Linking

Improve Your SEO Rankings With These Basic Tips

TopRankBlog goes back to the basics and discusses three basic tips to achieve high SEO rankings. They are as follows:

Research keywords
Apply researched keywords to your website in page titles, meta description, paragraphs, headers and links.
Find sites related to your topic and let them know about your site. Don’t do this artificially. Create content worth talking [...]

TopRankBlog goes back to the basics and discusses three basic tips to achieve high SEO rankings. They are as follows:

• Research keywords
• Apply researched keywords to your website in page titles, meta description, paragraphs, headers and links.
• Find sites related to your topic and let them know about your site. Don’t do this artificially. Create content worth talking about and YOU WILL GET LINKS naturally.

It’s definitely easier said than done. For more information, read the entire TopRankBlog article.

Get Your Links Back! New Feature In Google Webmaster Tools

Google has added an important feature to the Google Webmaster tools area.
Google tells you exactly which pages result in a 404 error on your site. This has existed for sometime. They now let you know which of your 404 pages have links pointing to them. I used this tool and quickly found links pointing to [...]

Google has added an important feature to the Google Webmaster tools area.

Google tells you exactly which pages result in a 404 error on your site. This has existed for sometime. They now let you know which of your 404 pages have links pointing to them. I used this tool and quickly found links pointing to non existent pages for many of my domains. Of course, this was quickly rectified with 301 redirects.

Google wants to give you this information for a few reasons:

1. 404s creates a bad user experience
2. It benefits YOU. Google wants to count the valid links pointing to your site which translates into better rankings and more visibility on Google.
3. Having links to 404s can skew their algorithm.

Here are some more detailed posts regarding the change:

• Google Webmaster Central posts information their blog.
• Free Links to Your Site by Matt Cutts
• Google’s New Tools for Site Link Strengthening by Search Engine Watch.

Buying Links - Is It Worth It?

Today we’re going to talk about a very sensitive subject - buying links. Google has made it crystal clear that they are NOT into paid links. They’re so much against it that they’ve created an easy-to-use form so that you can report any offenders. You can check it out here. Google dislikes paid links for [...]

Today we’re going to talk about a very sensitive subject - buying links. Google has made it crystal clear that they are NOT into paid links. They’re so much against it that they’ve created an easy-to-use form so that you can report any offenders. You can check it out here. Google dislikes paid links for the following reason (taken from their site):

Google and most other search engines use links to determine reputation. A site’s ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to it. Link-based analysis is an extremely useful way of measuring a site’s value, and has greatly improved the quality of web search. Both the quantity and, more importantly, the quality of links count towards this rating.

However, some SEOs and webmasters engage in the practice of buying and selling links that pass PageRank, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. Buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site’s ranking in search results.

Not all paid links violate our guidelines. Buying and selling links is a normal part of the economy of the web when done for advertising purposes, and not for manipulation of search results. Links purchased for advertising should be designated as such. This can be done in several ways, such as:

* Adding a rel=”nofollow” attribute to the a tag
* Redirecting the links to an intermediate page that is blocked from search engines with a robots.txt file

Google works hard to ensure that it fully discounts links intended to manipulate search engine results, such excessive link exchanges and purchased links that pass PageRank. If you see a site that is buying or selling links that pass PageRank, let us know. We’ll use your information to improve our algorithmic detection of such links.

You can read the full post here

Here are some thoughts.
1) What prevents a competitor from buying links on five different sites and reporting me to Google?
2) Instead of forcing millions of webmasters to do it their way, why don’t they modify their algorithm. Google should penalize bad links. If you are buying advertising on a website and it is providing a GOOD user experience, who really gives a rats a**. Isn’t that what Google’s all about? A good user experience?
3) What if I purchase a link on a PR1 or PR2 website? There is no PR to pass. Well there is but its pretty darn low. Sometimes I will buy advertising because its targeted towards my audience, not because of the PR.

