There are easily about thirty to forty great directories that pass page rank value and link juice, and are actually worth the money and time submitting to. I always choose quality directories over quantity of directories because any technique used in unusually high volume can be considered spam. The best web directories are human edited and have large quantities of inbound links that are already indexed in Google. Some free web directories are worth submitting to even with the associated downfalls and additional requirements such as requiring a reciprocal link back. Usually free web directories take longer -multiple weeks or months to approve your submission making them less desirable versus paid directories that review quickly. Try not to submit to more than one web directory hosted on the same Class C Block IP address. In short both paid and free directories can be of value, but paid directories accelerate indexed backlinks.
Deep Linking Directories
The first couple of months on a new site linking campaign I will consistently submit to valuable directories, then in the coming month(s) submit to the remaining list of great directories that have good deep linking features included. I keep an updated list of great deep linking directories that provide links to your site's internal pages.
Fundamental Web Linking Concepts
There are fundamental reasons for links that should be stated. You want your site spidered regularly and indexed in the search engines; you want sufficient link popularity meaning a high quantity multiple-keyword incoming links to compete with other sites that have already established their search visibility; and you want highly focused keyword anchor text links passing value and supporting the most difficult search queries you're trying to rank for.
The Right Links & Less Desirable Links
You want a higher quantity of links that are narrowly focused for your top level keywords, and you also want a lesser quantity of links supporting your long-tail keywords or secondary keywords identified in your H2 tags. Less desirable links are those that are positioned in the header, footer, or margin of a web page, or links that are surrounded by blank space, sponsored content, links going to other outside low Page Rank sites, or links originating on non-indexed low-value pages. You want links that have keyword anchor text supporting your keyword and page ranking objectives -links that originate on good web pages.
More desirable are contextual links that are surrounded by topical word content making them more beneficial to your site and more relevant. Natural Links imbedded into the natural flow of body and sentence content that don’t appear so blatant are best, whether originating on your site or an external web page. Don't forget to mix up your anchor text with different sequences of keyword(s) order.
In general I have found that directories, blogs, and your own content are the best sources to begin establishing the kind of links you need.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Inbound Links and a Diversified Link Profile
Linking is a wide-ranging topic because there are many types of links, reasons for links, and because of the special relationship that exists between links and content.
Good linking relationships and practices are necessary in order to achieve superior SERP (ie. search engine results pages) results and desired web search visibility. It’s important to have a working understanding of all the different link purposes. The objective of this blog section is not to convey every single aspect of linking (ie. How to Link), the objective is to point out how linking relationships fit in to the broad picture.
Inbound Links
Inbound links are live hyperlinks published on other domains that lead direcly to your site. Common sources of inbound links are hyperlinks from websites published by other webmasters, web directories both paid and unpaid, blogs in the blogosphere, online press releases, article distribution services, newswire services, social media sites, Wikis like Aboutus.org, links that you initiate and links that other webmasters initiate voluntarily in seeking a reciprocal link exchange, and unfortunately in rare cases there can be malicious links that need to be uncovered and identified originating from from Black Hat SEOs that seek to damage your online reputation.
The link hierarchy concept places value on the different types of link building techniques.
One great source of BOTH targeted traffic and inbound links is Article Distribution Services. Writing good topical articles and publishing them in Article Directories is a solid strategy for linking. Our favorite article directories include: Ezinearticles.com, Goarticles.com, and Articledashboard.com. There are a multitude of worthy free sites to publish your relevant articles for your industry niche.
All Links Are Not Created Equal
Inbound links are needed in order to get your website spidered. I believe good inbound links provide more value than the results from submitting to search engines. You want links: from web pages with high Google page rank (PR), from web pages gaining PR, from web pages with as few outgoing links as possible, from web pages with similar topic content. You want links: with relevant surrounding contextual content with keyword anchor text. You want links from a site’s home page if possible, next in priority is from a site's internal pages. You want links from sites having good incoming link popularity and link authority - which creates for you a high link equity backlink! Site-wide links (ie. ROS, run of site links) from each and every page of a particular site leading into your site could well be seen as spam so this practice should be avoided. You want links pointing to your single top-level keywords pages, but just as important to move your site up in relevance you want deep links leading to your internal pages with your long-tail keywords which establishes a more natural appearing link profile.
