Get Your Company Link Building With These 5 Simple Tips

By Oliver Feakins (c) 2009 As the online market place continues to warm up to the idea of SEO, link building has become center stage as it tends to be the most time consuming and crucial part of any internet marketing strategy. Link building services are the most commonly outsourced aspect of SEO. This process involves finding qualified and thematically relevant one-way linking partners who will link back to your website.

At first glance this sounds easy and there are hundreds of automated products out there that claim to add thousands of back links overnight. The truth is there are no short cuts in cultivating authoritative back links for a site. Link building companies spend many hours link building by hand in order to get the best results. Spammy automated products often don't cultivate valuable links and tend to do more harm than good. Here are a couple quick suggestions to help you get started.
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1. Know What Keywords You're Targeting

Link building strategies are an extension of your current SEO practice. You'll want to reference the list of keywords you have selected to optimize your site. Make sure that the anchor text of the link has the keyword you are targeting. For example, if you're targeting the keyword "baby names" you'll want to place that keyword in the anchor text of the link. I've seen many companies go after links by using their company name. Although this does boost link popularity it fails to pass popularity for a specific keyword and can be seen as a failed attempt.

2. Develop a Link Building Strategy

There are many strategies link building companies use to source qualified back links to their clients. The most tedious but often most rewarding method is manual linking requests also known as "cherry picking". This method allows you to obtain exceptionally qualified links which can really help boost your position in the search engine results page (SERPS). A good place to start with manual link building is to look at your suppliers, vendors, clients, related organizations associations and more.

Besides manual link requests other well known tactics include:

1. directory submission (Dmoz, Yahoo Directory, Joe Ant)
2. article submission (ezinearticles.com, goarticles.com)
3. optimized press releases (PRWeb.com)
4. social media outlets (FaceBook, Linked In)
5. bookmarking sites (Digg, Reddit, Furl)
6. Blogs (niche blogs)
7. Forums (niche forums)
8. Classifieds (niche classifieds)

3. Identify Thematically Relevant and Authoritative Linking Sources

Search engines see links as votes of confidence for your site. The more relevant and authoritative the site, the more consideration is given to the link and the subsequent keyword in the anchor text. It really pays off to focus on the quality of your links rather than the quantity. It is also important for your link building to look natural and not an attempt to deceive search engine spiders in search of links. Try looking for sites within your industry rather than general, unrelated sites to get links from.
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A good example of this would be content creation and distribution. Try creating content on a relevant subject of which you can speak authoritatively. An example of this would be a SEO company writing a short article on 5 simple ways companies can start link building and placing it on an authoritative, industry relevant site like this one. Remember, before placing a link on a site (or making a request), ask yourself three questions:

1. Does a link to my website belong here (does it look natural)?
2. Is this site relevant and authoritative?
3. Is there any benefit to my potential customers?
4. Look for the onsite attributes of the linking site

4. Determine Where Your Link Will Reside

Once you've nailed down a potential linking partner that represents the overall quality and thematic authority that your site deserves you'll need to see where your link will reside.

Here are a couple guidelines that I look for when placing links on a site. I try to get my links no more than a few clicks away from the homepage. The page must be thematically relevant and recently cached by Google's search engine (this lets me know that the page has been indexed by Google). I also take a look at the number of external (outbound) links leaving that page. I try to keep the number of external links below 50 as it will dilute the effect of the page. Lastly, I look at the page the link will be placed on. For some sites this is harder to control, but if you have the option you should know where the most valuable locations are. I always try to get my links in line with thematically relevant content, like an article or blog post. I've found this produces some of the best results. Try to avoid placing your links on a "sponsored" or advertisers section that runs throughout the entire site. Also avoid footer links as rumor has it Google has devalued links buried in the footer of the site. Links placed at the top of the page or inserted into the site's navigation also tend to do quite well. Bottom line is that your links need to look like they belong and provide value to the user and the site it is published on.

5. Be Aware of "No-Follow" Links

Within the last 5 years Google developed the concept of the "no-follow" link. The "no-follow" code is inserted into your link and instructs the Google spider to ignore it. The "no-follow" link can be seen used most commonly in blog comments and forum posts. This initiative was set forth to combat spam and automated linking mechanisms that would throw links automatically on blog comments and forum posts.

There are a lot of SEO professionals that will only place a link if it is a "do-follow" link, meaning it doesn't have the "no-follow" attribute. I tend to disagree with this notion especially when the link in question is on a highly trafficked authority site. If it makes sense for the link to be there, then add your link. Even though Google won't give you any credít for it, it will be seen by thousands of people who may visit your site and link to you themselves because your site is highly relevant. I call this concept indirect link building. You are influencing and promoting your site to potential linking partners.

Link Building is a very time consuming process and link building companies spend a lot of time researching, testing and improving their techniques. Link building services are available for companies that don't have the time to invest in manual link building. The bottom line is that with a little help anyone can link build and move their site up the SERPS.

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Simple Twitter Tips that Attract Clients and Partners

By Meredith Liepelt (c) 2009

According to Mashable.com, a leading authority on social media, there are currently over 12 million users on Twitter. Another resource called istrategylabs.com reports that 46% of Twitter users are college grads, and another 17% have post graduate degrees. Furthermore, 47% are between age 18 and 34, and another 31% are between 35 and 49. Males and females are evenly ranked, with women accounting for 53% of users and men 47%. If your target market falls within these demographics, actively participating on Twitter is probably worth your while.

Twitter is simply a micro blogging service. What does that mean? It means that you write short updates (140 characters maximum) called "tweets" and send them out to your followers. And it is a marketer's dream come true - it's an easy way to stay in front of your target market and showcase your authority for free.

The myth around Twitter is that Twitter users (called tweeple or tweeps) tweet about useless information such as what kind of coffee they had with breakfast. Yes, some of that exists and it is actually important as you'll see below, but once you understand the power of connecting on Twitter, you may become a Twitter convert, just like me.

So, if you're on Twitter or considering starting, the question becomes, "what do I tweet about that will make this a useful tool for me?" Here are some categories you can consider for your tweets. There are others but these will get you started:

Industry Tips

This is a big one. You are on Twitter to showcase your expertise, so industry tips act as your credibility builders. Here's how to do it: Create a list of high value tips (remember - no more than 140 characters long) and send one or two out every day. If you don't want to have to manually do this yourself every day, consider a free tool called TweetLater.com to set up your tweets in advance. If your tweets are really good, others will send them out to their lists as well. This is called a "re-tweet," and it's a super way to quickly build your list of targeted followers.

