This is a guest post by Wes Burns. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

Knowing how to find valuable keywords is one of the most critical skills to being a successful webmaster. You can be competent in SEO and have great writing skills, but knowing how to find valuable keywords will bring you (and your website) to new levels of profitability.

Identifying valuable keywords is a skill that few people have. Take the time to develop this skill and your skills will be in high demand. Not only will you be able to make your own websites profitable, but you will find it easier to land jobs within the SEO industry.

1. Identifying Search Terms that Indicate Intent

There are certain keywords that indicate visitors are willing to take a desirable action when they reach your website. Knowing how to identify buy-now terms is part common sense and part experience. If you get into the habit of thinking about which terms indicate intent, you will get better at it over time.

Let me explain what I mean by “intent.” The nature of some search terms indicate that people are searching with the intent to purchase, download or sign up for something. For example, a person searching for “buy computers online” is obviously interested in spending money on a new computer. This search term is much more valuable (per visitor) than a search term like “how do computers work.”

Obvious keywords that indicate intent tend to be highly competitive. The “buy computers online” example from above is dominated by big-name companies and well-known brands. The trick is to find keywords that aren’t as obvious as “buy computers online.” It is much easier to go after smaller niches and dominate those keywords.

For example, a niche in the general computer sales category could be a website that specializes in gaming computers or a website that specializes in computers for people with disabilities. These are just random ideas off the top of my head, but that’s what I mean when I say “niche.” Every industry from online file storage to credit card applications has specific niches that you can attack.

2. Use the AdWords Tool to Find High Volume Low Competition Terms

High volume, low competition search terms are the holy grail of internet marketing. The Google AdWords Keyword Tool can be used to research the search volume and competition of any keyword in the world. Just type in a keyword and Google will return a report of how many people search for that keyword every month and how competitive that keyword is.

The Keyword Tool is often criticized for being inaccurate, but it will give you a pretty good idea of what to expect from various keywords. You will see the most accurate results if you uncheck the “broad” option and check the “exact” match option.

You probably won’t stumble on any massive keywords with little competition, but that’s OK. You can still make plenty of money by searching for intent keywords (explained above) that have low or medium competition. Keywords that indicate intent do not need the massive search numbers that generic search terms require for profitability.

3. Use Google Webmaster Tools to Find Breakthrough Keywords

Google Webmaster Tools is a must-have for internet marketers. You can set up a Webmaster Tools for free on any website. Just visit Google and search for “Webmaster Tools” to find the official link. You can then sign up for an account at the Google website.

Next, log in to your Webmaster Tools account and notice the “search queries” section. Click on the “more” link to see a full report of search terms and your average ranking for each term. You can use this report to find high volume search terms that you are really close to breaking in to prime positions.

For example, I recently found a search term at one of my websites that generates 75,000 impressions per month with an average ranking of 9.5. This is a keyword that I am already ranking well for but it needs a little boost. If I can get into the top 3 for this keyword, I’ll have a significant bump in traffic.

Breakthrough keywords are nice because it doesn’t take a whole lot of effort to improve their rankings. If you’re ranking anywhere from 5 through 15 for the term, it means Google likes the page at least a little. Add a little content to that page, send a couple of internal links to that page and build a couple of external links to that page.

Breakthrough keywords are valuable because you can easily improve page rankings at minimal cost to you. You are not starting from scratch on a new keyword; you are improving upon a page that is already ranking well for that keyword. In other words, you get a great return on your investment when you invest in breakthrough keywords.

About the Author – Wes Burns is a tech writer and full time internet marketer. His latest project, www.OnlineFileStorage.com, is devoted to all things related to storing and backing up data in the cloud.

This is a guest post by Kit Pierce. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

Facebook is introducing a new design to every profile in their network of 750 million people and counting. It’s called Timeline, and fortunately for business owners, the change will be more helpful than frustrating.

Starving artists, Smartphone repair shops, and car dealerships alike will benefit from Timeline’s introduction, particularly when it comes to marketing. Regardless of what your business is, Timeline contains new features you’ll be able to take advantage of.

