Most people who work online incorporate some internet affiliate marketing into their income stream. Maybe it’s a banner in the side bar, or review of a new product, or a link in your blog post. No big deal as far as Google is concerned (but do remember to add your nofollow attribute). But for those whose business is strictly internet affiliate marketing, there’s more to be considered.

As a Matter of Fact, For Internet Affiliate Marketing Site, You Can Be Too Thin

In the eyes of a search engine, a thin site is one with little or no original content. Typically, a “thin internet affiliate marketing site” consists of little more than a squeeze page, some ads, and of course, affiliate links. Since Google’s primary job is to provide the best match for your search query, you can see why these thin sites simply won’t rank well. They don’t provide a good user experience.

So what does that mean for affiliate marketers? It means you need to look at your site through a reader’s eyes, and aim to add value to the buying process. There are lots of ways to do that, starting with:

• Comprehensive Reviews
  Shoppers frequently search for product reviews when researching a purchase, so this is a great way to add value to their buying process and make the Google bot happy.
• How-To Articles
  Show your readers how to make use of advanced features and
• Use excerpts. If a reader lands on your home page and can read the entire last article from your blog, there’s no good reason to click further. Instead, craft a compelling excerpt that entices her to want to read more.
• Make Your Site Easy to Navigate
  If your menu is hidden at the bottom of the page in a tiny font, you’re going to lose a lot of readers. Make it clear to them how to get from one page to another.
• Make Sure Your Site is Mobile Friendly
  A site with tiny print and impossible-to-click links will turn off viewers who arrive via mobile devices with tiny screens.
• Aim To Be a Resource, Not a Portal
  Your site is not simply the middle-man between the buyer and the eCommerce site. Your job as an affiliate marketer should be as a trusted source of information, not a roadblock that must be navigated to get to the good stuff. Accomplish that, and Google will be happy to rank your site near the top of the search results.

Strategies for Internet Affiliate Marketing Sites

It’s not enough just to build a well-developed site, though. You also need to maintain it. Add to it frequently to keep the content up to date; watch your links to be sure they remain valid (eCommerce site links can change fast); and interact with your market in social media.

You don’t have to make it a full-time job, but doing these things will help Google take notice of your site for the resource it is, rather than mistaking it for just another thin internet affiliate marketing site.

The post Improve Internet Affiliate Marketing Sites For Google appeared first on Let'sTalkSEO.

Facebook is the largest marketing venue on the planet and all businesses should set up a Facebook page to get Facebook fans.

No other single website has allowed interaction of fan with creator since MySpace did it back in the early 00′s for bands. But tapping into that 1 billion network of fans waiting to find your product or brand is a different thing altogether. It’s not impossible but it has to be done a certain way.

Here are the top 5 ways to get Facebook fans efficiently for your page:

1. Forget number of Fans, Focus On Buzz
   A Facebook page has two main metrics of measure. LIKES and People Talking About This. In theory you could get Facebook fans of 1000 and 1000 People Talking About This. Or on the other hand you could get Facebook fans of 200,000 and 1 Person Talking About This. Which do you think Facebook prefers?

That’s right, getting people to talk about you page is far more important than basic fan accumulation. How many people on Facebook that are talking about you is directly linked to your viral reach.

2. Affinity is important to get Facebook fans
   Only a small number of updates will ever reach your fan base. That is the same for your personal page, with so many users only 10% of anything you post on Facebook reaches your entire audience. The best way to combat this is to encourage LIKES, video views and comment responds. It boosts the relevance of your page and helps it BUMP into your fans time line.
3. How Long?
   Facebook are like all other websites, they want you and me to spend as much time on there as possible. The way to do this is through video. Why? Simple, because if you sit and watch a 3 minute video on a Facebook page that’s 3 minutes extra exposure to Facebook you have brought to the table. Times that by 1 billion, if every user had a great 3 minute video to show off, you can imagine the stats on that metric right?
4. Frequency
   There is a long debate on how long a post should be and how often you should post it. Early morning before 8am and after 10pm seems the best time. And no more than 4 times per day ideally as this can have a detrimental effect on your audiences patience. Just think work hours. When are your audience going to, and coming back from work? Post either side of those times.

Last but not least, a surprising way to get Facebook fans.

5. Slap To Punch
   Some people call it engagement of an audience. I call it Slap To Punch or STP. The best way to get punched is to slap someone right? Same goes for Facebook, to get people responding or post questions on your page is by posting something “inflammatory”. Now I’m not saying anything racist or sexist obviously, but by ruffling feathers and poking people for a response, you will get 100% more engagement than simply saying “had a great day, how about you?”. Show people something cool, amazing, scary. And the fans will follow.

