SEO Rants and Resources

Improve the Link Structure of your Website and improve your Search Engine Rankings

The internal link structure of a website is a search engine optimization factor that is often overlooked by webmasters. Why does the link structure of your website have an effect on your ranking?

The internal link structure of your site allows you to spread the link power of your home page to the individual pages of your site. The more link power a page receives, the more likely it is that the page will get high rankings on search engines. Your internal link structure allows you to direct search engines to your most important pages.

There are several things that you can do to improve the rankings of special pages on your website. First, make sure that the most important pages on your site can be reached with as few clicks as possible from your home page. The fewer clicks you need to get to a web page, the more important it looks to search engines. Then, link to the pages for which you want to have high rankings from all pages of your website that are related to that page.

The easiest way to get related links to a web page is to link from your own website.

Use your targeted keywords in the links to these pages. Make sure that you use keywords that are highly relevant and targeted. Show search engines for which keywords your web pages are relevant.

Make the links on your website absolute. Do not link to products.htm but to http://www.pageviews.com/products.htm. If other people scrape your web page contents, you'll get backlinks from these sites. Backlinks are incoming links to a website or web page. Add a no follow attribute to all links that aren't important for your search engine rankings. For example, your privacy policy page or the web page with your terms and conditions probably needn't be listed in search engines. The fewer links you have on a page, the more important is the single link to the other pages on your site. If possible, remove unnecessary links from your web pages.

Use your robots.txt file or the robots meta tag to exclude duplicate or irrelevant pages from indexing. This is very similar to tip 5. If search engines don't have to parse your unimportant pages they can take a close look at the pages for which you want to be ranked.

Check your website for 404 not found errors and redirect these old links to the most appropriate pages.

By optimizing the structure of how your web pages pass their link power, you can influence how search engines treat the content of your website. It's hard to beat a website with a great internal and external link structure.

Building links is like shaving. If you don’t do it every day you look like a bum.

For years, you have probably had a daily routine for shaving. But have you developed a system of building links?

No one pops out of bed each morning and races to the sink to shave. It is a tedious and potentially dangerous daily necessity. But without a daily shave, our appearance begins to get a little shabby.

Linking is the same way. Rare is the webmaster who jumps out of bed, races to his/her computer excited to find inbound links. Yet, no matter how optimized a site is, without inbound links it is never going to be found in the search engine results pages. Even established sites that buy traffic but don’t have something the visitors find worth while to link to are in the same boat.

Chances are good that you are like most people who build a few links here and there, but don't really have an overall link building strategy. 

When it comes to shaving you can almost automate the process by using an electric razor. Of course the shave is not as good as using a blade. Building links using an automated system is not as good as getting links manually either. No automated system can generate quality naturally built links that are on topic, vary the text, vary the source of the links or incorporate the dynamic aspects of social media.

There are also dangers involved in both shaving and linking. You would never think about taking an electric razor that’s plugged into an electrical outlet, into the shower. But you may not even know the dangers of linking to bad sites or what can happen when you try building your link base by cutting corners. Links to the wrong sites, using only one technique like reciprocal links, building links too quickly or getting caught buying links can do damage to your sites reputation with the search engines.

Although there are new technologies like waterproof, electric razors that give a good shave, the best shave still comes from a hot towel and a straight razor in a professionals hand. This is also true about links. There are auto submission sites for articles, mass social book marking tools, link farms and link exchanges. But the best link base a site can have is consistently built one link at a time by people who understand their industry, their business, their customers and make common sense decisions about how and where to get links.

A good link building strategy involves two things. Time and consistency. The more time you consistently put into generating links and cultivating relationships on line the better off your site will be in the long run.

Here are ten steps to get you started.

1.     Buy a listing in a couple of the best directories. Yahoo, Business.com (B2B sites only), Best of the web and submit to DMOZ. This will cost you almost $600.00 but you will gain at least 10 permanent links spread out over several domains.

2.     Search Google for the top 100 ranking sites for your most important keyword. Do some research and create n article that you can offer in trade for a link. Get a link even if you have to buy it. If you do have to buy a link deal directly with the web site and not from a link broker. Google has been cracking down on sites that buy/sell links. Work this strategy and set a goal of getting one new link this way per week.

3.     Create a blog and create links from your posts back to your site. Try to post 2-3 times each week.

4.     Submit your blog to Blog directories like blogcatalog.com, eatonweb.com ($34.95 to add your blog) blogflux.com etc. Google "blog directory" for more places to submit to.

