Google publicly has stated that anyone gaming the system, ‘rank improvers’ will be penalized. So how does one get high quality backlinks then?

How To Earn Your Links

SEOmoz made a great post on earning your links, however here are some:

• Create amazing content (that people naturally link to)
• Create viral content (that people share)
• Contribute high quality guest posts (which you contribute)

In the infographic below we will go over some of the basic benefits that guest posting brings you.

The infographic was created with the help of the team at www.make-a-web-site.com. Check out what there up too at their news page.

Editor’s Note: Using infographics for guest blogging also works.

It is important to implement sound, effective, and correct SEO methods, so that search engines will be able to easily identify, categorize, and index your website. The easier it is for search engines to index your website and the more your website is seen as an authority in your industry, the better your website will rank on search engine results. The better your website ranks for keywords and search terms that are highly relevant to your business and its products and services, the more qualified traffic and potential customers will find your website.

Here are seven tips to implement as a part of any sound and effective search engine optimization strategy.

1. Keep Your Website Design Clean and Professional
   The coolest, loudest, and most modern website may not necessarily be the most successful. A website that is properly designed for SEO will be clean and professional. Most importantly, it will have a clear description of the website’s intent and be easy to navigate and make purchases.
2. Budget for SEO
   Most experts agree that you should allocate approximately 50% of your overall website budget to search engine optimization and search engine marketing. Again, you definitely want to invest in the clean and profession design of your website, but without an SEO and internet marketing budget, your clean, professional website likely will never gain traction.
3. Do Your Keyword Research
   Using the keywords in your website’s text and sales copy that people actually use to find your products and services is a very effective way to help your website see the results you are looking for. Use online keyword research tools (like the Google Adwords Keyword Tool) to help you identify the keywords and search terms that people use when searching for the products and services you sell. One basic strategy is to look for the keywords and keyword phrases that have adequate monthly search volume and as little competition as possible. Using this approach will help you focus on the right keywords and phrases to use on your website.
4. Use Long-Tail Keyword Phrases
   Long-tail keyword phrases are keyword phrases of 4 or more words that specifically describe what a visitor will find on your website. Using long-tail keyword phrases in your website’s text copy will help define and target your website towards your exact buying audience.
5. Optimize Your Website Pages
   Once you have your list of keywords and long-tail keyword phrases, go through each page of your website and make sure to utilize the keywords in varying forms in the meta title, meta description, and even in the page’s URL, if possible. For the ad or text copy on your website, use the keywords or phrases roughly 3 times per 100 words. Make sure the text copy flows normally, as if it were two people talking to each other about your website and business.
6. Add Keywords Near the Top of the Page
   Do your best to include your chosen keywords in the first sentence of the ad copy on each page of your website. Search engines give more value and merit to keywords that are found higher up on the page and above the fold. The portion of the website that is visible on the screen when the page loads (without scrolling) is considered to be above the fold.
7. Be Active on Your Website
   Use the content on the pages of your website to provide the visitors to your site with real value of information. Be actively involved on your website. Write content that is accurate, clear, and to the point. Update the content on your website as frequently as possible. Search engines give more credit to sites that are frequently updated with quality content.

There is no point in launching the world’s greatest website, if nobody can find it, visit it, or buy from it. Build a clean, professional website. Do your keyword research, and implement a sound, effective SEO strategy to help drive qualified traffic and potential customers to your website.

No matter how you spell it, setting up your Internet marketing strategy is important to your online business. Treat it that way.

While on the go, a person may occasionally find himself in area where he is outside of cell phone range and that may mean he can’t access the internet on his phone.  Being cut off from the internet addiction that humankind craves can be challenging.  With so many people online at home, at work, and on the go, wouldn’t it make sense to use SEO marketing to reach potential customers?

Search engine optimization is an effective and inexpensive marketing strategy employed by thousands of businesses and organizations.   It’s a powerful tool that can be used to promote a business even while the company’s marketing executives sleep.  Here are a few reasons organizations today use SEO to influence their businesses:

• Appropriate SEO use can reduce competition.
• It can increase traffic to a website, and consequently, can increase sales.
• Makes a website more visible.
• It is inexpensive marketing.

