Does anyone else find it surprising that so many site owners are reluctant to provide outgoing links on their website. Somehow they have come to believe that providing relevant outgoing links from their site can be harmful to their results in the search engines.
When you send your visitors to a relevant resource, this is not a bad thing. This is a good thing.
Relevant sites does NOT mean competitive sites.
Definitions of Relevant on the Web:
Having a bearing on or connection with the subject at issue; “the scientist corresponds with colleagues in order to learn about matters relevant to her own research” wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
Evidence or information that has enough value to prove something significant to a case.http://www.attorneykennugent.com/library/r.html
If you write an article and would like to provide evidence of what you are saying, you should provide your resources within the article. Those MUST be credible resources. For example, if I write an article about website credibility, the site I point to in order to back up what I am saying must be an EXPERT on the topic, such as the Stanford Guidelines for Website Credibility. This method (used properly) gives your pages MORE value, not less. It also adds to the relevance of your page to the topic.
Incoming and outgoing links are not just about making pages filled with links. It is something that can be blended into your website in multiple ways, as it pertains to the specific page.
Think about the common interests of your target visitors and you will have no trouble deciding if a link is relevant to your site.
Link Building or water boarding, which is the least amount of torture?
Anyone worth their salt in SEO has asked, “Is there a better way to build the back links you need to rank highly in Search Engines’? Before I tell you that water boarding is in fact an easier and softer way to torture let me tell you this; link building can pay off huge benefits. However, you will have to endure a bit of mind-boggling tedious tasks. Here are some ways to get going and some things to consider.
WEB DIRECTORIES
Web Directories are the obvious first step; at least here you don’t need to grovel to others to get linked. The following link is to the page we in fact go to. Listed are all the general directories on the internet in which you get a valid link for the search engines.
We only listed those directories that are free and which do not require a reciprocal link to be listed. We think we know what webmasters want; we are certainly open to being corrected here.
Please ladies and gentleman please excuse the sloppy page, we did not put this page up to display our design skills, we in fact put it up only for an in-house place for our people to use for, you guessed it, link building. This reference to this page is the first public reference to it, we trust it will help.
A word of caution about this subject, Outside of DMOZ and the Yahoo! Directory, the value of a single directory link is usually not very great. Directories add value after you list in a number of them, especially if you are listing in high-quality ones next to other sites that are in your same vertical. Additionally directories rarely provide much direct traffic. Typically the bulk of the value of a directory listing is in how search engines evaluate the links. Occasionally, you may find a niche directory that does provide good traffic—but most directories do not. Exchanging Reciprocal Links
Over the last few years, Google has given no weight or negative weight to low value link exchanges. Typically for most marketers the time wasted on link exchange programs would be better spent creating useful, original, link-worthy content. Let me stress this one point, CONTENT is still King and will get you link backs.
I spend a lot of time managing client expectations than anything. As fast and furious as the Internet can be immediate gratification just doesn’t exist here. When I was a young commodities trader an old timer once told me if I wanted excitement to “jump out of airplanes”, his point was to not act out my needs for excitement in the markets. The same advice holds true here, solid work with an eye on patience will pay off.
Link exchanging just doesn’t work the way it used to. Many people who created SEO software, or information products that sold themselves as experts, found that their Google rankings dropped because link exchanges are not all they were once cracked up to be. Some kept selling their bogus link exchange services even after they stopped offering value because they are greedy and are lacking in business ethics. Also, if you link to off-topic resources, quality sites might be less likely to link to your site. Don’t waste your time trading hundreds of links with low quality sites.
Smart Link Building
The following is easier said than done and if you hire some SEO company to do it for you can cost a princely sum. This is a definition of a Smart Link Building strategy as described by one of our tech people.
Are one-way to your site.
Are permanent.
Are embedded in text in the middle of the page.
Come from relevant pages.
Have variations on the anchor text.
Are from clean pages, no link to bad neighborhood.
Points to your home page as well as your internal pages with the right anchors.
Come from pages with texts only. No directories, link lists or any kind of FFA.
Does not have any kind of paid footprints around them or any patter.
Also gives you juice (Page Rank).
Does not have any kind of duplicate content.
Are hosted on different C-class IPs.
Are on pages with maximum only 10 links on them (only yours).
Also gives you some relevant traffic! (best sign of legit links.)
These are just a few ways to build links and if you are reading I am sure you know this is not an easy task. This can be sub-contracted, however, you need to stiff through mounds and mounds of scams on this very subject. The best way to start is try to get a referral from a past happy client. In our next post we will explore subjects like link buying or renting, link quality and some free link sources. Happy linking!
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.
