Don’t get in the way of 7 Signs You Should Run Screaming From An SEO Consultant.

First off, a please observe.  I’m not an SEO advisor and I don’t perform one on TV.  But, because my start-up, HubSpot is in the world wide web promotion application company, I’ve had to understand a reasonable quantity about Look for Website Search motor optimization (SEO).  I’ve discovered it to be a amazing market and have included a lot of what I discovered into our (currently free) website grader.  Website Quality, among other elements, is an SEO device which creates some easy recommendations on helping the SEO of a website.
 
Many company people I discuss to are in the procedure of assessing their on the internet promotion plan, and the subject of SEO is often near the top of the record.  Below are a few tell-tale symptoms that you’re probably speaking with someone on the incorrect end of the cluefulness array and as such, you should be looking for the closest quit.
 
7 Simple Signs You Should Be Operating Crying From An SEO Consultant
 
1.  Resources Mysterious “Experts”:  Instead of stating known and respected sources like Aaron Walls (from SEOBook.com) or Rand Fishkin (from SEOmoz), they create imprecise references to “experts” that have given them “proprietary” thoughts and methods.  In my thoughts, the SEO market is a bit like the encrypted sheild market.  Those that are really excellent are the ones that discuss freely and to put their thoughts out on the web for community controversy and conversation.  
 
2.  Indicates Particular Search term Densities:  He lets you know that your content should be published with a main concentrate on creating sure you upload all the right key terms as regularly as possible.  Run away quicker if he lets you know that the maximum keyword desnity is 14.2%.  My think is that the normal professional at The search engines is likely more brilliant than the normal SEO advisor.  As such, you’re better off composing content that people will appreciate and weblink to instead of composing content to try and attract the google into position you greater.  Sure, you key terms should be in there, but try create it “natural” appearing.

 
3.  Manic Index Submissions:  She provides to publish your website to a lot of on the internet online directories.  Run away quicker if she means that he has a exclusive record of “high quality” on the internet directories that nobody else knows about.  There were a ton of these “submit your website to 478 directories” resources that came out a while again.  I’m going to dispute that most of the world wide web directories that let just about anyone in are likely not value much to you.
 
4.  Far too Targeted On Link Buying: Quickly after a $2,000 “assessment” venture, his first phase is to ask you to create a $5,000 monthly funds to buy hyperlinks.  Anybody can buy hyperlinks.  Many can even buy excellent hyperlinks.  But, there needs to be some attempt to create high-quality backlinks that you’re not shelling out for monthly.  SEO methods, particularly in the B2B SEO industry, should be about leveraging.  It’s going to be difficult to discover arbitrage possibilities (i.e. purchasing hyperlinks for less than they’re actually worth) by going to what are significantly becoming “efficient” trading markets.
 
5.  Innocent Use Of Public Sites: She provides to publish your website to the well-known websites like yahoo, stumbleupon and StumbleUpon.  Run away quicker if she suggests she is got an military of drones in Fictitioustan that will election on your content and get you on the home web page of yahoo and generate a lot of visitors.  One purpose is that you might just be successful in getting your website’s URL suspended.  Another is that unless the content is exciting and useful, you’re not going to get a lot of link-love anyways, so there’s little SEO value.
 
6.  Dark-colored Hat Practices: He suggests any way of black hat (or darkish grey hat) methods like placing invisible textual content on webpages, course-plotting customers to a absolutely different website, providing different content to google vs. individual customers or anything that appears to be like it’s a misdirected try to “trick” the google.  Once again, see observe #1:  If I had to bet on a The search engines professional vs. an SEO advisor, I’d bet on the The search engines professional.  Besides, it’s not a reasonable deal with.
 
7.  Far too Complex Explanations: They can’t describe the reasoning behind their technique and strategy in methods that a relatively brilliant individual (i.e. you) can comprehend.  Though search motor optimization can be nuanced, unless you’re in a very aggressive industry, you don’t need a PhD from MIT to comprehend some of the easy, but efficient primary methods.
 
These are just some of the apparent symptoms that came to me at nighttime.  I have a ton more that are more simple (and a big selection of “positive” alerts too).  If there’s adequate attention, I’l publish a follow-up content with some of those.
 
Have you questioned or employed an SEO advisor recently?  If so, would really like to listen to your thoughts about the encounter (both before and after).  If you have any other guidelines along the collections of the above, would really like to listen to them.  Please depart a thoughts.

17 Ways Search Engines Judge the Value of a Link

It’s 9:30am and you’ve just started a pitch for a new SEO client. They’re the curious type – wanting to know how search engines rank pages, why the changes you’ll recommend will make an impact, where you learned to do SEO, and who you can list as good examples of your work. As you dive deeper into the requirements for the project, you arrive at the link building section. The client wants to know why link building matters so much. You pull up a chart of Search Engine Ranking Factors, noting the large role that links play in the ordering algorithms. They’re mollified, but have one last question:

How does Google decide how much a particular link helps my rankings?

That’s where this blog post comes in handy. Below, you’ll find a list of many of the most important factors the engines consider when judging the value of a link.

Before we start, there’s one quick concept that’s critical to grasp:

As you’ve likely noticed, search engines have become more and more dependent on metrics about an entire domain, rather than just an individual page. It’s why you’ll see new pages or those with very few links ranking highly, simply because they’re on an important, trusted, well-linked-to domain. In the ranking factors survey, we called this “domain authority” and it accounted for the single largest chunk of the Google algorithm (in the aggregate of the voters’ opinions). Domain authority is likely calculated off the domain link graph, which is unique from the web’s page-based link graph (upon which Google’s original PageRank algorithm is based). In the list below, some metrics influence only one of these, while others can affect both.

#1 – Internal vs. External

When search engines first began valuing links as a way to determine the popularity, importance and relevance of a document, they found the classic citation-based rule that what others say about you is far more important (and trustworthy) than what you say about yourself. Thus, while internal links (links that point from one page on your site to another) do carry some weight; links from external sites matter far more.

This doesn’t mean it’s not important to have a good internal link structure, or to do all that you can with your internal links (good anchor text, no unnecessary links, etc.), it just means that a site/page’s performance is highly dependant on how other sites on the web have cited it.

#2 – Anchor Text

An obvious one for those in the SEO business, anchor text is one of the biggest factors in the rankings equation overall, so it’s no surprise it features prominently in the attributes of a link that engines consider.

In our experiments (and from lots of experience), it appears that “exact match” anchor text is more beneficial than simply inclusion of the target keywords in an anchor text phrase. On a personal note, it’s my opinion that the engines won’t always bias in this fashion; it seems to me that, particularly for generic (non-branded) keyword phrases, this is the cause of a lot of manipulation and abuse in the SERPs.

#3 – PageRank

Whether they call it StaticRank (Microsoft’s metric), WebRank (Yahoo!’s), PageRank (Google’s) or mozRank (Linkscape’s), some form of an iterative, Markov-chain based link analysis algorithm is a part of all the engines’ ranking systems. PageRank et al. uses the analogy that links are votes and that those pages which have more votes have more influence with the votes they cast.

The nuances of PageRank are well covered in The Professional’s Guide to PageRank Optimization, but, at a minimum, understanding of the general concepts is critical to being an effective SEO:

1. Every URL is assigned a tiny, innate quantity of PageRank
2. If there are “n” links on a page, each link passes that page’s PageRank divided by “n” (and thus, the more links, the lower the amount of PageRank each one flows)
3. An iterative calculation that flows juice through the web’s entire link graph dozens of times is used to reach the calculations for each URL’s ranking score
4. Representations like those shown in Google’s toolbar PageRank or SEOmoz’s mozRank on a 0-10 scale are logarithmic (thus, a PageRank/mozRank 4 has 8-10X the link importance than a PR/mR 3)

PageRank can be calculated on the page-level link graph, assigning PageRank scores to individual URLs, but it can also apply to the domain-level link graph, which is how metrics like Domain mozRank (DmR) are derived. By counting only links between domains (and, to make a crude analogy, squishing together all of the pages on a site into a single list of all the unique domains that site points to), Domain mozRank (and the search engine equivalents) can be used to determine the importance of an entire site (which is likely to be at least a piece of how overall domain authority is generated).

#4 – TrustRank

The basics of TrustRank are described in this paper from Stanford – Combatting Webspam with TrustRank. The basic tenet of TrustRank is that the web’s “good” and “trustworthy” pages tend to be closely linked together, and that spam is much more pervasive outside this “center.” Thus, by calculating an iterative, PageRank-like metric that only flows juice from trusted seed sources, a metric like TrustRank can be used to predictively state whether a site/page is likely to be high quality vs. spam.

