Friday, February 23rd, 2007
What is Social Bookmarking?
Social bookmarking involves saving bookmarks (web addresses) to a public Web site such as Digg or Del.icio.us so you can access these bookmarks from any computer connected to the web. Your favorite bookmarks are also available for others to view and follow as well, hence the social aspect. If you wish to create your own social bookmarks, you must register with a social bookmarking site (we have many listed below). No you are able to store bookmarks, tag your bookmarks, and share with anyone interested in your bookmarks.
Hopefully you can see the value and power of social bookmarks. You can think of it as viral or guerrilla marketing in a way. It can be a powerful grassroots method of marketing your site. Be careful though, like everything else on the web you can spam these sites and make your list of bookmarks appear unappealing or an obvious marketing ploy which will net you very little.
Keep it honest
Bookmark sites you generally would like to share or feel are valuable, which of course can contain bookmarked web addresses of your own site. If enough people agree with the value of a bookmark you have placed they will bookmark it to and as the popularity grows your site traffic will grow.
Don’t abuse this by submitting every page of your site, try to be judicious and think about what pages of your site may be helpful and of interest to other web surfers.
All things must end
At some point you will reach a place where you are no longer drawing significant traffic from your older bookmarks, but that’s okay. Your social bookmark page should be included in the search engine’s cached sites and they are following your links like any normal web user. In fact, you have created an external link to your site that should be using useful keyword text in the link. The real beauty of this is the fact that others are also providing free one-way links from their own social bookmark pages. So even after the traffic from the bookmarks slow you have the added benefit of a grass roots linking campaign providing solid links to your site, increasing your site’s ranking in the search engines.
While you don’t want to base your SEO campaign on this one technique it should be in your SEO toolbox of tasks.
A Good Start for Social Bookmarking Websites
Here are some of the better social bookmarking websites. It wouldn’t be feasible to become a member of all of these but choosing a few couldn’t hurt. I have listed them in order of their Alexa ranking, which supplies some measure of popularity that should be taken with a grain of salt the size of Rhode Island. In any case here are some of the more popular social bookmarking sites:
- Digg
- Del.icio.us
- StumbleUpon
- Reddit
- Squidoo
- Furl
- BlinkList
- Blogmarks.net
- Ma.gnolia
- Simpy
- Spurl
- BlinkBits
- Shadows
- Raw Sugar
- Yahoo MyWeb
Would you add any others? Do you have a social bookmarking favorite, please send us a comment and share it.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Posted in 52 SEO Tips, Social Media Optimization | 16 Comments »
Wednesday, February 21st, 2007
When considering search engine optimization (SEO), links are an incredibly important element of a successful campaign, but all links are not the same. Links are very important whether they are links within your own site, or links from other websites pointing to the various pages of your site. Search engines consider links when formulating their ranking algorithms. If a search engine’s spider does not follow a link, or cannot see a link, then it does not count as a link for SEO.
Determining the difference between good and bad links can be difficult to spot with the untrained eye. The reason: the links all accomplish the same basic task; they take you to a destination page. We will examine the differences between a few common links: normal, nofollow, redirect, javascript, and flash.
Normal HTML Links
To begin, let’s examine a normal link. The HTML code for a normal link would contain an opening and closing Tag with text or an image inside of it:
<a href=”http://www.yourdomain.com/page.html”>this text is a link</a>
This is the best kind of link to use because search engines precisely understand which page the link is pointing to, the page it’s pointing from, and the text contained within the link. These types of links pass along Google PageRank and add value to your SEO efforts.
Read the rest of the article on identifying links for link building
Popularity: 2% [?]
Posted in Link Building, SEO Strategies, Search Engine Optimization | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, February 6th, 2007
Google has posted about a new webmaster tool. It will allow webmasters to view backlink information which will show who links to your site, which pages are getting the links as well as both internal and external. This will certainly be helpful for webmasters and I applaud Google for allowing us insight, but I’m still bothered by this statement made by Google: “(Note that this may not be 100% of the external links to this page.)”
Oh, well. Better than nothing and a step in the right direction.