Here is one of my recent tweets that had a great response:

Connect Others: Be willing to connect others even if it has nothing to do with your business. What goes around, comes around.

About Your Business

Use this category sparingly. In other words, if you use Twitter as a place to advertise your products and services too much, people will stop following you. This is not what Twitter is about. It is really about raising awareness of you and your business and impacting others. Use the 80/20 rule here. For every eight tweets about things other than your business, you can post two things about your business.

Here is an example:

Hey Columbus: I'll be on Fox tomorrow at 7:45 where you can see me interviewed about my new book, Flourish!

Re-Tweets

When someone re-tweets you, they are giving you the highest compliment you can get on Twitter! It means that the person who re-tweeted you thinks that what you said is worth sharing with their own list of followers. This is like having someone ask you to a meeting so they can introduce you their entire list of contacts. When you get a re-tweet, send them a short tweet thanking them! Re-tweet others who are tweeting things that you agree with or want your followers to read.

If you are not familiar with Twitter, the example below probably won't make a lot of sense because of all of the abbreviations, but they are necessary given that you only have 140 characters. Abbreviations are outside the scope of this article, but just know that it's really not as scary as it looks!

RT @getgreatcopy: New blog post: The Sixth Habit of Highly Effective Communicators http://bit.ly/ 175XGS Gr8 stuff Jan, as usual.

Quotes

Tweeps seem to love quotes. If you are also a fan of quotes, compile a list and send one or two out every day. Again, you can use TweetLater.com to set these up in advance so you don't have to manually enter them every day. Simply set up these tweets for a month and then watch your re-tweets happen!

Here's an example of one that I recently posted:

"The pursuit of pleasure must be the goal of every rational person." Voltaire

Invitations

Invite tweeps to your free events. No-cost events like teleseminars are great to tweet about because people love to share high-value, low-cost information with their lists. When you provide something without a cost - a workshop, teleseminar or report, your tweets about it are likely to get re-tweeted, which provides you with greater exposure to your target market.

Here's an example of one of my recent posts:

How 2 write your book in a weekend - free telesemimar w/ @donnakozik. http://bit.ly/127GtU

Personal

Include some personal things that are going on with your life. What you choose to include is entirely up to you; however, be sure to be relatable. You don't have to share your deepest inner thoughts or too much detail about your family, but sharing something about what you did over the weekend makes you more relatatable. Remember, Twitter is about connecting with people. Other people on Twitter want to connect with people - not stale businesses. People often connect on a personal level over food, pets or hobbies. This is why these seemingly unimportant tweets are actually very fruitful. These are pretty safe personal topics. General things about kids are another hot topic under this category. Just be aware that anything you say is out there for the world to read.

Here's an example I tweeted recently:

Interesting pop culture moment: Told a story to my sister, who lives in Vietnam & realized she doesn't know who Sara Jessica Parker is!

As you can see, Twitter is simply an online forum for connecting with others in 140 characters or less. Big and small brands are using Twitter to connect and impact their target markets and locate joint ventures. Can you, too?

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Simple And Successful SEO Strategies - On Page Optimization

By Matt Jackson (c) 2009

SEO doesn't have to be complex and by following these simple on-page optimization techniques you can give your SEO campaign the perfect start.

SEO is often seen as being a difficult and in-depth process, but the reality is that by following some reasonably common sense guidelines it is possible to get good rankings. That's not to say that optimization is a simple or quick process; there are, unfortunately, no short cuts. Your SEO efforts should be a concerted and long term endeavour, in order for you to enjoy the best possible results, and should incorporate both on-page and off-page optimization techniques. By following the on-page SEO strategies below you can set a strong foundation for all your SEO work.

Keyword Research

Before you begin penning content and writing title and meta tags you first need to research the keywords you will use on each of your pages. Using the wrong keywords can negatively impact your entire campaign, causing you to lose untold hours and days of work and eventually forcing you to concede that you made the wrong decision and start all over again.

The most appropriate and most beneficial keywords are popular enough that they will enjoy regular searches but without being prohibitively competitive or overly generic. A number of keyword research tools exist and your competitors' websites are a good place to start your early research. Ensure keywords are targeted specifically to the type of content you will provide as well as the service or product you will be selling. More targeted keywords will result in more targeted visitors and targeted visitors mean greater conversion rates and an improved return on your efforts.

Niche And Semantically Related Keywords

A good strategy is to incorporate a reasonable list of competitive keywords with less competitive ones. The more niche keywords will serve you well during the early days of your website and over time you should be able to start competing for the more challenging of the keywords you use. Also incorporate semantically or topically related keywords into your keyword list because the search engines are placing more and more emphasis on those pages that use related keywords as well as primary keywords.

Accessibility And Standards

Site accessibility is an integral part of good website design, but it should also be considered an important factor in any SEO strategy. Using standards based code for your website will help to ensure that anybody that wishes to access and view your website will be able to do so. It will also mean that the spiders used by search engines will be able to access and index your pages effectively ensuring that you get the full credít for your site.

Navigation And Intra-Linking

Your navigation menu and internal links should be prominently placed, easy to see, and easy to follow for the spiders. It is good practice to include a text link from the home page to a compliant sitemap on your site, alleviating any potential problems that might arise from broken links or the use of graphical or flash based navigation menus. You can also consider adding links into the main body of your content, although too many will make the page difficult to read and therefore diminish the overall effectiveness so don't get too carried away.

Title And Meta Tags

While search engines do not specifically use the meta tags to help assess the value of a page like they once did, meta tags are still critical to good SEO performance. The title and description tags that you add at the top of a page are used in various ways including in the compiling and display of Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). This is the first thing a potential site visitor will see from your site so this mini listing needs to be as effective as any paid advert or PPC ad. Poorly written titles and descriptions can put many readers off viewing your pages so a little time and effort here can have a very positive effect.

Using your keywords in the title and the description is good practice because these will be highlighted in the search results if they were used in the search query itself. This will make your result more prominent and instantly identify your page as being relevant to the user. Don't needlessly use keywords, however, and don't throw extra keywords into the description at the cost of a well written, short ad.

Other Formatting Tags

On-page content should always be written with the visitor in mind, although obviously it can still be optimized for search engines. As such, proper page structure is important to your reader as well as to the engines. H1 and H2 tags are an effective way of breaking up page content, and give readers the chance to skim through a page and determine its relevance.

