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by Carrie Haggerty

Link development is of the most important components of search engine optimization, yet often one of the most confusing. What is link development? Simply put, it is the act of requesting or securing inbound links to your site. The higher your link popularity (more times your link is found on other sites) generally the higher click through rates from these sites and higher your traffic. There are some key elements everyone should know before taking on a linking campaign. Hopefully, the following hints can make your next link development campaign more successful and you will gain the traffic you are looking for.

Choosing your anchor text

Before you start on any linking campaign, you should first do a detailed keyword analysis to find out what your top which keywords would be in your benefit. There are a number of tools out there that can help you with your keywords analysis:

• Wordtracker – A small fee is required but it does give you a great idea of what keywords would be beneficial for all of your successful SEO campaigns.

• Keyword Discovery – Another great source for your keyword analysis.

• Google Adwords Tool – This is by far one of the most beneficial tools. It is free to use and it gives you a great look at the approximate search volume for all keywords. You do not have to be an adwords subscriber in order to use it.

After you have selected your keywords and you know what the best ones are for your site, write out a few text links using those keywords in your anchor text. What is anchor text? Anchor text is the visible part of your link for example:

Check out this article: What everyone needs to know about link development.

The bold italicized is what you would consider to be your anchor text. A better example of using your selected keywords would to be re-phrase it to look like this:

Check out this article: Link Development: What everyone needs to know.

Choosing Your Link Partners

When you are searching for some good quality sites to link from remember the home page PR is not necessarily carried throughout the site. Look to where the potential link will be put, generally you will find a links page or a resources page. While on the page take an assessment, is the PR good? Does the page have over 50 links currently on the page or will it have the potential to exceed that number of links? When you’re looking for reciprocal links you always want to find a site that is directly related to yours, and I will often look for a page with a good PR and very few links outside of the links page and offer to the same this way it benefits both you and your link partner.

A few other hints will help in your quest to find good quality link partners:

• Check to make sure the page is actually indexed by the search engines, it won’t help you if the SE’s can’t find the page you are listed on.

• Do the links have a rel=”nofollow” attribute? These are more and more common especially now on forums and blogs, if you use the firefox browser you can find a tool to help you recognize these link so you know where you can stay away.

Of course the above is all related to finding link partners. The best method for link development is finding places to add your link where it is simply a one way link pointing back to your site. Some great methods for this are, finding good directories to include your link, you can find many free resources throughout the internet, find really well organized directories that potential clients would actually use.

Great method number two, is writing a blog and articles, this topic has been beaten to death, but still today it is essential for one way linking techniques. Find a number of sites that publish articles in your niche and submit often. It just doesn’t stop at one back link per site, if people are reading your articles, then they can be linking to them, re-publishing and getting you more links that you would originally thought it could.

Whether you are finding link partners or doing one-way link campaigns you must arm yourself with the right tools and information to make your campaign very successful, find your own way, we all link differently but just don’t forget to get your inbound links!

Contact Carrie for a professional link development campaign done right: carrie@abalone.ca

Corporate blogs are the (not so) new seo tool that are vastly becoming popular on a number of sites showing up on and around the web. How do blogs help your SEO campaign? Well there are a number of factors that blogs can help you with in terms of SEO.

First of all, they are adding content. What is content? Content is king. When you decide to add a blog to any site you must first of all commit to actually adding content, at the very least on a weekly basis. The best content of course is original articles written by you or someone within your company. If you are not as scholarly as you would like and find it difficult to write articles on your desired subject, you can find yourself a content writer, there are many available for just this purpose, and you can verbalize what you would like to be told in an article and have them then put that verbage into an article, and voila! This can of course become very costly.

Another great way to add content, is to read articles written by other authors and comment on them. Find articles that you agree or disagree with and add your own ideas to that article (Alway’s remember to cite those authors). Finally the true tested method is keep up to date with the latest news in your field and keep your readers and customers up-to-date on the developments. Anyway you decide to keep your blog updated, just be sure you do just that. Blogging is a dedication and you will gain the benefits in your SEO efforts.

Secondly, a blog can be independently marketed within your SEO campaign. There are a number of blog directories such as blog catalog and Blogorama that you can add your blog to for free. These directories are great places to gain traffic to your site and find other interesting blogs to read and learn from. You may be familiar with blog traffic sites which can gain your blog a number of loyal readers. These sites like Blog Mad and Blog Soldiers offer you a way to increase the number of times your site is being seen by simply surfing through a variety of sites included in their data base. Another great marketing tip for your corporate blog marketing.

A blog needs to be a functional and helpful resource and this will gain a number of subscribers to any blog. The more subscribers the blog has commenting and reading the content, the more likely your blog will create a buzz and become a useful tool to a number of people in your industry or field. What happens next, you ask? Natural linking. The ultimate in link development. By natural linking I mean, if your site is known as the ultimate resource other websites will naturally link to your blog as a tool for their clients and customers. We call this link baiting in the SEO world. Blogs are some of the best link bait there is in the seo world. So make your blog as creative, fun and informative for your readers so they will come back time and again.

