A Balanced Link Building Plan

January 30th, 2012

link building balanceLinks, links, links. The more, the better… right? WRONG. This misconception started long ago and sadly, the myth still continues to this day. Your link building or keyword advertising campaign should consist of much more than just a one-dimensional view of obtaining links.

When it comes to link building, many people take a look at it from 2 main ways: internal links or external links. Whereas some people overload their web pages by interlinking, others go crazy by buying/submitting hundreds of links at once. In order to diversify and build quality links, you’ll consider a good mix of the following:

Comments, directory submissions, social networking, social bookmarks, infographics, widgets, videos, article submission sites, .edu/.gov links, blogs, press releases, and even paid links (in some rare cases).

That’s just some of many places where you can build links. What about how you link? Different types of anchor text include:

URL, company/brand name, exact match anchor text, partial match anchor text, and even your name.

Search engines love to see a variety of different links coming from a variety of different (and reputable sites). If your link building campaign consists of utilizing one or two method (multiplied by hundreds), this not only look unnatural, but it can also devalue those links that are pointing to your website.

Here’s a good example. If you’re selling handmade crafts, it would look unnatural to link a keyword like beautiful handmade gemstone jewelry hundreds of times. I mean really, who would use those exact words except for your own company? Instead, you should also use your brand name, variations of the keyword and even images. This is why many experts in the industry prefer to use partially matched anchor text because it’s more safe and stable in the long run.

Although there is no right way to build links, I sure think there is a wrong way – and that is utilizing too much of the same anchor text from a handful of domains. Diversify your anchor text, types of links and even look at no follow links as your friend (in moderation). All these techniques add up to a more natural link building profile that search engines definitely favor.

What Are Your Search Marketing Resolutions?

December 28th, 2011

Now that 2011 is almost over, it’s time to think about some online marketing resolutions. Do you have any good ones? If not, here are some ideas. Remember, social and local are going to play a bigger role!

1) Share your content in the right places – If you’re going to have new content, it helps to promote it in updates, press releases and social sharing. And we’re not just talking about Facebook and Twitter. Since infographics are so “hot” right now, you’ll be missing out if you don’t take the next step and share it on sites like Visual.ly Your new content will do you know good if it just sits there on your site.

2) Learn about your marketing company – A few days ago, we saw the fatal blunder from Ocean Marketing, the PR company behind the popular Avenger controller. Long story short, the owner of this PR company treated a customer very disrespectfully and the email went viral on Penny Arcade. As a result, the controller, which had about a 4 star rating on Amazon has now dropped to a 1 star rating. There are many search marketing firms out there, so make sure to do your research before you choose one to represent your brand. After some more digging, users have found that Ocean Marketing’s website has blatantly plagiarized content from other SEO firm websites!

3) Pay more attention to social media – If you haven’t heard, Google+ Status Updates Now Appearing in Organic Search Results. Social factors has always played a big role in better search engine rankings, but they are becoming more important as search engines view this customer engagement as trust and relevancy.

4) Act natural when it comes to organic optimization – This one holds true from link building, blogging to social networking! For example, take a look at link building – you need a good mix of do follow and no follow links across a variety of trustworthy and related domains. Anchor text that you use shouldn’t be what you want it to be, but what customers are actually searching. And your social media updates shouldn’t be completely automated, but carefully thought out with the right personality behind your brand.

Get ready for a happy new year! When it comes to organic online marketing, let us know what are you looking forward to in 2012!

Life After Google Panda Updates and Link Building

July 11th, 2011

link building

Love it or hate it, link building is still an important part of SEO after the massive Google Panda updates.

The quality of your inbound links is becoming more important as Google Panda updates have shown us.  Although these updates are aimed at getting rid of “content farms” and lower quality links, many people’s rankings have been hurt by the recent Google Panda 2.2 updates.  For example, many people who used to rank well for certain phrases using article submission sites have now seen drastic drops. Of course, you know Google is already preparing version 2.3!

Because of these updates and changes to Google’s search algorithm, quality links have become increasingly important. Overall, the point of these updates is to help you recognize and ultimately remove low ranking on site pages and off site content in order to improve user/customer experience.