I believe Google wants cooperative partnerships with webmasters and ethical SEO companies and this is at least a nice gesture toward that goal. Time will tell, but the future looks a little brighter.
As of Feb. 6, 2007 the Link tab was not yet showing in my Webmaster Tools, we’ll assume it will show up soon.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Posted in Google, Link Building, SEO Tools | 1 Comment »
Friday, February 2nd, 2007
As with most SEO tips, this one is simple, overlooked and easy to do. Your site’s navigation is an important part when providing a pleasant user experience and it can be beneficial in aiding your SEO efforts. Even important is how you handle your internal linking strategy, or your body text links.
Repeat after me: “I must include internal links within my content.” This is the very foundation for Internet: hyperlinking text to provide more information about the linked text. Not only is it crucial for SEO it just makes good sense.
For example, let’s take a look at this page on our client’s site, Agee Woodworks. Within the copy of this web page are a number of keyword phrases that link to other pages within their site. Some of these internal linking phrases include “custom fireplace mantel” and “fireplace shelf“. This is simple and clever way to increase the link popularity of other pages within the site. A text link from the home page is delivering PageRank to internal pages with a targeted keyword phrase. This helps both pages. The only links you can control are the links on your own site, so use them to your best advantage.
Another example, Grote Consulting Services Page, shows how internal linking can guide you through the site and provide a lift for the link destination pages. One of the terms linking on this page is “performance appraisal systems” and when I search in Google for that term it shows a first page listing for the link destination page (http://www.groteconsulting.com/services/performance-appraisal/index.asp). While other factors clearly play a role, don’t discount the helpfulness of an internal link especially when it is one of the few things you have total control over.
Fortunately, for you, very few sites are aware of the importance of internal linking. By using this SEO strategy you help the search engines index more of your site and more importantly those internal links will contribute to higher rankings because of the keyword-rich anchor text that is being used.
Don’t ignore internal linking; use it and watch your own rankings increase.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Posted in 52 SEO Tips, Link Building, SEO Strategies, Search Engine Optimization | 2 Comments »
Friday, January 26th, 2007
While linking is key to success in the SEO game, deep linking is what will set you apart from your competitors.
Be sure to acquire links to all your important pages, not just your home page. It looks odd to the search engines when they notice so many links all pointing to your home page - it isn’t natural. Besides you want visitors coming to the page that will most likely convert them from a visitor to a customer and usually the home page isn’t the best page to accomplish this.
You will have the added benefit of having two pages show in the rankings which always attracts more attention and aids your click through rates. Here is an example. Notice how Big Oak is the shown in the first two listings and the indented listing is more targeted on the search term “seo richmond”. Here is a screen shot in case the link no longer shows the same results.
Deep linking also alerts the search engines to the fact that you probably have good, targeted content if people are linking to your interior or sub-pages. It gives your site a vote of confidence to the search engines to have links pointing throughout your site. If all your links come to your home page it might give the impression your site has little value or its rankings are being inflated unnaturally.
While it is tempting to concentrate links to your home page, you will have many more visitors if you spread the links around. Linking to sub-pages will help those pages rank well, giving your visitors a better chance on finding what they were looking for with one click.
Find a new SEO Tip Every Friday.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Posted in 52 SEO Tips, Link Building, Search Engine Optimization | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, January 17th, 2007
Rather than lose these wonderful idea sites for link building I figured I’d create a blog post I can access from anywhere at anytime. I may post more or accept links from other posters but this is as good a start as you could ask for.
Many pros have put their two cents in and more than a few “creative” ideas. Let you imagination run with these link building ideas. Thanks to all of the sites and authors who took the time to put these together.
- 10 Creative Ideas for Link Building
- 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity - SEOBOOK.com
- 101 Web Marketing Ideas
- Advanced Link Building Strategies - SEMOZ.org
- Out of Link Building Ideas?