Competition buster

Let’s be honest.  Many internet users want to get the best search results while putting forth the least effort possible.  This means that they rarely search through pages upon pages of the results from a search engine query in order to find the information they are seeking.  It’s far more common for them to look over the first several entries for relevance, and use them.  When a website is optimized it can drive it to the top levels of search results, pushing the competition further down the list.  Internet users might be more inclined to click on an optimized website rather than one that is not, simply because it appears near the top of a list.  In this way, SEO can easily reduce the competition.

Sales driver 

Plain and simple: the more people visit a website, the more sales will increase online.  Many people do a lot of shopping online, and the competition can be brutal.  It really is helpful to not only be online, but to be ranked highly so internet users can locate the website.  Online shoppers can be pretty savvy, and they may browse the internet and research online for a long time before making a decision.  Just because they spend a long time researching, though, doesn’t mean they will look through all the search results in order to find what they will ultimately buy.  Oftentimes they look at the first few websites that are ranked high and do some rather extensive research from there.  Employing the use of SEO can drive a website to the top of the list so internet users visit it.  Upon entry of the website, visitors can become buyers.

Increased visibility

The higher a website’s ranking, the more likely it is to get hits.  Individuals are more likely to click on websites that are listed higher up on the page than read through pages of search engine results.  As a website climbs up the list it is common to get more site visitors.  Once a site visitor enters a website it’s up to the website owner to seal a deal, but the challenge of getting visitors can be reduced by a lot.  SEO makes a website more visible to more people.

Inexpensive marketing

There are many kinds of internet marketing, but SEO is both effective and pretty inexpensive by comparison.  Pay per click is an advertising model that can help direct internet traffic to specific websites.  It requires the advertiser to pay a website owner a fee each time the ad is clicked on.  The fee can range in price and can be a flat-rate or a bid-based fee.  Either way, the advertiser has to weigh his options to determine the value of paying for this type of advertising.  Will it reach the target audience?  And if so, will it create a sale?  SEO, on the other hand, can drive individuals to a website and can also provide persuasive text that can influence the site visitor to take action; maybe in the form of a purchase.  SEO is an effective and inexpensive marketing strategy and can help drive sales in just about any organization.

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If there was one thing that could increase your profits if done correctly or that could drop your online business off the map if done wrong, wouldn’t you want to know what it is?  Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is one of the most important things businesses can do to boost their online visibility.  Many people have worked with SEO, but with the Panda and Penguin updates by Google, it is more important than ever that it is done correctly.  If SEO does not meet the criteria of the search engines, your site can be penalized.

Increase Traffic to Your Site

One of the biggest reasons to use SEO is so that you can increase the volume of traffic that comes to your website.  You want people who type in keywords that relate to your business to see your company’s website pop up in the search results. If your site is not within the first couple of pages, most people will not keep searching to find you.  SEO is the process of improving your search engine rankings so that your company will move up in the rankings or maintain a presence on the first page of search results. If your site is listed on page 100 of the search rankings, you can be pretty sure no one will find it from a search.

Effective Keywords

When you work with an SEO provider, the goal is to understand how to select keywords and keyword phrases that will provide results.  The words selected must relate to your business.  There are generators to help a person select keywords, but working with an established SEO company can be even more beneficial.  The professionals understand how to select a variety of keywords to target different aspects of your business.  They know what has worked in the past and what is not likely to work.  Most importantly, they understand how and where to use the keywords for the greatest benefit.

SEO for Website Design

The design of your website needs to be visually captivating so that your potential customers will want to stay on the page and purchase your product or service.  At the same time, your website needs to be optimized for the search engines that rank sites.  From the design phase through completion of your website, it is important that SEO is being incorporated.  While your goals include a professional look and user friendliness, they must also include tried and true SEO techniques.  Some of the things that your SEO provider should do are to include appropriate title tags and meta tags in addition to careful keyword placement.

Content is King

High quality content is absolutely critical for effective SEO. The first place you require high quality content is on the pages of your website. One reason for this is the fact that prospective customers will be reading the content on your website and you want them to like what they are seeing.  Your content should be well-written and should follow proper grammatical rules.  There is nothing worse than trying to read a page full of spelling and grammatical errors; most people will quickly exit out of that kind of poor content.  In addition, your content needs to be informative and engaging.  Keeping your content up to date is also important.  Your readers will know if your information is old or incorrect and will look elsewhere for something new and accurate.