And with the debut of Google +,  you bet that social media activity is becoming more important in determining your search engine rankings! Back to my point of link building – it’s crucial to continue your efforts on a consistent basis. Here are a few good link  building resources that are sure to be helpful.

Taking the 7 Link Challenge

July 20th, 2010

It’s time to take the 7 Link Challenge with Darren Rowse of Problogger:

Your first post
I remember this took a lot of time and editing for two measly paragraphs. I haven’t really looked back on it but it’s cool to see that it has gotten 21 retweets! Using Twitter to Achieve a Higher Search Ranking

A post you enjoyed writing the most

I was suffering from a case of writer’s block and didn’t really know what to write about. Sometimes, it’s good just to force yourself to write and you’ll find a topic that is inspiring. Add Pieces of Flair

A post which had a great discussion

A recent guest blog post that got a lot of comments for and against the EZineArticles WordPress plugin. 3 Social Media Tools That Help Bloggers Interact with Readers

A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written

I wish I wrote a valuable resource that other bloggers bookmarked and referred to. For me, it’s Chris Brogan’s 100 Blog Topics I Hope You Write.

Your most helpful post

It was helpful for me to write this post because I was researching link building resources. Hopefully, readers learned about different types of links. What’s Your Link Building Focus?

A post with a title that you are proud of

A fun topic to think and write about. I think the title sums the post up nicely. Does the New Facebook Make You Miss the Old MySpace?

A post that you wish more people had read

It would be nice to get more input about this topic and see what other people think about the topic. Does Social Media Help or Harm Your Blogging Efforts?

OMS Long Beach ’10 Overview

June 22nd, 2010

Yesterday, half of the Emarketed team got up bright and early for OMS Long Beach. It was a day filled of learning and we attended 8 back-to-back seminars in all! There was a different mix of attendees: traditional marketers, internet marketers, specialists and others just looking for some more information about the latest in online marketing.

So many speakers, but who was the most memorable? Jeff Hayzlett, former CMO of Kodak , was definitely the most entertaining. He was even available to sign some copies of his new book. Then, there were the many facts that the presenters threw at us. I was surprised by this one from Chris Anthony of Exact Target: regular coupons have a redemption rate of 1% while mobile coupons hover around 5-10%!

Now, on to the different topics. I focused on attending the SEO seminars, so here are some new takeaways that I got from the speakers:

Link Building and SEO Takeaways

Don’t worry, these aren’t lame tips like “write creative content” or “add entertaining pictures”. I hope you learn something new from these takeaways!

  • Catfish of Business Online offered a unique idea: Offer free WordPress themes or embeddable widgets for users with a link back to your site.
  • Use a bulk 404 checker for pages and links you might have lost after undergoing a website redesign.
  • Arnie Kuenn of Vertical Measures stresses the importance of getting as many different links from many different websites as you possibly can. Some easy ones: 123people, flavors.me, LinkedIn, BusinessWeek and even asking friends and family.
  • You can re-purpose old content to make it new again. If you write a lot about a certain topic, you can target different people and write it for their perspective. Example: If you write about social media, tailor it if you write for social media for non profits.

Overall, it was a very educational field trip but we forgot to take a group picture, once again! Next time for sure…
If you’re looking to attend a local social media event of your own this summer, make sure to check out Mashable’s list of upcoming events.

Guest Post: Twitter Tools For Business and Building Links

June 7th, 2010

Happy Monday! Hope you all enjoy this guest blog post by Tom Shivers of Capture Commerce:

Feast on some tools, apps and ideas to help you get in the Twitter game and build quality traffic and links to your site.

TweetBeep.com – Manage your online Twitter reputation. Alerts will be emailed to you whenever a Twitter user Tweets about your business, name, or domain. You select the alert criteria and what to watch for. This is great for a business that is concerned about branding, online identity and quickly responding to customers.

Twollo.com allows you to find and follow Twitterers with similar interests automatically. When you create an account there, you will see an empty box with “Twitterers talking about:” above it. I’m interested in Twitterers talking about organic search engine rank, so I submit that interest and Twollo then finds people interested in SEO and follows them for me through my Twitter account. Many of these people see we have similar interests and follow me as well.