A page should only contain a single H1 tag at the top of the content but can include multiple H2 and H3 tags. Alt tags on images should also be included and these as well as the actual file path to the image itself can include important keywords (but do make sure that they actually make sense and are more than just a keyword thrown in for the sake of SEO).

Page Content Optimization

Finally, we get to the heart of the page - the content itself. Use the keywords you researched for a page, including semantically related keywords. Write as naturally and appealingly as possible while keeping those keywords in mind and don't get carried away stuffing or cramming them into the body of the text. Not only is this unappealing to readers but is seriously frowned upon by the search engines.

The reader really is the most important aspect of your content. If the majority of your visitors are coming from the search engines, remember that they arrived using specific keywords. This means that they are searching for equally specific information relating to those keywords - make sure you deliver on the promise that you made in your title and description tags.

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Free and Easy Link Building Tips

By Enzo F. Cesario (c) 2009

Okay, you're the proud mama or papa to your brand new website. Now what? This isn't like the movies - just because you built it doesn't mean they'll come. The Internet is a huge limitless space with ever-growing numbers of websites. You are just one small website among millions. How will anybody ever find you? How do you become visible? Right now, you just exist out in the web, untethered. You need to become visible when someone searches for you and one way to become visible to people is to become visible to search engines. And one way to become visible to search engines such as Google, Yahoo, or MSN is for your site to be tethered, or linked to other sites.

If you've spent any time reading Internet marketing blogs you know that link building is a huge part of a marketing campaign. Backlinks - links that point to your website - are a major factor in determining your popularity or ranking with the search engines. And of course, just like in high school, you want to be popular.

You can buy your way into links, but here we're talking about a few free and easy ways. An obvious and natural way to build links is through content. When you start a link-building campaign for your new website, focus on attracting links that will add value for your website visitors and best represent your most important keywords too. It is invaluable to have visitors go to your site and share your content.

Here are a few easy and mostly free ways to build links for your website.

Blog-Based Link Building

One way to get natural links back to your website is by setting up a blog for your company. Make sure you network online with other blogs that complement yours. If you share industry news and have useful and relevant content, you'll attract links. Reference other bloggers in your content and link to other blogs in your industry.

For blogs, content is extremely important. Every time you add words to your blog or website, you are presenting yourself to a potentially huge audience. How does your blog's content reflect your company? This content could be the page that carries your company's name around the Internet world. Cheap content is just that - cheap. Create content that people want to read and that will make them come back again and again.

Reviewing products and services and posting those reviews on other sites is another way to build links. Your honest evaluations and smart opinions can also build your reputation as an expert in your field.

Link Building with Social Media

Another way to build natural links to your website is through social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter. These sites allow you to set up a user profile where you can add information about you and your company including a link to your website.

Some sites, Facebook for example, also have a way to promote your business with a page, ad or group. Just keep in mind that there are good ways and bad ways to promote your business on social sites and you should observe proper etiquette when you do.

Link Building with Organizations and Directories

If your industry has professional organizations or associations that you belong to, check with them and see if they have an online directory with links to member sites. They may or may not charge a fee for this. If they do, it shouldn't be much.

Check with your local Chamber of Commerce or Better Business Bureau. Links from sites like these can be very helpful. Check with other local businesses and organizations that have lists of businesses and request links from them, too.

Online directories are another opportuníty to look into. Yahoo! Directory is a good one. If your business is in a specific geographical area, you might also find some local directories to submit to that will boost your local visibility.

Links from Charities or Non-profits

If your company makes charitable donations to organizations and non-profíts, see if they have a "donors" list on their website and ask if they will link to your website.

Links from Press Releases

Has your business just started or have you just launched a new product? A press release is a great idea to announce your news. There are quite a few press release distribution services available and some have a free first time offer.

Links from Partners

If your website offers information about other website partners like business directories, you should make sure to use all your linking potential. You could have a badge that your partner could put on their site linking to you and one for your site that links to theirs.

If you have an RSS feed or a widget on your site that has good value to visitors, those can be taken from your website and displayed on another person's website, linking back to your site.

The Internet is constantly evolving and there are thousands of ways to build links. Look around at other websites and see what they have and how they work. Look at your business, think outside the box and you might come up with other ways to develop links. If it all seems like too much, there are many online consulting companies that can help with link building, SEO optimization and brandcasting.

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Should You Fire Your SEO Company?

By Ajay Prasad (c) 2009

Search engine algorithms are shrouded in total secrecy. So what works in SEO and what does not is merely the result of an analysis of sites that make it to page #1. Some times the keywords show up sooner than expected, at times they do not. It's very difficult to measure the effectiveness of an SEO campaign because the time frame for results is prolonged. With the mushrooming of SEO companies and the vagueness of operations, finding the right company can be an issue.

True, SEO is no science, but it can have a scientific approach. The results are not instantaneous like PPC but results should be visible after 3 months into a program. Okay... give or take a few months for the vagaries of Search Engines that like to alter their algorithms just when your site is all set to take off!

The problem with SEO is that it is too vague a field. We can only guess what works and what does not. Broadly there are five factors that are said to do 70% of the work.

1. Well optimized code
2. Well Optimized Metatags
3. Header Tags, Alt tags
4. Keywords in the URL
5. Backlinks to the site

If your SEO company is smart enough to integrate all these together, chances are that by the fourth month your SERPs should be somewhere around rank 10-12 for moderately competitive keywords. Competitive keywords take much longer and the effort for increasing the positions in page 1 increases proportionally with every position.

There are two ways in which you can check if your company is really working on your website.

1. Set up Google Alert on your company's name. Once an alert is set up, every time a directory picks up your link or a blog picks up your article or the company does a press release, Google will pick it up and deliver it into your mailbox. The larger the number of alerts the more your SEO company is working.

2. Use a tracking account. Google Analytics is free and is improving with feedback. Ask your SEO company to set up tracking in analytics and get your account id and password so that you can check occasionally.

SEO is unfortunately a long drawn out process. How long should one wait before deciding that the SEO company is taking you for a ride? When you are six months into an SEO program and you face any of the following scenarios it's time to fire your SEO company.

Scenario #1: Six months into the campaign there is no improvement in search traffic.

Scenario #2: Your traffic has increased but you are not getting any conversions.

Scenario #3: You have not even made it to page 2 for your targeted keyword.

Scenario #4: The company's report shows a lot of increased links but there is hardly
any boost in rank.

Scenario #5: Your keywords are stagnated where they were.

