Thursday, September 4, 2008 

Link Building: To Link, or Not to Link, That is the Question

Lately, there have been a lot of heated discussions regarding link building. Is it ethical to create a link building campaign? Does Google or any other search engine penalize for link farms (a bunch of non-related links created for the SOLE purpose of increasing search engine ratings)? Is the link building era over?

Link Farms

Many webmasters claim that Google penalizes websites for link farms. If this is so, why are a link farm sites that have a page rank of 5 on their link farm page? Let me give you an example, go to Google.com, type in any popular keyword(s) and append the word links to it. For example, ABCD Links. Notice youll get tones of websites that are linking to unrelated sites, but still have a great PR. I do not encourage link farming in any way or form, but building valuable partnerships is something I do encourage. If youre a jewelry site and youre exchanging links with an antiques site, I think this is a great thing. Its very possible that someone searching for jewelry may have an interest in antiques. I own a few sites and the hits I receive from partially related sites are phenomenal. Most of my websites are targeted towards webmasters so I receive hits from all sorts of sites. Remember, many webmasters claim to know the truth regarding search engine algorithms, but no one knows the EXACT TRUTH except the programmers at the search engines. Webmasters may have been penalized in the past for link farms and doorway pages (pages created around certain keywords for the sole purpose of redirecting surfers to the main page), but whos to say why some HAVENT been penalized.

Who Should I Create Link Partnerships With?

1. Create link partnerships with sites related to your site.

2. Create link partnerships with sites that have an audience that may be interested in your products

3. Exchange homepage links with websites that fit in your genre. Youll receive a link on a page with a good ranking and youll get quality, targeted hits.

How Do You Find Link Partners?

1. Signup with an automated links management provider that organizes your links and helps find link partners. Automated tools are the best because they help you save time. Uploading and downloading your pages for every link exchange can be a huge pain and very time consuming. Automated tools are NOT link farms because they give you complete control of who you exchange links with. If a member exchanges links with every website, he/she might be abusing the tool. If a member uses the tool responsibly, it can be very effective.

2. This is a great little exercise I would recommend to anyone.

a. Write down 20 search terms pertaining to your website

b. Go to http://www.google.com and type in a search term written in step A

c. Contact as many websites as possible listed under that search term and ask them to exchange inner page or homepage links with you. If they're NOT interested, ask whether they would be interested in selling advertising space. If your website is fairly new, you may want to ask sites for advertising prices. Free hits are the best hits but sometimes you might have to go the extra lap and pay for service. I wouldn't recommend spending over $100 / month for advertising UNLESS it's a high traffic site with your site audience. The best deals are the ones that offer $10-25 / month. There are sites out there that will sell SUPER cheap advertising, and others that charge an arm and a leg.

EVERYONE gets rejected sometime or another so keep your head up and keep moving along! The internet is comprised of Billions of websites. If you're rejected 500 times, you still have MANY business opportunities left! This is a continuous job so set aside time every week to do this. If you dont have time for this, then you dont have time to make money.

3. Hire a link building firm (this can be quite expensive but if you have money, its minimal work for you)

PageRank

Pagerank is a great tool but dont use it as your ONLY measurement for success. I cant explain everything about pagerank but a good explanation is given at http://www.google-watch.org/pagerank.html.

Conclusion

In conclusion, link building is not only for increasing link partners and search engine rankings, its also used to create partnerships and establish profitable relationships with other webmasters. Link building is a tedious process, but one of the best for getting free (sometimes not), targeted hits from other websites.

Vik Tailor is the owner of http://www.linkexchanged.com and http://www.buyadvertisingonline.com. He has been in the online advertising industry for over 4-5 years and has extensive online marketing knowledge.

 

List Building - Here is the Number One Way to Build a Cash Cranking List Fast!

Without a double, the number one way to build a money making mailing list super fast is article marketing. It's something you can get started with right away and see results in just a few days. In fact, in an hour from now, you can have your first article submitted and ready to start driving traffic to your site soon.

Most people use article marketing to drive traffic to blogs, affiliate products, product review pages etc. But I can tell you by far the most effective way to make the most of your articles is to use them for list building. Articles are the perfect 'relationship starters' with your prospects, and it complements nicely with list building in that you can continue to further this relationship with them where you provide value and you get paid.

Here is the process for article marketing (it's so simple, you will be kicking yourself that you didn't think of it at first):

Step 1 - Research Keywords

Spend time on keyword research first. This will bring out the most mileage for your articles as they will rank higher on the search engines if you optimize your articles with the right keywords. Use Wordtracker to do your keyword research.

Step 2 - Write Articles

Write your articles. If you don't want to write, you can find a writer at Elance or the Warrior forum who will write articles for you for a small fee.

Step 3 - Create A Resource Footer

The resource footer (or resource box) is where you put your link back to your site to get traffic. Make this benefit-laden and call your readers to action to get them to click on your link.