While the engines don’t expose any data points around this particular metric, it’s likely that some form of the “distance from trusted seeds” logic is applied by ranking algorithms. Another interesting point on TrustRank – Reverse TrustRank, which measures who links to known spam sites, is likely also part of the engines’ metrics set. As with PageRank (above), TrustRank (and Reverse TrustRank) can be calculated on both the page-level and domain-level link graph. Linkscape uses this intuition to build mozTrust (mT) and Domain mozTrust (DmT), though our team feels that we still have a lot of work to do in refining these metrics for the future.

The key takeaways are fairly intuitive – get links from high trust sites and don’t link to potential spam.

#5 – Domain Authority

Though the phrase “domain authority” is often discussed in the SEO world, a formal, universal definition doesn’t yet exist. Most practitioners use it to describe a combination of popularity, importance and trustworthiness calculated by the search engines and based largely on link data (though some also feel the engines may use the age of the site here as well).

Search engines likely use scores about the ”authority” of a domain in counting links, and thus, despite the fuzzy language, it’s worth mentioning as a data point. The domains you earn links from are, potentially, just as important (or possibly more important) than the individual metrics of the page passing the link.

#6 – Diversity of Sources

In our analysis of correlation data, no single metric has a more positive a correlation with high rankings than the number of linking root domains. This appears to be both a very hard metric to manipulate for spam (particularly if you need domains of high repute with diverse link profiles of their own) and a metric that indicates true, broad popularity and importance. You can see a list of top pages and top domains on the web ordered by the number of unique root domains with links to them via Linkscape’s Top 500.

Although correlation is not causation, the experience of many SEOs along with empirical data suggests that a diversity of domains linking to your site/page has a strong positive effect on rankings. By this logic, it follows that earning a link from a site that’s already linked to you in the past is not as valuable as getting a link from an entirely unique domain. This also suggests that, potentially, links from sites and pages who have themselves earned diverse link profiles, may be more trusted and more valuable than those from low diversity sources.

#7 – Uniqueness of Source + Target

The engines have a number of ways to judge and predict ownership and relationships between websites. These can include (but are certainly not limited to):

• A large number of shared, reciprocated links
• Domain registration data
• Shared hosting IP address or IP address C-blocks
• Public acquisition/relationship information
• Publicized marketing agreements that can be machine-read and interpreted

If the engines determine that a pre-existing relationship of some kind could inhibit the “editorial” quality of a link passing between two sites, they may choose to discount or even ignore these. Anecdotal evidence that links shared between “networks” of websites pass little value (particularly the classic SEO strategy of “sitewide” links) is one point many in the organic search field point to on this topic.

#8 – Location on the Page

Microsoft was the first engine to reveal public data about their plans to do “block-level” analysis (in an MS Research piece on VIPS – VIsion-based Page Segmentation).

Since then, many SEOs have reported observing the impact of analysis like this from Google & Yahoo! as well. It appears to us at SEOmoz, for example, that internal links in the footer of web pages may not provide the same beneficial results that those same links will when placed into top/header navigation. Others have reported that one way the engines appear to be fighting pervasive link advertising is by diminishing the value that external links carry from the sidebar or footer of web pages.

SEOs tend to agree on one point – that links from the “content” of a piece is most valuable, both from the value the link passes for rankings and, fortuitously, for click-through traffic as well.

#9 – Topical Relevance

There are numerous ways the engines can run topical analysis to determine whether two pages (or sites) cover similar subject matter. Years ago, Google Labs featured an automatic classification tool that could predict, based on a URL, the category and sub-category for virtually any type of content (from medical to real estate, marketing, sports and dozens more). It’s possible that engines may use these automated topical-classification systems to identify “neighbourhoods” around particular topics and count links more or less based on the behaviour they see as accretive to their quality of ranking results.

I personally don’t worry too much about topical relevance – if you can get a link from a topic agnostic site (like NYTimes.com) or a very specific blog on a completely unrelated subject (maybe because they happen to like something you published), I’m bullish that these “non-topic-specific” endorsements are likely to still pass positive value. I think it’s somewhat more likely that the engines might evaluate potential spam or manipulative links based on these analyses. A site that’s never previously linked-to pharmaceutical, gambling or adult topic regions may appear as an outlier on the link graph in potential spam scenarios.

#10 – Content & Context Assessment

Though topical relevance can provide useful information for engines about linking relationships, it’s possible that the content and context of a link may be even more useful in determining the value it should pass from the source to the target. In content/context analysis, the engines attempt to discern, in a machine parse-able way, why a link exists on a page.

When links are meant editorially, certain patterns arise. They tend to be embedded in the content, link to relevant sources, use accepted norms for HTML structure, word usage, phrasing, language, etc. Through detailed pattern-matching and, potentially, machine learning on large data sets, the engines may be able to form distinctions about what constitutes a “legitimate” and “editorially-given” link that’s intended as an endorsement vs. those that may be placed surreptitiously (through hacking), those that are the result of content licensing (but carry little other weight), those that are pay-for-placement, etc.

#11 – Geographic Location

The geography of a link is highly dependent on the perceived location of its host, but the engines, particularly Google, have been getting increasingly sophisticated about employing data points to pinpoint the location-relevance of a root domain, subdomain or subfolder. These can include:

• The host IP address location
• The country-code TLD extension (.de, .co.uk, etc)
• The language of the content
• Registration with local search systems and/or regional directories
• Association with a physical address
• The geographic location of links to that site/section

Earning links from a page/site targeted to a particular region may help that page (or your entire site) to perform better in that region’s searches. Likewise, if your link profile is strongly biased to a particular region, it may be difficult to appear prominently in another, even if other location-identifying data is present (such as hosting IP address, domain extension, etc).

#12 – Use of Rel=”Nofollow”

Although in the SEO world it feels like a lifetime ago since nofollow appeared, it’s actually only been around since January of 2005, when Google announced it was adopting support for the new HTML tag. Very simply, rel=”nofollow”, when attached to a link, tells the engines not to ascribe any of the editorial endorsements or “votes” that would boost a page/site’s query independent ranking metrics. Today, Linkscape’s index notes that approximately 3% of all links on the web are nofollowed, and that of these, more than half are sites using nofollow on internal, rather than external pointing links.

Some question exists in the SEO field as to whether, and how strictly, each individual engine follows this protocol. It’s often been purported, for example, that Google may still pass some citation quality through Wikipedia’s external links, despite the use of nofollow.

#13 – Link Type

Links can come in a variety of formats. The big three are:

1. Straight HTML Text Links
2. Image Links
3. Javascript Links

Google recently announced that they’re not only crawling this third group, but passing link endorsement metrics through them (which has many upset about the reversal in policy about using Javascript as a way to delineate paid/advertising links). For years now, they’ve also treated the text in an image’s alt attribute in a similar fashion to how anchor text is handled in standard text links.

However, not all links are treated equally. In both anecdotal examples and testing, it appears that straight, HTML links with standard anchor text pass the most value, followed by image links with keyword-rich alt text and finally, Javascript links (which still aren’t universally followed or considered as  an endorsement, at least in our experience). Link builders, content licensers, badge and widget creators and those who enable embeddable content should all, in my opinion, assume the worst about the engines’ ability to handle and pass value from non-standard links and aim to get HTML text links with good anchor text as an optimal methodology.

#14 – Other Link Targets on the Source Page

When a page links out externally, both the quantity and targets of the other links that exist on that page may be taken into account by the engines when determining how much link juice should pass.

As we’ve already mentioned above (in item #3), the “PageRank”-like algorithms from all the engines (and SEOmoz’s mozRank) divide the amount of juice passed by any given page by the number of links on that page. In addition to this metric, the engines may also consider the quantity of external domains a page points to as a way to judge the quality and value of those endorsements. If, for example, a page links to only a few external resources on a particular topic, spread out amongst the content, that may be perceived differently than a long list of links pointing to many different external sites. One is not necessarily better or worse than the other, but it’s possible the engines may pass greater endorsement through one model than another (and could use a system like this to devalue the links sent from what they perceive to be low-value-add directories).

The engines are also very likely to be looking at who else a linking page endorses. Having a link from a page that also links to low quality pages that may be considered spam is almost certainly less valuable than receiving links from pages that endorse and link out to high quality, reputable domains and URLs.

#15 – Domain, Page & Link-Specific Penalties

As nearly everyone in the SEO business is aware (though those in the tech media may still be a bit behind), search engines apply penalties to sites and pages ranging from the loss of the ability to pass link juice/endorsement all the way up to a full ban from their indices. If a page or site has lost its ability to pass link endorsements, acquiring links from it provides no algorithmic value for search rankings. Be aware that the engines sometimes show penalties publicly (inability to rank for obvious title/URL matches, lowered PageRank scores, etc.) but continue to keep these penalties inconsistent so systemic manipulators can’t acquire solid data points about who can gets “hit” vs. not.

