Skyrocket SEO

Guest Posting – your questions answered

James Agate — Sun, 13 May 2012 22:40:01 +0000

In response to the increasing numbers of questions I get about guest posting, I wanted to put together a Q&A post which aggregates some of my answers and hopefully proves useful to anyone who is exploring guest posting as a link building technique. These are all genuine questions I have been asked, in most cases [...]

20+ resources for prospecting, organising & researching link opportunities

James Agate — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:16:59 +0000

Developing and acquiring high-quality links is a challenge, let alone being able to effectively scale the process. Luckily though, there are a number of tools which will help with a lot of the heavy lifting which frees up your time to really get down and dirty developing those relationships and actually scoring the links. Here [...]

What does a bad link look like?

James Agate — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:30:06 +0000

I want to preface this by saying that nobody really knows what is going on at the moment, there is a lot of craziness in the SERPs right now. Anyone who tells you they have the answer or the magic fix is lying. The good SEOs out there (we include ourselves in this group) are [...]

The Complete Guide to Blogging for your Business

James Agate — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 08:52:37 +0000

Introduction successful blog will become the heart of a business; the content engine, the customer acquisition system and the platform to develop thought leadership in an industry. At Skyrocket SEO, we’ve built a business around our blog and many people comment that our website feels more like a blog rather than a corporate website but [...]

AuthorRank & The Future of Guest Posting

James Agate — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 09:46:40 +0000

AuthorRank – it’s no longer a case of if but when. It’s coming and it is going to be big.(AJ Kohn reckons bigger than all the Panda updates combined) As webmasters, we’ve all got the ability already to implement rel-author but the full effect of AuthorRank is yet to be fully seen. To many it [...]

How do we evaluate link opportunities?

James Agate — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 20:12:19 +0000

A question we frequently get asked is how we evaluate link opportunities. Whilst we don’t reveal our precise system for scoring and sifting prospective link partners, in this post I will explain the general principle behind our system to give you an idea of how we operate. The way we operate and our strategy depends [...]

The reputation flywheel – how to make sure people remember you and your business

James Agate — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 09:59:50 +0000

-Indian Proverb As someone who has been working really hard over the last 18 months to build a reputation, now seemed like as good a time as any to reflect on what I’ve learned so far. Overall I’ve come to realise it is true what they say; building a name, a brand and a reputation [...]

Some link networks de-indexed – now what?

James Agate — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 09:05:55 +0000

Turns out that some things really are dead…public link networks and Build my rank in particular. You may have seen the news that broke on Monday culminating in the closure of one of the most prominent link networks around. Build my rank is no more. Far be it from me to make light of another [...]

30+ resources for generating content ideas

James Agate — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 23:45:35 +0000

As anyone who participates in content-based link building will tell you – coming up with ideas for content to produce is one of the hardest parts. If you’ve got a great idea, the rest of the process becomes a lot easier…pitching great stuff makes outreach much less painful. Bloggers get excited if you are pitching [...]

30 ways you can earn more guest posts & squeeze more value out of them

James Agate — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 22:53:27 +0000

Guest posting is one of the most effective tactics for earning natural links. Granted, they aren’t literally ‘naturally occurring’ since you are going out and seeking them but we all know that “great content” alone rarely gets links in the volume you need. Guest posting is one of the best methods of putting top-notch content [...]

Why some blog posts work & others don’t

James Agate — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:47:32 +0000

Content Marketing – what does it really mean? If we break the phrase down the eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that we have the words ‘content’ and ‘marketing’ Admittedly I couldn’t find the perfect definition for content but if we mash up two of the accepted definitions we arrive at a explanation which reads something [...]

The SEO dream team – who would you want on your side?

James Agate — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:50:17 +0000

I read and shared this post yesterday > Create a Killer SEO Team and it got me thinking about the ‘ultimate’ SEO team… the fantasy league or dream team comprised of the top individuals in their respective fields; site architecture, keyword research, link building etc. I feel like it would be an interesting exercise and a [...]

