Linking, Do it Right
What IS link building?
I can tell you right now, it’s not a place you find on the web where you join a link exchange program to get some links to your web site. I made that mistake already. You don’t have to.
It’s not a web site on the Internet you find and hit “submit link” and think your rankings will get you on the first page of Google and thousands of people will come flocking to your site because they can finally find you.
And it’s definitely not an automated link exchange program you found to get you automatic links while you sleep.
What about a free link exchange? Don’t do it if it’s an FFA (free for all) web site. Period. Just do not submit your web site link there, ever.
So what CAN you do to get started on some serious link building techniques that will get you listed on the first page of Google?
- Do your homework.
- Find out what keywords people are actually typing into the search engines, not which ones you “think” you want to rank for that people “might” be typing into a Google or Yahoo search engine box.
- If you merely “guesstimate” which keywords you want to build links for, you just wasted one valuable year of your life. If you want to know the # 1 Keyword Research Tool is that I use, please go to my web site and view item 3 of this article.
- Check your competition’s web sites. Type a keyword you want to rank for on Google, then look at the first two organic (free) web sites’ source code. What keywords are in their title tag? Grab them. Start making a list on a piece of paper of these keywords.
- Repeat step 4 for any keywords you’ve researched that actually GET searches, then, and only then, can you start some serious, one way link building efforts.
- There is quite a bit more research I can tell you to implement regarding your competition, and you can find out how many links you will need to beat your competition, but that will have to be for another day. You’re already 99 per cent ahead of the game with the steps I’ve outlined for you in this free link building article.
- Start writing articles. Not just any articles, either. Make sure the title of your articles start with one of the keywords you just spent time reasearching. If you want to rank for SEO Services, then make sure your article title is something like, SEO Services for Less. Always try and make the first words in your title tag and article titles your primary keywords. The search engines read from left to right.
- Place the primary keywords in the first sentence or paragraph of your article, then again in the last sentence or paragraph of your article.
- Make sure you place other secondary keywords you have researched that are in direct relation and highly relevant to your article and product–place these secondary keywords throughout your article. Make sure they flow for the reader. It must make sense.
- Once you have an article with at least 500, preferable 750, words, post it on article directory site in the related category to your product or service. Make sure you choose an article directory site that lets you make your primary keyword an anchor text link. If they only let you place your web site in the article, or only under the author’s information, I wouldn’t waste my time submitting my unique, original article on their site. (Do not submit the article on more than one article directory site.)
- You are trying to get one way links with anchor text primary keywords to your relevant landing page.
- Do not send every article to your home page. Send it to an article or page you have written that has the article and title keywords in the URL. This will then be highly relevant anchor text link, and you will rank easier for that keyword.
- We all want to outsource. But you will get seriously burned if you hire someone who has no idea how to get you one way link building correctly. Hire an extreme SEO expert. Everyone says they are an expert though. It takes more effort for an SEO professional to undo the damage done by uneducated link builders all over the Internet who seriously do not have a clue how to optimize for true, one way link building.
If you have a website, and you would like to help me out by putting my web site link on your home page, it would mean a lot to me.
Or, perhaps you can grab my RSS feed and share my new articles with others when I publish them. Hey, it doesn’t hurt to ask for help, because I enjoy helping others, too.
Keep up on link building, because it is an ongoing effort. Your competition will keep adding more links for your primary keywords, so you have to keep building yours to get higher search engine rankings, too.
10 reasons why websites fail
You’ve taken the time to finally build a website, and now it is
online. Months go by. Maybe you get a few visitors now and
again. Maybe you land on the search engines. Mostly though, it
just sits there. Is the website you paid for pulling its weight?
A website is a tool and can be of significant help to your
business. It can cut a lot of time you put into giving
information to customers. It can answer questions and perform
tasks for you. Find out where websites fail to perform and how
you can figure out where to make it better.
1. Undefined Website Objectives
Some sites try to do way too much at once, or worse, they have
no definable purpose. Many offer no clear objective. A site can
do more than look good and flashy and have your contact
information.
Websites can be informational, storing content and articles
based on a topic. Sites can run eCommerce solutions that help
you with your sales process. It can also generate leads, asking
customers to fill out forms with their information and
interests. It can also be a hybrid site, with mixed purposes,
like offering a free ebook or free access to information
(informational) in return for contact information (lead
generation).
Defining the purpose of your website gives a clear direction to
your customers. Where should customers arrive when they find
your website? Where do you want them to end up? Using a clear
path and clear objectives, you can lead them through your site,
your products, and your information, depending on how you need
to sell your products. Not all products or services can be sold
directly in an eCommerce situation. Maybe you prefer just
getting to know your customer a bit more, and being able to
forward marketing materials, so a lead generation type of site
might be more suitable.
Assign a secondary objective. Maybe after visitors sign up for
free access, or an ebook, they are encourage to ask more by
contacting your sales reps, or perhaps they can make a direct
purchase online. Use a clearly definable call to action. “Email
for more information.” “Click here to sign up.” Tell visitors
where to go.
2. Unidentified Target Audience
Demographics have been used in marketing for generations.
Marketers use the information because it works. Knowing who your
audience is defines the purpose to your website and calls
out those who qualify and would be interested in your products.
Marketing is the one area where discrimination is actually a
good thing! You don’t want to waste the marketing dollars that
draw people to your site who won’t need your products in the
first place.
Get to know who your clients are. Are they male or female? How
old? Where are they located? What do they do for a living?