In summary, SEO consists of two major components. Content development and link development, both of which can be achieved with the assistance of a blog. The initial stages of any new search engine optimization campaign can be difficult, but if you commit and stick to the power of blogging, you can create a community within your field and be a huge success in your SEO efforts.

Have a great night!
See you on the flip side!

Carrie

The question is how important is web design for your SEO?

When you are building a website, or picking a designer for your website you should make sure that the designer keeps their code clean. What do I mean by this you ask? Well, take the time and look at the code, you want nice clean coding. Do not let them fill your site with font tags and a bunch of java script. This day and age a good webmaster should know that CSS will make your code neat and tidy for the search engines as they crawl through, as well you can often time link your java script from a separate file on your server. Most importantly, do not fill your code with spam. Use your alt tags wisely, do not describe the picture in the code use that in your visible text. Use only viable meta tags, there is a lot of them out there, but they have been devalued and could hurt you more than help you.

The next biggest mistake I find on websites is navigation, or the lack there of. You work really hard to get your site to the first page with great SEO techniques, then you have no one staying on your site because they are having trouble finding their way around your site. When you think of SEO, you think of getting top page results, but they do not call it internet marketing for nothing (marketing being the operative word). Remember you are trying to provide the best product and the best price, but if they can’t find their way to that product, all is lost. The importance of navigation as far as SEO goes, is text links. Do not hide your navigation in java, flash or CSS only, be sure you have some text links on your page. I generally add any text links near the bottom of the page especially if you have a top navigation, it allows your visitors a place to go once they reach the bottom.

Last but never least is consistency. Your web page should have a common theme throughout. You want your visitors to recognize your site the whole way through. Web site’s are not homes, do not decorate differently on each page. You do not want your visitor thinking they have left your site and then moving on to a competitors site. Another good rule of thumb is when you are adding external links on your site, use the target tag. This allows for the external link to opened in a different window and tab which makes it easier for the potential client to wander back in your direction and hopefully purchase that product or service that you are offering.

Clean, easy to navigate sites will draw in more potential revenue, help you on the search engines with top page results and could even get advertisers to want to be on your site. SEO always starts with design, think ahead and you will save valuable time and money!

Search engine optimization is not an exact science. Anyone who is in the industry or has successfully executed a SEO campaign knows that it can take a number of months before you can truly reap the benefits. With that being said, search engine optimization starts from the birth of a website. If you own a website or are thinking of starting one, arming yourself with some useful information during the beginning stages will make your campaign run a lot smoother.

Stage 1. Designing your site. This is the most critical of all stages, if your site is not search engine friendly you have already began the costly road to re-design. Talk to your web designer and make sure he doesn’t talk you into a flash website or a website that uses frames. Although frames have been almost put to rest, I will on a occasion run into a site or two and find myself shaking my head and well flash sites are very attractive to the visitor, all your vital content is put into a file that search engines can’t crack. IF you really do love a flash site, there are ways to get around this. Simply ask your designer to create you a html version of your site so you can offer one for visitors and one for search engines. As for e-commerce sites do your research carefully, there are many free shopping carts and database driven sites that will talk big and look good but do not have certain features that can be a crucial part of search engine optimization. Look for seo friendly URL’s, editable title tags for each individual page, ability to change content when new and updated information comes available.

Stage 2. Site completion. When your site is ready to go and fully designed start the initial steps to linking. Search engines like Google and Yahoo! can not find you unless you let them know you are there. Look at the biggest directories and start submitting. FYI, the sooner you get yourself submitted to DMOZ the better. If you want to talk true test in patience try to get listed in that monstrosity in a timely manner, but I digress. Now there are many SEO’s will dazzle you with the idea that you will need to re-submit to these search engines and directories but trust me with saying that once is enough, and often times there may be a penalty issued if you submit your site too many times. Let your friends know you have a website, add it to your myspace, facebook & linkedin or any social bookmarking site that you use. If your friends have a website , go ahead buy them lunch and ask them to add your link. The more time you spend linking before hiring an SEO firm, the less time you spend waiting for results.

Stage 3. Keyword Analysis. Find out your best choice of keywords. What are people searching for, sometimes you think you know the right keyphrase but you can be completely wrong. Talk to your colleagues, clients and friends. Ask what they would type when searching for your product or service. In most cases it can be fairly easy. You own a bed & breakfast in anytown, your obvious choice would be “anytown bed and breakfast”. With some simple research you can find your best keywords.

The next phase is to decide weather you want to start this campaign yourself or hire a SEO firm. In either case you can be waiting to see top page results for up to 6 months, with an established site with a starting page rank. If you are a brand new site, this process can take up to a year. Remember Rome wasn’t built in a day, and SEO is an investment you can not afford to pass by. Marketing in any size will take time, but if you are patient and let the ball roll as it should you will see how your investment pays you back tenfold.

If you have a question that you would like to see answered please email me and I will do my best to get it answered for you.