High quality content is also very important for the links that are created by your SEO provider.  Often, content is used for this purpose.  You want to be sure that your SEO provider is using high quality content, whether the content is placed in blogs, articles, or even press releases.

Building Backlinks

One of the cornerstones to effective SEO is the building of back links.  The more high-level links that lead back to your website, the higher your site will move up in the rankings.  You need to be sure that your SEO provider understands the importance of the kinds of links that are being used.  You don’t want to be penalized because the back links are from questionable sources.  Generally, the more recognized back links that connect to your site, the easier it will be for your site to be found.  Your back links also need to be natural or “organic” so that the search engines will know that they are not spam.

In a nutshell, effective SEO strategies include well researched keywords, high-quality content and back links, and a well-optimized website.  By working with an experienced SEO provider you can get your website to the top of the rankings and increase the volume of traffic coming your way.

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1. Don’t use the same password on every site, especially for email.

Nowadays, people use their email for everything. They receive bills and pay bills electronically and their email is the portal for everything. A person can’t sign up for anything without it leading back to their email. While email servers, such as Google and Yahoo, pay a ton of money to prevent hackers from being able to access email accounts, smaller sites do not. Smaller sites, such as forums, are easily hacked, and if individuals are using the same password on small sites as they are for the important sites, they can end up having their identity stolen. Once someone has access to an email account, they have access to everything. Think about it. How does someone request a new password if they’ve ‘forgotten’ it? It is sent to their email.

2. Read before agreeing.

Often times, sites will have boxes that can be checked that prevent them from sharing personal information. Be sure to only fill out only the required boxes and uncheck the rest.

3. Consider telling a white-lie.

Let’s face it, a number of sites people sign up for on a daily basis have nothing to do with serious matters. If the site doesn’t pertain to something important, where the information needs to be correct, such as with work, consider filling in false information.

4. If wary about shopping online, but can’t seem to avoid it every now and again, consider using credit cards that are only good for that one transaction.

A number of banks have the option to use one-shot credit card numbers that are only good for one use. Obviously this would become overwhelming if an individual shops on a continuous basis, but it is perfect for someone who only wants to do it now and again and is afraid of risking their identity.

5. Avoid links when dealing with serious matters.

If an email comes in from a bank stating there is a problem with an account, don’t click the links provided. Instead, call the bank to gather further information.

6. Be wary of surfing the web.

While everyone loves encountering new and exciting pages, it can put a person’s identity at risk. Not all sites and pages are created equal and some are less protected than others. If there is a lock at the top of the page, it is a secure connection. Never provide sensitive information on a site where a lock doesn’t appear.

7. Limit the information placed on social media sites.

Facebook and Twitter have become an epidemic, and while most individuals using these sites are surrounded by friends and family members, they are still vulnerable to the outside world and can easily fall victim to identity theft.

8. Avoid phishing scams.

Everyone has received the email of the poor man stranded in Africa (or some other foreign land) and needs money to return home because he only has solid bars of gold with him, or some other nonsense story. These are phishing scams and, while this story may not be all that believable, countless fall victim to the stranger’s plight.

9. Beware of entering sensitive information in public places.

It’s surprising how many times account information is stolen from people looking over other people’s shoulders, but it happens frequently.

10. Once it is on the web, chances are it’s there forever.

So, when all else fails, just don’t put sensitive information on the web. Avoid sending emails with important numbers, like account numbers and social security numbers. Be smart when using the internet.

Author Bio:

Fergal Glynn is the Director of Product Marketing at Veracode, an application security company that offers dynamic analysis tools.

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What does your audience want?

Everyone has a habit of reading two or more articles and reproduce the same matter in different words. No wonder, people are fed up with such time wasting blog posts. To be a successful blogger you must go the extra distance and do some extensive research. You should give information which is entirely new and the audience has never come across before.

Extensive background research

When you are doing background research for an article, try to include that information which prompted even you to say ‘wow’. Your readers will also appreciate if you write unique posts. Most of the posts by average bloggers do not have enough ‘wow’ material and this disappoints the readers. You need to incorporate good materials so that the readers stick with your blog posts. It is always a good idea to attach a video or an image with your blog to enhance the visual appeal of the write-up.

