was just releasing something rehashed that we internet marketers have seen and heard before. Close friends of mine had used the Auto Blog Samurai Software a little bit and seemed to like it a lot! So much that they kept bugging me about giving it a shot.  I am more of a hands on kind of guy myself and would rather just stick to what I know works.  Long story short, they persuaded me to get my own copy of Paul Ponna’s Auto Blog Samurai Software.

I was a bit familiar with the first steps the Auto Blog Samurai Software laid out, but after that it was pretty much all new to me. I couldn’t believe how quickly I had everything up and running. My use of the Auto Blog Samurai Software was my introduction to auto blogging. If you don’t know about auto blogs, they’re cool mini blog sites that run and generate traffic all on their own. Paul Ponna’s Auto Blog Samurai Software’s initial setup and a little minor tweaking was all the work I had to do.

In my opinion, Auto Blog Samurai Software shows internet marketers how to truly have an automated business online.

When it comes to making money with a blog, I highly recommend Auto Blog Samurai Software by Paul Ponna. It’s a great resource!

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Jason Frank -
About the Author:

David Frank is a part time engineer and part time business student who loves blogging.