#16 – Content/Embed Patterns

As content licensing & distribution, widgets, badges and distributed, embeddable links-in-content become more prevalent across the web, the engines have begun looking for ways to avoid becoming inundated by these tactics. I don’t believe that the engines don’t want to count the vast majority of links that employ these systems, but they’re also wary about over-counting or over-representing sites that simply do a good job getting distribution of a single badge/widget/embed/licensing-deal.

To that end, here at SEOmoz, we think it’s likely that content pattern detection and link pattern detection plays a role in how the engines evaluate link diversity and quality. If the search engines see, for example, the same piece of content with the same link across thousands of sites, that may not signal the same level of endorsement that a diversity of unique link types and surrounding content would provide. The “editorial” nature of a highly similar snippet compared to those of clearly unique, self-generated links may be debatable, but from the engines’ perspectives, being able to identify and potentially filter links using these attributes is a smart way to future-proof against manipulation.

#17 – Temporal / Historical Data

Timing and data about the appearance of links is the final point on this checklist. As the engines crawl the web and see patterns about how new sites, new pages and old stalwarts earn links, they can use this data to help fight spam, identify authority and relevance and even deliver greater freshness for pages that are rising quickly in link acquisition.

How the engines use these patterns of link attraction is up for debate and speculation, but the data is almost certainly being consumed, processed and exploited to help ranking algorithms do a better job of surfacing the best possible results (and reducing the abilities of spam – especially large link purchases or exploits – to have an impact on the rankings).

 

Article Via:  SEOMOZ.ORG

2013: Amazon vs. Google

Research firm Forrester reported that 30 percent of U.S. online shoppers in the third quarter began researching their purchase on Amazon.com, compared with 13 percent who started on a search engine such as Google – a reversal from two years earlier when search engines were more popular starting points.

Search ads work so well thanks to purchasing intent. Retail shopping isn’t the only game, but it’s an important one. This isn’t good news for Google.

I agree with the larger analysis here. Whereas the past couple of years have been all about “Apple vs. Google”, I think that shifts to be more about “Amazon vs. Google” in 2013. The two increasingly have more overlap when it comes to each of their key businesses.

Via: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/23/net-us-google-amazon-idUSBRE8BM09420121223

Google Penguin Update and Link Building Techniques

1) Diversify Your Anchor Texts

Another element that Google has been cracking down on this year is over-optimization (both on-site and off-site). There’s nothing Google hates more than feeling like you’re trying to force it to rank you for a specific keyword. For instance, if you are targeting the keyword “New York Condos For Sale” and you’re asking all your link partners to link to you using that exact keyword, Google will think it’s highly suspicious.

It simply doesn’t make sense for Google that all these websites would naturally want to link to you using that exact keyphrase, which also happens to be in your website’s title bar and all over your homepage. *ahemahem*

Think about it, if people were to link to you naturally, wouldn’t they all be using different keywords? You bet they would, so try to vary your anchor links in a natural way. This will show Google that you’re not trying to force it to rank you for any specific keywords; rather you’re just trying to point visitors in the right direction.

Remember that Google is now smart enough to figure out which keyword relates best to your content. I also highly recommend using editorial keywords as anchor texts, such as: “click here,” “read more,” “learn more,” etc… as these look way more natural. Again, diversity is key here.

2) Link Your Inner-Pages

When link building, a lot of SEO’s are still making the rookie mistake of always linking to their homepage. I understand that your homepage is the most important page of your site, but you can be guaranteed that Google will raise a red flag if a large majority of your back links point to your homepage and very few of them are linking to your blog posts and inner pages. It simply doesn’t make logical sense for Googlebot. After all, inner pages are where the real content is at! When you look at a website that acquires tons of links naturally like SEOMOZ, you’ll notice that most of the natural links they get are to their inner content pages (blog posts, videos, SEO guides, etc…)

Also, remember that it’s not just about external links. Internal links are also highly important. Take some time to improve your internal site’s structure by making sure the right keywords are linking to the right pages internally. This will make it easy and intuitive for both Google and your visitors to crawl your site. If you’re lazy and you happen to be using WordPress, consider using a plug-in like SEO Smart Links that can automate the whole process.

3) Get More Social, Leverage Your Fanbase

In 2012, social signals are more important than ever. When you post fresh content on your site or blog, make sure you share it on ALL your social pages. In fact, this should be almost like a reflex. For the laziest out there, there are tons of plug-in and tools that can help you automate this process. Twitter feed is one of them.

I have seen too many companies posting new blog posts weekly, but not sharing them on their Google+, Facebook fan page, or on Twitter. What’s the point of having all these fans, friends and followers if you’re NOT showing them your content? When you share useful content, you will get likes, retweets, and +1′s. This not only gives you bonus points in terms of SEO, but it also helps virally spread your content far beyond the confines of your fanbase. A win-win!

4) Focus on Quality, not Quantity

This has been said over and over, but it is more important this year than ever before. The game has drastically changed, folks! Google will penalize your website if you have a large amount of backlinks from untrustworthy sites. (Authority Link Network anyone?)

If you are doing guest posting, I can guarantee you that one high quality blog post from a reputable site is better than 100 posts from low quality ones. I have seen clients in competitive niches enter the first page with less than 30 quality links, while most of their competitors had hundreds/thousands of them.

Also, do yourself a favor and forget about shady link building techniques like mass directory submissions or any automated type of link. If you know someone that has reached the first page using these “spammy” techniques, you should feel bad for them. Google will eventually hit them and hit them hard. If not today, maybe tomorrow, or next month. These guys are definitely on Penguin’s hit list. You don’t want to be in their shoes. Going to bed every night wondering if your website will still be in the SERPs tomorrow is not a good feeling.

5)  Make Your Content Link-Worthy

Last but not least, make sure you are producing link-worthy content. Outsourcing your article writing for $5 a piece won’t get you very far. If your visitors don’t like your content, they will leave your site. High bounce rates = bad user experience. Bad user experience = lower Google rankings. It’s really that simple. If you provide content that has value, people will stay longer on your site and possibly hit the like or tweet buttons on one of your articles. This enhanced user experience will pay off SEO-wise.

Always remember that content is (and will always be) king. That is the rule of thumb in white hat SEO. Do you think websites like SEOMOZ or Search Engine Journal need to do any link building in order to rank high in search engines? Probably not, they simply focus on delivering high quality content that people constantly link to from their websites and their social profiles.

 

Begin by examining the links on your own site.

Unlike most inbound links, the links on your site are entirely within your control. Take a close look at how you’re linking to your own content on your site. Are you using keyword-rich anchor text to point to relevant content elsewhere on the site? (Anchor text is a hyperlinked phrase, such as click here, that links to content that typically exists on another web page.) If anchor text is not keyword-rich, revise it, Fasser says. This can help the content that’s being linked to with anchor text get a boost in search engine relevancy.

Study your competitors’ links

You can also use tools such as Open Site Explorer to investigate the links your competitors have, Fasser says. This can provide ideas for directories and other sites to pursue.

Go after links your competitors don’t have.

It’s not enough to simply find out which links your competitors are getting and go after them. At best, that will simply put you on an equal footing with them. You should also pursue inbound links your competitors dont have, Ward says.

Focus on link quality, not quantity.

Relevant links from a few high-quality, trusted, authoritative sites are worth more in SEO terms than a ton of links from low-quality sites, Mastaler says.

Develop a list of top-priority keywords and use them in your online content.

Determine which keywords have the most search volume, are the least competitive and have the highest relevancy to your business and its products or services, Fasser advises. Use those keywords in your blog posts, white papers, press releases and other online content. “When you get links from other sites to your content, you’ll be more likely to get good-quality anchor text links using your important keywords,” he explains.

Focus on directories relevant to your industry.

General Web directories are fairly useless in helping your site rise in search result rankings or attract targeted traffic, Ward says. A far better strategy, he adds, is to go after vertically oriented, curated directories maintained by people with “extreme knowledge or passion” who take their time to “collect useful resources.”

The best Web directories are those maintained by people who are doing it out of passion, not for SEO. “Google loves and respects these sites because there’s a layer of human quality control involved,” Ward explains. “The more heavily edited or curated the content is, the more likely it is that Google will respect an anchor text link from that site.”

Go after a diverse set of links.

The best link-building practice is to obtain inbound links to pages across your site, not just your home page, from a variety of domains using different anchor text keywords, Fasser advises. Just as it’s important not to invest in one stock, the same holds true for your link portfolio—ideally, you want to get traffic from many sources. Also, a diverse set of links and anchor text keywords gives you more credibility with search engines.

Focus on relevant links.

An inbound link from a site that’s relevant to your business is worth more for ranking purpose—sas well as for attracting targeted traffic—than a link from your cousin Billy’s site about his favorite beer. “Getting a blog or other site that writes about things related to your product is the way to go,” Fasser says.

Develop high-quality content.