I honestly could care less about my PR. I look at the traffic, demographics and other valuable information to grow and retain the customer base.

Saying that, I WILL be implementing a no-follow where I have posted advertisers links because I don’t want to get my ass banned. I will probably lose the advertisers but what can I do. BIG BROTHER is watching.

Factors To Consider When Linking

When considering a link, consider all factors that can help or penalize your website.
We have included a link to an article where well respected link Building professionals run through 40 factors that can possibly influence the value of a link.
We strongly recommend this article:
http://wiep.net/link-value-factors/#top10

When considering a link, consider all factors that can help or penalize your website.
We have included a link to an article where well respected link Building professionals run through 40 factors that can possibly influence the value of a link.

We strongly recommend this article:
http://wiep.net/link-value-factors/#top10

The Power of Anchor Text

Link anchor text is super important in your linking strategy. When creating your website profile with LinkExchanged.com, put some serious thought into your website title because your linking partners will be placing this on their websites. Make sure that your website title is keyword driven but also highly related to your website. For example, if [...]

Link anchor text is super important in your linking strategy. When creating your website profile with LinkExchanged.com, put some serious thought into your website title because your linking partners will be placing this on their websites. Make sure that your website title is keyword driven but also highly related to your website. For example, if you sell engine parts, your website title might be “Cheap Engine Parts.”

Pick a few keywords that are highly related to your website…don’t saturate your description with too many keywords. In the future, LinkExchanged! will have the ability to include multiple website title phrases.

One other important note…do NOT link to unrelated websites. This will negatively affect your ranking because you are attempting to SPAM the search engines.

Spread the Link Juice

When you construct your website, it is absolutely necessary to control the flow of links. When linking to pages within your site, you are moving importance from one page to another. It is very important to take this into consideration when creating your inner linking strategies.
Google allows you to specify rel=nofollow on links within your [...]

When you construct your website, it is absolutely necessary to control the flow of links. When linking to pages within your site, you are moving importance from one page to another. It is very important to take this into consideration when creating your inner linking strategies.

Google allows you to specify rel=nofollow on links within your website. With this, Google will not follow the links and the links will not get credit when ranking websites in search results.

For more information about LinkJuice, please visit here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/whiteboard-friday-the-juice-is-loose

Google also talks about this:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/01/preventing-comment-spam.html

What Determines A Quality Link Partner?

Building link partners is like building a business relationship. When you create a business relationship, there are gives and takes. It is a 50/50 proposition. For example, you may own an “engine parts” website and you might be linking to a radiator website. You’re sending traffic to a related product in the same industry (automotive) [...]

Building link partners is like building a business relationship. When you create a business relationship, there are gives and takes. It is a 50/50 proposition. For example, you may own an “engine parts” website and you might be linking to a radiator website. You’re sending traffic to a related product in the same industry (automotive) and this will benefit both parties in different ways.

But before creating a link partnership, have you done your homework? Have you made sure that the link partner is good for your website? Creating a check list would be extremely beneficial. It allows you to decide which websites to link to. For example, here are a few things I would make sure of:
1. Does the link partner have a link from their homepage to their links page?
2. Does the link partner have good quality content?
3. Do they have related links?
4. Will their website benefit your end user? Will your website benefit their end user?

Spend a few extra minutes reviewing your link partners website and you will feel better about linking to them. Don’t link to anybody. You need to consider your websites reputation. Think about the traffic you are sending and vice versa. Search engines will consider you a big “player” if you have QUALITY links pointing to your site. Using an effective checklist can help you find better link partners and will drive higher quality traffic to your website.

Use Automated Link Management Software to Your Benefit - RESPONSIBLY

When developing your sites link popularity, link management software can be very critical to how successful your site is. One of the main benefits is a link checker. You can spend hours checking link pages to see if your link partners are still linking back to you. With automated reciprocation software, this is no longer [...]