Habits, income levels, preferences, they can all be discovered
with a quick email, phone call or have your current customers
take surveys and help you figure out what your clients want.
3. Building for the Wrong Audience
Your site can have a purpose and a select audience, but if it
doesn’t appeal to audiences, they tend to go elsewhere. Finding
preferences is only the first step. Once you figure out what
your demographic is, it is time to find out what appeals to
them, and use that to your advantage. It could be something as
simple as site colors and images, to where and how they prefer
to use navigation systems and the type of content presented.
Maybe you need simple content, easy to read and understand for
younger audiences. Perhaps you need something a bit more
technical for professionals. You can even see if you need to add
features for those who are visually impaired. Paying attention
to your demographic and their preferences can mean building your
website around their likes and getting more responses.
4. Oblivious to Web Traffic Sources
A link on a Harry Potter fan club forum to your website can
bring in traffic, but does it really bring in the right
customers? If you’re not directing traffic from sites relevant
to yours or where a matching market exists, you might end up
with empty hits to your website. It looks pretty on stat pages
but it doesn’t really do anything.
Refocus your efforts on search engine optimization and focus on
keywords that do fit, not just what might be popular. You can
plan the sort of traffic you want and focus your outreach
efforts on that. Planning your search engine campaigns can make
them more effective, bringing the right customers to you. You
don’t need 1,000 random visitors a day, when 100 qualified
visitors will do.
5. Underestimating the Competition
Who says you can’t grab ideas from your competition? Find out
what they are lacking and draw customers to your site by adding
more features and information. Your target audience is searching
the web for your product. Don’t let your competition become
more appealing.
Understand your competition by observing their sites. Where are
your competitors linking? Where aren’t they? What designs do
they use on their site? Does your target audience like that type
of design or do they want something better? Figure out how to
improve on your own site and make it better than your
competition.
Come back tomorrow for the next 5.
What to write about
Ok, You’ve started a blog.
You have your domain name.
You picked your layout, and you page looks good. you have everything set up. You’ve written your About me page, Links are ready, RSS feeds are set, ect.
Now what?
First of all, you need a General Theme or Topic. It could be Cooking, The internet, About blogging, Business, Personal… the possibilities are endless.
You cannot really start a blog properly without getting the basics sorted out. It’s like building, You cant build anything without laying the foundation first.
I would recommend blogging about something you know about or something you are going to learn about and know well. So if you are studying Graphic design, you can blog about Graphic designing and new things you learn as you go on. If you are a business person, you can share your experiences and ideas by using your blog. If you are a mechanic, well, then write/blog about it.
I know many people who just blog about their personal life. That’s fine. Mostly blogs are about a certain topic or a profession.
Idealy you want to have a domain name that has something to do with what you are going to blog about. Something like this is Great: Problogger.net. This guys name is Darren Rowse, he blogs about bloggin. He is a “professional blogger” and he writes about it. So his domain name is great. It is exactly what he is talking about. Professional blogging. 
The reason why you want it like that is for Search Engine Optimization. (I will talk about it another day.) It’s basically to make your search on Google or other search engine more related to your blog. It will pick up: problogger.net, Oh its about professional Blogging. Your rankings will go up because of that reason.
( again, I will chat about Search Engine Optimization at a later stage.)
You don’t necicerally need to write about only one thing. You can mix it up a bit. There is nothing wrong with that. When you blog about something and stay on topic, your search engine rankings will be better, and you will probably have more return Customers than when you mix it up. It CAN be done, but if you are a new blogger, and want people to read what you have to say, stay on topic.
Lastly: My blog is generally about the internet. I write about things I think people out there should know about. I try and give the best general advice I can and help out where I can.
I would like for you, My readers, to let me know what you want to know about the internet. ANYTHING about the internet. Please leave a comment, or email me and I will write about it and let you know what I know. If I haven’t written about it yet.
Website usability interfere with rankings?
Do search engines care about the usability of your web pages? Does it make a difference whether your web pages are easy to navigate or not?
A recent patent application from Yahoo indicates that search engines might take a look at your web page design. The document includes a long list of factors that search engines can consider to determine the usability of a web page.
Why can usability be important to search engines?
The patent application contains a short paragraph that explains why search engines might consider the usability of web pages:
“It can be important to make web pages easy and pleasing to use, which can be particularly important for web pages it is desired to monetize. [...].
If such web pages are not easy and pleasing to use, the money-making potential of those web pages can be jeopardized. One conventional indication of whether a web page is easy and pleasing to use is called ‘clutter.’”
Web pages with good usability usually have a higher conversion rate than cluttered web pages. Web pages with good usability often have a higher quality than other web pages and search engines try to return high quality web pages in their search results.
The HTML code of your web pages must make a good impression to search engines. If search engines find that your web pages don’t have the right content then these pages cannot get high search engine rankings.
a new begining
Hi there all, My name is Robert Jooste.
I’ve been blogging for about a year now, on and off. I work as a computer technician and run a computer company. Throughout my travels I meet alot of people who know a little about computers and even less about the internet. Some know a little more than others.
My goal is to share as much information about the internet as I possibly can. I use the internet as my main source of communication and spend allot of time working on the internet and doing research. So I believe I know a few things.
To achieve this goal I will need as much input from my readers as possible. By leaving comments or by emailing me with suggestions and questions. This is a new blog and I’m still doing work on it. (it needs alot)
So for now, if there is anything you want to know about, let me know.
