Link Building Best Practices For SEO

Link building is always a hot topic because it is really what makes an SEO campaign work.  Content is important, page and link structure are important, and the url is important, but for competitive search terms, great on-site optimization will only get you so far. 

Much like in the world of content, quality is better than quantity when it comes to obtaining links.  After years of combining strategies and tactics, I have come up with a list of best practices for obtaining incoming links to your website. 

• It is well worth the time to write great content as opposed to lots of decent content.  Some of the articles I wrote was one that attracted the most links and landed on good websites, and one or two were even highlighted in a breaking news story that brought a LOT of referral traffic while it was on the site’s homepage.
• If you figure out something cool or unique, like getting Pandora to play through a mono bluetooth headset, write about it and keep the content on your site and create a buzz using social media.  Links will surely come.
• Write content for your own site first.  As other top marketing professionals point out, you will get the links pointing back at your site for having the original content.
• Here is one of my favorites – syndicate your RSS feed, not your article content.  This is a philosophical change to the approach many people have in article marketing.  Instead of publishing your duplicate content everywhere, keep the content on your site and ping services like technorati, twitter, facebook, and anywhere you can publish your site’s feed. Get visitors on your site and then give them an opportunity to bookmark or share your content via social media. 
• Quality directories are still valid.  I have still seen good success from getting listed in the top human-edited directories, especially local and regional ones.  Avoid the free-for-all sites and focus on the ones that add value to users.
• Guest Blogging is a new hot-topic which is also worth trying.  Finding relevant websites to post content to is a good way to get quality inbound links and brand awareness.  In many cases, you can get content for your site as well if you establish a good partnership with a complementary website or blog. 
• Patience is a virtue.  It is hard to not check Google rankings every day, but there are a lot of other things to do with your valuable time than checking rankings.  I schedule a time once a week to check up on how things are progressing. This keeps me from wasting time each day, and gives me a reason to measure results and dive into analytics at the end of the week.  We know SEO is a long-term strategy and results often take months to mature.
• Reciprocal links are not all bad.  It is natural for complementary websites to link to one another, so the emphasis is on relevance.  I will exchange links with relevant and complementary websites, but not with just any site.  You want to make sure you are linking to reputable websites too.  Using your “off-line” networks to create on-line link partners is a great way to build links from people and businesses you know.
• Don’t Spam.  Search engines (like Google) mostly update their algorithms to do one of two things: to increase the relevance of the search results and to battle spam in their index. If you keep things relevant and avoid spam tactics, your rankings should continue to increase as long as their isn’t a fundamental shift in how websites and pages are ranked. 
• Find ways to add value to your industry. If you are an expert on a topic, utilize Yahoo! Answers, DIY, or forums to give advice and answer questions – each time leaving a link to your website for more information.  This not only builds credibility, but makes you an authority figure within your industry. You can set up Google Alerts for some phrases and questions you can answer, and get updates about new questions posted. You can also write a blog post to answer questions you find online to attract visitors looking for the same thing.
• Give links to get links.  Especially in your blog or content, write about newsworthy information and list a few sources.  Giving out links to reputable websites tends to encourage other websites to link to you. Think about developing some lists of resources and industry best lists.  People love getting mentioned online, and they will point their audience to it.

Hopefully this best practices list will help you understand the importance of link building.  I originally posted this article at SEOmoz.org (here is the original post). The best practices have been updated and added to from the great discussion we had in the comments.  SEOmoz is one of the top SEO blogs in the industry, and you can find a lot more information about link building there.

About the Author: SEOTERIC is an Atlanta web design and SEO company specializing in building business websites and generating sales and leads through natural search results.

7 Ways to Increase your Website Traffic

Internet. Business. Profit. To fully integrate all of these words into a successful merging you will need another word. Traffic. Every article you will find about making your site or company successful will always include the importance of generating traffic.

So, we all know that in the core of it all, qualified traffic is the most essential item to a successful internet based business company. Aside from ensuring that you have a great product to sell, and you have your company’s internal organization well taken core of, it would be time to get to the nitty gritty of things, generating traffic.

If you already have a site and you think that you’re not getting the traffic that you’re supposed to be getting, then its time to start reading and learning. If you are going to be competitive only, you should always be a step ahead of your competition, increasing your traffic flow should have started yesterday.

To help you out in generating more traffic for your site, here are some seven surefire ways to increase your traffic.

1) Invest in good advertising with search engines

Google’s Adwords provide great advertising schemes that are very popular and assures great traffic. Although with this surefire way to increase your traffic it will cost some money. While some would shy away from spending money to increase traffic, it is imperative in this case to do so because Adwords are the top surefire way to increase your traffic.

Also be sure to optimize your site for the organic search results. This way you will be sure to appear in both the paid and organic sections. The organic results will last longer and more people tend to click on these results.