When developing your sites link popularity, link management software can be very critical to how successful your site is. One of the main benefits is a link checker. You can spend hours checking link pages to see if your link partners are still linking back to you. With automated reciprocation software, this is no longer required. A tool like this can save you time and money.

Another great benefit of having a links management solution is the ability to find link partners with ease. It avoids the task of finding websites and sending unsolicited email attempting a link partnership. Most website owners will ignore the email all together. Responsibility is heavily overlooked in the linking industry. Many webmasters link to any site. You should focus on related and quality links that will benefit your end user. Put your customers first and you will gain traffic through referrals and search engine traffic.

When finding link partners, we highly suggest that you review your link partners website and check who they are linking to. Linking to link farms can negatively affect your search engine rankings. For example, if you belong to a directory selling golfing equipment and they are linking to adult sites, you should not be linking to this site.

Some webmasters think that quantity of links is important. WRONG!!!!!!! You can have tonnes of links but are they of quality? Quite a few linking companies entice you with the following headline…”Receive thousands of links instantly!” In most cases these sites will be part of link farms and can probably hurt you in your hunt for better search engine rankings.

Lastly, DO NOT WORRY ABOUT PAGERANK. Quality sites usually start off with a zero Pagerank. Concentrate on looking for content that relates to your website. It’s all about quality, not quantity.

Improve Your Link Campaign - Create Related Link Phrases

The most important part of a SEO’s job is to create link phrases that describe the focus of your website. Submitting to search engines is a waste of time because search engines locate your site by following inbound links. Concentrate on building your inbound links with strong phrases that relate to your sites’ content and [...]

The most important part of a SEO’s job is to create link phrases that describe the focus of your website. Submitting to search engines is a waste of time because search engines locate your site by following inbound links. Concentrate on building your inbound links with strong phrases that relate to your sites’ content and offering. When building a relationship with a link partner, keep in mind that you’re offering content their users could use. Think about the whole picture when developing your link campaign. Linking relationships should be built based on the content of your site.

For example, if your website is in the pet food genre, have your link partners link with the following anchor text:
dog food
cat food
hamster food
bird treats
etc
Your link partners would link to your main page or a specific page on your website and having the above keywords visible on their webpage.

By developing good content, you are creating value for your link and increasing your chances of search engines spidering your site. Related linking and content is the key to having a successful website.

Purchasing Links…Good or Bad?

Will purchasing links hurt your reputation? Will it drive down your rankings? Is it considered black-hat marketing?
In reality, there is NOTHING WRONG WITH PURCHASHING LINKS AS LONG AS THEY ARE RELATED TO YOUR SITES CONTENT.
If you’ve purchased a link on a site, and getting traffic from it, whats the harm??? If you’re purchasing links for [...]

Will purchasing links hurt your reputation? Will it drive down your rankings? Is it considered black-hat marketing?
In reality, there is NOTHING WRONG WITH PURCHASHING LINKS AS LONG AS THEY ARE RELATED TO YOUR SITES CONTENT.
If you’ve purchased a link on a site, and getting traffic from it, whats the harm??? If you’re purchasing links for the sole reason of raising your rankings, your rankings may be negatively affected. For example, let’s say you own a car site, but you’re advertising on a vacuum site with a PR of 7. A search engine can look at that and realize that you’re advertising on a site with unrelated content. Common sense would tell you that your rankings will be negatively affected. This shows an attempt to “hack” the engines. This is just a theory of course. On the other hand, we’ve seen sites that show a SHORT TERM ranking increase, but the keyword is SHORT TERM.

It’s a good idea to set a budget of say $100 / month (depending on your budget size) and purchase links from various websites. You can track (through your stats software) which referrers are sending converting customers. If you notice that a referrer is sending bouncing customers, discountinue your advertising from that site and move it somewhere else. It should typically take 3-7 days to find out if a link will convert. The budget is totally up to you.