How to craft high-conversion outreach emails

James Agate — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:20:26 +0000

Outreach emails are probably one of the biggest challenges faced by SEOs. In this post, I will run through how we write ‘high-conversion’ outreach emails. By conversion of course I mean getting them do take the desired action. It all starts with a mindset… Don’t be afraid of email – you will get some people [...]

The Ultimate List of Link Building Tactics

James Agate — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:32:54 +0000

My aim here is to create an ultimate list of link building tactics to: Help those that are new to link building to get started Inspire anyone wanting to explore new link building tactics Please add your own tactics, include a note and be sure to vote for others that you like. Please also help [...]

Linkbuilding Outreach…Setting yourself up for success with the right toolset

James Agate — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 11:13:21 +0000

inkbuilding outreach – building relationships, selling content concepts, lateral thinking and the dozens of other things involved – it has to be one of my favourite things about being an SEO. Some days it can be pure frustration though – nobody getting back to you, posts going live that have broken links, bloggers breaking their [...]

How to Create a Top List that Goes Viral

James Agate — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:41:04 +0000

Almost on a daily basis, I see people trying to reinvent the linkbait wheel, constantly looking for new formats of content. Whilst I’m all for innovation and progress, there is something that can be said for utilising tried and tested methods of audience attraction and link development. Top lists are one of those tried and [...]

SEO in 2012 – What should you be doing?

Liam Veitch — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 10:58:14 +0000

Editor’s Note – The following is a guest post from Liam Veitch, the SEO Lead from Tone Agency. Liam approached me with a guest post to start 2012 off with here on the Skyrocket SEO blog and he has really pulled out all the stops to provide a valuable and really interesting piece so I [...]

Most Epic SEO Content of 2011

James Agate — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:48:24 +0000

2011 has been a pretty incredible year and as this is my last planned blog post until January, I figured it would be a great time to curate some of the best posts I’ve read all year on SEO, content marketing, social media, conversion and more. To prove this is more than just a list [...]

4 ½ guest post outreach tips

James Agate — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 13:09:20 +0000

If you are running guest post campaigns to gather links and build visibility then I am sure you’ll agree that outreach equates to around 90% of the challenge. The problem is that the outreach stage requires someone without a vested interest in the success of your campaign agreeing to help you do your job. That’s [...]

6 experts talk linkbuilding

James Agate — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 10:48:30 +0000

Yes, I know. That’s quite an expansive question, but the aim of this post is to provide an overview strategy as well as some tactics that the experts are using so that we can zero in on some more basic linkbuilding concepts. There is a great deal of advanced, higher-level linkbuilding content out there but [...]

7 guest posting mistakes you might be making

James Agate — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 09:31:45 +0000

Guest posting is a superb, natural way to build links to your website. It allows you to add value whilst attracting quality inbound links in a measured and proactive way as well as initiating strong relationships with bloggers in your industry. That’s if it’s done right. There are some mistakes which are often made when [...]

How I’d do SEO for Metalab’s Ballpark App

James Agate — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:22:53 +0000

nyone that has dealt with us here at Skyrocket SEO will know that we use Ballpark to deliver our invoices and to send out estimates. I think it’s a great app and it would take a lot for me to stop using it. Prospective and existing clients compliment us (bear in mind, we didn’t build [...]

5 things hip-hop moguls can teach us about SEO

James Agate — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:43:26 +0000

The news emerged over the weekend that Stanley K. Burrell (better known as MC Hammer) is to front a new search engine - WireDoo. Publicity stunts aside, there is a lot SEOs can learn from the multi-billion dollar hip-hop industry and the millionaire moguls that inhabit it. Here’s a lighthearted look at some of those [...]

SEO Software Survey 2011 – The Results

James Agate — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 11:39:54 +0000

SEO Software Survey 2011 By Skyrocket SEO (Click to enlarge) If you like this Infographic, you can embed it on your own website using the code below: SEO Software Survey 2011 infographic By Skyrocket SEO

Will small businesses survive the future of SEO?