2) Exchange or Trade Links with other sites

With exchanging links with other sites, both of you will benefit from the efforts both of you do to enhance your web sites traffic. When one site features another sites link, they could provide one another with the traffic one site generates. The efforts are doubly beneficial because it would seem like both of you are working to generate more traffic. The more links traded with more sites the more traffic could be expected.

3) Use Viral Marketing

Viral marketing allows you to spread the word about your company and product without any, or very low costs. This is a marketing method that can be quite sneaky; you can attach your company’s name, product or link to a certain media such as a funny video, entertaining game, an interesting article or a gossip or buzz. With this method, people get infected with the creativity and entertainment of the medium that they will pass it on to many people.

4) Search and use proper keywords or keyword phrases for your sites content

Search engines look for certain keywords that they would show in their results page. In doing so, having the right keyword and keyword phrase is a high requirement in ranking in high in search engine results. You could write your own content or you could hire someone to do it for you.

5) Write Articles that can lead traffic to your site

Submit articles to sites that would contain the same subject that your site deals in. If you sell car parts write press releases and articles about cars and car parts. Attach your sites description and services at the end of the article as well as the link.

6) Join forums and form online communities

Capture a market and show your expertise and credibility. When you have a good foundation for your site, people will trust you and your site and will pass on to many people their trust. Traffic will certainly increase because they know that you can provide what they need.

7) Lastly, Offer newsletters.

If many people know what you are about and your existence is shared with many others, you will find a loyal traffic that can provide you with more traffic by recommendation. If you arouse the curiosity of your customers they usually will help bring in traffic to your site through forwarding of the newsletter to other people or direct linking to the website from the newsletter.

About the Author
Chip Curle is the owner of Charles Curle Design, a North Georgia web designer that develops and manages web sites and drives companies to the top of internet search engines through search engine optimization. His work has earned Chip 14 ADDY (American Advertising Federation) awards including 8 Gold, 4 Silver, and 2 Best of Show.

Blogging and SEO – A Perfect Small Business Match

It has become pretty obvious that blogs have been become an important part of marketing for almost any type of online business. They are unmatched resources when it comes to connecting with customers and potential customers.

But, there is an additional benefit that shouldn’t be over-looked: there impact on your Search Engine Optimization efforts. Blogging can greatly enhance any websites natural search results through regular postings, and natural keyword placement. There in fact is no stronger way to market ones website for free than by blogging with natural keywords.

Similar to article marketing, posting daily blogs with the keywords of your business included can have remarkable effects on the ranking of your site in any given search engine, and thus net you more traffic. One key to gaining more traffic from keywords is to use niche keywords. These are keywords or keyword phrases that may be searched for less often, but that have less competition. This means you may be able to rank much higher for these keyword. An example: The keyword term “baseball” is certainly searched for often, but there are millions of websites optimized around this keyword. However a keyword phrase like “Atlanta Braves pitcher John Smoltz news” would have fewer competitors. The longer keyword also increases the likelihood that your blog contains exactly what the visitor is looking for.

Getting picked up in search engines can lead to increase volumes of traffic heading to your site every day. There are top keyword placers that use blogs to retain huge amounts of daily traffic to their sites just by integrating a variety of niche keywords into their posts. The amazing thing about blogs is they are often picked up by the search engines almost as quickly as one posts to it, which makes it an even more powerful tool for SEO purposes. Our experience has been that blogs that take advantage of Google’s Blogger or Wordpress are quickly indexed.

Another way blogging can help your site’s search engine ranking is by the quality score. Most search engines, including Google rank sites with a quality score, the more unique, user provided content, the higher it appears the quality score becomes. If a website is just a sales page, and a few pictures, the quality score will most likely be low. But if a site has a blog on it, with fresh, daily posts, the quality score becomes much better, and thus the site gets ranked much higher when people are searching for your niche, or keyword terms.

If you haven’t considered a blog for the pure marketing aspect of it, it’s probably time you considered it from the SEO perspective. You’ve got nothing to lose but website visitors.

