by admin on April 15, 2011
Sometimes the virtual world can seem just like high school all over again: appearances mean a lot, popularity is paramount, and you want see and be seen with the “right” people. Websites have to contend with this as well, and they can become more “popular” by featuring quality content and attractive layouts and by being associated with other well-known and respected sites. Unlike high school, though, the world is your potential audience, and you have a lot more flexibility in establishing your niche.
Link popularity is just what it sounds like: it is the number of external websites that have linked back to your site. This is important for a few different reasons: one, it indicates that other sites find your articles, blogs, or products useful and of benefit to their readers. No site wants to send their traffic to useless sites; it is not beneficial, and it alienates visitors. A link is like an endorsement of sorts. And two, link popularity is a factor in search rankings. Google’s algorithm takes popularity into account as it generates is SERPs.
How do you increase your popularity? Let’s first start with how not to increase it. Link farming, link wheels, and other bulk link exchanges may be tempting. They offer to build thousands of links for a very low monthly price. But even their nominal fee (usually around $50) is not worth it. These links are, at best, useless. At worst, they will get you penalized.
Instead, focus on manual linking building. Establish relationships with sites that are in the same type of industry or engage the same type of community. Ask for links back to your site, and make sure to offer valuable content to the traffic they send. Work on becoming part of the broader online community with blogs, forums, and social networking. At the back of your mind should always, always be quality. You want to offer quality content: this is how you build links organically.
by admin on April 15, 2011
SEO is a constantly changing industry, and techniques that were innovative and effective a few years ago, or even last year, may be out of date now. They may also be considered “black hat” now, whereas they would not have been before. It can be hard to keep up! Quality content will always be central to search engine optimization, but what about another staple of SEO campaign, links? Are backlinks as important now as they were last year? The quick answer: yes. And then some. External links can be crucial to rankings. Here are some dos and don’ts to keep in mind.
Don’t: Bulk Link Services. Retailer JC Penney just learned the hard way that not every SEO campaign is equal. They enjoyed top rankings for a variety of categories, but then the New York Times blew the whistle. Apparently, JC Penney’s SEO firm had created dozens of sites that contained nothing but links to JC Penney. This artificially boosted their rankings. Bulk link building services do not work. They are mass-produced, cheap, and ultimately, they may cause your rankings to go down. JC Penney fell from the tops of the SERPs dramatically as Google penalized them for engaging in link farming.
Do: Manual Link Building. If it’s too easy, it’s not going to work. Many SEO experts now say that manual link building is best. This is when one manually approaches sites to request links; it is extremely time-consuming, but much more effective than mass-generated links. Explain why your website will be beneficial and of interest to their users.
Don’t: Link Arbitrarily. Don’t link to sites that are completely unrelated to your field. It turns visitors off and may backfire on you with decreased popularity.
Don’t: Spam. Do not spam forums with links or compose low-quality articles stuffed with keywords and links. Besides the offering nothing of value to traffic, you may be penalized by Google, who is continually ramping up efforts to fight webspam.
Do: Articles, News, and Link Baiting. The goal here is not to sell, sell, sell. It is to entertain, inform, and engage. Link baiting is dependent upon your ability to offer something of value to your readers. Articles tend to bring high quality traffic, and this can be a way to demonstrate your expertise or authority in a field without making overt pitches.
Do: Start Working On Your Links Today. It can help you increase your online presence.