Signage

Every Timeline profile begins with a banner that spans the entire width of the browser. It’s an image of your choice and it’s called the cover photo. Here you have a free billboard for promoting your latest sale, the hottest trend, or funniest ad in your campaign.

Put something in your cover photo that immediately grabs the attention of your audience–it’s the first thing your buyers and clients will see.

Content Presentation

After being lured in by the cover photo, whatever is immediately visible in the content of a page will be the next thing a customer looks at. Most people skim pages rather than read them, and Timeline’s layout does a great job of displaying updates that are eye-catching and relevant. It also makes it easier to find older posts than before.

If you post frequently, you’ll have a living, breathing profile, which prevents the consumer attrition that results when you leave a page dormant for any length of time. One more thing, you can and should mark the most important updates with a star, which lifts an update closer to the top of the profile and makes it easier to find.

Contact Information

We all use Google to find contact and address info when we need a lawyer or a bite to eat, but even the world’s best search engine occasionally produces questionable links. Instead of searching through some murky, ad-infested yellow pages site, a consumer can now head to your Timeline profile, where your contact information is right below the banner.

Your customers will easily find your address, email, and phone number at the top of the page. Take advantage of this area by keeping it updated and simple. Everyone Googling you will appreciate it!

The Timeline

Most businesses operate for years before gaining recognition. The namesake feature of the Timeline redesign gives you an easy way to record and display the ups and downs along your journey to the top. In the right hand corner of each profile, you can place a breakdown of all the years since the creation of your business. By clicking on an individual year, users can view photos and updates from that particular year.

Seize the opportunity to include some interesting material here. Apple, for example, has over a million Facebook Likes, and with Timeline, they can tell you who they selected as their eight biggest fans in 2010.

Popularity

Previously, a business profile sported a title and a button at the top for collecting Likes–nothing else. With the new layout, links for your YouTube channel, your blog, Twitter, additional content, and whatever else you use for the cause of marketing have been conveniently relocated to the top of the page.

Fill this area with all of your promotional tools. Here you can provide a link for a Fan of the Week page, exclusive downloadable content, or related videos and photos with visual appeal. There are dozens of ways you can use this space, but you have to be creative.

If you use Timeline the way it ought to be used, you’re going to get a lot of mileage out of the new layout. Just remember to use the right imaging for your audience, and to learn from the Timeline profiles of bigger companies. They can provide you with a lot of good ideas, even if you’re only selling fish bait. If you haven’t adopted the new layout yet, post some of the ways you plan on using the new Timeline below.

About the Author – Kit Pierce loves to read classic literature and blogs about human rights. In her spare time, she writes for attsavings. She’s interested in steampunk, likes watching funny cat videos, and enjoys discussions about philosophy.

This is a guest post by Eric Greenwood. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

Document management has always been an issue for teams, especially teams working in fields like design and IT. Version control becomes critical, and the approval/editing process very often lends itself to error. There are many ways to work around this, of course; one of the newest approaches involves the use of online storage.

Online Storage Basics

At its core, online storage works like networked storage. You have a document or other file that resides in a single location. Multiple users have access to the file, to make changes, comments, or provide approval.

With online storage, the document can be accessed from anywhere with an Internet connection and from a variety of Internet-enabled devices; network storage requires you to be on the network and to access it via a compatible device.

More Flexible than Email

You can do the same kind of thing via email, of course, but you lose some of the flexibility. Every time someone opens and re-saves a document, there is the potential for a divergent version of the file to exist.

With online storage, there’s only every one copy of the file. You reduce the risk of duplicate files and divergent versions.

