Link building is still one of the biggest obstacles in improving your website ranking and traffic. If that is the case then the natural next question is; how do you build them?
A good place to start is to submit your site to web directories and directories in your niche. Sound simple, doesn’t it? Well it isn’t, most of us look the most obvious places, this certainly is a good place to start, however you need to look for the hidden gems inside your business category. Many of the best directories exist on sites like manufacturers you sell or buy from, or your own local Chamber of Commerce. The point here is the amount of weight Google puts on “Link Relevancy is huge. So try to avoid just blindly buying or link exchanging, etc. Be smart here and it will pay off. SEO is not for the “Immediate Gratification” folks, I wish it were. I would be gratified by now I think.
One part of your link building strategy can be “Dofollow Blogs”. If you have anything credible to say inside of your business you need to start saying it. The way to get some buzz around your product, service, brand etc is to find likeminded blogs that dofollow,
(DoFollow – This is given in the HTML page or the Robot.txt of the website, in order to direct the search engines to follow that particular web page.)
If you happen to be already blogging and commenting of others blogs by all means you should be getting some bank for your buck. Look for sites that have a relatively high page rank and comment on the ones inside your business. If you sell blue-left-handed widgets do not comment about “Things in the Solar System”. And please for goodness sake say something more than “nice post” or “kewl”, I know many guys with blogs will just delete you as “spam”. You may find some decent “dofollow sites” here. The last I’ll say about this right now is;
Don’t Be A Spammer – Be A Value Provider!
Spamming Dofollow resources will not give you results…not only that, it hurts the entire community, and forces Dofollow providers to convert their sites to Nofollow. Be sure that all of your link-building exploits are done so tastefully and honestly. If you don’t cram keywords and give an honest account of what your site is about, search engines will reward you for it!
The following is a quick rundown on what a DoFollow actually is:
Nofollow’ is a HTML attribute attached to hyperlinks in order to ensure that the specific link in question does not pass any value that will help improve the target site’s search engine rank.
It was first created by Google in 2005 as a means to combat keyword spam, particularly on webpages where users can add links by themselves. Other search engines like Yahoo and MSN Live both respect the nofollow attribute as well.
More details from Google’s official blog:
If you’re a blogger (or a blog reader), you’re painfully familiar with people who try to raise their own websites’ search engine rankings by submitting linked blog comments like “Visit my discount pharmaceuticals site.” This is called comment spam, we don’t like it either, and we’ve been testing a new tag that blocks it.
From now on, when Google sees the attribute (rel=”nofollow”) on hyperlinks, those links won’t get any credit when we rank websites in our search results.
This isn’t a negative vote for the site where the comment was posted; it’s just a way to make sure that spammers get no benefit from abusing public areas like blog comments, trackbacks, and referrer lists.
In its most basic definition, dofollow is just a way of referring to links that do not use the ‘nofollow’ attribute. In other words, these are normal links which pass value and credit towards improving search engine ranks.
The origin of the term ‘dofollow’ appears to stem from a movement by bloggers who believe that comments are legitimate contributions by readers, therefore the wholesale marking of every comment as spam by default through the ‘nofollow’ tag is not fair and justified
As such, these bloggers or other non-blog websites override the existing platform defaults by removing the nofollow attribute, making all the links ‘dofollow’.
These dofollow blogs and websites have consistently been a target of webmasters and spammers who leave keyword links with their choice of anchor text in order to enhance their search rank. You can find dofollow blogs through a simple google search. Let me wrap this up by cautioning you to not be obsessed with Dofollow’s it is just a small part of the overall picture in building a long term “Luv Presence” on the net. Long live ya! Thanks for letting me yak all over you.
SEO, PPC, and SMO, how do you pull them all together?
If you’re a plumber or a lawyer or even an Indian chief for that matter the answer is you don’t. You may have breathed a sigh of relief or more likely you said. “Then what”? I’ll get to that later, first let’s talk about the problem and then we’ll dive head on into the solution. Have you heard, “I am not sure what my SEO company is doing”, or worse yet, you said it. Or, I hope you haven’t said this one, “My SEO Company is ripping me off”. I have heard both of these and more in my time in this industry more than I can count. I might lose you here, you are the problem, let me explain before you call the nuthouse about me.
