Forming an effective link building strategy is paramount for any website owner. This is particularly relevant when we consider if the wrong links are sent to a website it could ultimately result in that website being penalised by the search engines.
Finding established websites with good link equity is a painstaking task, anyone who says this isn’t so hasn’t really done “link building” at all. It has taken me a number of years within the search marketing industry to build the knowledge required to gain those all important back-links. I ALWAYS check out competitor backlinks first, this gives me a great guide as to where others get their “authority” from.
Once you have gained some data on your competitors back-link profile you should pretty soon be able to see patterns occuring (ie same links-different sites). You then need to carefully consider who you yourself are going to approach for links out of that list, beware here that some of your competitors may actually own the site you are potentially wanting to gain a link from.
There is no doubt that adding fresh, unique content to any website will provide not only a better website that your audience can interact with but a website that will ultimately rank better within the search engines. Most companies now hire content writers who can wax lyrically for them about a specific area of their business.
Having as much content as possible in an informed manner about your online business will pay dividends, simple as really. There is a huge variety of methods online to get that content seen by your targeted audience, not just through your own website but using other approaches too such as social networking, press release services, viral marketing and the use of agencies that use content distribution channels.
It’s a true saying, it can take years to build a good reputation yet minutes to loose one. There are ways online of course to build a sound reputation. One of the main ways I guess it to talk with some authority about your chosen topic, that is of course if you are right in what you are saying. Eventually through actively sharing information for free that is of good quality you are bound to get noticed.
For each SEO client it is important to continuously check how their online reputation is. This can be done quite simply at the initial stages by performing a search in Google on their domain name. The focus then needs to be on the first two pages and simply see what comes up. If for example in the top ten there is a listing illustrating a complaint about the company, you instantly know that you need to get to work and fast.
I’ve seen many sites with complaints lodged against them either in terms of service or just generally referencing the domain in a place where you really don’t want to see it positioned. Often removing a complaint can be as simple as approaching the website where the domain is listed and asking for its removal.
Sometimes its necessary to employ tougher tactics in getting a complaint removed.
Another great service for online reputation management comes from Distilled too.
Finding the right search marketing consultant these days can be a real chore, I’m always saying beware of those who offer “top ten rankings” for peanuts as there is usually a catch. The catch maybe that the rankings simply don’t hold for any length of time and a worse case scenario would be that you loose your website all together in the search engines due to say an ill-informed link building campaign.
My advice is get connected, there are plenty of Seo Consultancy firms out there who have built a sound reputation by providing good seo services at a cost effective price that will ultimately give you a great return on your investment.
My own wealth of experience within search marketing tells me that SEO Consultancy is indeed no easy business, there needs to be a correct balance between you and the client. Initially creating a realistic expectation level between you and the client is paramount, actively establishing goals that they can achieve with their website and not trying to blind a client with smoke and mirrors should secure that client - consultant relationship for many years to come.
SEO reporting is an ever evolving process. So much so in fact SEO reports that used to take a matter of days can now expand into a much larger time frame requirement. I guess the key here is that the more seo knowledge that you gain in daily working life the longer the report will be. I have noticed sometimes with client seo reports I cram far too much information in. so the key is to keep it simple and give examples of seo concepts that can be followed easily.
I’ve decided over the next month or so to profile some websites for a free seo site analysis report and see what that brings. I’m looking for sites at any level and will post a full review of my findings and hopefully some step by step guides on getting a website optimised within the search engines.
No, I’m not calling myself a ppc management expert but I know my way around a campaign to get those all important click through rates. When looking at a PPC campaign I think it is essential to have more than one pair of eyes on it,two aspects of ppc management instantly spring to mind for me. 1) Client communication - setup expectation levels with the client and keep them in the picture at all times. 2) Accurate revenue tracking - without this you simply will not know where you are with a campaign.
Here are some starters for setting up a really good PPC campaign:
1) Budget Management - set it and don’t forget it !
2 Keyword Research - This is probably one of the most important aspects of any campaign, yes you can of course use ppc to test out keywords, but why not give yourself a head start by researching the keywords first ?
