Will Adding a Google +1 Button Increase Referring Site Traffic?

With so many social networks and profiles that a company needs to stay on top of, I often get this question from clients.

While there has been no absolute proof yet, if you apply some Google logic to this question, the answer is yes.

Why?

Google Loves Google

There’s no denying that fact. That’s why anytime Google releases any web property where anyone can get a link from, it makes sense to get a link from that property. YouTube and Google Plus pages also come to mind. It takes about ten minutes of your time to create a profile on either site, and you can instantly get a great Google loving link pointed to your site.

In raw numbers, the increase to your site depends on how many +1′s your site earns. Obviously, the more the better, but I think what’s even more critical is when you see a search result where someone you know has voted for a site (+1). It implies trust (assuming you know the person who voted for it) for that site.

That metric is something that Google will never be able to accurately measure. We humans will always be the final one making the decision, but the algorithm will play some part in trying to value the intent and trust of others in relation to your search.

Personally, I am not a fan of the +1 idea, but I do it for all my sites and always try to get all my clients to add it as well. You have to figure that as long as Google is around, it will have it’s place.

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SEO Ranking Audit

There seems to be some issues around the definition of what makes up SEO Audits.

In the case of a traditional audit, the goals are to look at the entire site from a search engine’s perspective to find all the issues a site might have.

SEO Ranking Audits are more focused. Typically reserved for special instances such as domain acquisition, or when there is some concern about the links being acquired as part of a linking campaign.

The Ranking Audit is focused on details such as the sustainability of rankings for the keywords that enjoy high placement in the search results. Not only do those terms have to be analyzed, but each page that is ranked needs to be looked at in order to ensure that the rankings will remain.

Not only are the ranked keywords and ranking pages looked at, but also, all the links that are pointed to the domain.

Common Questions Answered in a Ranking Audit

Unfortunately, there are still those out there who use link networks to earn their rankings. Many times they will build a site with the intention to sell it off in the very near future. So, they will insert links to the ranking site to help the site look more valuable. They know as soon as the site leaves their possession, they will remove those links, and the site will lose it’s rankings.

So, one of the questions that are addressed is the sustainability of the rankings. While no link can be guaranteed to stay online forever, common sense will tell you that a link from Adobe.com will most likely last for a long time, assuming they stay in business.

Those are the easy links to spot and verify. But are they the ones causing the site to get ranked? Many times, the powerful links are coming from an influential blogger or authority site that has a link pointed to the site in question. Will that link remain once ownership changes hands?

Another answer a ranking audit should provide is whether or not all the links earned are being counted in the rankings. Some links have the nofollow attribute attached to them, and others come from low quality sites that won’t pass much value, if any.

SEO Ranking Audits – Impact

When you’re audit is complete, you should have an idea on how long your links and rankings will last, and which ones are at risk.

Armed with this information, you should be able to justify the cost of your domain acquisition, or the efforts of your seo vendor.

If you’re looking for an SEO Audit, click on the contact button to get a no obligation quote from us on what to expect, and what the expected outcome will be.

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One thing that really steams me is when I am talking to a potential client and they ask me about the links. You see, their current or past seo vendor told them that once they left, their links would evaporate, thus losing the rankings they achieved.

This stinks of a link network scheme.

What happens is, some seo vendors spend a lot of resources on creating multiple unique sites on “C” Class IP’s.

This is done so that Google can’t figure out that all of those sites in a network are owned by one company or person.

The impact of this is that when a new client joins, they can immediately get a ton of links and to Google, seeing many links across a multiple sites is a signal to them of a nice link strategy.

So, the seo vendor sells this as “link building” sometimes you’ll even hear “private networks” to describe this.

Sure, while a client is using this service they are ranked, but at some point in time, Google will find this footprint and de-value all the sites found inter-linked in this network.

It’s not shocking to Google if on some blog, amongst 2,000 anchor-linked comments, to see some of the same links pointing to the same sites. But, when certain sites and keywords all share the same link footprint, that is an easy flag for Google to spot and penalize.

Once that happens, the seo vendor who operates this way is in trouble, since they will now have to go do some real optimization work for their client.

I understand the desire to have a “hook” to keep a client. But make it something that will make it painful for them to leave. For example, if you provide some great reporting, or can show them through analysis that search has an impact far beyond top rankings, those are good ways to retain a client.

Here at RankSurge, the stance taken is that all the links we build are yours. To hold a client hostage with the threat of link removal is just not good business. The monthly fees paid to us are used to acquire links for your site. Not all seo companies operate this way, but it’s just something that we feel firmly about.

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I’ve posted a few spammy emails like this and this in the past, not to be a jerk, but to help educate those who think those are good ways to build your links.

For some people, I have no doubt that they have increased the rankings for the terms they want. But are those links going to remain in place 5 years from now?

The problem with link schemes or networks is that the effect is temporary. Getting a #1 ranking in Google takes time and effort, and to get there with a link network positions your earnings in jeopardy.