James Agate — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:41:23 +0000

We are entering a new era of SEO. Are small businesses really going to be able to maintain a presence in the search results what with Google’s brand bias and the need for social signals? Where does that leave a small business? Will the future of SEO be cruel to the small business? Yes and [...]

Albert Einstein can make you better at SEO

James Agate — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 09:05:11 +0000

It turns out the much-celebrated genius Albert Einstein might have been wrong about a thing or two. Either way he’s certainly given me some food for thought when it comes to SEO. He is quoted as saying some remarkable things in his time, here are a few of my favourites and how they can help [...]

8 ways to Amazon-ify your Website

James Agate — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:06:52 +0000

Want to be in the same league as Amazon? Here are 8 things that Amazon does which have helped make it the $30bn a year eCommerce business it is today…The best part is that you can implement all of these things in your business… Your homepage is likely to get the most visitors and probably [...]

4 ways you can use Open Site Explorer to build links

James Agate — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:37:35 +0000

y love of SEO software and tools doesn’t come down to laziness (I think the SEO who physically relies upon software is the worst kind of SEO) but because I like for me and my team to be able to utilise a suite of apps which take the heavy lifting out of our day to [...]

How to grow eCommerce sales by 48%

James Agate — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 08:30:40 +0000

I talk a fair bit on this blog about the way in which we work at Skyrocket SEO but today I wanted to also give you a peak at some of the outcomes of hiring us. I’ve always said that as a company, we are focused on your bottom line as well as your search [...]

A powerful framework for improving SEO

James Agate — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 08:25:28 +0000

SEO can feel like a treadmill. Despite your very best efforts; your competitors outrank you, you’re not getting the links you deserve, your content isn’t being devoured, you can’t seem to grow traffic. We’ve all been there. No matter how fast you run, you just don’t seem to get anywhere. How do we break out [...]

Future-proof your SEO in 4 steps

James Agate — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 10:30:22 +0000

Some SEOs are idealistic others are unrealistic and some are both. The Panda updates have done a lot for the industry but there is still a shortfall – there are many websites that utilise ‘grey-hat’ techniques that still rank above competing websites that refuse to employ anything other than the whitest of ‘white-hat’ techniques. Sadly, [...]

It’s time to start your Christmas SEO campaign…yes, in August!

James Agate — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 15:30:06 +0000

It’s a little over 127 days until Christmas 2011 and time is ticking if you want to take advantage of all that festive search traffic. That’s just 18 weeks until the big day and even fewer weeks before the Christmas spending begins, making August the time to start ramping up your SEO efforts. Here are [...]

Does social bookmarking still work?

James Agate — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 14:39:05 +0000

The world of social bookmarking, much like web directory submissions, can often feel a little murky… However, when executed with a little thought and strategy, social bookmarking is actually still a very valuable and useful tactic that anyone can utilise. Social bookmarking is very useful from an SEO perspective because: It can increase visitors It [...]

8 SEO mistakes you might be making

James Agate — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 11:31:00 +0000

Alexander Pope once said “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing“. I can’t help but think he was way ahead of his time and referring specifically to SEO. Believe me when I say you can end up doing more harm than good. The web is full of wannabe ‘gurus’ and outdated or incomplete advice not [...]

7 things Warren Buffett can teach us about SEO

James Agate — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 13:52:19 +0000

I’m a big fan of Warren Buffett, I really enjoy his simple yet intelligent take on life – But what exactly does the world’s greatest investor have to do with SEO? I was reviewing some of his quotes over the weekend and it occurred to me that he can actually teach us a great deal [...]

6 myths of SEO copywriting

James Agate — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 11:23:06 +0000

EO copywriting, a practice that’s often misunderstood. Some see it as a process-driven function designed to manipulate search engine rankings. I take it to mean creating content that enhances search engine visibility by attracting links, shares & eyeballs. However you define it, there are some common myths that are widely believed… As part of the [...]