It is no easy feat to get Facebook fans these days as almost everyone and every business has a Facebook page. However, if you follow the tips, you may be on your way to get many Facebook fans. Do share with us any tips you used to get Facebook fans.

The post Get Facebook Fans Efficiently For Your Page appeared first on Let'sTalkSEO.

Author rank is Google’s latest metric that is used to calculate the authority of a content creator (a blogger or a website owner). Though similar to page rank, it is not in any way going to replace page rank. Instead author rank is going to be used to inform page rank.

With both metrics you can always expect the search engine to always give you the most relevant result for your search.

How Will I Be Declared An Authority?
If page rank is determined by the number of links linking to your site, then author rank is determined by the number of comments and shares that your content gets. Here’s Google’s theory: if your content is great, then there should be a lot of buzz about it.

Google assumes that your content is getting shared among several people or is getting a lot of comments because it is actually helpful. So in lots of ways you can say that author rank is Google’s way of rewarding you for being a great content provider.

All you need to do is merge your online identity with the content you are creating. To do this:

• you first need to setup your Google+ profile
• then use the rel=author tag in your author profile page
• and link to your Google+ profile
• you would also want to use the rich snippet testing tool inside Google Webmaster to make sure that your profile is set correctly

If you are one of those who still do not like Google+, you might be in for some serious shock. The reason is that “In circles” and +1s will be playing a big role in author rank.

Here is a Short List of Factors that Will Affect Author Rank:

• The number of +1 and share that a content receives
• The number of Google+ circles you are in
• The level of comments your content generates
• The author rank of the author that is connected to you

Should Author Rank Be Considered At All?

Google believes it is better to have results from a few verified authors than to have tons of information from several unverified authors. So having content from authorities on any topic highlighted is another way for Google to get quality content to the searchers.

But simply because it comes from Google, it should be taken very seriously. Just like every other thing that Google has ditched out (Google panda and Google penguin), whoever does not take it seriously will eventually pay dearly for it.

The truth is Google (in most ways) determines what SEO looks like today. We can’t also close our eyes to how social media and networking is affecting search results; author rank is just another offshoot of the rise of social media to power, so it is worthwhile to treat author rank as the future of SEO.

Good Thing About Author Rank

May be not for black hat, but author rank is just the right avenue for anybody to establish oneself as an authority over any topic/ field. All it takes is for you to keep creating great content as you have always done.

Just in case you are new at creating content, the key is to make sure that your content is helpful to your audience and you can be sure that your content would generate just the buzz that you want it to.

The real question is this, know Google for who they are, should we be expecting anything from them anytime soon or will author rank be the lasting solution to getting quality content, what is your take on it?

The post Significant Impact of Author Rank appeared first on Let'sTalkSEO.

Negative SEO, consider it as any black hat move against your websites ranking. Instead of finding ways to promote the ranking of a website, those who take part in negative SEO simply look for any possible means of bringing down other high ranking websites.

What Is Negative SEO?

The tactics and techniques used come in different shades and colors, here’s just a few:

• Malware hacks and injection
• Spam reporting
• Paid linking
• Stealing content before getting indexed
• DMCA removal request
• Review bombing

Usually you should not get any threat of negative SEO except when your competitors deem you worthy. By this, it means that instead of your competitor looking for ways to out rank you with proper “white hat” SEO, he goes to negative SEO service provider for you to get serious spammy hits.

Interestingly, even Google is being fooled and are an active player in the negative SEO charade. If the black hat guys are not injecting your site with viruses, they use Google who is ready to penalize any website that seems to have used any black hat techniques.

But the problem is that those sites actually didn’t use the black hat techniques; they got hit by competitors with negative SEO.

What Is Google Doing About Negative SEO?

Don’t get me wrong, Google is not into negative SEO. Instead Google is all out trying to stop all forms of negative SEO especially when it has to do with unwanted links pointing to your site. In an effort to combat this issue, Google has recently released the Disavow Links Tool. What it does basically, with this tool you will be able to tell Google which link to your site that you want to remove was ignored.

What Are the Signs of Negative SEO?
If you are really being attacked, you should see low-quality links from various root domains that you cannot account for. But you should not be looking out for just one or two; that won’t bring your site down. Instead you should expect a dramatic spike in the number of these links.

What Can You Do About Negative SEO?
In general, you should constantly be on the look-out for any other black hat tricks. If you feel that you are being targeted by any of your competitors with unwanted links or you think that some of your links to your site are looking spammy, you can just tell Google not to consider those links by visiting Google Webmaster Tool. Here are the steps and how it work:

• Go to Google’s Disavow Links Tool to combat negative SEO.
• Select your website.
• Google will prompt you to upload a plain text file with the links you want to disavow.