Of course we all know that even high quality links can disappear for many reasons, and therefore, a link building effort must always be active in order to maintain those rankings.

So when you see those offers of easy backlinks or “Pyramid EDU Links” and items of that nature, it’s easy to get caught up in the promise of easy rankings. I won’t lie, I have tested all of those services out. Not for any clients, but for my own properties.

The results are always the same. The term I used for the link scheme gets top 3 placement in Google for a few months, then drops out of the top ten, and doesn’t stop falling until it reaches the 70′s. Keep in mind when I do these, I make sure that I don’t get any other links for that page. Of course I know there might be some random people who link, but I am not putting forth any additional effort.

So, that tells us the Google likes fresh links, and if you don’t remain active, your rankings will fall. I have to agree with them on those points because most topics are constantly evolving, and should be updated as that content is learned. Also, good sources of content will continuously earn links over time.

So to this footprint idea. What happens when you decide to purchase one of the packages? And let’s also assume 10 others all buy the same service. What do you think Google is going to do when it continues to find the same 11 sites all getting links from the same sites? A few times on same sites is chance. When it’s consistent, that’s intentional.

And when Google sees that, all the links in that network are de-valued and your rankings perish. This is why link diversity is critical to the success of your link building efforts. Blog comments, social bookmarking, directories, etc, you know the drill.

So much is talked about getting a certain type of link. But, spend your time wisely to earn links from all parts of the web, and Google will reward your efforts.

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Now this won’t look the same for everyone, but there are some basics that all sites should have by now in 2012:

Does the site have the proper header tags?
For social too? (Bonus Points if it does)
Does the site have social icon buttons to share content?
Are the profiles complete on each social network?
Does the destination page support the keyword to get ranked?
Is the optimized page the best it can possibly be?
Are you getting links pointed to your page from various sites around the web?
Does the optimized page have a video and image that support the keyword for that page?
Will the reader find the page useful?
Is there a clear call to action for the user?
What is the action you want the reader to take?

That last question is so important, I will repeat it here: What is the action you want the reader to take?

So many times people worry about the wrong thing. Sure, a #1 ranking in Google will send traffic to your site. But, if you don’t have a clear objective in mind for what you want your visitor to do, how can you measure success?

All of your marketing efforts should center around that last question. Rankings are nice, but they won’t buy your product or service.

Always think of your reader first, and make it as easy as you can for them to perform an action!

I hope that in five years from now this post will be outdated as by then, everyone always will perform that action. But, that’s the difference between successful companies and ones that go out of business…

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I really hate spam. I’m sure you do as well. So, I’ve made it a personal vendetta of mine to re-post some of the crap emails I get to my account. And, I’m not letting these people off the hook with their “We follow the can-spam act blah, blah, blah” either.

For this first example, Steve Rudolph sends me the following:
“To: Webmaster

From:
Steve Rudolph
info@linkbuildingunderground.com

Monthly Budget
5000

Message:
I am a professional link builder with a team of 20 link builder working under me, we have huge tie ups with USA and UK based web design firm and we provide 10000+ one way links per month.

I have a good solid on-going client base who welcomes you to contact for reference with 110% positive feedback.

Please let me know if I can be any assistance to you in any of your existing/future projects.

One Way Link Building Package (Mix PR from PR1 to PR4)

PR 1 = $ 1
PR 2 = $ 2
PR 3 = $ 3
PR 4 = $ 4

Packages –

50 links = $100
100 links = $200
150 links = $ 300
200 links = $ 400

So give us a chance to build our long term business relationship, I am looking forward for your positive response ….

Thanks & Regards
info@linkbuildingunderground.com

P.S. This is an advertisement and a promotional mail strictly on the guidelines of CAN-SPAM act of 2003. We have clearly mentioned the source mail-id of this mail, also clearly mentioned the subject lines and they are in no way misleading in any form. We have found your mail address through our own efforts on the web search and not through any illegal way. If you find this mail unsolicited, please reply with “Remove” in the subject line and we will take care that you do not receive any further promotional mail.”

Let’s look at the subject line of my email:
Subject: Akismet: Spam – SEO Internet Marketing Services Contact: SEO Audit (Even Akismet can smell this crap on the Internet!)

So, in the subject line to which he refers here: “We have clearly mentioned the source mail-id of this mail, also clearly mentioned the subject lines and they are in no way misleading in any form.”

So, Steve, you said that you were interested in a SEO Audit, and had a budget of $5,000. Yet, in the message to me, no where do you inquire about wanting an seo audit performed for your company. Instead, you are trying to sell me link building services.

Just so that you know Steve, this is the classic definition of SPAM. Don’t worry, I am sure after people see this, you will get flooded with business. Congrats!

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An Email I just got that actually has some good quick tips:

What I mean as a high-quality backlinks here is an inner-page that has a high PageRank and dofollow. And the easiest way to add a backlink to our site is definitely blog commenting.

First of all, what we need is Mozilla Firefox add-on called SEO Quake. SEO Quake will automatically tell us the PageRank of all pages that appear in search results, and it also can sort the search results base on their PageRank.