Let the readers enjoy

The bloggers nowadays are real smart and they always strive to provide good content to the readers. In addition they also invite the readers for their inputs regarding a post; in this way the readers feel that they are more involved with the blogs than before. You can also create a separate post mentioning the inputs received from the different readers and leave a space for the opinion and comments of others. Do not forget to respond to the comments left by the readers.

Have an engaging title

The title is a vital part of a blog post as it $indicates what the post is all about without giving away too much information. The language should be fun and punchy to compel the readers to read the entire post. Once you have finished writing the post, make an effort to clear the article of any unwarranted words, phrases and sentences that may put off a reader. The title can be funny and sensitive but not to the point of destroying the whole interest of the post.

The main aim of a blog post is to give enjoyment to a reader. If you miss out on this then the whole effort in writing goes waste. So along with the title your effort should be to make the post interesting throughout. Bits and patches of good content are good but not enough to ensure your longevity in this field.

About the author: Alyssa Clarke is a blogger who loves writing on tech sites the most. She is always on alook out for covering latest news in her posts that range from latest tech stuff to even firefox add-ons. Currently she is planning to do a piece on web and product design tips and tricks.

1. Banging at the gates of Google+ to get a prized invite,
2. Already in Google+ but struggling to understand it, or
3. Still clueless about the whole G+ ordeal. Aren’t Facebook and Twitter enough? Now Google throws this into the social media mix?

Right now, getting into the walls of Google+ is kind of like getting through an airport: it’s all hurry-up-and-wait time. You raced to get an invite, but now you’re sitting and twiddling your thumbs, waiting for users to arrive.

Most people still aren’t on Google+, and those that managed to get an invite still have no idea what to do with the thing. Circles? Sparks? Hangouts? The most common stream on G+ is “I have no idea what I’m doing on this thing.”

The good news for savvy businesses? You get to gain a jump on the competition by being an early adopter of G+. As fledgling Plus users slowly figure out their latest social media acquisition, you’ll one of the first up-and-running Plus users in the field.

Step One: Choose Your Profile Picture Wisely

Even more than Facebook or Twitter, finding a killer profile pic is essential on Google+. Your picture acts as your virtual calling card; it’s the first and the only thing G+ users see when they come across your name.

Google+ requires square-shaped avatars, so choose accordingly. Select a high-resolution image that will immediately grab G+ users’ attentions– but make sure it’s relevant to your business.

Step Two: Sort Out Your Circles

You know how you have one lump of people who “follow” or “like” you on Twitter and Facebook? That one lump is comprised of various interested parties: potential clients, colleagues in your field, or the three immediate family members you convinced to join your page when it was still in its infancy. Whatever you share goes out to the entire lump of people.

On G+, everything’s sorted out in separate circles, and you choose what you share amongst those circles. It’s kind of like having various virtual mailing lists for all of the people in your life. You can send an article you’ve written solely out to your colleagues or share a business special amongst your past clients. Create a VIP Club for your frequent customers or post pictures of your newborn that only your family can see.  

Step Three: Invite People to Follow You

Google+ allows you a relatively lengthy introduction space, so use it wisely. Write an engaging introduction that invites people to follow you. G+ introductions also allow links, so  be sure to link to your website and your various social media profiles. Also, make sure your page’s searchability is set as “Visible in Search” so people can find you on Google.

Step Four: Utilize Sparks

Sparks are essentially a live Google feed for something you’re interested in. For example, a “Movies” spark would keep you easily updated on movie reviews, upcoming films, or casting rumors. Utilize this for your business by easily following industry trends. For example, if you’re a content writing business like Copypress, you’d follow things like “SEO Copywriting,” “Social Media Marketing,” “Blogging,” etc. Then with the click of a “Share” button, you can easily share applicable links with one or more of your circles.

Since G+ is still brand new, you’re not competing with mega-businesses like you would on Twitter or Facebook. Jump in now and build your audience before the G+ waters get too crowded for you to stand out!

Image Source: Topgold via Flickr

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For a website to rank well in any search engine and especially Google it must have links. Although there are many ranking factors at play, links are still key to getting organic traffic. However, the best links according to Google are natural links, that is, when another website chooses to link to your website or their own accord because they like your business. This is considered a “vote” in Google’s PageRank system.