Scenario #1: Six months into the campaign there is no improvement in search traffic Why is it so? Maybe they are not working at all OR Maybe they are targeting all the wrong keywords. Very competitive keywords may bring in more traffic volume but they take longer (read upto 12-24 months) to optimize. To maximize your ROI, professional SEO companies choose a mix and match of low competition, moderate competition and high competition keywords. If your SEO company did not take this approach, it's time to fire them.

How to Check: Insist upon adding Google Analytics (a free tool) to your site and visit it regularlyHow to Check: Simply type your keyword in the search bar. Check page #1 for your URL. If it's not on page #1 it should be on page #2 after 6 months of the campaign for at least some of the keywords. It should show up. If it isn't there, call up the SEO company and demand an explanation.

Scenario #2: Your traffic has increased but you are not getting conversions Maybe it's a genuine mistake which can be rectified OR Maybe you are getting a lot of spam traffic because the company has posted the site at improper places just to show stats of increased traffic. Believe me this happens quite a lot with unprofessional companies who want to gain SEO credibility. The unknowledgeable client gets taken in.

How to Check: Visit analytics. Click on traffic sources. Check all the traffic types - Referral, search engine and direct. Check the type of sites the referral traffic is sending, check the type of keywords. If all of these are okay, then you need some serious website marketing not just SEO.

Scenario #3: You have not even made it to page 2 for your targeted keyword. Maybe the targeted keywords are too competitive OR Maybe all the aspects of SEO are not being covered by your company. This is a tricky issue. If you are satisfied with your keyword movement over the months maybe just a push is needed. Otherwise you need to check what the company is doing.

Scenario #4: The company's report shows a lot of increased links, but there is hardly any improvement in rank. Maybe the ranking will improve gradually OR Maybe the company is trying to impress upon you that it has increased your links. This is false reporting and not genuine SEO. In the long run these links will harm your site. Keep away from the company.

How to Check: Occasionally, in the Google toolbar type the following to see the number of links to your website - links:www.domainname.com. Analyze the relevancy of the site linking back to your website. If the links are from spam sites, fire the company.

Scenario #5: Your keywords are stagnated where they were. Suppose you were already on page #3 or page #2 for the keywords and approached a company to take you to page #1. But you haven't moved. Maybe the company's taking you for a ride

OR there is no other reason. Just fire the company. They are showing no results.

There may be other scenarios which have not been covered in this article. It's very difficult to know if the company is working hard enough to get you on page #1. Keeping constant contact with the company is a good idea. Ask for a monthly comparative report and track the improvement in links, traffic and keyword positions. Get an action plan of the month by the company. Track the action plan. You will see results soon enough!

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How to Recognize a Bad SEO Company

By Enzo F. Cesario (c) 2009

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is about getting potential customers to visit your website. It is also about building a quality website full of great content. It uses keywords appropriately and gets links "naturally" because people love what you have on your site. SEO companies can provide very useful services including keyword research, site review, providing technical advice on your website development and also management of online business marketing campaigns. They can also help with content development, article marketing and article distribution. Although it's not brain surgery, it is hard to do and usually requires a lot of thought and real work.

Some unethical SEO firms attempt to manipulate search engine results in unfair ways. These practices could get your website ranked lower or even banned. When looking at SEO - either to optimize yourself or if you are looking to hire a company, here are some things to take into account.

Be Cautious Of SEO Firms That Say They Will Get Thousands Of Links To Your Site

It is not the number of sites that make the difference - it's the quality of the sites. When firms promise huge numbers of links, or say that you will become part of their "network of sites", it usually means a link farm is involved. A link farm is any group of websites that all hyperlink to every other site in the group. Search engines don't like this and it can lead to penalties. Instead, practice reciprocal linking with legitimate and related websites for better search engine ranking.

Be Wary Of SEO Firms That Guarantee A High Ranking On Google

No one can guarantee a high ranking on Google. Some SEO companies provide a guarantee on their services. This is fine. What's not fine is guaranteeing high ranking in an incredibly short period of time. When these unrealistic results fail to happen, the company will balk at giving a refund, suggest other services instead and start to become unreachable or disappear.

Be Cautious Of SEO Firms That Send "Spammy" Emails

These emails are unsolicited and usually begin with "We've noticed that you are not lísted in some search engines..." You should be searching for a high-ranking SEO company; they will not be searching for you. Spam means scam. You don't buy your medications from spammers so why buy SEO services from them?

Be Wary Of SEO Firms That Are Secretive Or Don't Clearly Explain What They Are Going To Do

Most reputable SEO firms are upfront with their clients and like to share their knowledge. They are confident that even if their clients understand their process, they won't leave them. If the SEO firm claims it's too complicated for you to understand, or if they say they have trade secrets and proprietary technology, it's a sign that they may not be ethical in dealing with your website.

Be Wary Of SEO Firms That Say They Will Submít Your Site To Thousands Of Top Search Engines And Directories

Besides the small fact that there aren't that many search engines, consider that the guidelines of the search engines themselves tell you that it doesn't do any good anymore. Search Engines are good at what they do - searching for sites - and you don't need to pay someone to submít your site to a search engine. If they make this claim, they will probably use Free For All (FFA) junk sites that might damage your site's standings.

Be Cautious Of SEO Firms That Say They Can Optimize And Promote Your Site For A Low, Low Monthly Fee

Not all monthly SEO or SEM (Search Engine Management) service contracts or monthly fees are a scam. There are real reasons to pay a monthly fee to an SEO expert. These would include conditions when you would require SEO management: when you or someone else is constantly generating new content or new features for your site; implementing link-building campaigns; implementing PPC (Pay Per Click) campaigns; or starting a brandcasting campaign. Press release distribution, email campaigns and article marketing campaigns could also require a legitimate monthly fee.

Not-so-legitimate fees could include monthly re-submittíng of your site to search engines, "tweaking" your code to keep up with changes and regularly submitting your site to hundreds of useless free-for-all directories. The worthwhile companies that charge a monthly fee will usually be able to tell you exactly how much it is per month to generate blog entries or generate and distribute articles or press releases. And it won't be for the low, low price of $79.95.

Choose Your SEO Company And Services Carefully

Do your research and don't make the decision lightly. If you were hiring a contractor to remodel your kitchen you would want to see other kitchen projects they've done and speak with the owners about the company's business practices. You should do the same thing when hiring an SEO company. Get referrals and really speak with them.