3) Competitor analysis- Have a sneaky peak at what your competitors are doing with their ppc campaign’s, this can save you hours of legwork and like they say “there is no point re-inventing the wheel”
4) Test- Test and then Re-Test - No campaign ever works great first time, if it does then your either lucky or amazing. A PPC campaign should be seen as an ever growing entity not something to setup and forget about.
5) Be creative make those adverts really work for you by considering your target audience FIRST.
6) For goodness sake keep a close eye on what the campaign is doing, your likely to want to refine your keywords on a regular basis and make sure your seeing a return on investment. ( This latter part is unlikely to occur on the initial setup of any ppc campaign)
One of the most influential activities you can pursue for a website is link building. This activity alone can make or break a website. Build the wrong kind of links to your site and Google may put you under penalty, make the right links and you will out-rank your competitors. I now have sufficient experience to see pretty much straight away if a link is worthwhile or not, but this instinct took years to develop.
The new influx of social media sites reap rewards for many in terms of link building. Personally, I would rather try and gain quality links from highly relevant sources than trying to game Digg or search out those do-follow blogs. Tools wise I stick to the very basics to establish some great links.
Competitive link analysis can actually be quite fun, if you can keep yourself well motivated. Remember when you contact a site owner about a link they may well have other sites relevant to the industry you are working for and already rank for those all important keyword phrases, so always ask about their site portfolio.
When link building I use a spreadsheet covering : domain age, external inks, internal links, back-link profile, current index, page rank and notes from any information gained on caches information.
Contextual Link Building
Contextual link building is gaining more hype these days I think too, primarily because more people are using the net to talk about relevant topics. Such worldwide discussion of topics in your industry will attract many visitors to a website that currently lacks a good backlink profile. Its always handy then to have a team of bloggers who are on your side to build up those contextual links. No doubt about it contextual links are very much in-focus in the eyes of Google.
Sometimes I wonder if it would be better to live in the states, purely because as a UK SEO consultant most of the SEO crowd buzz of activity is actually US based. Many of the services outsourced for SEO are in the states too. In-fact when I think about it most of the SEO conferences are across the water too.
Much of the online community is based in the states and when I look at MSN Messenger I note that loads of contacts are US based too. Something tells me though I would miss Yorkshire, besides the fact most of my family live a matter of miles away Yorkshire has a lot to offer. Ripon, where I am based has some fantastic countryside views and the river is a minute’s walk from work.
I visited Florida a number of years ago though and some great memories always flood back. Perhaps I should just look to buy some property in the US that I could visit every so often.
Getting relevant backlinks for your website isn’t all that easy these days is it? I mean, you can’t buy backlinks can you? The answer to this question has to be no.
What to look for then, well I guess the main thing to look for when trying to gain backlinks is this, simply look at who your competitors link to and find out why. Soon enough patterns start to occur and one day, just one day you may just find that golden link that will make your site rank highly for your chosen keywords.
I personally still use Yahoo Site Explorer to do some of my backlink competitor analysis, why? Well, it gives me a really simple overview of websites that link to other sites who already rank for my keywords.
Here are some other all-important factors I always consider when looking through backlinks:
- How does the site you are looking at really feel to you ( Gut instinct once developed can be your most trusted source at times) What I’m saying here is does the site look spammy, have your carefully looked at who else that particular site is linking to and found out why. Do they have masses of outbound links already ?
- How established is that site ? If its already indexed within such as Google, all well and good but maybe, just maybe all is not as it seems. Why not do an internet archive check too. Also, find out if the site you are trying to gain potential links from does actually rank for any other terms too. Age of the domain.
- Where is the potential link site hosted, ie if you want to rank for a specific geographic area more links gained from that geographic location would be mighty handy
- Don’t go gaining a load of links in a short time frame, a link building process should be a natural thing
Like this post need more tips ?
by Dan Horton SEO on April 3, 2009
in SEO, Twitter
Its no wonder that the Micro blogging service of Twitter has caught the eye of Google. Such a successful service like Twitter is unlikely to escape acquisition from the mighty G. I wonder what sort of price Google is willing to pay for Twitter though ?
Face book had already offered a large sum for Twitter but the offer was declined. I can easily see just how beneficial it would be for Google to buy twitter, purely because of the instantaneous feed that Twitter provides such data would add to the power of search, especially real time information.