But, if your site is new there is no way for anyone today to find out about it in the search engines. In the past people used to find new websites by searching web directories. Today everyone goes to Google (or one of the other SEs) first. So if you are not in the search index how do you get discovered to then win some natural links? It really is a catch 22 situation. And although Google loves natural links, to get anywhere in the Google you have to build your own links.

Link building is almost considered to be spam. It can be argued that every single link that you personally create with the sole purpose of boosting your site in the search engines is a form of spam. Even if you are contributing to a blog by joining the discussion or writing a guest post, deep down inside you know that you are there to get your links. Is this wrong? Many people think so. Is there an alternative? There are some, but not many.

Google is extremely strict on buying links. If you buy a link on a website just to boost your PageRank then Google will punish you and probably also frown severely on the site that sold you a link. So buying links is not an option as you could get stung and never recover.

So you need a link building strategy of some sort. Really all you can do is accept that from now on every link you get could be treated with mistrust by Google at some future date, because they could change their search algorithms further to reduce the amount of gaming that webmasters and SEOs do. But for now, here is a plan that mostly works, when done right.

First, use some good old fashioned favourites. List your site in all the free directories that are still active and have some good search presence. There a thousands of web directories out there and a vast majority are completely useless, free for all link farms disguised as a web directory, but there are some good ones still. Best way to find a directory that is liked by Google is to search Google. There is no point submitting your website to directories that are not in the Google index, this will do nothing for your SEO efforts.

Blog commenting is another simple link building method. Do not spam. Everyone hates spammers. Go for quality rather than quantity and go for discussion rather than random remarks. So find blogs in your area, or in totally different fields that interest you and join the discussion. Consider your website being linked as an additional extra, not the sole reason for you being there.

Guest blogging is one of the better new ways to build links. Communities such as MyBlogGuest.com bring professional writers, businessmen, bloggers and publishers together. Again, the links are an added bonus, the main reason to guest blog is market yourself and your business to others.

More traditional methods simply involve contacting other websites and asking if they would link. This is very hit and miss, but if you personalise your message you may get lucky. A friendly email praising their site and suggesting how a recent article you wrote would fit in well with their next blog post is one way to ask for a link. Or you could take the route of “please add me to your blogroll”.

Forums are another way to get links. Forum moderators are really hot on spammers these days, so again, like blog commenting, join a community, be a part of it, and then when the time is ripe, share something specific on your site that will add value to the conversation.

If you can get some links using these methods then you will get listed in Google and in time your rankings should increase. Continue to build a high quality site and hopefully people will start to talk about your business and link to you.

Do not forget social media today, this is the next big area and is still evolving. Some SEO pundits believe that in time social media will be as important as traditional links, although the volumes of user interaction will have to be much higher. Maybe 10,000 social media likes will be equal to 1 link on a PR5 website (for example).

Right, now you have a plan, get to work. Happy link building.

Jon Wade writes. He used to dig holes. For a while he moved bits of paper about on desks in some of the worlds biggest financial institutions. But now he writes. Mostly he writes for Shareholders Portal, but also blogs about SEO and Google too, because he finds it interesting and it fills in the time when the markets are a bit slow. SEO is not so much a hobby, more a chore, as there is nothing worse for a writer than having his words go unheard.

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From our attempts you can see the potential value, marketing your clients in 30-second commercials that are affordable and may help their online success.

It was fun and we had a good time creating these videos, but how helpful will these videos be for SEO rankings or Corporate Branding? As with most things only time will tell.

But it is probably worth a few minutes of your time to test it out. We’ll be watching the SERPs to see if these show up.

Big Oak SEO -  A Richmond SEO Company

Not Showing Up In Google Search

As part of the ongoing Google April Fools jokes they have adjusted the the search time from seconds to a host of odd units for measuring time.

You can see the full list below in the screen shots. Look to the right to see the time unit. The first one is my favorite, from Monty Python’s The Holy Grail Fame, “times the velocity of an unladen swallow.” Other time units used include microweeks, microfortnights, jiffies,  parsecs, centons, centibeats, epochs, nanocenturies, hertz, warp, and 23.00 skidoo

Click each image for a larger view.