There are many online tips about choosing and hiring SEO firms that you can check out as well. Remember, SEO is a long-term strategy and you should take the time to do your research before buying or you'll probably be buying again.

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Tactics to Draw People Back to Your Site

By Jeremy A Gislason (c) 2009

One of the biggest measurements of a website's success is the stickiness of its visitor base. Generally web masters would rather have 1,000 visitors who return regularly (they are "stuck to the site") as opposed to 3,000 visitors who only visit once or twice. These days the web is massive, carving out a niche for your site and gaining a following within that niche is the key to success.

There are many reasons why you should try to make your website as sticky as possible. Visitors who return regularly are more likely to purchase some of your products or content. If you have a membership site, then retaining your member base is critical for growing your íncome and long term success. Also, a faithful following will encourage viral promotíon of your site.

Search engine optimization can be a costly and time consuming task and your site's listing can be hammered down by the powers that be (Google) in the blink of an eye. If you gain a faithful user base though, they will tell their friends and family about your site and encourage them to use it as well. Viral marketing is the cheapest and most effective type of marketing there is and making your site and content desirable is the only way to achieve this phenomenon. There are "five C's" of stickiness to remember, and they are:

Content

Regardless of the site's design, without good content, the visitor will not come back or stay at the site for more than a few minutes. "Content is King" is a cliché, but true. High quality content is far and away the most important factor in attracting people back to a Web site consistently, and keeping them there for more than a few minutes when they do visit. It is said, in fact, that content is what drives 75 percent of consumers to return to their favorite sites.

In addition to your site being content rich, try to also keep it fresh. At least part of your site will be regularly updated, preferably at least once a month. This is why web sites which resemble online brochures fail. Delivering the same content in a blog, posted in installments, can be much more effective. This will encourage users to come back regularly, as they check in to see what new content you've added lately. This is stickiness in a nutshell.

Community

When a site attracts enough visitors with similar interests it has the potential to develop into a "community." That can be very powerful for the site owner. Providing message forums, chat rooms, podcasts, user profiles, blogs, etc. are all tools to allow your visitors to interact with both you and each other. This also makes your site VERY sticky if you are able to develop a thriving community.

Rather than visiting your site once a month people may begin to visit it multiple times a week. Having a thriving community can be viewed as developing a site which is constantly developing its own content. Rather than requiring you to spend hours developing content, you can instead monitor the postings on your site to ensure they retain the kind of atmosphere you want for your site. As time goes by you may also be able to appoint some of your more responsible members to monitoring positions to do this job for you as well.

Communication

Communication is equally important as content and community. Communication includes building and maintaining your list, reaching out to people on it and interacting with visitors to your site. Try to respond to any question, comments, or feedback you receive promptly. This builds relationships with your visitors and will keep them coming back.

One of the best ways to reach out to customers is to provide quality, free information. This is basically a sample of what your site has to present, and should always help address the questions your visitors came to your site for answers for. The very nature of the web stresses that you consider offering more free content to your customers than most other mediums do. You have too much competition to be stingy. One of the most effective means of providing content to customers and developing a slate of potential customers at the same time is to give a free guide to visitors who provide you with a name and email address.

For example, if you run a site teaching real estate tips and tricks, after your visitors have seen your "foot in the door" content located on your "splash page," provide them the first lesson of your course on real estate for free in exchange for their name and email address. You benefit from this by having names to attach to the IP addresses of your visitors. This provides you with more information about who is being drawn into your site. It is also important you use a quality auto-responder for this step, as communication is a critical part of your site and must be handled professionally.

One last note on communication: Be sure to provide your name and contact information clearly throughout your site. It will frustrate and turn away visitors if they have a question or comment and cannot figure out how to reach you. By providing a name and place to reach you it also helps contribute to the last two "C's..."

Commerce and Consumer Confidence

These are perhaps the two most important things that get overlooked in websites. First, effectively promote your site by using professional marketing and search engine optimization for the niche your site seeks to fill. Provide reliable, safe, and secure means for your customers to purchase your for-pay content. If your ordering method does not look safe, all your efforts working to sell your content to your visitors will be lost if they get to the order page and you look like an unprofessional, fly-by-night operator. Always use a secure ordering form. Offering a monëy back guarantee can be extremely helpful to reassure customers.

Lastly, respect your customer's privacy. Make it clear you will not sell their names, personal information, or email addresses. People hate spam and will be hesitant to identify themselves to you out of fear of having their information sold if you do not provide some kind of assurance against this. A clear and easy to locate privacy policy is necessary.

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Why Social Bookmarking?

By Tinu AbayomiPaul (c) 2009

Someone sent me the question "Why Social Bookmarking? "

And I thought to myself: "Um. Why not?"

Since I'm not really sure what they meant by that, I'm going to assume that this person mean "Why should I use social bookmarking in my business?" - with a full understanding of all the risks associated with "assuming".

I figure that if you're reading this, you have that question, or a similar one.

There are three reasons:

1 - More links

2 - More traffic

3 - More credibility

More links are always a good thing.

Think of links as the road traffic that moves through the web. If there are no roads to where your business "lives" online, namely your website, it's far less likely that the visitors you want will end up getting to you.

That's true whether you're talking about search engines or links from other sites. Search engines use a mysterious cross between the number and quality of links to your site in their determination of whether you should be number one or number 701 for your desired keyword.

In addition, the "nicer" the road, the more traffíc will flow through it - think of an authority site linking to your site as a highway that leads directly to your site, and one from a reciprocal link or link exchange scheme as a back street in a sketchy neighborhood full of potholes.

Improved traffic, also good.

From social bookmarking, this traffic is often targeted. Through tagging, the description someone writes, or the title they assigned to your link, the person who discovers the submitted link on a social bookmarking site knows exactly where they're going, and why they're interested in getting there.

It's like seeing the cover of a magazine on a rack. That's what pulls them in, they see a headline - and to get to the story they are compelled to take another action.

The more credibility thing is a bit harder to explain, so we'll go with another analogy.

Let's say I made a movie and I thought it was fantastic. If I hadn't met you before, and I tell you, "hey, I made a kick-ass movie, come see it!" - you may come see it, you may not.

It depends more on how much time you have and if you're interested in that kind of movie, or even how nice of a person you are, than my opinion.

Why?

Because I'm the one who made it, so you can't know whether to trust my opinion, at least in relation to how much YOU might like it. Of course I think it's great, but I have no way of knowing whether you will.