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I fully agree that the Illusion, “don’t try this at home” has become real in the Search Engine Marketing space and has become littered with all sorts of subpar services to put it nicely. However, if you can admit that you are the problem, you can get to a viable solution that returns ROI’s that rival this best and better. The most successful campaigns are born out of a well thought out process, AKA: a plan. Here comes another one of those “nutcase” statements, no plan ever works out, yes that is right ZERO times has your plan at the outset worked out. That’s the good news Ladies and Gentleman, a plan is not a destination, it is a journey. Here is where you might save me from the white coats; you need to plan anyway, without one, no action. Action always produces something. Wouldn’t you agree?
Ok then sir, how does one put together a plan to attack such a complex subject? Glad you asked. Very succinctly, a well crafted plan authored by a Professional in SEO/PPC/SEM, (Project Manager) Recently I was consulting a client that has a monthly budget in this area of about 20k. You would think that if you threw 20k a month at something it would turn to green, well think again. The first question I asked him was, who manages this? Are you sitting, the answer blew me away! “My secretary”, he shared. Don’t get me wrong here, I asked “what this is his/her qualifications are in this area”, and he didn’t have an answer. I am sure I don’t have to tell you this “20k a month” bounty was.
I can’t help myself in quoting this post from Outspoken Media, Read this article, real good down to earth advice. Thanks Lisa Barone,
“You couldn’t pay your mortgage and your house was foreclosed on? Don’t worry, it wasn’t you, it was the recession. You lost your job and now you’re stuck at home cruising Twitter ‘looking for a new one’ all day? Don’t fret. It wasn’t you, it’s the recession. Can’t find new clients so you’re left bitterly blogging that clients suck and the frauds in the industry are stealing your dollars? Calm down, pretty, have a cookie and take a nap. It’s the recession.
Actually, it’s probably not the recession. It’s probably you.”
All kidding aside I really don’t mean to insult anyone, however, the point is; the only thing in the way of your Site blasting out SEO returns like a printing press of money is, yes YOU. If you can get your arms around this one fact you can be free. Free to actually contact someone like myself or the thousands of other qualified Internet Marketing concerns and get rocking. Getting to putting together a solid plan that gets you into action and closer to your boss telling you what a great job you are doing. Or better yet this is your own endeavor and you are laughing all the way to the bank.
I am going to be a sport here and give you 5 things to keep your site from “sucking”.
Write for your Audience – if you can’t do this hire some that can, PERIOD.
Make your site useful – I hate to repeat myself, however, if you can’t do this hire someone that can, PERIOD.
Make the content unique – Again, well you know ….
Make it Interactive – believe me this isn’t at expensive and far reaching – Again, (broken record), if you can’t do this hire someone that can, PERIOD.
Convert readers into subscribers – ask for their email address! And don’t be afraid to use it.
Bulbwired has many other valuable techniques and tips do put your site to use in the real world. I will leave you with some very good, simple yet very sound advice my Dad used to tell me, “Do not go to a dentist to get your haircut”.
You want to get the attention you deserve; bulbwired can give you SEO, PPC and SEM that rocks. If you’re looking for landing pages that “get the Click” yes we do that to. And if you need Upstanding fine Internet Marketing professionals for advice and/or Manage a project to fruition then for goodness sake,
Sometimes schedules are so busy and there just isn’t the time to write another post even though you have great info to share. Lo and behold this was in my email box, I wish I could take credit for writing it, however, it was written by Aaron Wall from SEObook.com on the3 subject of Social Integration, this following information held true well before the Internet and well after it, if there if is a well after it… with out further ado…
“As many business models continue to get commoditized by fierce worldwide competition, the only things that separate winners from losers are: relationships, social status, trust, attention, market timing, and packaging. In an idea economy, the winner is not just up to who comes up with ideas, but who expresses them most clearly and who can spread them further faster.
Having an editorial component to your site that people pay attention to builds content and gives people more reasons and ways to find you and talk about you. Publishing a blog with an RSS feed that notifies hundreds or thousands of people when you have new information to share is a big advantage against newer competitors or companies that fail to see the value of building social relationships and giving away information.
It can take weeks, months, or years to gain attention and trust. The more reasons you give people to trust you the more it builds on itself. Eventually, if your operation is exceptionally efficient you can start owning ideas and building self reinforcing market positions. At some point winning new ideas gets easier and easier.
There are also lots of other hidden benefits to having lots of friends and contacts
- you can help them promote their best work in exchange for them offering you feedback and helping you promote your best work
- you can do coordinated launches of your best content where many friends mention it at the same time such that you flood the marketplace with your best ideas
- you can ask friends for links and get a near 100% success rate getting quality links from them (though you may have to return the favor at some point)
Participating in the conversation, linking out to other like-minded webmasters, and creating community oriented projects with the input of other members in your community help get you noticed quickly.