Step 4 - Submit Articles

Submit your articles to article directories on the Internet. You'd want to submit to only the top directories at first, before submitting them to the lower-tier directories to wring more traffic out of your articles.

Fabian Tan is a well-known Internet Marketing expert and the author of the popular 45-page Report:

"Murder Your Job: How To Build Cash Sucking Autopilot Businesses In 30 Days Or Less!"

Head over to http://www.MurderYourJob.com to get your FREE copy now!

Also, quickly download his FREE "Explosive Traffic System" report that shows you how to generate 10,000+ visitors per month at no cost! => http://www.ExplosiveTrafficSystem.com

 

SEO Includes Link Building

With millions of websites on the Internet, it is easy for a website to be lost in the rubble, irrespective of the size or esthetic design of a website. But if your website really has something to offer, and gives out something of value to people, good traffic is bound to enter and one can get appreciation for our website. What is the use of a website if it doesn't get good and enough visitors? Investments in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques can put any website on an active mode and gradually fulfill business / organizational objectives by getting the right traffic and can even trigger a growth in your business in an unexpected way. Link building is one of the major SEO techniques.

Search engines like Google look at the incoming links to your website to evaluate and rank your website. No wonder there was frenzy among the SEO specialists a few years back to buy and exchange links from all types of websites in the name of "link building". I know some sites that spent a lot of money to get thousands of links overnight. It was easy for the search engines to find out all those who used such cheap and black SEO tactics. Today there are many once respectable websites who have had their page ranks sliced down and penalized. Thus it is always better to use safe and a more natural link building tactic. Here is a list of some of link building solutions/tactics for increasing the number of quality links and ensuring a good web presence.

  • Submit website to web directories
  • Appropriate niche blogging
  • Article marketing
  • Advertise website online
  • Social book marking
  • Use feeds
  • Forum marketing
  • Exchanging links with other websites
  • Use yahoo answer site
  • Appropriate outbound linking to good authoritative sites
  • Buying links for money
  • Sponsor some thing for free on website (like graphics / themes etc)
  • Request direct link from an authority site
  • PPC advertising
  • Be an authority on your subject
  • Content must be relevant
  • Competition website research/ analyze
  • Community linking
  • Automated link building
  • Offline advertisement/backup essential
  • Offline public relation/ site promotion
  • Get links from trusted websites like government or university sites

The author of this article is Ricci Mathew of Outsource Strategies International (OSI), a US based company that offers services in Search Engine Optimization, SEM, PPC advertising for clients across the US.

 

Go Link Fishing with These Linkbaiting Hooks

If you're a blogger or website owner then you've run into the issue of finding traffic to your site. It isn't that people don't trust you, well some don't, but the fact is most people just have never heard of you or your website. It isn't that big of a problem. It happens to every site once and awhile. Even recognized blogs sometimes need a boost in traffic. Linkbaiting is the answer all search engine optimization services will give you.

Good linkbait comes from great content. Your linkbait content needs to make a promise to the reader about what they will be reading, learning, or achieving from your site. All of the subsequent content should be devoted to meeting this promise.

A good hook will help you meet this goal by keeping the content focused. The hook should have the potential to immediately pull the reader in and generate some sort of emotional response. Here are some of the most common types of hooks used by website owners for linkbait and search engine optimization purposes:

  • News Hook - A good news hook happens when you are the first to report a story. By doing so everyone who then carries your story should then link to you as being the original source. You don't need to have insider information to get a scoop you can just be the first to publicly foresee something or to come to a controversial conclusion. Be careful with this type of hook if your scoop turns out to be false. It will make other bloggers and writers unwilling to reference your site again as a credible source.
  • Resource Hook - A resource hook is when you write a particularly helpful piece of content that everyone will want to bookmark for future reference. This may be the easiest hook to write and the most fun. As opposed to a news hook, a resource hook encourages people to link to and bookmark it for long periods of time. It becomes content that naturally obtains trusted, relevant backlinks just by sitting there with no updates. How can you go wrong?
  • Humor Hook - Everyone loves to laugh, especially at others in the industry or niche they share. Most markets have so little humor that anything you say can bring out a chuckle and hopefully, a link. By even directly mentioning leading industry people, you may get a link by flattering them.
  • Giveaway Hook - Anyone who ever attended some sort of industry conference knows that they'll never need to go shopping for pens, highlighters, key rings, and loads of over freebie junk. Companies give things away at events because, when directed towards the correct audience, giveaways are a great way to drive sales and get a return better and quicker than ordinary advertising. Websites are no different.
  • Contrary Hook - There are times when to get a link you disprove a common industry myth. This is called a contrary hook. There are few areas of the blogosphere which have certain beliefs that are known to be self-evident such all sports writers believing Barry Bonds cheated. Calling these people out and proving they are wrong will usually incite them into talking about you, and more importantly linking to you.
  • Research/Statistic Hook - Maybe one day you are bored and start to compile some industry number. A post like this will undoubtedly get a lot of link love. This works quite well in new and untouched markets. While a scientifically-conducted study with valid methodology can get better links, truth is that nearly everything and anything can pass as research on the web.


