Link Building

Let’s be honest, Google knows EVERYTHING about you. It knows you ‘google’ yourself once a month (okay more like once a week…), it knows that you were recently in the market for a new car, bought an iPhone, and that you are baffled by Halo 3 because it caught you looking for cheats online. In essence…Google has become your closest confidante. But who is Google..and what do YOU know about it?

As a website owner, it is imperative that you get to know Google. Google is largely responsible for the success and failure of your website. He holds the answers to your most important questions: How do I get more traffic to my website? Or How are my customers finding me? Google knows, and unfortunately he isn’t telling.

Luckily for you, it’s not magic, it just involves a little elbow grease and knowledge. We have realized that it comes down to three basic factors: quality inbound links, frequent updates, and publishing content that reflects the interests of your users.

Link building is a means of attracting high quality sites to link to your website.
It’s basically an internet popularity contest. Generally, he who has the most links wins! The more quality inbound links your site has, the better it does in Google search rankings. Is there a magic number of links you should get? YES..more than your competitor! Go Team!

Google LOVES fresh content. Its main job is to crawl through websites to look for new information. By updating your site with new information, a press release, a business blog or even a simple RSS feed, Google will be more likely to deem your site more credible and visit it more frequently. And you know what that means…more visits from Google…higher search rankings!

When writing copy for a website, it is important to write quality content which will be of interest to your readers. There is a lot of talk about ‘writing for search engines’ which consists of stuffing searchable keywords on every page. This is not an effective way to attract repeat visitors. Web searchers who find your site are looking for interesting information, reward them for visiting your site by giving them what they are looking for..and they are sure to return.

There you have it, Google’s secrets revealed…a cheat sheet of sorts. It may not be the Halo 3 Cheat sheets you were hoping for, but it is a great way to start the optimization of your website.

Our weekly SEO and web marketing Q&A show continues with answers to another basic questions fundamental to understanding what search engines find important when they evaluate your site — what are links?

SEO Audio Episode 2

Though some on LiveJournal seem to think so, blogging is not a broadcast of the “me me me” channel — rather, it should be a dialogue where the lines between producer/consumer blur a little, with less emphasis on the “expert” role of the newspaper columnist, tv personality, etc. This is the charm of blogging, really, and the best bloggers generate lively discussion with every post and frequently comment on and write for other blogs.

Well, how do you, with your fresh, inspired new blog, go about developing relationships with other bloggers? In the previous installment I talked about finding other blogs in your niche. Now it’s time to introduce yourself.

(Don’t) Keep Your Comments to Yourself

The easiest, most popular, and most acceptable method of participating in other blogs is to comment on a post. Practically every blog that’s intended to be a blog allows comments, and often the discussion on blog posts can be quite involved (and interesting enough that people will subscribe for the RSS feed).

Some blogs will require you to register, but many just ask for your username, email and (obviously) comments. You often get an opportunity to put in your web address, as well, so in addition to posting your thoughts, you are inviting other people to check out your blog. So make your thoughts matter!

The Trackback

Okay, say you’re really inspired by a blog post, and you want to add to the conversation, but you want your readers to see your thoughts as well. Of course, it’s very easy to just quote someone on your site, but say you want the blog author to know you wrote about their post. This is where the trackback comes in handy.

Not every blog will let you do it, but on the bottom of some you’ll see a link that says “trackback for this post.” This link is different from the link that you will use to link to the article itself, and you’ll want to include it in the trackbacks field of your blogging software. In Wordpress, it’s below the Upload and Excerpt fields.

So, write your article, quote or reference the target post how you like, then copy the trackback link and include it with your post. What’s the result? In the target post there will be a little quote like this added to the comments:

[…] I found this blog really interesting, and as you can see here […]…

And the blog author will probably find your excerpt so enticing that he/she’ll go and check out your blog to read the rest. At least, that’s the desired effect.

Learning to Link

While fewer and fewer blogs allow trackbacks, mostly due to the way spammers have abused the system, you can link to anything. And while it’s impossible to keep track of every single link if for those who manage a busy site, the smaller bloggers and webmasters will notice you. You readers will also appreciate your sharing of interesting resources and search engines will associate you with that part of an internet neighborhood. Linking is vital to make your blog part of the information superhighway rather than an island!

Luckily, the simple and powerful link is one of the easiest features to use in every blogging software yet. Copy the URL in your address bar, click the little chain icon, and paste. Whammo. You’ve helped build the web’s interconnectivity.

The caveat here is be sure to link to sites you, too, would read! Just like your friend would be upset if you recommended a crank mechanic, linking to poor quality sites will reflect same upon you.

Be My Guest

Frequently top-blogs will feature content written by other bloggers on the same subject. Being or having a “guest blogger” should be a mutually beneficial relationship where they have the opportunity to reach out to a new audience base and you have the other blogger’s audience naturally interested about what their favorite author has to say.

If you’ve opened a blogging friendship — that is, you’re actually exchanging emails and corresponding frequently, not that you commented once on an obscure post — it’s certainly reasonable to broach the topic of writing some guest articles. There are no hard-fast rules of etiquette for this relationship, but generally you’ll feature something on your blog disclosing you’re blogging elsewhere and accompanying the content you write will be a small blurb about your blog along with a link (or vice-versa if you’re having a guest).

It’s all about the Connections

Whatever the techniques you use, the writing on your blog should be aware of the greater community and invite that community to participate. It should also reflect an awareness of what’s been written elsewhere, using links whenever possible to extend your reach beyond your own site. Your efforts will be rewarded by a blog that draws in more readers, elicits reader response, and attracts the interest of your peers and fellow industry experts.

While the article I shared last Friday was all about the nitty gritty of growing links, this SEOmoz Article is all about targeting content that is meant to be linked to — or targeting the “linkerati,” as they are dubbed.

Using some hiliariously illustrated examples of the Googlebot and HotBot monster, Rand discusses the difference between your qualified customers, random web surfers and a group of people who are often ignored by the less-savvy developers — the bloggers, web site owners, and generally tech-friendly who do the vast majority of linking on the Internet. They’re not looking to buy your product, but they might find a story about a facet of your industry interesting, or some of your cutting commentary worth sharing with their friends. With Web 2.0 rolling very strongly, it is vital to the long-term success of a website that it be comprised of content worthy of being shared with the Internet-savvy audience.

It may seem an ironic situation, having to target people other than your actual sales prospects, but the importance of being popular in the web’s social circle is only bound to increase, especially as Google and MSN look towards personalized search as the next landscape for relevancy.