5.     Write and submit an article to a couple of the major article directories. Start with ezinearticles.com, articlecity.com and amazines.com. Google "article directory" for more places to submit to.

6.     Find something exciting about your business to write about. Write a press release and send it out through PRweb.com. Spend at least $220.00 and you will get at least 2 links but more than likely 10’s if not hundreds.

7.     Create a profile at linkedin.com. In the field websites use the search term that you want your site to be found under instead of the default my website You can add up to three links.

8.     Set up a lens at squidoo.com. Your lens will allow you to create links to your profiles and sites.

9.     Every time you establish a new link set a social book mark to the page it is on. There are hundreds of social book marking sites. Start with delic.io.us, backflip.com, furl.com and ma.gnolia.com Google "social bookmarks" for more. Spend some time searching for people to connect with.

10.   Ask everyone you are connected with at linkedin.com to comment on your latest blog post.

The daily ritual of shaving only takes a few minutes each day. Linking will eat up as much time as you will dedicate to it. But if you skip shaving or link building for very long you will start to look like a bum.

About the author:

Article by Terry Mickelson founder of Page Views, Inc., one of the foremost search engine optimization companies specializing in B2B search engine optimization and link building programs. For further information as well as a free ranking report on your website, contact Terry Mickelson at 480-556-9752 or email reportrequest@pageviews.com

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The high Cost of Lost Opportunity

As the search engine industry matures and continues to get more complex, we find SEO practitioners that are unable to keep up with the technology and stay ahead of the learning curve. This has divided the industry into 5 basic groups.

MetaFirst there is the group that still preaches Meta tags are the Holy Grail and that you can achieve top search engine results page listings simply by adding Metatags to any site and submitting it to hundreds or thousands of search engines. Many of these companies are sole practitioners who have created a site to sell the submission service and have a script for search engine submission.

The second group is of the belief that if you do your keyword research properly and understand what your customers are looking for you can write your site copy to exactly meet the customers needs and what they are looking for. The concept is that if the content is right people will link to the site and you will get found. There are cases where this has worked very well. The key is to impress the right people initially so they will spread the word. Most businesses don’t have the luxury of this type of patience.

Third is the group that says put up any old web site and get links to point to it.  The concept is to get as many links as possible and to control the “theme” of the link with the anchor text - the clickable text link on the page that points back to the site. Back in the day (circa 2005) this strategy worked and was called Google bombing. At that time entering the search term “miserable failure” in Google would produce the White House official site for George W. Bush. There is a very high number of offshore companies doing this today.

Fourth, you find companies that may have success in search optimization for companies that have sites already built correctly and have been online for some time. Much of the success of these companies comes from better distribution of the correct keywords through the site. These companies offer a choice of packages, “Silver, Gold and Platinum” that are relatively affordable because of the one size fits all approach. In most cases, packages come with an initial set up fee and an ongoing “tweaking fee” every month.

The fifth group is made up of experts who take the time and the effort to test and analyze a web site to see exactly what restricts it from getting found in the search engines. For example, many content management systems are structured in a manner that does not allow the search engines to index the pages of the site. Once a SEO needs analysis diagnosis is made, they lay out a clear best practices plan to optimize the site including issues with servers, site structure, content, linking, and reputation management. At this level, the analysis of visitor behavior, tracking listings in the search engine results pages and pay-per-click management is usually offered. Some are taking the process to the next level adding full services such as lead management and conversion tracking.

Like everything else in life, there is a price to pay. Some may think that the business they are involved with only merits a $20 investment to get submitted to the engines and others will understand that the true cost is not in the optimization investment but is in the cost of lost opportunity when the site is not being found by the people who are looking for it.

The author, Terry Mickelson is the founder of Page Views, Inc. an Arizona based Search Engine Optimization firm. PageViews specializes in affordable custom business to business search optimization and search marketing campaigns. Terry can be reached at 480-556-9752 http://www.pageviews.com

I can get hundreds of links for FREE – But should I?

If you manage a website then you know that trading links with other sites is a valuable method of promoting it, increasing the value of your search engine optimization efforts and getting more traffic. Topical links can generate loads of traffic to your site  by helping you get and keep a top position on the major search engines results pages. Additionally many quality links such as directories and industry related sites deliver high quality, pre qualified customers.

The true value of links really depends on how you go about getting links.

Like most things in life, the best results rarely come from the easiest or least expensive method.  The truth is that only on topic links help to get high search engine rankings which will take time and effort. People who follow a link from an on-topic site are pre qualified and prone to buy. Your potential link partners can ONLY be generated through one on one contact with other site owners, one email at a time.