With the right kind of good inbound link reputation links you will likely not need ongoing submissions of your site to the major search engines. I usually submit the home page one time to the major search engines and then never submit again. With good search visibility your existing content and fresh content coming online will be discovered naturally and indexed.
Diversified Link Profile
Good linking relationships and practices are necessary in order to achieve superior SERP (ie. search engine results pages) results and desired web search visibility. It’s important to have a working understanding of all the different link purposes. The objective of this blog section is not to convey every single aspect of linking (ie. How to Link), the objective is to point out how linking relationships fit in to the broad picture.
Inbound Links
Inbound links are live hyperlinks published on other domains that lead direcly to your site. Common sources of inbound links are hyperlinks from websites published by other webmasters, web directories both paid and unpaid, blogs in the blogosphere, online press releases, article distribution services, newswire services, social media sites, Wikis like Aboutus.org, links that you initiate and links that other webmasters initiate voluntarily in seeking a reciprocal link exchange, and unfortunately in rare cases there can be malicious links that need to be uncovered and identified originating from from Black Hat SEOs that seek to damage your online reputation.
The link hierarchy concept places value on the different types of link building techniques.
One great source of BOTH targeted traffic and inbound links is Article Distribution Services. Writing good topical articles and publishing them in Article Directories is a solid strategy for linking. Our favorite article directories include: Ezinearticles.com, Goarticles.com, and Articledashboard.com. There are a multitude of worthy free sites to publish your relevant articles for your industry niche.
All Links Are Not Created Equal
Inbound links are needed in order to get your website spidered. I believe good inbound links provide more value than the results from submitting to search engines. You want links: from web pages with high Google page rank (PR), from web pages gaining PR, from web pages with as few outgoing links as possible, from web pages with similar topic content. You want links: with relevant surrounding contextual content with keyword anchor text. You want links from a site’s home page if possible, next in priority is from a site's internal pages. You want links from sites having good incoming link popularity and link authority - which creates for you a high link equity backlink! Site-wide links (ie. ROS, run of site links) from each and every page of a particular site leading into your site could well be seen as spam so this practice should be avoided. You want links pointing to your single top-level keywords pages, but just as important to move your site up in relevance you want deep links leading to your internal pages with your long-tail keywords which establishes a more natural appearing link profile.
With the right kind of good inbound link reputation links you will likely not need ongoing submissions of your site to the major search engines. I usually submit the home page one time to the major search engines and then never submit again. With good search visibility your existing content and fresh content coming online will be discovered naturally and indexed.
Diversified Link Profile
A diversified link profile is needed where your inbound links originate from five or more types of content (ieg. social networking sites, social bookmarking sites, blogs, other web sites, directories, articles, press releases, and RSS Feeds. By examining your competitors’ links in the your competitive analysis phase you can get a reasonable idea of your competitors' most valuable sources for links links as they're generally listed in order of priority in the search engine operators reporting results.
You can also set up your own Google Profiles page to add to your online visibility. We have set up a Google Denver SEO Consultants profiles page for example to help our link profile.
Examining Competitors' Links
Uncovering your competitors' web links is easily accomplished using the different SEO Tools and search engine operators that are free and easily accessible.
Keyword Research
Keyword research is the foundation from which to start the project of building a successful site.
Keyword research is not difficult, but must be comprehensive and ongoing in order to compete and win on the web, and especially to create a relevant site. I use numerous analytical tools and sites to perform keyword research such as Worktracker, Keyword Discovery, Google Adwords Keyword Tool, and Compete.
Google Adwords keyword tool is great to discover related topics and search terms for new web page ideas and to get ideas on keywords that are associated with your topic that you might have missed or overlooked.
The overall objective for keyword research is to identify keywords and keyword phrases: for top level keywords; for long-tail keywords; for supporting query space industry buzz words and terminology terms that can be integrated into your content; to identify higher KEI keyword opportunities; to identify keywords your competitors are ranking and optimizing for; and to get as many ideas as possible for fresh web page content that may be indexed and help reinforce your site's theme and overall relevance -creating high authority site.
Keyword Research is one area where the client should make some decisions depending upon what they want their site to be about and their overall budget for creating additional web pages of supporting and related content topics.