- 21 Link Buidling Ideas
- Link Development vs. Traffic Development and Staying with the Times
- More Linking Ideas
- Link baiting - Thoughts by Matt Cutts
- Link Building Guide
- Bonus:Link Building Wiki - sorry,this was too good not to include.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Posted in Link Building, SEO Strategies, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 6th, 2006
At Big Oak SEO we have been employing deep linking for the past year and finding a tool to help with a task like deep linking is a nice surprise. Read on to see how you can begin your deep linking SEO campaign with some help.
Sometimes one of the hardest things to do for any website is build links to deep content.
These are the links that generally will help the site perform best overall in the search engines. This is because while it may take hundreds or thousands of links to help a home page rank highly, it may only take a few to help a deep page rank.
In this article I give you some tips on building those deep links.
I’ve had a tool on my computer since it first came out that I’ve always loved. But it wasn’t until today that I realized it could do much more for me.
The tool is Blinkx Desktop Indexer. (more…)
Popularity: 3% [?]
Posted in Link Building, SEO Research, Search Engine Optimization | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, December 5th, 2006
There are two camps in the world of directory-to-directory reciprocal linking, and each have a distinct approach to the work.
One camp treats linking as a branding function of the business, as well as a way to provide a genuine resource directory for their site visitors. It’s what I call “traditional” reciprocal linking, because that’s all there was to it in the pre-Google days. There were no “games” to play. Many practitioners of this method of linking have been going grassroots web marketing work since the mid-1990s, and they understand it, at their core. Others have learned from these masters, usually by following their successful examples. Their strategy is not very complex, but their approach and methods are very thorough, and they’ve enjoyed some phenomenal search results for a long time. So why change what has always worked? The answer is, they don’t.
The second camp is comprised of people who are absolutely certain that, with the right “tweaking” of their websites, that they can rocket to the top of the search engines. Branding is not the goal. Search engine placement is the over-riding concern, which causes them to pursue all manner of complex strategies and theories, in hopes of “gaming” the search engines. Having read much of this complex theory over many years, and reviewed it against hundreds of real world examples, little of it holds any water. Beyond that, it adds layers of complexity, cost, and work to a process that needs no more. (more…)
Popularity: 2% [?]
Posted in Link Building, SEO Strategies, SEO Tools, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »
Friday, November 10th, 2006
What a great idea, and one that we have been trying out ourselves. Creating entire pages to swap links in and supplying content to other sites to link to you are wonderful ideas. As link marketing becomes more competitive we shall see how things change in the SEO world.
The problem with Search Engine Optimization is that every body does it. Whenever a new technique gets into the public domain, it soon becomes overused. As the SE industry is itself becomes more and more competitive, increasing the pressure to deliver relevant, quality results, the search engines quickly devalue it for their algorithms, in order to maintain the credibility and usability of their search results.
Linking is a case in point. A central factor to “relevancy”, inward/outward links contribute significant weight to page rank and overall search ranking. However, as linking is now both hackneyed and abused, the SE’s are damping or reducing the weighting attached to certain types of links. As they become more sophisticated, the SE’s are able to differentiate between links for their relevance both to the page they are on and the page they point to. (more…)
Popularity: 2% [?]
Posted in Link Building, SEO Strategies, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »
Friday, November 10th, 2006
The first question you have to ask and answer about whether to embark on a reciprocal link exchange program for your website is “why”. After all, it’s work, time and money. It has to stand up to business analysis. I’ve been doing reciprocal linking for websites since 1996. In that time, I’ve seen this work evolve from one that was primarily a way for niche interest, hobbyist-oriented sites to reach out to each other, to one that is now a business function, often driven by the need for quality traffic exchange, and good search engine results.
Web Promotion Before Google
Before Google came along and put the focus on link popularity, only the savviest businesses were running link directories and pursuing links with other relevant sites. Most businesses ignored reciprocal linking.
The prevailing wisdom was that a business website should not link out to anyone else, if they could help it. The concept was that you should capture visitors, hold them hostage, and never, ever cooperate with anybody else. This has been proven wrong.
What’s interesting, though, is that the purpose and linking methods that worked well for those niche sites in the pre-Google days still work well today. It is important to keep this in focus, as there are now a lot of people out there who are trying to do this work using misguided methods, for misguided reasons.
Why Link?