How a Team Might Use Online Storage

Let’s look at a real-world example. A marketing firm might be developing a brochure for a client. Here’s how that process would look like with online storage:

• The graphic arts team puts together a general layout, saving the document to an online storage site.
• Each member of the graphic arts team works on the document in turn, as each person completes their part of the design work (e.g. layout, images, graphics, etc). “Dummy” text is inserted as a placeholder.
• From there, the copywriter opens the document and inserts the appropriate text in the appropriate places.
• The design team is able to then review the document, and make an adjustments based on text layout.
• The salesperson or customer liaison can access the document throughout this process, and offer input based on customer suggestions.
• The final product can even be provided to the client via online storage, which can be especially useful in the case of larger files.

This is a much more streamlined process than emailing the document back and forth until the team finally gets it right. You have built-in change management and quality control, simply by choosing the online storage medium.

Plenty of Options

If you need more advanced collaboration options, there are online storage services that offer that as well. Some integrate project management functionality, for example. Others allow advanced security options to address compliance and legal concerns.

A team’s effectiveness can be limited by their choice of tools While the right tools don’t guarantee a team’s success, the right tools can greatly increase efficiency, saving you time, frustration, and even money.

About the Author: Eric Greenwood is a technophile whose interests include all things cloud from software as a service to online storage. Get more tips and advice by going to the blog Online Storage!

Did you know you can guest post right here on BillBolmeier.com?  Yep, it’s true.

Here are some of the categories you can write about at this site:

• Blogging (includes: WordPress, Plugins, Writing and all things blogging)
• Marketing (includes: Internet Marketing, Making Money Online, as well as offline marketing)
• Search (includes: Search Engine Optimization, Google, and all things related to search)
• Social Media (includes: Social Networks, Social Business, Social Bookmarking and all things social)
• Web Media (includes: Web Design, Web Development, Web Tools, and Web Apps)
• Technologies (includes: Windows, Security, Smart Phones, iPad and more)

So let’s talk about guest blogging, also known as guest posting.

Three Things to Think About

There are many things to think about when you are a guest blogger and here are three of them right out of the box. Yes, I think they deserve mentioning right away because it may help you decide whether to proceed or not.

The number one thing you must know and follow is:

1. IF YOU ARE ONLY GUEST BLOGGING BECAUSE YOU WANT A BACKLINK, THEN DON’T GUEST BLOG!!

The number two thing is:

2. WRITE THE BEST AND MOST UNIQUE CONTENT YOU CAN WRITE FOR THE HOST BLOGGER.

And the number three thing is:

3. MAKE SURE THE ARTICLE IS WRITTEN IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE BLOG YOU’RE GUEST BLOGGING FOR.

In other words, if the blog you’re writing for is in English, then make sure your article is readable in English.  If English is not your native language, then make sure you have someone proofread it who knows the English language.

Okay, now that we got those three out of the way…

What Is Guest Blogging and Why Do It?

It’s simple, the guest blogger writes an article for some other person’s blog or website.  This allows the blog owner to take a break from writing and give his or her readers another point of view about things.  In turn, the guest blogger has a chance to gain a new audience that ends up at his or her blog or website.

How Does It Work?

Typically, the guest blogger gets in touch with the blog owner through email to convey an interest in guest blogging on the blog owner’s site.  After reviewing any guidelines provided by the blog owner, the guest blogger can decide whether they want to guest blog for that site or not.

Here’s an example email you can write to the host blogger:

Hi Bill,

My name is Gary GuestBlogger and I’ve checked out your blog and would love to write an article for it. I see that you write about WordPress and I would love to contribute to that topic.

I’ve read your guidelines and I’ve attached an article to this email as well as a link to one of my blog posts so you can review my writing and see if it’s a good fit. Let me know what you think. The article is ready to be published so feel free to use it right away.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,
Gary GuestBlogger

The above is an example of an email about guest posting to a site.

Here’s what the email does and does not do:

• The potential guest blogger has taken the time to read my blog.
• The potential guest blogger has selected specifically what he would like to guest post about.
• The potential guest blogger has done his homework and taken the time to read my guidelines.
• The potential guest blogger has already attached an article for me to review.
• The potential guest blogger DOES NOT tell me “I need a backlink to my site and it needs to be a do-follow link and it has to have this specific anchor text or I’m wasting my time writing for your blog.”  NO SPAMMY BACKLINKING PLEASE.
• The potential guest blogger DOES NOT tell me he’s written for this and that big website and has tons of followers on this and that social site, so if I write an article for you, you’re sure to get a bunch of traffic, but I need to make certain demands, on and on.