Keyword research is not difficult, but must be comprehensive and ongoing in order to compete and win on the web, and especially to create a relevant site. I use numerous analytical tools and sites to perform keyword research such as Worktracker, Keyword Discovery, Google Adwords Keyword Tool, and Compete.
Google Adwords keyword tool is great to discover related topics and search terms for new web page ideas and to get ideas on keywords that are associated with your topic that you might have missed or overlooked.
The overall objective for keyword research is to identify keywords and keyword phrases: for top level keywords; for long-tail keywords; for supporting query space industry buzz words and terminology terms that can be integrated into your content; to identify higher KEI keyword opportunities; to identify keywords your competitors are ranking and optimizing for; and to get as many ideas as possible for fresh web page content that may be indexed and help reinforce your site's theme and overall relevance -creating high authority site.
Keyword Research is one area where the client should make some decisions depending upon what they want their site to be about and their overall budget for creating additional web pages of supporting and related content topics.
Four Steps for Search Engine Optimization
The four main interrelated areas of knowledge for search engine optimization are keyword research, content organization, search visibility, and linking relationships.
If your small business is seeking a Littleton, CO SEO Consultant we offer professional SEO Services along the Colorado Front Range.
Keyword Research
Extensive keyword research using analytical tools is the first step, taking into consideration how people search, search engines algorithms, your own site keyword objectives, and your competitors’ keywords.
Content Organization
It’s not only quality content but well organized content showing focus and emphasis that is needed. Think of a web page as an outline: title, meta data, and well organized paragraphs with relevant content supporting H tag headings. Blocks of content in paragraphs using appropriate emphasis is powerful and effective. Sometimes SEOs ignore the most basic and fundamental concepts.
Search Visibility
Search visibility is the intersection of links and content. You need inbound links, excellent internal linking (often underutilized as a technique), good site architecture, and well-organized content so the website has a natural flow of both links and content internally from web page to web page. Optimizing pages with keywords should pull in targeted search engine traffic, then it’s up to the web design to direct visitors towards the call to action –whether it is to fill in a form, complete a transaction, or pick up the phone and call. The end result of search visibility is targeted traffic matching your keyword plan, a great user experience with visitors staying on the site longer and visiting more and more pages, and a site that performs based upon its chosen keywords. Other topics that contribute to search visibility are site uptime and your robots.txt file.
Linking Relationships
You need inbound links, internal links, and outbound links connecting to the web. If a site has three broad topics with multiple web pages on each topic, the topical web pages should be cross-linked from within the body of content. Human visitors can handle about eight links per page easily, more than that can be confusing. You need planned anchor text links leading to your home page, but in addition for great search visibility and relevance you need deep links into your most important internal web pages.
If your small business is seeking a Littleton, CO SEO Consultant we offer professional SEO Services along the Colorado Front Range.
Keyword Research
Extensive keyword research using analytical tools is the first step, taking into consideration how people search, search engines algorithms, your own site keyword objectives, and your competitors’ keywords.
Content Organization
It’s not only quality content but well organized content showing focus and emphasis that is needed. Think of a web page as an outline: title, meta data, and well organized paragraphs with relevant content supporting H tag headings. Blocks of content in paragraphs using appropriate emphasis is powerful and effective. Sometimes SEOs ignore the most basic and fundamental concepts.
Search Visibility
Search visibility is the intersection of links and content. You need inbound links, excellent internal linking (often underutilized as a technique), good site architecture, and well-organized content so the website has a natural flow of both links and content internally from web page to web page. Optimizing pages with keywords should pull in targeted search engine traffic, then it’s up to the web design to direct visitors towards the call to action –whether it is to fill in a form, complete a transaction, or pick up the phone and call. The end result of search visibility is targeted traffic matching your keyword plan, a great user experience with visitors staying on the site longer and visiting more and more pages, and a site that performs based upon its chosen keywords. Other topics that contribute to search visibility are site uptime and your robots.txt file.
Linking Relationships
You need inbound links, internal links, and outbound links connecting to the web. If a site has three broad topics with multiple web pages on each topic, the topical web pages should be cross-linked from within the body of content. Human visitors can handle about eight links per page easily, more than that can be confusing. You need planned anchor text links leading to your home page, but in addition for great search visibility and relevance you need deep links into your most important internal web pages.