Now, if you knew me and my taste, and how alike our tastes are, you may be a bit more inclined. So if I'm, say, Michael Bay, and you liked my last movie, and my new movie is on the same type of thing, you might go see it based on the trailer alone. You know you're taking a gamble but it's a safe bet.

Now watch this.

Your best buddy, the one who likes all the same things you like, the one you hang out with and trust the most, calls you on the phone and says:

"I've just seen the best movie I've ever seen in my entire life. I have to see it again. When are you free, I'll come pick you up."

The only thing that could make that deal sweeter is if your friend has also said "My treat." At least as far as recommendations go, the person who knows what you like the most is likely to be the person whose advice you'll follow.

If you know that friend, and that person has similar tastes, or at least knows what you like, you're more likely to see the movie.

My sister and I have similar tastes in movies, but I'm a little more patient with beginnings and endings and like more indie-fare. Yet, no matter how many times I have suggested we watch a movie together that she ends up not liking as much, if I rave about a movie, she'll at least give it a chance.

Now, let's take that back to social bookmarking. Imagine you can find hundreds of people, all over the world, with tastes similar to yours, sharing information you wouldn't find yourself.

Or maybe you can just connect faster and more frequently for suggestions from people you already know. Wouldn't you be more likely to follow their suggestions than some stranger?

That's the power of social bookmarking. It's put a technology behind word of mouth sharing of web sites that anyone can use.

And they do.

Now all you have to do is learn how to be the person or company everybody is spreading the word about. Which is another conversation altogether.

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Search Engine Optimization for Newbies

With so much information - and misinformation - available on the topic of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) it can be tricky trying to separate fact from fiction.
Coupled with the fact that SEO changes only slightly less rapidly than the weather, it can be downright overwhelming to know where to start.

So, if you're an SEO newbie looking for a place to start, here's a look at some Search Engine Optimization (SEO) basics. What Is SEO?

Even the most beautifully-designed site won't do you much good if potential customers can't find it. That's where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes in: SEO helps ensure your site is more visible in the search engines, drive qualified traffic to your website, and convert that traffic into actual customers.

In short, SEO increases your website's rankings in the search engines by making the pages within your site more attractive to the search engines. The more attractive your site is to Google, the higher its rankings in the search engine results pages. And the higher your rankings, the more likely users will visit your site. Obviously, a site with a result on Page 1 of Google is going to get more traffic than a site buried on Page 14.

If your site is missing from the top search results, then you may not be maximizing your ability to generate new business and add revenue to your bottom line. Let's take a look at some stats:

* 1.3 billion Internet users
* Over 85% start at a search engine
* Less than 25% will go beyond the top 10 search engine results
* Top 10 results get 80% more traffic than those ranked in the 11-30 spots

Besides gaining better rankings in the search engines, SEO is effective in several other areas as well:

* Branding/establishment as an authority
* Pre-qualified lead generation
* Easily tracked ROI
* Cost savings compared to other mediums such as glossy brochures and yellow pages ads (average cost per lead is $0.29!)

Breaking SEO Down

SEO consists of several key elements that work together to generate increases in a website's rankings, traffic and conversions: Keyword Selection, Copywriting, Link Building, HTML Optimization and Analytics. Let's take a look at each element in more detail:

Keyword Selection

The foundation of any SEO campaign is good keyword research. That's because targeting the right keywords is essential to getting your SEO on the right track. If your sell silver ladies watches, then you're going to want to rank in the search engines for the phrase "silver ladies watches" and other similar phrases. If your keyword research is off and you target the wrong keywords, then you may not get visitors who want what your site has to offer. That's why you need to make sure that your site is properly optimized for the most-searched-for keywords related to your business.

Copywriting

Getting potential customers to your site is only half the battle; you've got to convince them to buy. That's where persuasive copywriting comes in. Be sure to tell people why they need your products or services and include conversion points throughout the site. The search engines like content, so you also need to optimize your copy to include your keywords. This includes things like descriptive product pages, built-out content like biographies, news sections, etc. One important point to remember is to keep your most critical content "above the fold" - that's the area that's visible to your users before they have to scroll down.

Link Building

Think popularity contests ended in high school? Think again; you're not so lucky. Link building is like one big online popularity contest, and the search engines like the popular kids. Your success in the search engines depends, in part, on the amount of relevant incoming links to your site. Of course, having lots of good links also drives customers to your site, which is a good thing, too. Links can come in various sources, including directories, business partners, organizations, social media sites, and much, much more.

HTML Optimization

Title tags, header tags, Alt tags, Meta-descriptions -- the search engines want your site's HTML to be descriptive and clean. Search engines want to know exactly what your page is about; they don't want to sort through a bunch of extraneous code to figure it out. That's why you'll hear SEO types talk about the importance of having clean code and how to use CSS to make that happen.

Measuring Success

No SEO campaign is complete without analytics. After all, if you aren't measuring things like traffic, link popularity, and conversions, then how do you know if your SEO strategies are working? Programs like ClickTracks and Google Analytics help make the number-crunching a little easier. When analyzing an SEO campaign, it's important to only make one change at a time so that you know which changes are effective.

If you want to have an effective SEO campaign, you need to include each of the five SEO elements listed above. Keep in mind the information here just scratches the surface of these topics, and there are certainly other more advanced SEO strategies that can benefit your site as well. These building blocks, however, are the perfect way to get your SEO campaign started on the right track.

Check out our SEO case studies or get a free SEO analysis of your site now!

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The Three SEO Factors That Really Matter

By Mike Tekula (c) 2009


Search for a list of SEO factors and you'll find that most feature at least 50.

That's 50+ elements of your website that influence your ability to rank in search engines. Sounds complicated, doesn't it?

Some SEO Consultants will tell you that ranking in search engines is about applying a precise formula to these 50+ elements - about using "special proprietary techniques" fine-tuned to search algorithms to boost your website above the competition.

Not exactly.

There are actually more like 200+ signals that search engines use when ranking websites.
Imagine trying to reverse-engineer something like that? Sounds impossible, right?

That's because it is.

The good news: it doesn't matter.

You don't need to be a computer engineer to rank well in search engines. Relieving, isn't it?

The truth is that everything boils down to three factors:

1. Search-Friendly Pages
2. Relevant Content
3. A Trusted Website

All of those other factors and elements of SEO? They all fit into one of these three basic categories.

You don't need to be a search scientist to understand the basics of what's going on with these three factors and improve them for your website.