Google’s Panda update of 2011 pushed pages it considered to have poorly written and/or spammy content way down in its rankings. As a consequence, Web sites need to focus on creating high-quality content that’s informative, useful and relevant, Fasser says. Not only will high-quality content keep you out of Google’s crosshairs, it will help you attract inbound links and targeted traffic.

Create infographics and make them easy to share.

Infographics are extremely popular and can increase site traffic, Mastaler says. Other sites often link to them, and they can get lots of Tweets and Facebook  likes.

For example, BlueGlass Interactive developed a content marketing infographic that Mashable subsequently hosted. As a result, the infographic has attracted more than 3,800 Tweets, 650 Google +1s and 1,100 Facebook likes.

The keys to getting your infographics posted and shared is to make them visually compelling, informative and neutral in tone—that is, not about your company. It’s OK to put your brand on an infographic aimed at consumers, Mastaler adds, as long as you understand that businesses will be less likely to share it.

Write product reviews.

Well-written reviews of products related to your industry or niche are ideal “linkbait” to post on your site, says Mastaler. Include images (and credit the source) with your reviews to drive engagement. To help each review get noticed, post a link to it and a description on LinkedIn, Quora and Twitter. Create a Pinterest board with photos of the products you’ve reviewed; each pin (or photo) will include a link back to your site. Video and podcast reviews are another way to attract links and traffic.

Develop social media press releases.

A social media press release typically includes one or more photos, social sharing links and video clips. As such, it’s more likely to get picked up by other sites, Mastaler says. Services such as Business Wire and PR Web will host your release and distribute it to news services and media outlets across the Web. Be sure to include your top keywords and one or more anchor text links back to your site within the release.

 Don’t forget online forums.

Online forums are “a tremendous resource,” Mastaler says, since that’s where you’ll find people who are passionate and are often active bloggers. If you can connect with them in a meaningful or helpful way without overdoing a sales pitch, forum members may reward you with a link.

 Be sure you really need a link before you pursue it.

Before you request an inbound link, ask yourself if you really have a good chance of getting it, Fasser advises. “Link building eats up a lot of time and resources, so make sure you’ve taken the time to understand the site and its content and if it’s truly relevant for what you do.”

Reciprocal links aren’t necessarily a bad—or good—strategy.

“Many people mistakenly make a blanket statement that a particular link-building tactic is good or bad” in terms of SEO effectiveness, Ward says. “The reality is, its just not that simple.”

His advice: “Always ask yourself if you would pursue a link (reciprocal or not) if there were no such thing as Google. Instead, do it because swapping links with another site will be beneficial in some way to your site’s visitors.” As one example, it makes perfect sense for a local veterinarian to exchange a link with a dog grooming service in the area.

Big, sudden changes in your inbound links may—or may not—get you into trouble.

Some worry that if their site suddenly attracts a ton of inbound links, Google will suspect black hat or unorthodox link-building activity is occurring and penalize that site in the rankings, Ward says.

The truth is, he says, it depends on the site, its history, the links and the circumstances. If a company is suddenly in the news, its site is likely to gain thousands of inbound links in a few days, with no penalty from Google. Conversely, if about 8 percent of your inbound links had keywords in them and, suddenly, 30 percent of your links are keyword-rich, Google might be suspicious.

“I hate to compare Google to an IRS auditor, but, in some ways, it’s true. Google is auditing your site, looking for things outside the norm,” Ward says. That’s why it’s best to grow links naturally by developing and publicizing great content, instead of hiring someone to plant thousands of identical anchor text links to your site on low-quality websites within only a few days.

Make content easy to share over social media.

Whenever you post new content on your site, such as a white paper or video, Fasser says to be sure its easy to share across social media. Social media updates containing links are great for building traffic and awareness. You should also share the new content with a Tweet or social media update that includes a relevant keyword and a shortened link, such as from bit.ly, to the content.

Don’t put all your eggs in the Google basket.

Too many people put too much emphasis on getting traffic from search engines, Ward says. “The more of your traffic thats coming from Google, the more precarious your position is. Your rankings are fluid and subject to every Google algorithm update,” he says. “I’ve had clients call me and say that, all of a sudden, they’re no longer ranking well and it’s costing them hundreds of thousands of dollars a month.”

Instead, your goal should be to get traffic from a variety of sites, of which Google is simply one. Though achieving this takes time, Ward acknowledges, it gives you a solid, stable foundation that will serve you well in the long run.

1. Comment on blogs

A way to build good links for you blog is by finding other blogs within your area of expertise and commenting on their posts.
When doing this you should focus on building authority and relationship. You do this by delivering quality comments and not just “I like this post comments”. Instead you should participate in the discussion by delivering value added comments. Things you can mention in your comments could be:

• Why do you think the blog post is good – what problem has it helped you to solve?
• What is your experience in the area – share tip and tricks you have learned?

If your deliver quality comments the result can be future links, guest posts and even traffic.

2. Participate in forums

As with blog comments the goal of participating on forums is not just to build links. You want to build authority, relationship and ad quality.

When you have found a forum within you niche you want to check the following:

• The size of the forum. You what a forum that has a fair size before considering writing on it. A minimum of 100 posts could be a rule of thumb.
• Is the forum active? See if there are any daily postings on the forum.
• Is it allowed to ad links in posts? Check if you can leave a link in the posts back to your website.
• Links in profile or signature. Check if links in your forum profile or signature are allowed.

If you can only checkmark a few of the above, you should consider if it is worth your time to leaving answers or posts on the forum. An exception from the above guidelines could be if the forum has a lot of users that can become potential visitors on your site. If this is the case, writing on the forum can be a way to build relationships and authority for your site.

When you decide to participate on a forum, it is important that you do not spam posts with backlinks to you site without delivering quality content. A way to go is to look for posts, where people are looking for answers on a given problem, within your area of experience.

Give a quality answer and say that they can find more information about the topic in an article on your site, and then link back to it (with a link on the article name for example).

Another way to go about writing on forums is to write an original post where you give a solution on a given topic that a lot of people have asked questions about.

3. Become a guest poster

Writing guest posts is a good way to build quality links and authority. Find blogs within your niche that gives the opportunity for guest posts. Take a look around the blog to see the way posts are written and what topics have been touched upon.

Now you need to think of a topic that has not been written about on the blog. This is your chance to show people that you are an expert within your area and thereby gain their trust. When writing your article it is evident that the things your writhe will not be a sales speech about your own blog. Therefore choose a topic that you know something about (or research a topic) and write your article as objective as you can, without mentioning that your blog also have related topics.

Usually you are allowed to get some links in an about the author box in exchange for a good quality article.

4. Give something valuable away

It can also be worth going after “natural links” that are created by ordinary people. But links do not come by them self. You need to have content, which is actually worth talking about, and recommending to others.
Examples could be:

• A guide
• An eBook
• A video
• A podcast

 

Deployment SEO Strategy and Checklist

Every time you have a release, do you have a test (automated or manual) that you perform to make sure that everything is good to go from an SEO perspective? This is what we call a deployment SEO strategy. Odds are you might not have one, but you should.

You need a deployment strategy for two reasons: first, accidents happen. Second, not everyone knows SEO. This posts highlights problems to look for when when you’re testing a deployment and tips on how to create a deployment SEO strategy that works for you.

• Nofollows being added to all internal links
• Meta robots noindex added to pages
• Robots.txt updated to disallow: /
• All title tags being set to the homepage
• Product canonical tags set to category URLs
• 301s used for canonicalization being removed
• H1s disappearing
• Content disappearing
• URLs being changed
• Analytics tracking code removed

All of these issues can have significant impacts on SEO. The reasons for this are far and wide, ranging from the wrong code being copied from the dev server to designers forgetting that title tags are important. As SEOs, we can do things to reduce the likelihood of these things happening by creating systems and processes, but sometimes accidents will happen. Sometimes, something is bound to sneak by. This means you need to have a system in place to find problems when they arise rather than down the road.

Automated vs Manual

When I was working in-house, we had all of our internal links become nofollowed; the nofollow tag was copied over from a dev environment. After learning from this experience, I began doing manual testing following every deployment to ensure that each one was rolled out properly. With weekly releases and multiple sites, this task quickly became quite time consuming. Fortunately, we had a QA team that I trained to handle the testing themselves.

I started the manual reviews by going to pages that needed to be tested and verified that the SEO elements were all in proper place. To automate the process, I oversaw the development of test scripts built by the QA team to verify everything was in order. This was a much more efficient solution.

Big sites with frequent releases should be doing automated testing. Work with your dev team to get these tests created for you. Further, you should also have a QA team that should be capable of running the tests once they are trained. If you’re unable to get the resources necessary, well…try to persevere until you can. You’ll still have to do the work manually, but this issue is far too important to ignore. If you can gather the dev resources, you’ll still need to perform manual tests until automated testing is created.