Competitive Analysis and Reverse Engineering Other Websites
In the preceding four years I have been reverse engineering many hundreds of websites for strengths and weaknesses. These examinations have been completed both for my business competitive query space, and also for other more competitive query spaces in other markets. The objective was to learn as many characteristics and attributes as possible that were present on high ranking sites (and to beat the competition).
This examination process has given me practical field knowledge and valuable insight into the ongoing evolution of online search. Good content and links generate consistency and a solid foundation that will always be a mainstay of high-performing sites. The topic of content is very broad and goes beyond keywords and basic topical information. I have observed and applied new content upgrade techniques such as those learned through studying Latent Semantic Indexing for example.
Links continually challenge us because it is an important area in which to stay ahead of the game. Links deserve careful observation and continual learning due to the continual search engine algorithm tweeks and updates placing more value, or less value on certain link types. For example the introduction of social media marketing and social media optimization brought about new linking opportunities, but along with that opportunity came overindulgence practices by spammers and thus a reaction and clamp down by social media site overseers and search engines regarding recognition of these types of links. Many social media sites now include no-follow links which limits the ability to pass page rank value to the destination site.
Reverse Engineering Websites
There are a few things I look at when reverse engineering competitors' websites. The first thing I look at usually is their incoming links. By examining a site's back links you can not only identify link popularity but identify the most important sites and partners that are connecting to them. The obvious goal is to get links for our client published on any worthy sites discovered that will pass value to our site. Look at your competitors' link profile -where are the majority of their links coming from? Look at how many pages they have already indexed in the Google main index to get an idea on the amount of work required to meet a challenge, and look at the page rank achieved on those indexed pages as an indicator. Most of this topic will be covered on other link-related pages of this blog. What is the degree of thoroughness and complexity in the content of your competitor? How many keywords to they have content written for?
Competitive Analysis
Any particular site will have its own strengths and weaknesses affecting rankings, and any particular factor or combination of factors can be the catalyst for achieving, or not achieving, rankings and success. By reviewing and examining top sites and higher-ranking sites in our own search query space and by knowing the universal factors present for top ranking sites it’s not difficult to set a working agenda for our own site, plus implement SEO Best Practice methods that our competitive analysis has brought to our attention where our competitors aren't yet using those techniques.
This examination process has given me practical field knowledge and valuable insight into the ongoing evolution of online search. Good content and links generate consistency and a solid foundation that will always be a mainstay of high-performing sites. The topic of content is very broad and goes beyond keywords and basic topical information. I have observed and applied new content upgrade techniques such as those learned through studying Latent Semantic Indexing for example.
Links continually challenge us because it is an important area in which to stay ahead of the game. Links deserve careful observation and continual learning due to the continual search engine algorithm tweeks and updates placing more value, or less value on certain link types. For example the introduction of social media marketing and social media optimization brought about new linking opportunities, but along with that opportunity came overindulgence practices by spammers and thus a reaction and clamp down by social media site overseers and search engines regarding recognition of these types of links. Many social media sites now include no-follow links which limits the ability to pass page rank value to the destination site.
Reverse Engineering Websites
There are a few things I look at when reverse engineering competitors' websites. The first thing I look at usually is their incoming links. By examining a site's back links you can not only identify link popularity but identify the most important sites and partners that are connecting to them. The obvious goal is to get links for our client published on any worthy sites discovered that will pass value to our site. Look at your competitors' link profile -where are the majority of their links coming from? Look at how many pages they have already indexed in the Google main index to get an idea on the amount of work required to meet a challenge, and look at the page rank achieved on those indexed pages as an indicator. Most of this topic will be covered on other link-related pages of this blog. What is the degree of thoroughness and complexity in the content of your competitor? How many keywords to they have content written for?
Competitive Analysis
Any particular site will have its own strengths and weaknesses affecting rankings, and any particular factor or combination of factors can be the catalyst for achieving, or not achieving, rankings and success. By reviewing and examining top sites and higher-ranking sites in our own search query space and by knowing the universal factors present for top ranking sites it’s not difficult to set a working agenda for our own site, plus implement SEO Best Practice methods that our competitive analysis has brought to our attention where our competitors aren't yet using those techniques.