The email is written in such a way that the guest blogger wants to become a guest blogger on the host site because it presents an opportunity for exposure and a new audience. The above email is an example and can be used as a guideline.

In turn, if his article is what I like and we proceed, I will let him know and I’ll get his article published ASAP without any negotiations, etc. I will put every effort into promoting his article long-term and he’ll benefit from a backlink from my site to his website or blog.

He’ll also enjoy receiving the folks who read my site and his guest article on my site, because they’ll most likely end up at his site to further check him out. This process will also establish a relationship of trust and authority with me and my readers that will be ongoing.

He’ll also benefit from any Page Rank (PR) increases my site experiences over time.

If the owner of the host site does not get back to you within a week, email them and let them know if you don’t hear something from them in the next couple of days that you’ll need to take your post somewhere else.

Benefits of Guest Blogging

1. Grow Your Audience – The potential exists that the guest blogger will gain new fans, followers and/or long-term readers and customers.  This can happen from the readers of the blog you are guest posting on as well as any social networking traffic the blog attracts as well.

2. Build an Online Reputation – If more and more people become interested in the guest blogger’s content, the more recognition and respect the guest blogger will gain.  You can build an incredible online reputation just by guest blogging even if you don’t own your own website or blog.  You might consider doing this before building your own blog.

3. Earn Links to Your Blog or Website – Typically, guest bloggers are looking for backlinks. Backlinks that are from a trustworthy site, back to the guest blogger’s site. This helps in earning higher rankings for the guest blogger’s site.  AGAIN: DON’T TREAT GUEST BLOGGING AS ANOTHER LINK-BUILDING TACTIC.  A lot of times what guest bloggers do is write horrible content hoping to get a link.  Don’t do that.  It will be obvious.  Write the best stuff you can write and go for the long-term effects of higher quality and high authority, those are results you’ll get in the long run.

4. Meet other people – From the get go, the guest blogger is building visibility and reputation.  If you establish solid relationships, you’ll gain more solid, long-term support from the host blogger and his or her followers.

How to Guest Blog

Here are 6 steps you can follow to start guest blogging on blogs that you want to be a part of:

1. Email the blog or site owner you’re interested in writing for.  Look for a contact form or a “Guest Post” link so you can read about how to write an article for that particular site.

If a site doesn’t have a link or a page that talks about guest posting then use the contact form or find the email address of the site owner to get in touch with them to find out if they accept articles as a guest blogger.

2. Write the best, unique content you can.  This will set a tone between you and the blog owner you want to write for and their audience.

Remember, a site that you guest blog for might be a PR (Page Rank) 1, a PR 2 and so on, but have the potential to move up the page rank ladder to PR 3, PR 4, PR 5 and higher as time moves forward.  You’ll want your article to be around for the ride.  The best way to do that is write the best and most unique content you can.

3.  Don’t demand anything of the blog owner.  In other words, the blogger you are writing for might want editorial control on how your article looks and is formatted, including the title of an article.  They might rewrite or strip out sentences that don’t sound right.

You can ask that if any rewriting takes place, that the blog owner sends you a copy of the article so you can proofread it before it is published.

4. Ask the blog owner what their schedule is for posting your article on their blog.  The answer might be an exact date but it could also include a date that is within a range of dates.

5. I can’t stress this enough: English, English, English.  If your primary language is not English, then make sure someone who knows English proofreads your article.

And I’m not talking about “someone” being Google’s translator tool or some article spinning software. Make it a human being who proofreads your article.

6. Promote your blog post by tweeting and sharing it on the social sites you belong to. Subscribe to the comments of your blog post so you can respond to the comments about your post.

Conclusion

Guest blogging includes you writing the best content for a blog or website you want to become a part of.  In return you’ll gain a new audience, raise your level of trust and authority, and a long-term link back to your site from the host site your blog post resides on.