If you run a smaller site or don’t have frequent releases, manual testing is probably the better solution for you. Sure, it takes some time, but if you aren’t doing it every week, odds are the manual reviews won’t drive you insane.

Which pages to test

Do you need to test every page? In general, no. If your site runs off a CMS or a template, you should be testing every type of page (product, category, homepage, education pages, etc.). Additionally, if you have important landing pages that are one-off creations, you should test them as well.

Do I really have to do it every time?

Yes, you do. It is important. Again, you’re the SEO, and unfortunately you’re to blame if something goes wrong.

Automated vs Manual

When I was working in-house, we had all of our internal links become nofollowed; the nofollow tag was copied over from a dev environment. After learning from this experience, I began doing manual testing following every deployment to ensure that each one was rolled out properly. With weekly releases and multiple sites, this task quickly became quite time consuming. Fortunately, we had a QA team that I trained to handle the testing themselves.

I started the manual reviews by going to pages that needed to be tested and verified that the SEO elements were all in proper place. To automate the process, I oversaw the development of test scripts built by the QA team to verify everything was in order. This was a much more efficient solution.

Big sites with frequent releases should be doing automated testing. Work with your dev team to get these tests created for you. Further, you should also have a QA team that should be capable of running the tests once they are trained. If you’re unable to get the resources necessary, well…try to persevere until you can. You’ll still have to do the work manually, but this issue is far too important to ignore. If you can gather the dev resources, you’ll still need to perform manual tests until automated testing is created.

If you run a smaller site or don’t have frequent releases, manual testing is probably the better solution for you. Sure, it takes some time, but if you aren’t doing it every week, odds are the manual reviews won’t drive you insane.

Which pages to test

Do you need to test every page? In general, no. If your site runs off a CMS or a template, you should be testing every type of page (product, category, homepage, education pages, etc.). Additionally, if you have important landing pages that are one-off creations, you should test them as well.

Do I really have to do it every time?

Yes, you do. It is important. Again, you’re the SEO, and unfortunately you’re to blame if something goes wrong.

Minimizing problems

Earlier we discussed that you can minimize the likelihood and frequency of problems by implementing systems and processes. Typically,creating these steps take two shapes: training and reviews.

Training

SEO impacts many different teams and job functions throughout a business. The impact ranges from developers and product managers to customer support. What this means for the SEO is that you have a fair amount of people who can either help you out a lot or make your life a lot more complicated. My advice is to use this cross-team collaboration to your advantage.

Obviously not all of the people in these positions needs to be well versed in SEO or have watched every Matt Cutts webmasters video, but it’s probably important that they know how their roles can impact SEO. Discuss the impact each role has with your team to make sure everyone is on the same page, and it will help you define your strategy.

SEO sign-off

In addition to training, you should create SEO checkpoints in project processes where you (or another member of the SEO team) will have to sign-off that the project meets the SEO requirements you have established. I recommend implementing checkpoints as frequently as possible. This ensures that someone with an SEO mind has thought about the project at each step from idea to execution. This “big picture” mentality will not only help to prevent problems, but will help to capitalize on opportunities.

Deployment of an SEO checklist

The following is a basic list of SEO items to check in every deployment. Use it as a guide to what to look for in each deployment, and feel free to customize based on your specific needs.

On-site

Page titles exist and are correct

H1s exist and are correct

Meta descriptions exist and are correct

Alt text is targeted

Content exists and is correct

Correct version of site is being shown to search engines (if you do that sort of thing)

Accessibility

Meta Robots are correct

Robots.txt file is correct

Tracking

Analytics code is correct on every page (type)

Ecommerce tracking is properly set up

Technical

Canonical tag is correct

Internal links are followed (unless otherwise stated)

301 redirects are in place

Site is canonicalling properly

URLs are absolute (or there are no problems with relative URLs)

http:// / https:// are correct

Response codes are correct

Article Via: SEOMOZ

17 Types of Link Spam to Avoid

If the last few months of ranking changes have shown me anything, it’s that poorly executed link building strategy that many of us call white hat can be more dangerous than black-hat strategies like buying links. As a result of well intentioned but short-sighted link building, many sites have seen significant drops in rankings and traffic. Whether you employ link building tactics that are black, white, or any shade of grey, you can do yourself a favor by avoiding the appearance of link spam.

It’s become very obvious that recent updates hit sites that had overly aggressive link profiles. The types of sites that were almost exclusively within what I called the “danger zone” in a post about one month before Penguin hit. Highly unnatural anchor text and low-quality links are highly correlated, but anchor text appears to have been the focus.

I was only partially correct, as the majority of cases appear to be devalued links rather than penalties. Going forward, the wise SEO would want to take note of the types of link spam to make sure that what they’re doing doesn’t look like a type of link spam. Google’s response to an attitude towards each type of link spam varies, but every link building method becomes more and more risky as you begin moving towards the danger zone.

1. Cleansing Domains

While not technically a form of link building, 301 “cleansing” domains are a dynamic of link manipulation that every SEO should understand. When you play the black hat game, you know the chance of getting burned is very real. Building links to a domain that redirects to a main domain is one traditionally safe way to quickly recover from Google actions like Penguin. While everyone else toils away attempting to remove scores of exact-match anchor text, the spammers just cut the trouble redirected domains loose like anchors, and float on into the night with whatever treasure they’ve gathered.

 

When Penguin hit, this link farm cleansing domain changed from a 301 to a 404 almost overnight.

Link building through redirects should be easy to catch, as new links to a domain that is currently redirecting is hardly natural behavior. To anyone watching, it’s like shooting up a flare that says, “I’m probably manipulating links.” The fact that search engines aren’t watching closely right now is no guarantee of future success, so I’d avoid this and similar behavior if future success is a goal.

2. Blog Networks & Poorly Executed Guest Blogs

I’ve already covered the potential risks of blog networks in depth here. Google hates blog networks - fake blogs that members pay or contribute content to in order to get links back to their or their clients’ sites. Guest blogging and other forms of contributing content to legitimate sites is a much whiter tactic, but consider that a strategy that relies heavily on low-quality guest blogging looks a lot like blog network spam.

With blog networks, each blog has content with a constant ratio of words to links. It posts externally to random sites multiple times, and with a lot of “inorganic” anchor text for commercially valuable terms. Almost all backlinks to blog networks are also spam.

I cringe when I see low-quality blogs with questionable backlinks accepting guest blog posts that meet rigid word length and external link guidelines. Quality blogs tend not to care if the post is 400-500 words with two links in the bio, and quality writers tend not to ruin the post with excessive linking. Most of us see guest blogging as a white-hat tactic, but a backlink profile filled with low-quality guest posts looks remarkably similar to the profile of a site using automated blog networks.

I’d obviously steer clear of blog networks, but I’d be just as wary of low-quality inorganic guest blogs that look unnatural. Guest blog on sites with high quality standards and legitimate backlink profiles of their own.

3. Article Marketing Spam

Article link addiction is still a real thing for new SEOs. You get one or two links with anchor text of your choice, and your rankings rise. You’re not on the first page, but you do it again and get closer. The articles are easy and cheap, and they take no creativity or mental effort. You realize that you’re reaching diminishing returns on the articles, but your solution isn’t to stop – you just need to do more articles. Before you know it, you’re searching for lists of the top article sites that give followed links and looking for automated solutions to build low-quality links to your low-quality links.

Most articles are made for the sole purpose of getting a link, and essentially all followed links are self-generated rather than endorsements. Google has accordingly made article links count for very little, and has hammered article sites for their low-quality content.

 

 

Maybe you’re wondering how to get a piece of that awesome trend, but hopefully you’ll join me in accepting that article directories aren’t coming back. Because they can theoretically be legitimate, article links are generally devalued rather than penalized. As with all link spam, your risk of receiving more harsh punishment rises proportionate to the percentage of similar links in your profile.

4. Single-Post Blogs

Ironically named “Web 2.0 Blogs” by some spam peddlers, these two-page blogs on Tumblr and WordPress sub-domains never see the light of day. After setting up the free content hub with an article or two, the site is then “infused” with link juice, generally from social bookmarking links (discussed below).

Despite their prevalence, these sites don’t do much for rankings. Links with no weight come in, and links with no impact go out. They persist because with a decent free template, clients can be shown a link on a page that doesn’t look bad. Google doesn’t need to do much to weed these out, because they’re already doing nothing.

5. (Paid) Site-Wide Links

Site-wide footer links used to be all the rage. Google crippled their link-juice-passing power because most footer links pointing to external sites are either Google Bombs or paid links. Where else would you put a site-wide link that you don’t want your users to click?