First and foremost, linking should be pursued as a branding function of your business. If other websites that are relevant to your business are running link directories, and offering to list yours for free, then it makes sense to get your site listed. In as many of them as possible. That is just basic Common Sense 101.
In order to get these links, the accepted protocol is to first list the other site on your site, then make the request for a link, using the proper method of submission (via email or online form, if one is provided). This work is specifically termed “directory-to-directory reciprocal linking”.
“Linking should be pursued as a branding function of your business.”
Before people started playing games with PageRank and Alexa rankings, and other tangential matters related to linking, most linking took place between sites within relevant realms of interest. Asking for links outside of your realm was not only rude, but it was almost always a waste of time. Relevancy was the primary criteria, and as long as there was some sound reason for the exchange, and each webmaster approved of the other’s site, it was done. It’s a private exchange between two willing parties, and it should not be judged by others.
The Linking Challenge
The challenge here is that there is a lot of data management work involved in managing directory-to-directory reciprocal link exchanges. So when search engines started to reward sites that had links, the search engine optimization (SEO) crowd, which had largely ignored linking, suddenly needed them in order to succeed.
The SEO crowd began to devise all manner of strategies that were designed to allow them to get the results they wanted, but with as little linking work as possible. We’ve seen theories that only links from pages with PageRank (PR) 4 and higher were “worthwhile”. People claimed that un-reciprocated links were “hurting” your rankings through “PR-leakage”, a concept that has been proven to have no merit. There’s even more bizarre stuff out there, but you get the idea.
Over time, it is becoming clear that the websites that have ignored all of these complex theories and still treat linking as a branding function of the business, whereby they simply continue to pursue relevant links with quality sites, are still doing the best with the search engines. I see this all the time. Traditional linking with quality relevant sites works. Sites that link with quality sites relevant to the same industry get the double benefit of having their sites listed in as many relevant locations as possible, thus getting quality traffic directly from the links, while enjoying considerable search engine benefits.
The Long Term Commitment and Payoff
Treat this work as a branding function of your business. One that never ends. Commit to it, with tools, a budget, and dedicated human resources that will do it properly. Look at it as a long term necessity that really does pay dividends.
It may not be the easiest thing to manage, but many website owners consider reciprocal linking to be the single most cost-effective marketing investment that they have made in their sites. There are other ways to get links to your site, such as the outright purchase of links, or the pursuit of content citations back to your site. But on a cost per link basis, directory-to-directory reciprocal linking is a very favorable investment, when done properly.
Google has risen to the top of the search engine world, in a large part because their algorithm that takes linking into account. It is highly unlikely that they will turn their back on it, and recent indexing changes at Google have only further supported traditional, honest linking practices.
On a more fundamental level, linking is the very foundation of HTML. Which stands for Hypertext Markup Language. The term Hypertext specifically refers to text that is linked and “active”. That is, you can click on it in an HTML browser, and the browser will take you to that location on the World Wide Web. The attraction of text-based linking was the founding reason behind HTML and the World Wide Web. Prior to that, people using the Internet had to enter their destinations manually using arcane codes. HTML and browsers made it easy to navigate the Web.
“Traditional linking with quality relevant sites works.”
It’s very basic, really. The World Wide Web is a new and unique medium. It is a computer network, based entirely on links between pages. The more links you have, the more opportunities you have for people to visit your website. Links are literally the currency of the World Wide Web.
All of this comes down to choices. As it stands right now, those who make no effort to link their sites in some way will only continue to fall further behind their competitors. Since directory-to-directory reciprocal linking is the most cost effective way to get this done, then it should be very high on your list of necessary tasks, if you are serious about promoting a commercial website. It goes with the territory.
Dirk Johnson has been managing link campaigns since the mid-1990s, and writes for various sources on web promotion and linking. His advice and commentary is regarded as “expert through experience.” Dirk’s approach to linking has been more traditional in scope, treating it as a branding function, and not a search engine optimization function. He operates LinkStrategy.com www.linkstrategy.com.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Posted in Link Building, SEO Strategies, SEO Tools | No Comments »
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