Want some tips on how to find sites to guest blog for? Subscribe using the form below and you’ll be able to download a cheat sheet of search commands and more tips on guest blogging.

If you are interested in guest blogging at BillBolmeier.com, please check out the guidelines here.

This is a guest post by Michael Evans. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

The world, as we know it, is about to change and its impact is quite palpable.

I am talking about the world of search and social media, and it is none other than Google who is to blame squarely for this.

Yes, Google has introduced social search, which is changing our very idea of the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) by serving completely different search results for different people.

So, the line between social and search is about to blur and as obvious, the importance of links and all that, is going to take a back seat as long as we are logged in to our Google account.

Let’s drill down the details to find out more about this social search thing.

What is Google Trying to Do?

Simple, Google is trying every vertical to make its search engine reach new heights of success.

It has access to our website’s online presence via Google Analytics and Google Webmaster tools, apart from its much famous bot and now it has access to your social presence via Google Plus.

So it’s got everything to merge two things into one, a unique search experience that gathers data from across the web and data from your social circles.

Personal Search

Google is transforming into something that will not only be able to understand content and web pages but will be able to judge who you are and the world you live in.

Since it has access to your social profile, it will be able to help you find Google+ posts and photos, which are shared with you specifically right inside the search results page.

This is advantageous, for example when you want to buy a new laptop and you would like feedback from those people and friends who are using laptops of different brands.

With Social Search, you will get search results from those people in the Google search results pages, provided those other people have shared their information about laptops in Google+.

So if you have friends and followers in your Google Plus profile, you are sure to see a surge of personalized information right inside the SERP.

Profile in Search

Profile in search is another novel addition to the Google search results page. This will let you connect with people you are looking for in Google+.

All you need to do is type the first few letters of your friend’s name or anyone else you’d like to connect with.  Choose the auto-complete option and Google will show a complete profile page of that person in the SERP. You will then find an option to connect with that profile.

People and Pages

It is nice to find what great minds have to say regarding a topic you are searching for in Google.

For example, when you are searching the term “SEO”, it is always good to find information from a search guru like Matt Cutts.

This indicates that Google is presenting quotes and comments from popular and prominent figures into the search results, but it does not display directly in the list of search results.

These prominent and popular figures will be featured on the right-hand side of the search results page. Options are presented so you can connect with those people in Google+ as well.

Conclusions

Though this feature is still in its infancy, it seems online marketers need to fasten their seat belts for some bumpy rides ahead as they discover what social search will do to their online marketing efforts.

The personal side of Google search can be turned off by using the buttons at the top right of the search results page.  This allows a searcher to view the search results in both social or what has become known to us as “web” search.

But what will people use?  Both social and web search or consistently use social search because that’s the new default?  Time will tell.

What do you think of Google+, Social Search and all the other Google goodies that go with it. How are you going to use it all? Let us know in the comments below.

About the Author: Michael Evans loves blogging on different subjects and he is a regular writer at Web Hosting Deals.  He has written articles on the topic of host alligator.

This is a guest post by Maitreyee Sinha. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

Occasionally, a website designer may want to highlight a particular element. In such a situation, he/she can opt for certain strategies. These can include isolating the element, increasing its size, and placing it at the center/left hand section of the web page.

As a website designer, you may want to highlight a particular element in certain situations. This element can be a particular aspect of the content, a graph, or even the web page layout. A good way of highlighting this particular element is by converting it into a focal point.

In simple terms, focal point refers to any element that guides the visitors’ eyes to itself. In this article, we will discuss a few strategies that will help you to develop a focal point.

1. Clever Placement
Studies reveal that most visitors tend to observe elements that are placed at the central section of the web page. Now, implementing this strategy may not always be feasible. The reason is that if you place your intended element at the center of the page, just for the sake of it, it will confuse your visitors.

In such a situation, you can opt for an alternative technique that is placing the element on the left corner, upper section of the page. This is a good strategy, because most people start with left -hand section of the upper page, while observing the site.