To my point of avoiding the appearance of spam, Penguin slammed a number of sites with a high proportion of site-wide (footer) links that many would not have considered manipulative. Almost every free WordPress theme that I’ve seen links back to the creator’s page with choice anchor text, and now a lot of WordPress themes are desperately pushing updates to alter or remove the link. Penguin didn’t care if you got crazy with a plugin link, designed a web site, or hacked a template; the over-use of anchor text hit everyone. This goes to show that widespread industry practices aren’t inherently safe.

6. Paid Links in Content

There will never be a foolproof way to detect every paid link. That said it’s easier than you think to leave a footprint when you do it in bulk. You have to trust your sellers not to make it obvious, and the other buyers to keep unwanted attention off their own sites. If one buyer that you have no relationship to buys links recklessly, the scrutiny can trickle down through the sites they’re buying from and eventually back to you.

If you do buy links, knowing what you’re doing isn’t enough. Make sure everyone involved knows what they’re doing. Google is not forgiving when it comes to buying links.

7. Link Exchanges, Wheels, etc.

Speaking of footprints, I believe it’s possible to build a machine learning model to start with a profile of known links violating guidelines, which you can acquire from paid link sites and link wheel middlemen with nothing more than an email address. You can then assess a probability of a site being linked to in that manner, corroborating potential buyers and sellers with a link graph of similar profiles. I have no idea what kind of computing/programming power this would take, but the footprint is anomalous enough that it should be possible.

 

 

Exchanging links through link schemes requires a lot more faith in a bunch of strangers than I can muster. In a link wheel, you’re only as strong and subtle as your “weakest links.” My opinion is that if you’re smart enough to avoid getting caught, you’re probably smart enough to build or write something awesome that will have superior results and lower risk than link wheels.

8. Low-Quality Press Release Syndication

High-quality syndication and wire services possess a few unattractive attributes for spammers: there are editorial guidelines, costs, and even fact checking. Low-quality syndication services will send almost anything through to any site that will take it. You’ll end up with a bunch of links, but not many that get indexed, and even fewer that get counted.

My experience has been that press releases have rapidly diminishing returns on syndication only, and the only way to see ROI is to generate actual, real coverage. I still see link-packed press releases all over the web that don’t have a chance of getting coverage – really, your site redesign is not news-worthy. I’m not sure whether to attribute this to bad PR, bad SEO, or both.

9. Linkbait and Switch

In this context, we’re talking about creating a real piece of linkbait for credible links, and later replacing the content with something more financially beneficial. Tricking people into linking to content is clearly not something Google would be ok with. I don’t see linkbait and switch done very often, but I die a little every time I see it. If you’re able to create and spread viral content, there’s no need to risk upsetting link partners and search engines. Instead, make the best of it with smart links on the viral URL, repeat success, and become a known source for great content.

10. Directories

Directories have been discussed to death. The summary is that Google wants to devalue links from directories with no true standards. Here’s a Matt Cutts video and blog post on the topic. Directory links often suffer from a high out/in linking ratio, but those worth getting are those that are actually used for local businesses (think Yelp) and any trafficked industry directories.

1. Would I pay money for a listing here?
2. Are the majority of current listings quality sites?
3. Do listings link with the business or site name?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, don’t bother with a link. This immediately excludes all but a handful of RSS or blog feed directories, which are mostly used to report higher quantities of links. When I was trained as an SEO, I was taught that directories would never hurt, but they might help a tiny bit, so I should go get thousands of them in the cheapest way possible. Recent experience has taught us that poor directory links can be a liability.

Even as I was in the process of writing this post, it appears that Google began deindexing low-quality directories. The effect seems small so far – perhaps testifying to their minimal impact on improving rankings in the first place – but we’ll have to wait and see.

11. Link Farms and Networks

I honestly can’t speak as an authority on link farms, having never used them personally or seen them in action.

“I’m telling you right now, the engines are very very smart about this kind of thing, and they’ve seen link farming over and over and over again in every different permutation. Granted, you might find the one permutation – the one system – that works for you today, but guess what? It’s not going to work tomorrow; it’s not going to work in the long run.” – Rand in 2009

My sense is that this prediction came true over and over again. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

12. Social Bookmarking & Sharing Sites

Links from the majority of social bookmarking sites carry no value. Pointing a dozen of them at a page might not even be enough to get the page crawled. Any quality links that go in have their equity immediately torn a million different directions if links are followed. The prevalence of spam-filled and abandoned social bookmarking sites tells me that site builders seriously over-estimated how much we would care about other people’s bookmarks.

Sites focusing on user-generated links and content have their own ways of handling trash. Active sites with good spam control and user involvement will filter spam on their own while placing the best content prominently. If you’d like to test this, just submit a commercial link to any front-page sub-Reddit and time how long it takes to get the link banned. Social sites with low spam control stop getting visitors and incoming links while being overrun by low quality external links. Just ask Digg.

13. Forum Spam

Forum spam may never die, though it is already dead. About a year ago, we faced a question about a forum signature link that was in literally thousands of posts on a popular online forum. When we removed the signature links, the change was similar to effect of most forum links: zero. It doesn’t even matter if you nofollow all links. Much like social sites, forums that can’t manage the spam quickly turn into a cesspool of garbled phrases and anchor text links. Bing’s webmaster forums are a depressing example.

14. Unintended Followed Link Spam

From time to time you’ll hear of a new way someone found to get a link on an authoritative site. Examples I have seen include links in bios, “workout journals” that the site let users keep, wish lists, and uploaded files. Sometimes these exploits (for lack of a better term) go viral, and everyone can’t wait to fill out their bio on a DA 90+ site.

In rare instances, this kind of link spam works – until the hole is plugged. I can’t help but shake my head when I see someone talking about how you can upload a random file or fill out a bio somewhere. This isn’t the sort of thing to base your SEO strategy around. It’s not long-term, and it’s not high-impact.

15. Profile Spam

While similar to unintended followed links on authority domains, profile spam deserves its own discussion due to their abundance. It would be difficult for Google to take any harsh action on profiles, as there is a legitimate reason for reserving massive numbers of profiles to prevent squatters and imitators from using a brand name.

What will hurt you is when your profile name and/or anchor text doesn’t match your site or brand name.

 

“The name’s Insurance. Car Insurance”

When profile links are followed and indexed, Google usually interprets the page as a user page and values it accordingly. Obviously Google’s system for devaluing profile links is not perfect right now. I know it’s sometimes satisfying just to get an easy link somewhere, but profile link spam is a great example of running without moving.

 

17. Domain Purchase and Redirect/Canonical

Buying domains for their link juice is an old classic, but I don’t think I have anything to add beyond what Danny Sullivan wrote on the matter. I’m also a fan of Rand’s suggestion to buy blogs and run them rather than pulling out the fangs and sucking every ounce of life out of a once-thriving blog.

Domain buying still works disgustingly well in the (rare) cases where done correctly. I would imagine that dozens of redirected domains will eventually bring some unwelcome traffic to your site directly from Mountain View, but fighting spam has historically been much easier in my imagination than in reality.

This list is not meant to be comprehensive, but it should paint a picture of the types of spam that are out there, which ones are working, and what kinds of behaviors could get you in trouble.

Spam Links: Not Worth It

I have very deliberately written about what spam links “look like.” If you do believe that black hat SEO is wrong, immoral, or in any way unsavoury that’s fine – just make sure your white hat links don’t look like black hat links. If you think that white hat SEOs are sheep, or pawns of Google, the same still applies: your links shouldn’t look manipulative.

I’m advising against the tactics above because the potential benefits don’t outweigh the risks. If your questionable link building does fall apart and your links are devalued, there’s a significant cost of time wasted building links that don’t count. There’s also the opportunity cost – what could you have been doing instead? Finally, clearing up a manual penalty can take insane amounts of effort and remove Google’s revenue stream in the meantime.

 

Article Via: SEOMOZ

 

How Do I Build the Perfectly Optimized Page?

 

SEOMOZ.ORG

If you’re in SEO, you probably hear this question a lot. Sadly, there’s no cut and dry answer, but there are sets of best practices we can draw from and sharpen to help get close. In this blog post, I’m going to share our top recommendations for achieving on-page, keyword-targeting ”perfection,” or, at least, close to it. Some of these are backed by data points, correlation studies and extensive testing while others are simply gut-feelings based on experience. As with all things SEO, we recommend constant testing and refinement, though this knowledge can help you kick-start the process.

HTML Head Tags

• Title - the most important of on-page keyword elements, the page title should preferably employ the keyword term/phrase as the first word(s). In our correlation data studies, the following graph emerged:

  
  Clearly, using the keyword term/phrase as the very first words in the page title has the highest correlation with high rankings, and subsequent positions correlate nearly flawlessly to lower rankings.