If you have a new blog or new website reinvest in your website and market your own content instead of placing many ads on your site.
The deeper we get into bulbwired and our mission of helping businesses succeed on the Internet the deeper we get into sharing, just today we got a RT (Retweet, on twitter.com, this is simply Reposting a comment from me and a link to me) from another SEO guy, flattering yes and humbling. We trust that it all come around full circle and on that subject I can’t say enough thanks to Aaron Wall for his course SEObook.com. This has really re-directed what we do.
For a limited time bulbwired.com is offering our “10 Point SEO Spring Cleaning” for an amazing $500 and we can show you how you can get that for free, no kidding absolutely free. Contact us below and we will tell you how.
Spring Cleaning needed on your site? Need your site to scream out to the Search Engines?
It takes proper planing to launch or even a redesign a website. With months of time invested, and hundreds (or thousands) of man hours on the line — you need to make sure your new endeavor is ready to produce from day one.
It is a common belief that a well designed web site is one that lacks optimization. While many times that fact can be true, it does not have to be. With essential communication between design and marketing, your designers can produce both great looking and functional web sites that do not compromise your ability to optimize, This is where Design needs to meet Marketing. Sometimes a great approach can be the use of a Project Manager.
Here are ten quick tips to pass along to your designers, your writers and your developers to help them create the best site from the beginning…
Code Validity is Key
Be sure that the final code of your pages can fully validate according to W3C standards. Failure to validate could create accessibility issues — and the engines simply dislike that. They want to push their users out to complete sites that work for everyone. It works if you work it. clear and simple
Avoid Duplicate Content
This is pretty self explanatory, and it’s an SEO principal that has been hammered home many times. Why keep on hammering? Because it’s that important! Be sure that you don’t get lazy and copy content from one page to the next. Each page should specifically target one major idea, and the text needs to reflect that. Think you’re at risk? Try something like this free tool allows you to determine the percentage of similarity between any two pages
Browsable Navigation Links
Encapsulating links to internal pages in Flash or JavaScript is dangerous. While some engines can often find links from inside of these coding blocks, it is not guaranteed. Therefore, it is wise to always have an HTML compliant navigational structure. Examples include footer text links, a DHTML menu, etc.
Use a Structured Content Hierarchy
A theme based approach to optimization is the most successful one. Imagine all of the content on your web site to mimic a family tree. Each layer down, there’s more content that fits the overall theme. By nature, the further you drill down — the more specific your content becomes. Bottom line.
Move JavaScript and CSS Off Page
Moving CSS and JS files off the page does two things. First, it creates cleaner code that is more easily managed. More importantly though, it frees up space that engines consider to be prime real estate. Let’s say a spider lends preferential treatment to content that appears in the first 20KB of a document. If 15KB at the start of your document is verbose JavaScript and CSS coding, you have created an uphill battle from the start…
Limit Flash Usage
Putting all of your content in a Flash file creates a difficult platform from which to optimize. While it can be done, the results will not come as easily as if Flash was used as a compliment to the rest of the page. Thankfully, with CSS streamlined video on the ‘net, Flash is no longer a necessity. Remember, if you have to use Flash — cut down how much information is in there and fine alternative ways to deliver the content.
Natural Keyword Integration
Do not stuff pages with keywords! Some web sites that would be great if not for their blatant use of keyword stuffing. Keyword density and repetition is a thing of the past. Engines are more about off page SEO now, and you need to write clear and concise content that addresses the user. Engines are keen to what makes sense contextual.
Local Information Integration
Sounds all technical and precise, but it’s quite simple. If you sell plumbing supplies in Somerville, Massachusetts Florida, then include that in your site. How? List (in HTML formatted text of course) where you are located. Include a link to Google (or Yahoo) Maps to help hammer home the point. Search is become more focused on users at a local level. Therefore, building sites with this in mind should be a given.
Launch With the Proper Foundation
Is your new site equipped with a robots.txt file? An XML sitemap? RSS Feeds? Before you launch any new web site you need to run a full QA test to ensure that…
• all pages load properly
• no browser compatibility issues exist
• SEO elements (titles, meta tags, alt tags, etc.) are in place
• spiders can discover all pages
• robots.txt validates
• sitemap.xml(.gz) works
Doing this right out of the gate will save you time and monmey, and will put you in a position for maximum ROI.