1) Search-Friendly Pages
Essentially, this first factor has to do with the technical aspects of how your website and pages work.

Search engines use crawlers (or "bots") to browse the web by following links. As they browse, these crawlers scan the content they see and store it in databases. These databases form the search engine's web index - and when a user comes along and enters a search phrase the index is scanned for pages that match.

The basic idea: you want to make sure your pages, and the content that fills them, are visible to search engine crawlers.

There are a few things you should know about crawlers:

• They don't support JavaScript - so that rollover menu, those drop-down links, etc, might not be visible to search engine crawlers.

• They don't support Flash (mostly) - while there have been a few developments in this regard recently, Flash websites still aren't too search engine friendly .

• They can't "see" - sometimes designers use images instead of HTML text (usually because they want to use a certain font that isn't web-safe), and search engine crawlers can't read or index this text. Crawlers can only read code - and if your content isn't found there it's essentially invisible to search engines.

• They skimp on resources - it takes a lot of energy and time (and money) to crawl the web (there are a lot of pages out there) so crawlers are usually programmed to be conservative with how far they'll dive into a page. If your web pages take a long time to load or feature a tremendous amount of content crawlers might leave without scanning/indexing everything.

There are some other things crawlers can't/won't do. To get a sense of what they can see on your website try SEO-Browser.com . This tool allows you to enter the address of a web page and see it as search crawlers see it.

The bottom line: you might have the best content in the world, but if crawlers can't see it you won't rank for relevant keywords.

2) Relevant Content
This factor is all about the words on your pages.

As we discussed above, the visible content on your pages is stored and searched every time someone uses a search engine. If the keyword or phrase entered doesn't occur on your page you probably won't show up.

There are a few key places where you'll want to use the right language on your pages:

• Title tags
• Headlines
• Body copy
• Anchor text (links pointing to internal pages)

As you browse the web you'll probably notice that lots of webmasters have gotten a bit, shall we say, "overzealous" with optimizing their content. Title tags stuffed to the brim with dozens of keyword variations is common. Sometimes even the body copy itself is stuffed with keywords in an attempt to boost rankings.

You might be tempted to do this yourself to try and enhance your chances of ranking for a given keyword.

Don't do it. Please.

Why not? Try reading a page that's been stuffed with keywords this way. It's an awful experience, right? Certainly enough to stop your reading flow and send you to another website, isn't it?

Don't sacrifice your user's reading experience in the aim of ranking for a given keyword. It's not worth it. All of the traffic in the world won't mean a thing if the users who land at your pages are turned off and leave. Your competitors are just a few painless clicks away.

To learn about what keywords people use when they search for your products/services/info try Google's AdWords Keyword Tool - enter either your website address or a keyword and this tool will return a líst of related keywords including numbers on how many people search for them.

The bottom line: it's rare to rank for a keyword that doesn't occur on your pages so use the language your users do when they search. Don't overdo it and stuff keywords, though, because you'll annoy your visitors (and search engines don't like it either - they might flag you as SPAM).

3) A Trusted Website
When you've got 1) search-friendly pages and 2) relevant content it's still not time to sit back and let the search traffic pour in.

The truth is that most of your competitors will have looked into these factors already - they're kind of the "low hanging fruit" of SEO, because they're not usually terribly difficult to work out.

Trust is what sets you apart. It is by far the most important of the three factors.

Before Google came onto the scene using PageRank (a measurement of link popularity) to rank websites, search engines generally based their rankings on the first two factors we've discussed.

What was the problem with that approach?

Webmasters are greedy. We can't help ourselves. We love traffic.

Keyword stuffing was rampant, and rarely did webmasters stick to the honest truth about what their website was relevant to. The result: search results littered with SPAM and just about anything with very little relevance.

The reason links were a better signal to Google was simple - it's harder to game. While you can control the content/keywords on your website, it's a lot harder to control it on someone else's. It's pretty tough to get someone to link to you against their will.

The model simply worked - Google's results were better. The other search engines quickly caught on and looked to signals of trust for sorting through the SPAM.

Some signals that search engines use to determine whether they can trust your website:

• Inbound links - quality is more important than quantity here - that's why those "500 directory links for $49.95" deals are worthless. The easiest links to get are the least valuable/powerful. A single link from Google.com, for example, would outweigh tens of thousands of weaker links - that's how much quality matters.

• Website age - if your website is new there's not much you can do about it without a Delorian and a working flux capacitor ("Marty, the website is in place - now we gotta go back to the future!"). A website that's been around for a while is simply more trusted by search engines.

• Who you link to - it's not just about inbound links. Search engines also look at what websites you link to from your pages. If you're linking out to SPAMMY websites, they might consider you part of that "bad neighborhood" and penalize your website. Be careful who you vouch for.

There are other signals involved, but if you've got these three trust factors working in your favor you're very likely to dominate the competition.

The bottom line: search engines don't like getting burned by ranking SPAMMY websites. They want to know they can trust your website. Once you've got your on-page factors right (#1 and #2 above), you'll need to build trust signals before your website will rank competitively.

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A Simple Guide For Achieving Top Rankings in the Search Engines (Even if You Are a Complete Newbie)

By Darren Chow (c) 2009


The proper term for the process is known as SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. SEO is a combination of two major components. First, you must learn how to tweak your web pages so that the search bots find your content to be search engine friendly. Once you have set up a search friendly site, the next component is to build back links. But before diving straight into SEO, you must first know which keywords to target.

Choosing Your Target Keyword Phrase

Many new Internet Marketers make the mistake of choosing the wrong keywords to target. So what makes a keyword inappropriate?

Your ideal keyword phrase should be around three to four keywords. If you are targeting a word like "music", you may find that you may not be able to rank for anything. That is because the keyword itself is too general. Whether you are looking for someone to sign up as a member, download a song, or buy something from you, you want to be sure that you are matching the right offer to the right audience. In other words, you are looking for targeted traffíc. So instead of choosing a keyword like "music", a keyword phrase like "local music bands" would be a much better choice.

Use a keyword research tool to make sure that the keyword will bring you traffic. If you are targeting an obscure keyword that nobody ever uses, you may just be wasting your time and resources. Google offers a free keyword tool that will give you a good idea on which keyword phrase to choose. The tool reveals estimated search traffic, as well as the level of competition.

But don't be over-reliant on keyword tools to help you find keywords. As a business owner, you should be very familiar with the market. Know who your target customers are. That will help you find and locate valuable keywords that no one else would've thought of.