• Meta Description – although not used for “rankings” by any of the major engines, the meta description is an important place to use the target term/phrase due to the “bolding” that occurs in the visual snippet of the search results. Usage has also been shown to help boost click-through rate, thus increasing the traffic derived from any ranking position.
• Meta Keywords - Yahoo! is unique among the search engines in recording and utilizing the meta keyword tag for discovery, though not technically for rankings. However, with Microsoft’s Bing set to take over Yahoo! Search, the last remaining reason to employ the tag is now gone. That, combined with the danger of using keywords there for competitive research means that at SEOmoz, we never recommend employing the tag.
• Meta Robots – although not necessary, this tag should be sure NOT to contain any directives that could potentially disallow access by the engines.
• Rel=”Canonical” – the larger and more complex a site (and the larger/more complex the organization working on it), the more we advise employing the canonical URL tag to prevent any potential duplicates or unintentional, appended URL strings from creating a problem for the engines and splitting up potential link juice.
• Other Meta Tags – meta tags like those offered by the DCMI or FGDC seem compelling, but currently provide no benefit for SEO with the major engines and thus, add unnecessary complexity and download time.

URL

• Length – Shorter URLs appear to perform better in the search results and are more likely to be copied/pasted by other sites, shared and linked-to.
• Keyword Location – The closer the targeted keyword(s) are to the domain name, the better. Thus, site.com/keyword outperforms site.com/folder/subfolder/keyword and is the most recommended method of optimization (though this is certainly not a massive rankings benefit)
• Subdomains vs. Pages – As we’ve talked about previously on the blog, despite the slight URL benefit that subdomains keyword usage has over subfolders or pages, the engines’ link popularity assignment algorithms tilt the balance in favor of subfolders/pages rather than subdomains.
• Word Separators – Hyphens are still the king of keyword separators in URLs, and despite promises that underscores will be given equal credit, the inconsistency with other methods make the hyphen a clear choice. NOTE: This should not apply to root domain names, where separating words with hyphens is almost never recommended (e.g. pinkgrapefruit.com is a far better choice than pink-grapefruit.com).

Body Tags

• Number of Keyword Repetitions – It’s impossible to pinpoint the exact, optimal number of times to employ a keyword term/phrase on the page, but this simple rule has served us well for a long time – “2-3X on short pages, 4-6X on longer ones and never more than makes sense in the context of the copy.” The added benefit of another instance of a term is so miniscule that it seems unwise to ever be aggressive with this metric.
• Keyword Density - A complete myth as an algorithmic component, keyword density nonetheless pervades even very sharp SEO minds. While it’s true that more usage of a keyword term/phrase can potentially improve targeting/ranking, there’s no doubt that keyword density has never been the formula by which this relevance was measured.
• Keyword Usage Variations – Long suspected to influence search engine rankings (though never studied in a depth of detail that’s convincing to me), the theory that varied keyword usage throughout a page can help with content optimization and optimization nevertheless is worth a small amount of effort. We recommend employing at least one or two variations of a term and potentially splitting up keyword phrases and using them in body copy as well or instead.
• H1 Headline - The H1 tag has long been thought to have great importance in on-page optimization. Recent correlation data from our studies, however, has shown that it has a very low correlation with high rankings (close to zero, in fact). While this is compelling evidence, correlation is not causation and for semantic and SEO reasons, we still advise proper use of the H1 tag as the headline of the page and, preferrably, employment of the targeted keyword term/phrase.
• H2/H3/H4/Hx – Even lower in importance than the H1, our recommendation is to apply only if required. These tags appears to carry little to no SEO value.
• Alt Attribute – Surprisingly, the alt attribute, long thought to carry little SEO weight, was shown to have quite a robust correlation with high rankings in our studies. Thus, we strongly advise the use of a graphic image/photo/illustration on important keyword-targeted pages with the term/phrase employed in the alt attribute of the img tag.
• Image Filename – Since image traffic can be a substantive source of visits and image filenames appear to be valuable for this as well as natural web search, we suggest using the keyword term/phrase as the name of the image file employed on the page.
• Bold/Strong – Using a keyword in bold/strong appears to carry a very, very tiny amount of SEO weight, and thus it’s suggested as a best practice to use the targeted term/phrase at least once in bold, though a very minor one.
• Italtic/Emphasized – Surprisingly, italic/emphasized text appears to have a similar to slightly higher correlation with high rankings than bold/strong and thus, we suggest its use on the targeted keyword term/phrase in the text.
• Internal Link Anchors – No testing has yet found that internal anchors are picked up/counted by the engines.
• HTML Comments – As above, it appears the engines ignore text in comments.

Internal Links & Location in Site Architecture

• Click-Depth – Our general recommendation is that the more competitive and challenging a keyword term/phrase is to rank for, the higher it should be in a site’s internal architecture (and thus, the fewer clicks from the home page it should take to reach that URL).
• Number/Percentage of Internal Links – More linked-to pages tend to higher rankings and thus, for competitive terms, it may help to link to these pages from a greater number/percentage of pages on a site.
• Links in Content vs. Permanent Navigation – It appears that Google and the other engines are doing more to recognize location on the page as an element of link consideration. Thus, employing links to pages in the Wikipedia-style (in the body content of a piece) rather than in permanent navigation may potentially provide some benefit. Don’t forget, however, that Google only counts the first link to a page that they see in the HTML
• Link Location in Sidebars & Footers – Recent patent applications, search papers and experience from inside SEOmoz and many practitioners externally suggests that Google may be strongly discounting links placed in the footer, and, to a lesser degree, in the sidebar(s) of pages. Thus, if you’re employing a link in permanent navigation, it may pay to use the top navigation (above the content) for SEO purposes.

Page Architecture

• Keyword Location – We advise that important keywords should, preferably, be featured in the first few words (50-100, but hopefully even sooner) of a page’s text content. The engines do appear to have some preference for pages that employ keywords sooner, rather than later, in the text.
• Content Structure – Some practitioners swear by the use of particular content formats (introduction, body, examples, conclusion OR the journalistic style of narrative, data, conclusion, parable) for SEO, but we haven’t seen any formal data suggesting these are valuable for higher rankings and thus feel that whatever works best for the content and the visitors is likely ideal.

Why Don’t We Always Obey These Rules?

That answer is relatively easy. The truth is that in the process of producing great web content, we sometimes forget, sometimes ignore and sometimes intentionally disobey the best practices laid out above. On-page optimization, while certainly important, is only one piece of a larger rankings puzzle:

(FYI – The new ranking factors survey data is set to release very, very soon)

It most certainly pays to get the on-page, keyword-targeting pieces right, but on-page SEO, in my opinion, follows the 80/20 rule very closely. If you get the top 20% of the most important pieces (titles, URLs, internal links) from the list above right, you’ll get 80% (maybe more) of the value possible in the on-page equation.

Best Practices for Ranking #1

Curiously, though perhaps not entirely surprisingly to experienced SEOs, the truth is that on-page optimization doesn’t necessarily rank first in the quest for top rankings. In fact, a list that walks through the process of actually getting that first position would look something more like:

1. Accessibility – content engines can’t see or access cannot even be indexed; thus crawl-ability is foremost on this list.
2. Content – you need to have compelling, high quality material that not only attracts interest, but compels visitors to share the information. Virality of content is possibly the most important/valuable factor in the ranking equation because it will produce the highest link conversion rate (the ratio of those who visit to those who link after viewing).
3. Basic On-Page Elements – getting the keyword targeting right in the most important elements (titles, URLs, internal links) provides a big boost in the potential ability of a page to perform well.
4. User Experience – the usability, user interface and overall experience provided by a website strongly influences the links and citations it earns as well as the conversion rate and browse rate of the traffic that visits.
5. Marketing - I like to say that “great content is no substitute for great marketing.” A terrific marketing machine or powerful campaign has the power to attract far more links than content may “deserve,” and though this might seem unfair, it’s a principle on which all of capitalism has functioned for the last few hundred years. Spreading the word is often just as important (or more so) than being right, being honest or being valuable (just look at the political spectrum).
6. Advanced/Thorough On-Page Optimization – applying all of the above with careful attention to detail certainly isn’t useless, but it is, for better or worse, at the bottom of this list for a reason; in our experience, it doesn’t add as much value as the other techniques described.

As always, I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts and experiences about the specific recommendations above and the general concept of the “perfectly” optimized page.

 

Article VIA: SEOMOZ.ORG

21 Off-Page SEO Strategies to Build Your Online Reputation

As we all know, the Search Engine Optimization field is booming day to day with new inventions and innovations. People may not know that much of what they have learned yesterday will be out of date by tomorrow. Unless one updates his knowledge by reading SEO news/articles, there is no doubt he’ll lag back in the SEO race.

Being an SEO Professional, I hereby suggest some the factors that deal with off-page SEO. I found this forum to be the best suited place for sharing. Below is a list of some things most people may be familiar with, but I have also added a few advanced things that you may not know. Try these Advanced Off-Page SEO Strategies to market your website, get ranked in search engines, and to build online reputation (branding) for your company/website so that you can survive in this competitive SEO world.