The very sound of this can almost make anyone who is new to the SEO world put their tails between their legs and run. What is link baiting? It’s the latest crave in the SEO world to obtain links naturally. In essence, you look for a hook that will get people talking and hopefully linking.

There a number of methods to achieve this goal and I will set out to touch base on a few in this article, but to be completely honest it is mainly a matter of being unique and creative. What would you like to see when you are looking for your service or product, what would make you link back to your website.

• One of the most common methods is news. Keep on top of your industry, become a news source for your are of expertise. Whether you are an SEO professional, Mortgage Broker, or have a private practice. There is always something new to report on, in today’s fast pace work you have to be on the ball. Give your opinions on the new methods, craves, and ideas. It can be a great way to get a following with other professionals.
• Make your site a valuable resource. Offer competitions, online tutorials, and great information. Get out there and create a buzz, let people know that you have a glossary or a video online, be interactive and get to know your readers. Offer a chance for them to have a voice especially someone who is new to your industry and is just looking for a helping hand in the right direction.
• You can add controversy, challenge an authority in your industry, openly engage and disagree. More often than not you will get a number of people that will be willing to confront and take on your theory, and a few that will back you up. When you are challenging a fellow colleague be confident with your argument and have the resources to defend your ideas. Otherwise you could be made to look the fool (unless that is your tatic) in that case, humor works well as link bait as well.

Take the initiative, talk to people, drop your business card. Spend time on forums and make yourself a well known entity. The more friends you have the easier it is to start a following. Let your fingers do the talking and start a blog. Once you get into the groove you can see your links build themselves.

To sum up link baiting, you need to create a need, try something that new. Be original and talk about your new idea every chance you get, online and off line. Once you create that distinguishing trait your link building gets that much easier! Good luck, and have fun!

Search Engine Optimizer’s often have two different views when it comes to meta tags. One this is unanimous meta tags have definitely been devalued for use in most major search engines but you will find they are still being used as the description often times when your site is listed in the search results.

Meta tags were started back in the early 90’s when the internet was just getting it’s brand new legs and they were used to help the search engines organize the growing number of web pages. This was an easy way to make your site indexed and listed high. Soon after unethical webmasters started to abuse the meta tag by either spamming the page full of so many keywords or sometimes even made different websites appear in the results for a completely different keyword. Gambling sites would stuff their meta tags with more commonly used phrases in order to bring their sites to the first page and trick the search engine and moreover the user.

Now obviously, most search engines have discontinued the use of meta tags for organizing their search engines, algorithms have become much more technologically advanced and they use a number of other methods to index and sort. The big question is if they are no longer viewed as a helpful tag, why do some SEO’s still use them.

Meta tags a a multitude of different uses and names, so which ones do you use? There are four that I often find myself using when I am optimizing a site. They are as follows:

• Meta Robots: This tag is still widely supported and it simply tells the search bots to either follow the url through or you can ask them not to index certain parts of your site for aspects that may not be relevant to your actual site.

• Meta Description: My favorite tag, this is your first impression, if you don’t have this tag search engines will just tag clips of your index page including the keyword that was being searched for by the surfer. First impressions often is the difference between a sale or no sale.

• Meta Keywords: A controversial meta tag, some use it, some don’t. I still thinks it holds a bit of value if you keep it simple. Don’t add more than 20 or so keywords, and I think it does increase your on page keyword density.

• Meta Content Type: This is recommended because you may find that if you do not have this tag it could cause display problems

Now, well most search engines do not use the meta tags as they did in the early nineties, but as I explained you can still use them for a variety of other uses. There of course are a number of opinions on this matter, some SEO firms are strong believers in the meta tag and other firms are strongly against it.

In conclusion, my opinion is that meta tags can be used for a number of alternative reasons now and still offer you a great place to sell your stuff. I always will recommend the use of at least a small number of Meta Tags, and if used correctly will greatly improve your chances of higher sales & higher rankings.

If you have a question that you would like to see answered please email me and I will do my best to get it answered for you.

**Update**
Published in Entireweb Weekly Newsletter

Where you start? There are a number of free services that can show you how many people are searching on a daily, monthly or yearly basis. To name a few:

Overture
Word Tracker
Google Adword: Keyword Selection Tool

Remember when you are researching your terms to start broad then work your way down to more specific selections. Sometimes what YOU think is the most searched keyword is not actually case. You will find that the more broad terms of your keywords will often have more searches but because of geographic location you will not get the most out of it.

For example if your website deals with “small business loans” the obvious choice would be that exact key phrase, but often you are just dealing with small business loans in specific locations and so you could find a number smaller keywords that are targeting your actual location. These are often less competitive and will target the actual market that you specify.

Search engine optimization is a form of marketing, so always think of your potential clients first. If you combine a great keyword strategy, excellent content with a diligent linking campaign you will surely find your self on the first page of the search engines in not time.

I hope you enjoyed this first of many FAQ’s that I will be answering over the next few months. If you have a question that you would like to see answered please email me and I will do my best to get it answered for you.