A good linkbait hook is the most time-efficient and easy way of building relevant, trusted, editorially-given backlinks for all of your search engine optimization purposes. It's factor that can make or break a website in getting ranked in Google for competitive keywords.

Anyone who owns a web site will tell you that a good looking, user friendly website is only the just first step towards owning a profitable one. This is where the experienced SEO specialists in Scranton, MysticLiquid come in. Visit them at http://www.mysticliquid.com.

 

Get Higher Google Ranking - Use This Easy Link Building Strategy

Higher Google ranking is possible by using this easy link building strategy

I am pretty sure that everyone knows just how important its is to have high rankings on the mother of all search engines Google, yup, if you are ranking well on Google, then expect to get much more traffic than your competition.

The problem is that many folks are not ranking well on Google and they really don't know what to do about it either, if this is your problem then you have come to the right article. If you want to have great rankings on Google then the answer is very simple, it is all about having quality backlinks that show relevance to your site or niche.

Linkbuilding is the answer when it comes to higher Google rankings and what I want to share with you today is a simple linkbuilding strategy that I use all the time for getting better rankings on Google.

Ok, the first thing that you must do is to find blogs that allow you to comment on them, well you say that this is nothing new, right it isn't, but we need to find blogs that have a "dofollow" tag and not a "nofollow" tag.

A dofollow tag basically lets Google or its spider crawl back to a site that the blog comment came from, a nofollow tag basically denies Google from giving you a backlink for the blog comment that you may have made on another person's blog.

Your goal is to dominate Google and get higher rankings, I explained that in order to get higher rankings you will need to get more 1 way backlinks, commenting on blogs that have dofollow is one of the ways we can build quality 1 way backlinks.

If you want to find blogs that have the dofollow tag, then go to Google and type "dofollow blogs", after typing this, you shall see some websites or directories that are dedicated to showing you blogs that have that awesome dofollow tag.

This linkbuilding strategy works and many have seen great results plus higher search engine rankings by using this strategy.

To learn more advance traffic generation strategies then visit http://www.OnlineTrafficPlan.com

Terry is a writer who likes to write about topics that spark her interest.

 

Get Your Website Ranked Higher in the Search Engines With an SEO Campaign

Search engine optimisation, or as it is known in short SEO is a marketing strategy for a business within the avenue of online marketing. SEO campaigns may be offered by an individual or as part of a search engine optimisation team. They seek to improve the quality and quantity of a website's traffic.

SEO campaigns are the key to success of advertising online but you should ensure that the company you enlist to perform your SEO campaign uses ethical and successful SEO techniques. An SEO company who is performing your SEO campaign should also offer you a consultancy service as part of your SEO campaign. Within this consultancy service you should have all of the technicalities involved with online marketing explained to you so that you can work along side the SEO company to ensure that everything is being done to successfully promote your website.

So what exactly is an SEO campaign? To have an SEO campaign performed on your website you are paying a set fee to an SEO company every month for the promotion work that is carried out. The more money you are paying every month the more work will be carried out on your site. There is no limit to the amount that you have to pay every month; basically your company will be paying as much as they can afford or for as much SEO work that they need carried out. By paying a higher fee every month your website will however have more of a chance of hitting the top spots within the search engines as you are getting more promotional work performed.

You should be aware that gaining good rankings within search engines takes a lot of time and hard work and there are no short cuts but the rewards that you can gain from an SEO campaign can be significant in terms of Internet presence as well as income. With a competitive phrase or keyword it can take 100's of hours or more of promotion to bring results, which is something that you should bare in mind.

Depending on your website and the type of campaign that you are having performed it could take up to nine or 12 months for you to start seeing really impressive results, but there is a good side to this for the fact that these results will stick and you will remain within the top spots.

An SEO campaign is effective because Internet surfers who type in a keyword have already demonstrated their interest in your product or service. SEO campaigns involve a range of services all with the same primary goal; to ensure your website is user friendly and to help it climb up the search engine results. Some of the services that are on offer to you from an SEO campaign involves fixing technical problems that may occur during the campaign. An SEO campaign also involves writing unique and searchable content. Because SEO is an avenue of marketing, and not just advertising, it is highly recommended that companies hire experienced professionals to oversee a costly campaign.

If you are hoping to have an SEO campaign undertaken on your website then you need to enlist the help of an SEO company who are highly trained and skilled.

Helen is the web master of Search Solutions, who will perform an SEO campaign on your behalf.

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