2. Contrast
Using contrast to highlight an item is the most commonly used strategy in the website designing industry. Various ways of using contrast and highlighting an element exist. For example, you can place a bright-colored item against a dark background and vice-versa. Alternatively, you can incorporate large-sized elements against small-sized ones.

Consider sign up/sign in page of Twitter. It uses white and pale blue colors throughout the page. However, for the ‘sign up’ button, it has used the color yellow. The reason is that it wants visitors to join the site. Therefore, it has cleverly highlighted the call-to-action button against a dull background.

3. Isolation
Isolating your intended element is another smart strategy. If you place an item at a faraway distance from other elements, it will naturally grab attention. Try out this strategy and observe the results!

4. Continuance
Continuance is another popular strategy designers use for distinguishing an element. When we read or observe any design, our eyes move in a single direction. They continue moving, until another powerful feature appears and forces us to notice it. Let us elaborate the concept by using an example.

Assume that you have incorporated a huge element in a web page. Above it, you placed an arrow, leading towards a smaller element. Now, logically, the bigger element will grab attention of visitors initially. However, within few seconds, the arrow will force them to observe the smaller object as well.

5. Proportion
If you place a large-sized element against a background that contains smaller elements, it will inevitably draw attention. This strategy utilizes the principle of proportion. To draw more attention, you can make the target element colorful.

Consider these tips to make an element stand out from others.

About the Author:  Maitreyee Sinha is the author and works for Web Guru India, a website design company based in India offering high-quality and cost-effective website design and website development solutions to people worldwide.

If you analyze backlinks to websites or blogs, you might have used some of the free tools out there like SEOquake and the Quirk SearchStatus Add-on for Firefox.

Both of these tools provided backlink information which was gathered from Yahoo Site Explorer. YSE stopped providing this information in 2011.

YSE allowed you to track what sites were linking to other sites including yours.

This was good, because you could find out who was linking to what website and how they were linking.  Once you had this information you could use it to pursue new backlinks to your site.

And while the above mentioned tools look to replace YSE with other backlink sources, there are tools out there right now that you can use to analyze backlinks.

First, let’s take the opportunity to talk about backlinks for those who might be new to this.

What are Backlinks and Why Should You Care?

When someone places a link on their website or blog that points back to any page on your site, that is a backlink.

Backlinks have quality. When you get a backlink from a popular blog or website with higher quality, it’s a good indication that the site’s owner thinks, your content they are linking to at your site is worthy of their visitor’s attention. This is a good thing. Why?

For a number of reasons and here are just a few:

1. If you get higher quality backlinks, you don’t need as many lower to medium quality backlinks to get more traffic to your site.

Higher quality backlinks include links from sites that end in .gov and .edu, because those types of sites are trustworthy and authoritative already.

Side note: I’m using .gov and .edu sites as an example.  These are some of the hardest backlinks to get.

Higher quality backlinks also include links from popular sites, whether their content is related to your site’s content or not.  Examples include LifeHacker.com, the New York Times, and many others.

2. When Google’s indexing robot goes around and finds backlinks that point to your site, it says to itself,

“Hey, this big popular site that we already trust and think is an authoritative site, is linking to this other site that THEY trust.

So maybe we better check it out, and if we determine it worthy, we’ll give it some extra index juice for it to rank higher in our search engine result pages (SERPs) for the search phrases (keywords, keyword phrases) that people use to find this type of information.”

Now that’s a high-level view of what Google’s indexing robot (aka “Googlebot”) does and it’s not the only thing it does (read more here), but it does something like that to help determine what sites have relevant content for Google’s customers, people who search the web using Google.

3. Of course, the same thinking happens to other website and blog owners who want to link to good information.

Those sites find out that the big popular site that is linking to your site, might be something they want to link to as well – your site.  So you end up with a bunch more links to your site without even trying.

This is a wonderful side effect of getting linked to by more popular and authoritative sites.