SocialOomph.com (formerly Tweetlater) is a Twitter post scheduler among other things. It is easy to use, allows you to Tweet ahead, and lets you select a posting schedule by day and time. You can also setup several interesting features/tools:

* Automatically send a welcome message to new followers.
* Automatically follow people (new followers) who follow me from this point forward.
* Auto unfollow those who unfollow you.

Bit.ly allows you to shorten, share and track your links to save space when you tweet them. The tracking feature displays the number of clicks on each shortened URL you have setup.

How do I get links to my website? First, I must clarify that tweeting a link to your website is not the same thing as link building, it simply allows your followers to click through to your site. Some day Google may modify it’s algo to account for these tweet links but for now, there’s no evidence that Google does.

You often see blog posts with a “Tweet This Post” link on the page, asking people to pass this on to others. This is easy to add to any good content on your site: videos, reports, product comparisons, research, articles, etc. Use this tool to build relationships.

Twitter directories categorize users according to interest/topic and some list users from most followers to least. You can register for free and follow some of the most popular Twitterers. Within your account, you can show your recent tweets and there’s a place for a link to your website. Most profile pages are indexed by Google:

* Twellow.com
* Tweetfind.com
* Twitr.org

In some businesses it can make sense to have several Twitter accounts – one for the business and one for each executive.

Everything I’ve mentioned here actually contributes to building good quality links to your website and the most important one is honing your target audience or followers so they benefit first. If your followers benefit from your Tweets, they will pay you back with retweets, more followers, and links. You also want to “listen to” the issues and questions in your marketplace, so you can provide appropriate answers. Sometimes Twitter is the first place you get wind of what’s coming.

Twitter is another avenue to build real relationships with other professionals. These relationships then can be a source of info, business leads, web traffic and links to your site.

By the way, you can follow me on Twitter too, http://twitter.com/capturecommerce

So, a Little Bird Told You About Content Marketing…

May 18th, 2010

Webinar Overview
So, I got to hear Joe Pulizzi of Vertical Measures speak today in a Search Marketing Now webcast. Content marketing and link building can be confusing to people as there are certain things to keep in mind:

  • Keep your customers in mind. As Joe put it, don’t just talk about yourself. After all, people aren’t searching for a marketing pitch! They want answers.
  • Marketers are becoming publishers but many are doing a bad job. Their main problem is they have a difficult time separating self-promotion with their ability to provide useful content.
  • The secret to success is not really a secret at all. Most marketers will tell you the key to success is to be an expert in your niche and to dedicate content to customers.

These tips are a lot easier said than done – especially with the third point. So, what are some ways you can be more innovative with your content marketing? Joe provides a list of ideas to “steal”!

Steal These Ideas

  1. Create as much content as possible relating to your niche
  2. Incorporate a helpful video series
  3. Use Twitter as a channel for providing tips
  4. Develop a web or mobile application that is educational and helps solve problems
  5. Share a series on SlideShare

The Big Idea About Link Building

Don’t mix link building with lead generation!

Here’s a good starting point: find a handful of top blogs in your industry. Read them, stay up to date and comment to build a presence. Like I said before, these things aren’t really secrets. The real secret is how to keep consistent and measure your progress.

What’s Your Link Building Focus?

May 14th, 2010

When it comes to link building do you have a particular focus or do you have a diversified plan? Blogs, directories, paid links, reciprocal links – there are so many options!

Pay Attention to Nofollow Links
Did you know that many popular blogs and even Google Sites apply the nofollow feature to links? This prevents spammers and link abuse. Basically, nofollow links tells the search engine crawlers to not count your link. It doesn’t mean that you should avoid nofollow links all together though. These sites are still a great place to be social and join in on the conversation.

Different Types of Directories
Every directory is not the same! The most popular ones are dmoz and ipl2. Generally speaking (and thanks to Rand Fishkin) there are 3 types of directories that you can submit to:

  1. Specific directories that are categorized by topics or industry. (ThomasNet is the most popular for industrial suppliers.)
  2. Local directories are helpful and you can find them through your local chamber of commerce or other online neighborhood resource.
  3. Generic directories. You’ve probably come across worlds-best-internet-director-1000 or something similar. Again, targeted directories are more preferred than these kinds.

Other Sources for Links

  • Social bookmarking
  • Press releases sites
  • Niche forums or communities
  • Review sites
  • Social media profiles