6 steps to captivating content

James Agate — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 15:56:48 +0000

ontent is the heartbeat of any good SEO campaign – and yet so often we hear cries that it’s impossible to create any remotely interesting content for website X because industry Y isn’t exciting. Exciting is about perception…and with a splash of creativity you can be creating engaging, highly-readable, shareable and linkable stuff for your [...]

9 guest posting experts share their advice

James Agate — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 08:34:08 +0000

Want more attention for your business? More visitors, more subscribers and even more clients? Guest posting in my opinion will always be a solid and long-lasting way to reach new audiences, win new business and improve SEO. Provided you approach it as an attention strategy for your business rather than solely a linkbuilding tactic, it [...]

11 ways to create linkbait with zero budget

James Agate — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 08:30:38 +0000

No budget, no chance? Right?! – Wrong! The great thing about SEO is if you are lacking in budget, you can make up for it with creativity and ingenuity. Many ‘experts’ will have you believe that the only kind of linkbait is infographics and whilst these are highly-effective attention tools, there are also very often [...]

The Google +1 metrics explained

James Agate — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 08:10:59 +0000

To get a Google+1 button on your website, click here It’s worth doing because we’ve seen search engine result page (SERP) clickthrough rate jump across many of the websites we manage with one client seeing a 38% CTR increase as a result of Google +1 – so even if a direct improvement in ranking isn’t [...]

18 of the best blogs written by businesses

James Agate — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 00:00:54 +0000

A blog is a powerful tool to build an audience for your business, in fact (according to Hubspot) 57% of businesses have acquired a customer through their blog. There are some leaders in this space that we can all learn from and here are 18 of the best blogs that are written by businesses. Not [...]

How to make sense of the rel author attribute (authorship markup made easy)

James Agate — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 08:35:44 +0000

Authorship markup is one of the hottest topics in SEO at the moment and more of our clients are asking us for advice on the topic so here is your quick start guide that’s got all the must-know information and the actions you should be taking. What is it? Google introduced authorship markup back in [...]

My thoughts on Google+

James Agate — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 16:27:37 +0000

I’ve been playing around a bit with Google+ and my initial reaction was that it’s ok but I think it might grow on me, right now it doesn’t really feel all that different to what you can do with Facebook and Twitter. I can’t shake that feeling it’s just going to be another place, we [...]

4 e-commerce SEO tips – simple yet powerful

James Agate — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 11:44:30 +0000

Encourage customer reviews User generated content in the form of customer reviews is a fantastic way to ensure your product pages stand out from competitors. You might sell products that hundreds of other online retailers also sell, for this reason, using the standard manufacturer product description is a big no from an SEO and conversion [...]

Starting a business blog

James Agate — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:31:07 +0000

There is little doubt that a blog is one of the best ways to build a business, it’s rarely a business in itself but it is a good attention strategy to create an audience before selling them what you have to offer. So what’s the best way to create a thriving blog for your business? [...]

5 eCommerce Software Solutions that are great for SEO

James Agate — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 10:56:56 +0000

eCommerce SEO is something we do a lot of around here. Small and medium sized businesses come to us looking to help them grow their online shopping empire and we’ve gotten pretty good at it but something we’ve seen a lot of is clients who are trying to run their shops on platforms which just [...]

5 ways to be a resourceful link builder

James Agate — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 13:02:07 +0000

Linkbuilding is one of those areas of SEO where you could feasibly spend hours mining, collating, sorting and listing whilst actually achieving very little – here are some of the tactics we use to improve the effectiveness of our linkbuilding campaigns. 1. Dig deep for that email address Many blogs display a PayPal ‘donate’ button [...]

