Link Building

Last week, I wrote a blog post about Twitter, the fast growing microblogging platform that allows users to blog 140 character ‘tweets’ to their closest friends, followers and yes, even strangers. Twitter, although, originally created to keep up with what your friends are up to, has quickly become an easy way for companies to monitor their reputation online.

Zappos.com, one of the largest online shoe merchants, known for its outstanding customer service and amazingly large selection of shoes (personal experience) has recently taken to Twitter. They have set up a Twitter feed page on their site which follows online mentions about the company and ‘tweets’ made by their employees.

Zappos.com has been the online sweetheart of many bloggers.  With amazing customer service stories like, I Heart Zappos, this one and one more, it’s hard to NOT love them.  Zappos.com did not set out to win over bloggers, they set out to win over their customers…and some of them just so happened to be bloggers. With one flower bouquet, Zappos.com managed to win over thousands of bloggers and fans.  According to Yahoo Site Explorerr the “I Heart Zappos” post currently has close to 2,000 inbound links! Talk about free publicity!

As a company committed to customer service, it is a smart move for Zappos to embrace Twitter. Following their company’s brand online will help them pro-actively remedy any negative mentions online and humanize the company by  following their employee’s tweets.

As the end of 2007 approaches it seems like a perfect time to recap our most popular and commented blog posts:
7. More Than You Ever Wanted to Know About Linking

How much are certain links worth? Are directories valid? Should you pay for links? How do you measure your linking success?

6. Microsoft Jumps in the Ad Company Buyer’s Club

Now Microsoft jumps to prove they’re not out of the online advertising game with a whopping $6 billion purchase of aQuantive in a move to expand their breadth of paid opportunities on web sites, Internet television, video on demand, and other places online.

5. The Human Element of Search

Take a look at your homepage. What does it say? Does it give you a clear sense of personality… say, clean-cut professional, serious business or funky casual?

4. What Happened to my Google Page Rank - SEO Audio

Were you one of the thousands of web site owners crying foul this week? Or maybe you hardly know what a PageRank is, but want to know the kind of thing that gets bloggers from coast-to-coast, time zone to time zone gossiping and ganging up on Google

3. Blogging your way to The Top of the Search Engines in Minutes

Although Google’s search ranking methods are usually shrouded in mystery, we can assume from these two examples, that Google may be using its Blog Search feature in collaboration with its general search to retrieve the most up-to-date information on any given topic.

2. Is Your Website Ready for Cyber-Monday?

With online holiday sales expected to hit 39 Billion dollars, it is essential to make sure your e-commerce site is in tip top shape.

1. Thinking about Buying or Selling Paid Links? Think Again…

Webmasters have been aggravated for weeks because of Google’s more aggressive policy, with most of the drops in PageRank a few weeks ago blamed on a penalty to sites perceived as buying or selling paid links.

Do you remember encyclopedias? You know those heavy books stacked up on the bookcase collecting dust. The only time they were ever used was when little Johnny had a report on the solar system or some other mundane topic. Dragging his feet to the bookcase, Johnny would take down the Encyclopedia ( being careful not to drop on his foot..those books were heavy!) and proceed to regurgitate information that had been written years or sometimes decades before his time.

In this age of blogs, wikis and 24/7 news outlets, it’s laughable that we ever used encyclopedias for information. Out of Date V. Up-to-the-minute. With the help of sites like YouTube, news blogs and message boards, we are literally able to watch history in the making. Little Johnny can not only report about the solar system, he can watch a YouTube video about solar eclipses, view pictures of the different planets, and chat with others interested in the Solar System. Talk about a comprehensive report little Johnny will have!

So how does all this encyclopedia talk relate to your website? Well..ask yourself, is your website an encyclopedia or an outlet for up-to-date information? You see, it’s simply not enough to ‘just have a website’ anymore. In the early days of the internet, having a rudimentary website complete with flashing icons and scrolling text was acceptable. But the growth of the internet and the competition to be on top has changed the landscape of how websites are built and marketed.

Bruce Clay makes a good point when talking about the expectations of prospective clients,

“They buy the domain name, plan out the site, write up some relevant content and then they wait for the Internets to bring them the traffic and the adoring fans. Soon they will be rich!
Only they’re not rich. They’re not even successful. They’re Just Another Web site and nobody cares.”

Having a website is the first step in catapulting yourself into internet infamy (maybe). But it takes a lot of work to get on top. It’s not magic and it doesn’t come easy. Having a professional looking site which reflects the needs of your user is essential. Marketing your website through link building, press releases, and blogs is another step in the right direction. Updating your content frequently can be the most important as it not only provides beneficial to your visitors but it also attracts Google’s crawlers more frequently. And the more frequent Google crawls your site, the greater the authority it thinks you are becoming. The goal to not only have a presence on the web, but an identity…and identity of authority in your niche.

P.S. If I relied on Encyclopedias for my information, I might think that Pluto was still a planet.

One of the biggest questions we get — and indeed, one of the biggest challenges a website owner faces — is how to get links to a site. We explain why and how to go about it, as well as some tips for the basic basics this week.

SEO Audio Episode 3