4. The obvious – If you’re running a website or blog as a business that sells products, services, or advertising, then more customers end up at your site because of those higher quality backlinks to your site. Again, another good side effect.

Example: On one of my sites I’ve got three different articles that relate to the same topic. One of those articles received a link from Big Site A.

Because all three articles relate to each other, they all benefit from more traffic because of the Big Site A linking to one of the articles, and as a result those articles get pushed to the top of the Google search engine result pages (SERPs).

Here’s a screenshot from Google Analytics for one days worth of visits to these three articles from the search engines because of this linking affect:

Click image for larger view

In case you wanted to know, the three articles for this example are something like these titles:

• “How To Do This Cool Technique With Newest Version…”
• “How To Do This Cool Technique With Current Version…”
• “How To Do This Cool Technique With Older Version…”

Those articles are step by step instructions with screenshots on how to do something. Just another indication that people love “How To…” articles when they’re trying to find a solution to a problem.

One side note on having a popular site or a handful of popular articles, is that the popularity is enough to keep traffic coming for a very long time without you having do any extra work for backlinks.  This is a very good thing.

Quality and Websites

Keep in mind there are different types of websites and blogs with different attributes that make up what quality is for that type of site, e.g. ecommerce sites like Amazon.com, photo blogs, entertainment sites, company websites, non-profit sites, etc.

When talking about quality websites, I’m referring to following attributes a website might have.  This is not intended to be a complete list:

• Relevant information to a searcher’s query. Example: When a searcher is looking for something, your site has the relevant information they are looking for that satisfies their query.
• A beautiful design that holds a visitor’s attention, forcing them to stay on the site because it’s hard to look away.
• Social proof.  Your site has social proof if it has comments that keep trickling in over a long period of time. It has facebook likes and articles that have been tweeted and retweeted. Your articles, videos, pictures have been shared on other social networking sites around the web.
• Simplicity in navigation and providing an obvious call to action.

These are just some of the attributes of a site that help contribute to the quality of a site.

PageRank – What Is It and What Does It Mean for You?

Also known as PR, PageRank is a way to label the quality of a web page and website.  You might have a PR 4 for your website but your pages might have a pagerank of 0, 1, 2, 3, etc.

Google’s PageRank is a measurement of your web page and is represented by a number from 1 thru 10, 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest.

For example, one of my sites took one full year to go from a PR 0 (zero) to a PR 3.  The more content I provided on a consistent basis over time AND the more comments, backlinks and retweets on twitter I got, the more that site rose in pagerank.

However, another site I’ve owned since 2007 went from a PR 0 (zero) to a PR 3 in two years and popped up to a PR 4 in the following year.  So it took three years to get to a PR 4.

This all happened even with a less frequent posting schedule.  I’m talking about maybe one new article a month.

As Google tweaks their page ranking system, and they do this all the time, those sites of mine that have their content updated on a less frequent basis, might suffer in the long run.

So a good tactic for those sites would be to add more frequent content to them.

To help you investigate pagerank, use the above mentioned tools – SEOquake and Quirk SearchStatus to display pagerank of every page you visit on the web.

Something to keep in mind about pagerank: Just because a site has a lower pagerank doesn’t mean it’s not worthy of getting a backlink to your site from it.

Those sites that are pagerank 1, 2, or 3 might just become PR 4, 5 and 6 over time.  Increasing the value of the backlink you left at their site pointing back to your site.

That’s why in your strategy to gain backlinks to your site, the tactic of leaving good comments at PR 1, 2 and 3 sites, that have good content and relevancy to your site, can be valuable in the long run.

So Then What Tools Should You Use for Analyzing Backlinks?

Since Yahoo Site Explorer is gone, and actually they merged with Bing Webmaster Tools, the tools you can use right now that are free and paid (usually considered premium or pro version) are wide and varied in the types of information they provide.

But for now, I’m using Link Diagnosis. I see that the Firefox Add-on Quirk SearchStatus is using Blekko and I have started investigating that tool as well.