See this video on how Matt Cutts goes through the tool:

Please note that this tool is not for everybody. Only if there are still some links you just can’t seem to get down, but have done as much as you can to remove the problematic links.

What Happens From Here On?
We have seen Google become so aggressive on its quest to give only quality content, but we have also seen “black hatters” become even more dubious.

Will we be seeing more algo’s and tools? Will we be seeing more nasty techniques? With these on-going struggle between good and evil (white hat vs. black hat), will the web remain a safe and simple place to do business? What is your take on negative SEO?

The post Defend Your Site Against Negative SEO Attacks appeared first on Let'sTalkSEO.

Guest posting has been a very popular method for gaining backlinks, but is this technique now obsolete? Successful entrepreneurs of online marketing have long been aware that in order to achieve a #1 Ranking on Google, it is essential to acquire large quantities of links. Many SEO experts have been flooding hundreds of websites with guest posts in an effort to enhance their clients’ online visibility. But just how valuable are those backlinks anyway? Let’s delve into the theories of guest posting with some advice from our resident expert, Matt Cutts, from Google.

Interview with Matt Cutts on Guest Posting

Recently, AJ Kohn interviewed Matt Cutts, focusing on this very issue of guest posting. Mr. Cutts believed that the resulting discussion material would be of huge benefit to many online marketers and business owners, and therefore felt an urgency to release the following video. AJ began the interview by asking one simple question, “What is Google’s view on guest blogging for links?”

To summarize Mr. Cutts’ presentation, it is his interpretation that the employment of guest postings as a mean to gain backlinks is not an obsolete practice for most people. In the video presentation, Mr. Cutts offers some very specific guidelines of recommended principles to follow for guest posting, which we find informative and worthy of consideration for those who utilize this practice.

1. Using Spun Articles for guest posting will most often not effectively aid the marketer in achieving the desired outcome. Mr. Cutts likens this to an “article farm” offering no substantial rankings benefits, and very often resulting in negative ranking consequences instead.
2. Posting badly worded or grammatically incorrect articles will not produce a higher ranking.
3. Smaller articles of less than 400 words do not have a substantial affect on one’s ranking. Longer content is better than shorter.
4. The lack of Google Authorship does not hurt your rankings, but does not benefit your guest posting either. An online reputation is critical to the successful use of guest posting to gain links.
5. Quality always trumps Quantity! Make the extra effort in the writing of your guest postings to make them informative and well written.

“Extreme” Guest Posting

In the video, Mr. Cutts is quoted as saying, “Don’t take anything to extremes”, one of the more favorite bits of advice of the video’s viewership. Many online marketers purchase low quality content from outsourced writers, and then post them as their own. This is not highly recommended. To best utilize the practice of guest posting to acquire links, it is of the utmost importance to use high quality content in all cases.

Personally writing your own articles is the preferred method as recommended by Mr. Cutts, but if you are unable to write quality content yourself, make certain to employ unique and original content providers of the highest possible quality. Some great online providers of these article writing services can be located at Blogging.org, Textbroker.com, and WriterAccess.com, but again, the most effective and safest way is to write them personally.

It is nearly impossible for every blog post to be 100% original and unique, but good ones will provide the reader with some sort of exchange of information that might be of benefit in the short or long term. That is what attracts Google. They want to see an effort, some added value being offered to their online community.

Is Google “for” or “against” Guest Posting?
After watching this video, it is apparent that Google is not trying to prevent people from guest posting. They are, however, growing more and more frustrated by the terrible content that they are finding on these blogs. Quality content is key if you want to gain Google’s Favor. Don’t post garbage online. And don’t post Spun Articles. It will not help you in any way to flood the internet with useless verbiage, or Google may just begin to penalize you for it in the future. Focus on quality writing and the sharing of useful information, and Google will reward you instead.

How can you tell if Google thinks your article is of quality content?
Every online writer should have someone that they trust to whom they can send their material and get an honest assessment in return. If you can send your article to your best business associate, and they can admit to having learned something in return, then you have just passed the Google Test. Google and Matt Cutts are not the “internet police”. They just want the internet to be a place for education and the effective exchange of ideas, not a place to waste people’s valuable time.

Furthermore, for those who are willing to create detailed and useful long-form blog posts will be rewarded. Google has also issued a guideline to help with guest posting, and also allow the site owner to grade and determine the value of their content.

Will your article content pass or fail this simple test for guest posting? Please do share your experience and strategy below.

The post Is Guest Posting Still Relevant? appeared first on Let'sTalkSEO.