7 steps to successful guest posting

James Agate — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 08:07:58 +0000

More authority, new audiences and more clients Guest posting offers benefits way beyond just SEO. I’ve just created a short but very useful guide for anyone that is considering using guest posting as a way of growing the reach of their blog or their business. 7 steps to successful guest posting covers… How to target [...]

How to make SEO work on a small budget

James Agate — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 09:01:59 +0000

There’s no doubting that SEO is such an effective way to grow your business but there’s no getting away from the fact that it does require either a financial investment, a time investment or both. The industry has attached this ‘free’ label to organic traffic but that’s kind of misleading because whilst you might not [...]

A rough guide to competitor link research

James Agate — Sat, 21 May 2011 16:31:33 +0000

Replicating a competitor’s link profile is rarely a smart SEO strategy but digging around in their links can give you an incredible amount of useful and actionable data to work with. Note: OpenSiteExplorer.org from the smart folks at SEOmoz, and MajesticSEO are my weapons of choice for competitive link research. See the TYPES of links [...]

Why your website needs to load fast

James Agate — Sat, 14 May 2011 10:49:38 +0000

Improving the speed of your website is becoming increasingly important. High speed broadband and ‘instant’ everything has created a world of very impatient consumers – making the length of time your pages take to load a very important consideration. Why should you care about site loading time? Improved user experience Increased revenue Improved search engine [...]

5 SEO tips for affiliates

James Agate — Tue, 10 May 2011 09:58:39 +0000

Google in recent years has gone to some effort to make life really quite hard for affiliates. Google sees affiliate websites as a barrier between the customer and the ‘real’ business. I think there is still a place and should always be a place in the ecosystem for affiliates, here are 5 tips that will [...]

Why choosing an SEO is like choosing an accountant

James Agate — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 07:10:25 +0000

There are hundreds if not thousands of SEOs out there purporting to help your business so how do you know which one to choose? My advice would be to use the same thought process as you would when selecting an accountant… Accounting and SEO are more similar than you might think. Not only are the [...]

5 ways to improve SEO on an eCommerce website

James Agate — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 15:50:48 +0000

eCommerce – don’t get left behind eCommerce is big business and thanks to the growth of the mobile web (meaning more people purchasing on the go) and because of platforms like Magento, WordPress and Shopify that make it so simple to get an online shop up and running, eCommerce is only going to continue to [...]

Skyrocket SEO on tour

James Agate — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 18:53:16 +0000

I’m looking for virtual venues and groupies… I try to contribute the best content possible to the SEO and internet marketing space. Some of my recent bits published here and around the web include: The subtlety of really good keyword research Social Media Leverage Why choosing an SEO is like choosing an accountant Does social [...]

Still think social media marketing is a fad?

James Agate — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 12:53:19 +0000

Talk to us today about our range of social media marketing services that can help grow your business

Keyword domain or brand?

James Agate — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 14:59:10 +0000

There is no denying that a keyword rich domain helps you rank fast for a search term but if it looks too spammy then this can harm clickthrough and conversions making all that traffic pointless anyway. Brand is a big part of what SEO is about; the smarter SEOs have realised that rankings aren’t actually [...]

When and why you should hire an SEO

James Agate — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 19:14:25 +0000

Outsourced SEO is fast becoming one of the biggest parts of what we do here at skyrocket SEO. We work with all sorts of website design and development agencies all over the UK that were looking for a reliable, high-quality solution that allowed them to ‘sell’ search engine optimisation services without the hassle or expense [...]

5 ways to improve your newsletter

James Agate — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 09:15:13 +0000

Newsletters are a powerful marketing tool for the small business because it is a great way to engage with and be useful to current and future customers for free. Having a newsletter allows you to build an audience and enter the fruitful realms of email marketing. You provide real value to your subscribers and in [...]

Write it like you stole it

James Agate — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 17:29:38 +0000

It pays to be original but there’s nothing wrong with knicking a few ideas and some inspiration from the people on the web that are getting it so right. Content plays a vital role in SEO and ultimately, SEO is an attention strategy for your business so it makes sense to create fantastic content in [...]