Choose keywords with a fair amount of competition. Some marketers believe strongly that keywords with little competition are easier to rank. Therefore, it makes sense to target those keywords. But if you are setting up an online business, you want to be in an active market. In other words, the best keywords are those with a fair amount of competition, but are not overly saturated. A fair amount of competition is a good indicator of the value of a keyword phrase. You stand a much greater chance of success if you target those keywords.

Setting Up a Search Engine Friendly Website

Fortunately, you don't have to be a geek to learn how to tweak your sites. Most content management systems are SEO friendly, and the best part is, most of them are free. The popular ones include Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, and DotNetNuke. Your web pages will be search friendly when they are hosted on these systems. But if you really want to learn the basics, make sure that you implement the following.

If you are tweaking your site manually, there are two important things that you must implement. First, always make sure that your target keyword phrases are included in the title tags. Use them in your META keyword and description tags as well. Next, use a search engine friendly file name such as "your-keyword-phrase.html". You can easily rename your html files using any text editor.
Manual tweaks can be implemented easily if you have a small site. But if you are thinking of growing the website into a huge site, you should consider using a content management system (CMS). If you are using a CMS, be careful not to overload the site by installing too many unnecessary plug-ins. Remember that your primary goal is to make it easy for the search bots to find your web pages, and to determine the overall theme of the content. By installing too many unnecessary bells and whistles, you are making it more difficult for the search bots to do their job. For that reason, you will often find that simple templates tend to work better than fancy ones. Don't overcomplicate things. The golden principle here is to keep things simple.

When you are satisfied with the design and content, it's time to let the world know about your site.

Link Building with Articles

There are many ways you can build back links to your site. You can post entries on blogs, submit links to Web 2.0 properties, submit URLs to a bunch of web directories, or write and distribute press releases and/or articles. You can use a combination of these methods if you have the time and resources, or you can keep your focus on just one - such as article marketing.

Article marketing is one of the easiest methods to get well established websites to link to you. These are authority sites that have been around for years, and you can get hundreds (maybe even thousands) of one way back links from these sites. One way back links means links that point to your sites, but that don't require a reciprocal link back.

Every article you write allows you to include two to three simple text links at the bottom of the article. This is when things get interesting.

In the "eyes" of the search engines, every link from an external site to your website is counted as a vote. In other words, the more back links you have pointing to your site, the better your site will rank. Of course, these can't be any back links. They have to be links from authority sites and relevant web pages.

Now you already know that there are literally hundreds of article directories on the Internet that are recognized as authority sites by the search engines. All you have to do is to create relevant content, put your links at the end of the articles, and submit them to the article directories. When they are approved, your articles get published online, and you get a bunch of high quality links pointing to your site.

What you really need to know here is that you must be careful about what you include as the anchor text for your links. Anchor text are words that you place within the HTML link tags. For instance, instead of having your links as "Click here", make sure that you create links that say, "Your Keyword Phrase".

This is how the search engines determine the theme and relevancy of the content on your website. The assumption here is that if there are a thousand links from external sites "saying" that your site is about "green aliens", then perhaps your site is really about "green aliens".

Write on topic, and include your target keywords as anchor text. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

What to Expect After Your Articles Have Been Published

If your website is brand new, don't expect to see miracles overnight. It can take anywhere from four to six weeks for a new website to pick up speed. If you have done everything right (choosen the right keywords, optimized your site, and picked the right anchor text), your site will appear in the search index in about three weeks. Initially, it will appear on page 5 or 6 of the search results, but that is a very good sign.

Two weeks later, your website should move up to page 3 or 4. Don't rest on your laurels and stop writing and distributing articles. Keep up with your link building campaigns. If you have chosen the right keywords, you should be able to rank in about 6 weeks. For highly competitive keywords, it may take longer.

Your goal is to at least get your site to rank on page 1 on the major search engines. Once it emerges on page 1 of the search results, you will be receiving a steady stream of highly targeted traffíc from the search engines. Do your part by serving your visitors well by publishing valuable content or offering killer products. You will soon be enjoying handsome rewards.

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Search Engine Optimization May Not Be As Hard As You Think

Being found on page one of the major search engines is one of the number one marketing techniques you can use.

It's all about bringing targeted traffic and visitors to your site for your niche. Not only that but it is often one of the least costly kinds of advertising even if you hire an expert to do it for you.

For example a Toronto search engine optimization company may charge a few hundred dollars a month for their services. In comparison you would easily spend upwards of a thousand dollars trying to get similar results from paper ads. And optimizing your site can give it much a broader exposure.

You don't always need to hire an expert because you can do a number of things yourself if you are willing to put in the effort.

Before you even begin to optimize your site you need to think about which keywords you wish to rank for.

Think like a customer to discover keywords phrases they might use to find a similar product or service. The more you can think of the better. These may then be plugged into on-line tools like Google's keyword research tool or on sites such as Wordtracker or Wordze.

These sites can give you an estimate on how often these terms are searched for. If you find some terms that have a great number of monthly searches then it is a good indication that being on page one for that phrase could equal a large number of site visitors.

Remember that frequently the keyword phrases with the most amount of searches are often the most competitive also. That does not mean that you can never rank for them, only that it may take quite a lot of time.

A good strategy is to select a mix of difficult and easy to optimize terms. This will help get you a short term and long term focus.

The content contained on the pages of your site should be your next focus.

Try to use your chosen keywords into the various web pages. Despite the fact that one of the reasons for using your keywords in your site is for the search engines don't forget that actual visitors will be viewing it.

The greater the number of pages you can add to your site the better. Every time you add new content you are attracting the search engines to frequently return and reindex your web site. This can increase the chances of getting you to page one for many more terms than the ones you are specifically focusing on.
Finally comes what is definitely the most critcal part. Every time another site points to your web site you are one step closer to being on page one. That does not mean getting just any kind of link from any site. They need to be from sites that are of the same theme to yours.

For example if your site is real estate oriented site then you will need to have a real estate search engine optimization strategy. This may include getting links from various real estate agent sites, blogs, or anything related to that topic. You should be more concerned with quality, not just quantity.

One of the premier ways to accomplish this is with article marketing. You create content in the form of articles. These can then be submitted to various directories for inclusion like Article Alley. Your site will get a link pointing back to it in return for handing out free content. This is step you should be doing a minimum of once a week.

You will slowly begin to see your site's traffic and ranking soar. The greater the time period you optimize your site for the better your results will be. It could take some time and work however it is well worth it.

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