Link Diagnosis

Link Diagnosis allows you to enter a website URL and get a report back that is displayed on the same page you entered the website’s URL.

For bigger sites, this might take some time. But be patient and you’ll get some valuable backlink information about those sites.

Link Diagnosis works with Firefox only. Download the Firefox Add-on for Link Diagnosis and you’ll be able to use more of its functionality.

After registering you’ll be able to export the information that Link Diagnosis displays to your computer’s hard drive or save it as a report at the Link Diagnosis website for viewing at a later time.

Blekko

Blekko is another alternative you can use to analyze backlinks and other SEO related topics. Blekko is free but you do have to register.

Blekko has a unique way to search the web which is valuable. It uses slash tags to filter your search results.

They have a quick video you can watch that explains how to use slash tags.

But it also gives you a lot of SEO information about a website, including backlinks.

Wrapping It Up

So there you go.  When analyzing backlinks to websites, Link Diagnosis and Blekko are a couple tools you can use to do just that.

Again, there are plenty out there, some are free and some are premium or pro versions that you can pay for.  But take some time to investigate what works for you and the information provided by these tools.

Another point to keep in mind with these types of tools: Not all tools are going to show you every single backlink to a  site.  So use them as a guide to help you understand more about backlinks.

Over to you.  Got something to say about analyzing backlinks or tools you use?  Talk about it in the comments below.

Google+ (aka Google Plus and G+) is all the rage.  The Google+ social network is getting tested, talked about and turned on every day with new tips, tricks and tools.After you read more about Google+ and start using it, try some of the stuff listed below to help you get the most out of Google+.

1. Brand Your Website or Blog URL with Google+ – Thanks Chris Lang for sharing this one.  It’s a great way to brand your website or blog address so it forwards to your Google+ stream:

2. Use the Google Search Command – Thanks to Chris Brogan for reminding us how to use this Google search command to find interesting people on Google+ in niches or industries we’re interested in:

site:plus.google.com <WhatEverYou’reInterestedIn-WithoutTheAngledBrackets>

So for the term “marketing”, the search command would look like this: site:plus.google.com marketing

3. Improve Your Google+ Stream Display – If you’re using Google’s Chrome browser, try G+me to collapse the Google+ stream into a real-time dashboard for a cleaner display:

4. Follow The Rules of The Road – Here’s some good discussion on Google+ Etiquette.

5. Become a Share Master – Here’s another Google Chrome extension called Extended Share for Google Plus that allows you to share what you’re posting to Google+ on your Facebook, LinkedIn, tumbler and Twitter accounts.

6. Meet New People – And another Chrome extension called Google Plus Directory that allow to meet new people, make new friend circles, and choose from over 200.000 Google Plus profiles.

7. Presenting Google+ – Need to do a Google+ presentation or just want a template that resembles Google+ theme?  Here it is.

8. Read All About It – The Google+ Startup Guide by Saidur (“Cy”) Hossain.

9. Read the ToS – An artist’s rendering of the Google+ Terms of Service, illustrated.

10. Do I Annoy You? – An article on How to Hide From Annoying People on Google+.

11. Show My Circles – Another Google Chrome extension, called Plus Minus, lets you select which Google Circles show up in your Google+ Stream.  It also allows you to easily mark individual or all posts as read, offers a wide-screen view so you can see more content without scrolling, and loads more posts automatically as you scroll down.  Sweet.

12. Make It Flow – This Google Chrome extension called Usability Boost for Google Plus will help you visualize the flow of information on Google Plus.

13. Over To You – Now it’s your turn.  What have you found cool, necessary or just plain fun for Google+?  Add your suggestion in the comments below.

Okay, I’ll add one more.  To keep an eye on the new Google Chrome extensions, apps, themes, etc. for Google+, visit the Chrome Web Store and search on Google+, G+, or ”Google Plus”.

Also, here’s one one more, the Google+ WordPress Plugin that displays your “googleCard” in your WordPress sidebar.

That’s it.  Circle Me on Google+.  I’ll be lookin’ for ya’.