Four Cornerstones for Achieving Online Success
There are four corners that need to be covered, analyzed and mastered in order to succeed with organic web search: the search engines’ algorithms; what other people do with their websites; the online search behavior patterns of human beings; and what you do with your own website.
An advanced SEO has a good understanding of the interrelationships between these four areas, as well as the features and characteristics of a world-class website which you're seeking to create. Beyond our own search engine optimization practices which are fully under our control, mastering the other three outside elements are mandatory in order to achieve online success. A weakness in full understanding of any of these four areas may doom a campaign.
The good news is that an Advanced SEO has worked in-depth in all four corners and knows what to do. SEO Best Practices covers what you do with your own website. Competitive analysis and reverse engineering covers the element of your competition. Keyword research covers how people search for information on the internet. Search engines' algorithms are ever changing and need to be constantly studied and examined, however by focusing on quality content and avoiding spam you should be in synch with the search engines good practice and prevent problems.
An advanced SEO has a good understanding of the interrelationships between these four areas, as well as the features and characteristics of a world-class website which you're seeking to create. Beyond our own search engine optimization practices which are fully under our control, mastering the other three outside elements are mandatory in order to achieve online success. A weakness in full understanding of any of these four areas may doom a campaign.
The good news is that an Advanced SEO has worked in-depth in all four corners and knows what to do. SEO Best Practices covers what you do with your own website. Competitive analysis and reverse engineering covers the element of your competition. Keyword research covers how people search for information on the internet. Search engines' algorithms are ever changing and need to be constantly studied and examined, however by focusing on quality content and avoiding spam you should be in synch with the search engines good practice and prevent problems.
Selling SEO Services and Web Search Visibility
In order for the client to fully embrace web marketing via SEO it is useful to inform them generously on the various components and contributing factors of SEO, how they work together, how they impact a site, and what’s possible to achieve through a comprehensive SEO campaign initiated by experts. The better information a client receives in the Selling SEO Services front-end process the better they can make appropriate decisions and stay committed to the process. SEO is a process and not an event and clients should understand this -especially if they want to win. It is helpful to get an idea for the end result they have in mind and are willing to pay for in the SEO campaign.
One key concept for Web Search Visibility is in Social Media Marketing or SMM. Sometimes you just have to dive in. One example of SMM is in using the many online services to mash together the many options available which helps your Site Visibility.
Do You Want To Participate, Compete, or WIN?
For example does the client want to Participate, Compete, or Win, which basically comes down to working with the right SEO and then investing the necessary time and capital. Basic SEO services can definitely improve their web search visibility so they can Participate in the search query space on chosen keywords. More work is needed in order to successfully Compete with a higher level of expectation with other indexed sites already employing SEO experts.
For me personally, to Win means top three or four SERP position achievement on Google for high volume keywords along with consistent SERP results over a period of several months or longer. Given the correct information regarding SEO practice business owners can choose what they want worked on and the associated time schedule.
A few important questions to ask business owners are: how are you currently marketing your business; how are you currently using your website; do you know what keywords are delivering traffic to your existing site now; how important is it for you to market your business on the internet in the short-term, medium-term and in your long-term business plan; do you want both a PPC and an SEO campaign; and do you realize what is realistically possible to achieve through SEO? Well, we know what is possible, and what it will take. It shouldn't be necessary for an SEO to make claims or promises in advance on what SERP results a particular client will achieve; set realistic expectations together and then get the ball rolling and keep it moving down the field.
At the beginning of a project a business owner needs to weigh all the factors and make the key business decision as far as scrapping or reconstructing the old site or building an entirely new search engine friendly site. In some cases, especially where site architecture, URL structure and design has been poor, it could make sense and provide a higher return on investment by starting over.
Web Search Visibility
One major determing factor in the decision to reconstruct the existing site, or start over, has to do with their existing web search visibility. Quality of inbound links; search engine indexing; well organized and well written content; and link flow dispersing the link juice within the site will help determine the probability that existing or new blocks of content will be discovered by search engines and delivered to the eyes of visitors.
What you do not want at the beginning of any SEO campaign is to be saddled with multiple built-in limitations and constraints due to site design or problems such as crawling or spidering issues. Another key factor before starting any new client campaign is whether they compete locally or nationally or internationally, as that will drive the keyword plan, content strategy, and the linking strategy portions of the campaign.