Excerpt from The 100/0 Principle, by Al Ritter

What is the most effective way to create and sustain great relationships with others? It’s The 100/0 Principle: You take full responsibility (the 100) for the relationship, expecting nothing (the 0) in return.
Implementing The 100/0 Principle is not natural for most of us. It takes real commitment to the relationship and a good dose of self-discipline to think, act and give 100 percent.
The 100/0 Principle applies to those people in your life where the relationships are too important to react automatically or judgmentally. Each of us must determine the relationships to which this principle should apply. For most of us, it applies to work associates, customers, suppliers, family and friends.
STEP 1 – Determine what you can do to make the relationship work…then do it. Demonstrate respect and kindness to the other person, whether he/she deserves it or not.
STEP 2 – Do not expect anything in return. Zero, zip, nada.
STEP 3 – Do not allow anything the other person says or does (no matter how annoying!) to affect you. In other words, don’t take the bait.
STEP 4 – Be persistent with your graciousness and kindness. Often we give up too soon, especially when others don’t respond in kind. Remember to expect nothing in return.
At times (usually few), the relationship can remain challenging, even toxic, despite your 100 percent commitment and self-discipline. When this occurs, you need to avoid being the “Knower” and shift to being the “Learner.” Avoid Knower statements/ thoughts like “that won’t work,” “I’m right, you are wrong,” “I know it and you don’t,” “I’ll teach you,” “that’s just the way it is,” “I need to tell you what I know,” etc.
Instead use Learner statements/thoughts like “Let me find out what is going on and try to understand the situation,” “I could be wrong,” “I wonder if there is anything of value here,” “I wonder if…” etc. In other words, as a Learner, be curious!
Principle Paradox
This may strike you as strange, but here’s the paradox: When you take authentic responsibility for a relationship, more often than not the other person quickly chooses to take responsibility as well. Consequently, the 100/0 relationship quickly transforms into something approaching 100/100. When that occurs, true breakthroughs happen for the individuals involved, their teams, their organizations and their families.

Networking Tips – 10 top tips to increase business with the effective use of offline & online networks

Networking tip 1 – Get comfortable with how networking works “All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to those people they know, like and trust.” (Bob Burg). Business Networking is about finding other business people who operate in similar markets to you. Then helping them and building relationships to earn that trust so don’t expect instant results. Like anything worthwhile, networking takes time and application. Take the time to develop relationships and create a network. Don’t expect to walk into a room of strangers or simply post a profile online and come away with business – it just doesn’t work like that! Networking tip 2 – Develop a plan “It pays to plan ahead it wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark” If you don’t know where you are going with your networking how can others help you? Answer the following: – what is your target market? – what are the problems you solve for them? – how much business are you looking to generate via word of mouth? – how much time can you devote to your networking activities? Identify others likely to have access to your target market – how do you get to know them? – how can you help them achieve their goals? When you can answer these questions you are have the basis of a networking plan which you can begin acting on right away. Networking tip 3. Identify the people you already know, like & trust The cornerstone of your networking activities should be the people you have already done business with. Colleagues, Customers and Suppliers. Invest time in these important relationships. Meet up with them and find out if there is anything you can do to support them. Networking tip 4. Identify the offline networks to join If your existing network is not big enough to generate enough word of mouth to achieve your plan then find a couple of networks to join. Ask yourself who else is likely to have access to and influence with your target market. Then find where they network and join those groups. Take the time to get to know the members and the ways you can help – support, information & introductions. When asked present your proposition confidently & consistently – your target market, the problems you solve and your stories. Networking tip 5. Show a genuine interest in other people “You can close more business in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you.” So said Dale Carnegie – and it’s true. Become an active listener and see how you can help the people you meet. By being aware of their needs you can connect them to people in your network. This will involve asking open questions. People usually find the most interesting subject is themselves! Make it easy for them to expand their answers rather than just replying with a “Yes” or “No”. For example “That’s interesting, how do you do that?” They will remember you for listening attentively to them! Be prepared to talk to strangers and have an interesting story. Networking tip 6. Always follow up contacts When you meet someone at an event follow up with a simple e-mail or telephone call confirming where you met and what action, if any, was agreed. Connect them to others & any helpful information. Prompt follow ups are essential! Find out which online networks they use and connect with them if you are also a member. Networking tip 7. Identify the online networks to join and start a blog Your blog is the cornerstone of your online presence & is the place you build your reputation. It can be on your website or a free service like blogger, wordpress or similar. Use your blog to share your stories, hints, tips, & insights and use twitter to share these too. Find out which online networks your influencers and target market use and join a couple. Use the network tools to find the people you already know and connect with them online. Post a profile that is consistent with your personal brand and contribute. Networking tip 8. Make online contacts and build relationships first Contribute to online conversations and share your knowledge and connections. Make contact with like minded professionals. Networking is not about selling – it’s about building relationships. The best business is developed when both parties know, like and trust each other. So take the time to get to know them and establish rapport. Networking tip 9. Arrange contact meetings You’ve established rapport with someone you’ve met at a networking meeting or had good online interactions. It looks as though they might know your target market. How do you take things forward? Simple, meet with them for a coffee and start getting to know them. What makes them tick, what are their successes, their aspirations, their skills and experiences. what they are looking for? See if you can connect them to one of your contacts? Networking tip 10. Develop Networking Advocates A networking advocate goes out of their way to recommend your goods and services without being asked or expecting anything in return. Take time to develop the relationships with key members of your network. Go out of your way to connect them to key members of your network and introduce them to people who might benefit from their services. Become an advocate for them. And, guess what? What goes round comes round. People will eventually become advocates for you – and this is where the networking dividend really pays out! Finally, in the immortal words of Woody Allen: “80% of success is showing up!” Please visit our website  www.Business400.com  for more information on our exciting Business Association.

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