8 ways to instantly improve the performance of your AdWords Campaign

James Agate — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 13:59:10 +0000

Here are 8 ways that you can instantly and dramatically improve the performance of your Google AdWords campaign: 5 quick-fixes Tighten up your ad copy Scrutinise your adverts to assess if they are attracting the right sorts of visitors (not just a wasted click), make sure copy is up to date, makes sense and is [...]

How to improve your social media conversion rate

James Agate — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 16:53:21 +0000

Social media is a powerful way to connect with your current and prospective customers but so much time and effort can easily become nothing more than idle tweeting if you don’t take those vital final steps that turn a reader into a paying client. One way to improve your conversion rate from social media is [...]

How to add social proof to your website

James Agate — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 19:38:36 +0000

Social proof is one of those curious psychological phenomenons that means people will tend to behave in a way that they see others behave. As the web becomes increasingly social, it is going to become more and more important that we as online marketers tap into this behaviour. Social proof from a strictly academic point [...]

The simple but often strange business of conversion

James Agate — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 19:38:28 +0000

I’ve talked about how I think SEO is going to change in 2011 in addition to quality being a key factor in the success of your website, in 2011, conversion rate is going to be a fundamental of making online marketing work for your business. Getting visitors to your site costs time and resources. Even [...]

An easy way to build links and be the good guy

James Agate — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 13:00:58 +0000

A creative SEO link building strategy that get’s your competitors linking to your site and helps others at the same time… Regardless of what journalists will tell you, there are still jobs out there. In nearly every industry, there are businesses looking to acquire new talent and there are people looking to get back in [...]

How SEO will change in 2011

James Agate — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 09:59:03 +0000

As the creative genius Paul Ardern once said; “Why be great when mediocrity is all that’s required?” and for so many years this notion has rung true with many an online marketer achieving fairly good rankings in Google with an arguably crappy website. The times they are a changing though. Before you think this is [...]

How to build links with just 20 minutes

James Agate — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 10:23:12 +0000

You don’t need me to tell you that links are a really important part of any successful SEO campaign. Following the popularity of the original “20 minute post” (How to improve your Google ranking), I decided it was time for a similar post on SEO linkbuilding. If you find yourself with only 20 minutes to [...]

The Lazy Man’s Guide to Writing Great Content

James Agate — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 20:52:12 +0000

You are probably just as bored as I am of hearing people say – write some great content, that’s how you do well in SEO, that’s how you win more customers. These things are true, but to be so flippant about ‘writing great content’ is as stupid as saying to grow your business you just [...]

How KFC can boost conversion

James Agate — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 13:33:35 +0000

Firstly, apologies to anyone who thought this post was going to be about how fried chicken can boost the profitability of your website. The KFC that purveys tasty chicken coated in a special recipe probably can’t improve your website’s conversion and won’t do your arteries any good either. The KFC I am talking about is [...]

5 ways Google Analytics can help grow your business

James Agate — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 16:40:54 +0000

Happy New Year to one and all. This is my first post of 2011 and although I finished it back on the 31st, I decided to save it for today as hopefully most of you enjoyed the day off yesterday and spent it doing something nice with your families. This post is a long one [...]

Protected: How to improve your Google ranking in 20 minutes

James Agate — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 14:53:33 +0000

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

Do you want a bigger slice of pie?

James Agate — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 17:19:25 +0000

I don’t know a single business around that doesn’t want more customers. Google is a beehive of customers. You just need the right kind of honey to attract them. This is just one method that any business can use to absolutely smash the competition and dominate their market. I call it Long Tail Domination – [...]

The Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

James Agate — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 09:46:57 +0000

The world of search engine optimisation can seem like an incredibly complicated world to anyone that’s just getting started or thinking about implementing in their business. Here at skyrocket SEO, we are on a mission to help even the smallest business benefit from SEO which is why we’ve produced this guide to help you get [...]