Code to Text Ratio
One key element I examine when working to improve a website's SERP performance and search visibility of the individual web pages is the Code to Text Ratio. This SEO metric gives you the percentage of text on a web page counting as content that visitors actually see. For a web page to be relevant for search visibility for a keyword you need plenty of unique text -I shoot for around 30% text minimum.
Web Search Visibility with RSS Feeds
We're a fan of utilizing the free tools readily available on the internet for distribution of web and blog content. One effective web marketing promotion strategy is to not only create a business blog, but to distribute the blog in the form of RSS Feeds in blog directories and free RSS syndication services that are powerful and simple to distribute content that can be indexed and crawled by webbots automatically. We also regularly have the blog directories and other social media marketing promotion sites PING our blogs so the most recent blog entries can be crawled to maximize visibility and indexing.
Local Search
If your customer strategy is based locally then make sure you create an online presence in your local state and community. This is preferable for highly targeted traffic. Local search sites include Superpages.com, CitySearch, Yellowpages.com, and Local.com to name a few.
One key concept for Web Search Visibility is in Social Media Marketing or SMM. Sometimes you just have to dive in. One example of SMM is in using the many online services to mash together the many options available which helps your Site Visibility.
Do You Want To Participate, Compete, or WIN?
For example does the client want to Participate, Compete, or Win, which basically comes down to working with the right SEO and then investing the necessary time and capital. Basic SEO services can definitely improve their web search visibility so they can Participate in the search query space on chosen keywords. More work is needed in order to successfully Compete with a higher level of expectation with other indexed sites already employing SEO experts.
For me personally, to Win means top three or four SERP position achievement on Google for high volume keywords along with consistent SERP results over a period of several months or longer. Given the correct information regarding SEO practice business owners can choose what they want worked on and the associated time schedule.
A few important questions to ask business owners are: how are you currently marketing your business; how are you currently using your website; do you know what keywords are delivering traffic to your existing site now; how important is it for you to market your business on the internet in the short-term, medium-term and in your long-term business plan; do you want both a PPC and an SEO campaign; and do you realize what is realistically possible to achieve through SEO? Well, we know what is possible, and what it will take. It shouldn't be necessary for an SEO to make claims or promises in advance on what SERP results a particular client will achieve; set realistic expectations together and then get the ball rolling and keep it moving down the field.
At the beginning of a project a business owner needs to weigh all the factors and make the key business decision as far as scrapping or reconstructing the old site or building an entirely new search engine friendly site. In some cases, especially where site architecture, URL structure and design has been poor, it could make sense and provide a higher return on investment by starting over.
Web Search Visibility
One major determing factor in the decision to reconstruct the existing site, or start over, has to do with their existing web search visibility. Quality of inbound links; search engine indexing; well organized and well written content; and link flow dispersing the link juice within the site will help determine the probability that existing or new blocks of content will be discovered by search engines and delivered to the eyes of visitors.
What you do not want at the beginning of any SEO campaign is to be saddled with multiple built-in limitations and constraints due to site design or problems such as crawling or spidering issues. Another key factor before starting any new client campaign is whether they compete locally or nationally or internationally, as that will drive the keyword plan, content strategy, and the linking strategy portions of the campaign.
Code to Text Ratio
One key element I examine when working to improve a website's SERP performance and search visibility of the individual web pages is the Code to Text Ratio. This SEO metric gives you the percentage of text on a web page counting as content that visitors actually see. For a web page to be relevant for search visibility for a keyword you need plenty of unique text -I shoot for around 30% text minimum.
Web Search Visibility with RSS Feeds
We're a fan of utilizing the free tools readily available on the internet for distribution of web and blog content. One effective web marketing promotion strategy is to not only create a business blog, but to distribute the blog in the form of RSS Feeds in blog directories and free RSS syndication services that are powerful and simple to distribute content that can be indexed and crawled by webbots automatically. We also regularly have the blog directories and other social media marketing promotion sites PING our blogs so the most recent blog entries can be crawled to maximize visibility and indexing.
Local Search
If your customer strategy is based locally then make sure you create an online presence in your local state and community. This is preferable for highly targeted traffic. Local search sites include Superpages.com, CitySearch, Yellowpages.com, and Local.com to name a few.
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