Note: These things have to be done after the completion of on-page SEO. Before doing these things you must be aware of your competitors who can able build a negative reputation against your company/website.

1). Community Creation in Social Networking Sites

Also known as online reputation management, this is the first and foremost step with which you have to initiate your process. Try to become a member of the most popular social networking sites like Orkut, Myspace, Facebook, Linked In, Ecademy, etc., and create a profile of your own. By doing this you can extend your network online, get connect with your friends, share things with each other, and promote your company/website to build an online reputation. This is most likely the same as Web 2.0 (Participatory Web), which means you have to show your active participation on a regular basis.

2). Blogging

This is one of the most powerful ways to promote your company/website online. Write a blog of your own for your company/website and include lots of unique content. Be precise in what you’re trying to convey for the users in your blog entry and promote your blog in blog directories and blog search engines. You can also promote your blog/website by posting comments in other service-related blogs which allow links in the comments section that are crawlable by the search engines (these blogs are commonly identified as Do-Follow Blogs). If you’re not very good at writing content for blog posts, hire a guest blogger for your blog and ask him/her to write precise and unique content so that your blog can gain more credit from a search engine point of view.

3). Forum Postings

Create a forum/online discussion board of your own and start a discussion or share topics with your friends. You can also post/reply to a thread in other service-related pre-existing forums that allow links in your signature which can be crawled by the search engines (aka “Do-Follow Forums”).

4). Search Engine Submission

Submit your website to the most popular search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, Altavista, Alexa, Alltheweb, Lycos, Excite, etc., to get listed for free.

5). Directory Submission

Many people may say that directory submission is dead. As far as I’m concerned it is still alive. It is purely based on how effectively we are selecting those directories and how efficiently we are choosing the category for submission. Of course, I agree that it gives quite delayed results, but it is worth doing it. Submit your websites to the topmost quality directories like DMOZ, Yahoo Directory, ZoomInfo, One Mission, Pegasus, etc. Nowadays many web directories may offer paid listings but don’t go for it.

6). Social Bookmarking

Social Bookmarking is yet another powerful way of promoting your website, but nowadays most people are spamming social bookmarking sites without knowing how to use them. Since content in these websites update frequently, search engines like these types of sites and often visit them (this is commonly termed as Tagsonomy & Folksonomy in Web 2.0). Do some social bookmarking in popular bookmarking sites like Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Propeller, etc. You should be very careful while doing this and you must properly handle the tags which are very essential to broadcast your news on a wide area network. This may increase your website traffic based on how effectively you have participated.

6). Link Exchange

Exchange links with service-related websites (this is commonly termed as Thematic Link Exchange) that can help increase your link popularity, which is a major factor of Google’s PageRank algorithm. Beware of Black-Hats while doing exchanges.

7). Link Baiting

Suppose you have copied/published another website’s news or content in your blog/website. Don’t forget to place their website link as a reference. Do it for others and, if your content is trustworthy, let others do it for you. This is another way to increase your link popularity.

8). Cross-Linking

Link to internal pages within your site wherever necessary (this is commonly termed Internal Linking). This increases your internal link popularity ,which is another major factor of Google Page Rank algorithm. The best known example of successful internal linking is Wikipedia. Also try to get a content link from websites/blogs that are related to your site theme. Try getting a link from within their site content using a targeted keyword as anchor text (much like Wikipedia does). We know that this strategy can often be hard to implement, but these types of links have more weight from a search engine point of view.

9). Photo Sharing

Publish/share your website product pictures and make them public. Let your friends see them and comment on them too, which will help drive traffic towards your website. Do this in major photo sharing websites like Flickr, Picasa, Photo Bucket, Picli, etc.

10). Video Promotions

Like with photo sharing, you can publish/share your product videos, expert opinions, and reviews of your product and make them public in YouTube, Metacafe, Dailymotion, etc.

11). Business Reviews

Write reviews about others businesses or ask your friends/clients to write a review of your business in major business review sites like RateitAll, Shvoong, Kaboodle, Stylefeeder, etc.

12). Local Listings & Yellow Pages

Instead of going global and facing huge competition, make your website local so that search engines can easily view your website and fetch the content. This will help you to reach a targeted audience. Submit your website to Google Local, Maps, Yahoo Local, Yellow Pages, Superpages, Hotfrog, etc.

13). Article Submission

Write articles of your own and submit them to popular article sites like Ezine, Go Articles, Now Public, Buzzle, etc. This will help you to attain some deep links for your website (though it’s usually a slower process).

14). Press Release Promotion

If you are a business/service provider then go for PR submission in popular PR websites like 1888pressrelease, Open PR, PR Leap, etc. This will help you to publish your site in Google News.

15). Classifieds Submission

Do some classifieds submissions to advertise your products for free. Try Craigslist and other major classifieds sites like Kugli, Myspace, iMadespace, Vivastreet, etc.

16). Social Shopping Network

If you own an e-commerce website, this is a good strategy for advertising and easily branding your products for free. Submit your products to Google Product Search, Yahoo Online Shopping, MSN Online Shopping, and other major social shopping network sites like Kaboodle, Style Feeder, Wists, Five Limes, Buzz Shout, Ohmybuzz, etc.

17). Answers

Participate in Answers by asking and answering relevant questions and placing a link to your website in the source section if necessary. If you don’t spam, this is another great way to increase your link popularity (Yahoo Answers, Cha-Cha, Answer Bag, etc.)

18). Document Sharing

Share your website documents like business documents, information brochures, and slides in Google Docs, Slide Share, etc. This will help you brand your website.

19) CSS, W3C & RSS Directories Submission

If you have a web design site or offer services related to web design, submit your website to CSS and W3C website directories which may drive traffic towards your website. Also submit your website to RSS feed directories which, again, will help you attain more traffic.

20). Widget / Gadget Development

Develop some interactive and innovative widget/gadget applications (such as an online poll or game widgets) for your website and publish them on your blog/website or in other popular social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace. Let your friends and others vote/play/use the widget/application, which will help you increase your branding and website visits.

21). PPC Ad Campaign

When none of the above strategies work for you, go for a PPC ad campaign with your targeted keywords. Remember that you have to pay to drive more traffic towards your website through PPC.

Note: Always keep in mind that you have to be very careful while implementing these strategies. You should not spam or overdo it. Whatever you do, just plan and execute. Otherwise, you can see adverse effects.

Thanks for reading!

Article Via: SEOMOZ.ORG

Google Plus Features

Google has initiated a new social networking site called as Google plus whose only aim is to define how sharing of thoughts and feelings socially can work. It includes various innovative and exciting features like hangouts, circles and a lot more that will force you to switch to this site permanently leaving behind various other social networking sites such as facebook, twitter and Orkut.

Since this site is new, so before operating it you might need to know all about its features and facilities so that all complexities and confusions are removed. Some of these features are listed below:

• It is important for you to make up a Google profile before signing up for Google plus. If you are not having a Google account or say a Google profile, then becoming a member of Google plus is not possible.
• Google plus takes you to the world of real life objects and activities by introducing to you the provision of “circles” with which you can create different groups to keep your friends on your friend list separate. It allows you to keep your friends in a circle named as Saturday night, your parents and your boss in similar ways.
• Video chats are allowed here known as “hangouts” where you can make certain circles of your choice know where you are actually hanging out on net and then you can see amazing replies or in simpler words the pop ups by different people of that circle.
• You can easily upload from your cell phone all your videos and pictures on Google plus. Once the pictures and videos are saved in an album, then you can later on make any security changes in it according to your wish, as if with whom to share it and with whom not.
• If you like certain things then based on your likes you can get a chance to get huge and interesting content on it using the feature of “sparks” available in Google plus. What you need is to just start up your conversations regarding any topic you like and wish to know about, and after that you will get news related to it from all across the net.
• There is also a feature of group chat available in Google plus which is known as “Huddle”. Through this feature you can chat with all those people who lie in a group or different groups.
• Google plus also allows you to maintain your complete security by allowing you to share your personal belongings like your pictures and videos only to those people whom you want. If you wish that only these people can view your pictures and videos without sharing them further with other people, then with Google plus you can fully make use of this excellent feature.

Google plus is the future of social networking sites which is moving ahead at a fast speed and will surely make all other social sites to be dumped into past.

Article Main Source: http://mickshaw555.hubpages.com/hub/Google-Plus-Features

Google Update? Google Says No!

 

 

June 16th #Google Update? Google Says No! The #WebmasterWorld thread has some webmasters saying they noticed significant rank changes on or around Saturday June 16th. One webmaster said: After #Panda hit in April, my crawl rate has gone down (by 50%), now it is back to “normal” since the 16th of June, i really hope it means something good will happen… Seems interesting, we doubt this was Panda or #Penguin refreshes but you never know.