So basically, this is what we do:

# 1. Install SEO Quake add on to your Mozilla Firefox browser.
# 2. Go to Google Advance Search setting, and set the Results per page in to 100.
# 3. Do a search using our targeted keyword + special commands.
# 4. Use SEO Quake to find the PageRank of each page on the results, and sort them base on their PageRank in descending order.

In the third step, use these following commands to filter the search results:

Find EDU domains only:
“Keyword” inurl:.edu

Find all sites in our topic:
intitle:”Keyword”

Find all inner pages of a specific site, for example digg.com:
“Keyword” site:digg.com

Find only BlogEngine blog:
“Keyword” “Notify me when new comments are added” + “Powered by BlogEngine.NET”

Find only Movable Type blog:
“Keyword” “comment anonymously” + “Email Address” + “Powered by Movable Type”-movabletype.org

Find only WordPress blog:
“Keyword” “name” + “email” + “powered by wordpress”

Find only Blog2evolution blog:
“Keyword” “Your email address will not be Revealed on this site.” + “Your URL Will not be displayed.”

Find only ExpressionEngine blog:
“Keyword” “comment” “Powered By ExpressionEngine”-forum

Find only Drupal blog:
“Keyword” “Your name” “Subject” “Comment” inurl: comment/reply/1

You can see here, the secret key is in the search command that we use. Using the command above, we’ll be able to get hundreds to thousands of high PageRank inner pages where we can leave our backlinks in it.

Yes, because it is a blog comment, some time we need to wait for the moderation, and we also don’t have control on how many comments/outbound link will be in there.

So, there you go, an easy way to use the Google machine to your advantage. I’ve tried queries like this in the past with some success – it takes quite some time to be able to get good at seeing what sites will award links and which ones are just a waste of your time.

Good luck!

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Note: This is more of a rant than anything important!

Not just from a customer perspective, but hiring as well. Seems like most people want to associate themselves with a big name, so that they look like they made the best possible choice – and if it’s the wrong choice, it’s easier to say that the failure was not because of them, but because the brand was soo big, it failed to live up to it’s own name, probably because they are so big.

Titles – Some people obsess over these. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen people remain in situations that were not best suited for them all because of a title they were promised. If that’s all it takes to keep you around, I think that reveals more about your character than any other action you might take.

By hiring someone from a “brand name” there is an assumption that they know more or have had more experiences than someone working for lesser known brands.

Having worked for both “Big Brands” and “Lesser Knowns”, I can say without a doubt, the “Lesser Knowns” work much harder at what they do. They know that they have to do this in order to get the chance to compete. It’s not fair, but in life, no one said it had to be.

Big Brands are very concerned about their reputations and customer experiences (as they should be), and sometimes people are chosen simply because they have heard of the company name before.

Again, this re-enforces the notion that popularity does matter. Being a known name does influence people’s decisions.

I fought this battle for a long time (7 years) but, after seeing many times over the preference for brand name association, I’ve instead stopped fighting that war and instead focused on building on the foundation that I’ve been working on for the entire length of my career in this industry.

Brands mean you get more opportunities, but results will grant you more success in the long run.

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So, I get the following email today:

Happy New Year! We have a new product called “MegaLink Stacks” which we’ll be adding to www.MegaLinkStore.com in a few weeks but we want to give you the opportunity to purchase before our official launch.

Contact me at:
(888) 315-4657 – Toll Free
(801) 542-9410 – Business Line
Email: john[at]nextnetmedia[dot]com
Skype: nextnetmedia
Twitter: twitter.com/nextnetmedia
Facebook: tinyurl.com/nextnetmedia
LinkedIn: JohnSprock

Wow! to think that Google will never catch on to this little trick. It’s extremely easy to spot crap content coming from crap networks sites. I’m sure John Sprock will sell all these in no time, I wonder how long his clients will be happy with the results?

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Here is an interesting call I was part of. There was a potential client who called that was interested in search reputation management services because they had some negative press mentions about their company and didn’t have the time or knowledge to properly defend their name.

We talked through the process of what would be expected of them, and how I was going to coach them on the proper way to handle and deal with the bad press they were getting for their services.

I think we all know that no matter what business you are in, there will never be a company that is perfect. In some industries, this is a highly critical part of the marketing efforts.

Some companies spend a tremendous amount of effort to maintain the image of “The Brand” at all costs. So, no matter what transpires, they have to deal with it.

For this case, it was a mortgage company that was getting some very bad reviews by people who felt like they were lied to about what was promised to them. After talking with this potential client for almost two weeks, we had constructed a strategy to address the bad reviews, and a plan of action moving forward to handle any other mentions that might not put the company in the best light.

We were finalizing the details when out of the blue, the potential client decided that they would rather change their name (at a certain cost, hence the “Doing Business As (DBA)”) instead of moving forward with the plan we had crafted together.

While that might make sense for the short term, is that really a good business practice?

I was left shaking my head in amazement, and I was also sure to make certain I would never consider that mortgage company in the future!

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