Avoid the seemingly endless supply of automated link exchanges where you sign up and have tens or even hundreds of links point to your site. These links will NOT help your search positions because generally the links are not targeted to your business. They deliver inferior and generally useless results, unqualified tire-kickers and endless spam.

There are also a lot of “Link Monkeys” out there. A “Link Monkey” is someone who does nothing but look for links. All they care about is quantity not quality. Many web managers hire a high school kid or a intern to gather links. Others outsource the task to a third world country because the labor is cheap. The monkey's job is not to find quality link partners but to trade links with anyone willing to trade.

I would bet that you receive at least one or more "form letter" email every couple of days, telling you that your site has been visited, and a link has been added to the visitors site, with a request to link back to them. Many of these are from automated link trade programs that list hundreds, even thousands of sites, categorized in various ways. Chances are very good that the site requesting the link has nothing to do with your sites “theme and is totally off topic. Others email solicitations have so many grammatical errors that it is hard to understand that they want you to trade links with them.

There are basically three reasons that other sites will link to you:

• For your content.  This group likes what you have to say and feel that the content you have on your site will enhance their visitors experience. Successful sites have a lot of content of use to others. These “natural” links are also the links that are most likely to be included in the content of another site and drive traffic to your site.  This includes Press releases and articles.

• Link trades.  Some of these are from automated sites and others are from people who are actually taking the time to search for a keyword or topic, find sites related (but not competing) with their site and requesting a trade. The only time it is worth your while to agree to a reciprocal link trade is if the site you are trading with is on topic with your site. Having a link from a computer store to an auto dealer has no value for either site.

• You pay them for a link. In the most recent Google Update (Jagger October/November 2005) many sites that had “site wide” (a link from all the pages of a site) inbound links have been penalized, dropping them from their formerly high search engine ranking positions.  Some of the popular brokers for text links have been selling site wide links for years.  Another downside to purchasing links is that most links don't pass Google Page Rank for at least a couple of months and you have to pay for them every month. Again, these links must be from on-topic sites for you to gain benefit.

If you tire of spending time on researching link partnerships and doing the time consuming leg work required for a link popularity campaign, consider hiring a professional.
Professional link popularity services will help you to analyze the number and quality of links pointing to your site as well as the number of and type of links you need to compete in your niche market. By tailoring link building strategies to individual site needs they can find relevant, targeted links. Additionally, a good linking company has experience in the Search Engine Optimization industry and can assist you with key word selection and other issues your site may have that are keeping it from achieving top search engine positions.

Done correctly, link campaigns deliver long term results and enhance search engine optimization efforts.

For additional Information about linking contact phoenix search engine optimization specialists PageViews.

or

LinkageXpress.com the premier link popularity service.

 

How link popularity and reputation effects search engine optimization

Links have become an important piece of the puzzle in attaining high rankings within search engine results pages. You can get high search engine results page listings if you understand links and how to properly implement a linking strategy. In this article we will look at how links effect the popularity and reputation of pages.

When a search engine "crawls" a page" it follows each link indexing the location and the topic or theme of the page. Some links are on the site and others may be on third party sites. The search engines follow each link and read what the link says about the page that it is linked to. This piece of text that describes the "link to" page is called anchor text. Anchor text and the words on the “link to” page determine the topic of the page the link points to.

Citronicals is the name of a fictitious company that produces a news letter for the citrus industry. If a link from every page within the site to the home page uses the anchor text “home”  it does nothing to help the search engines determine the reputation of the page. However if the anchor text was "citrus industry newsletter" it would accurately describe the "link to" page.  Anchor text should help to reinforce what the page reputation is by matching the keyword or phrase that the page has been optimized for.

The same rules for reputation apply to links from external sites. The anchor test must still accurately describe the page it links to if you want any benefit regarding search engine marketing.

Each search engine has a different method of determining popularity.

Just having a lot of links pointing to your site from other sites is no longer enough. Search engines do not measure only inbound links only to determine site popularity. Search engines are looking for inbound links from popular relevant sites with the same theme as your site. A perfect theme will have the main keyword or phrase on your site the same as the main keyword or phrase on each of the sites that link to you. Of course your own competitors are the best links since they have the same theme as yours.

Taking the time to write accurate anchor text and find relevant on-topic inbound links can make the difference between your site being invisible and a top position on the search engine ranking pages.