It sounds like some place you go after dark that you shouldn't go. But, backlinks are actually a good thing as far as getting noticed on the Internet goes. Keep reading and you'll find out all about them and how they can be useful to you.
Backlink Basics
To put it in the simplest terms, backlinks are links from other websites and blogs back to your website. They increase your visibility on the web and also make the search engines really happy with you. It sounds easy, but getting links can take some time and effort.
Also, did we mention the spiders and bots? They work on behalf of the search engines. These technological marvels crawl not just content but also inbound links (backlinks) to your website. So, you'd probably figure that you can go to every website you can and post a link back to your site, wouldn't you? In the grand scheme of things, this is not always a good idea.
Here's why. Those bots are smarter than you think. They even evaluate the types of backlinks you get. For instance, let's say that you are just beginning and are trying to establish yourself. You go to other sites and ask to exchange links with them for free. Some are readily eager so you do it. As it turns out, these sites are offensive, plagiarize content and don't know the first thing about keyword optimization.
Now, all of these things won't be true at the same time but it goes to prove a point. A poorly kept website or even a troublemaking one can lower the quality of your backlinks and thus your favor with the search engines. What you want is backlinks that are of the same or preferably better quality as your site.
Quality Backlinks
How do you determine quality? One way is to look at their following. Do they have a lot of readers? Are their articles rated on the first page of search engine results? Does everyone know their name (just like "Cheers")?
Keep your links within your chosen niche. While there may be some gardening websites with a high search engine ranking, linking here won't do you any good if your website sells crafting supplies. The bots look at that too.
So, what criteria do you need to consider when approaching the subject of backlinks?
- Choose similar or better quality websites to use for your backlinks
- Choose websites and blogs with similar topics of interest as yours
- Ask friends and family members with websites (of good rep, of course) to exchange links with you
Get the word out about your website. Use any resources you have available to you first and then go searching for other high-quality sites to bring you more traffic.
The Internet is all about getting the right information into the right hands in the most efficient fashion. If you have a website, then you believe that what you have to offer is important enough for others to read. Backlinks are a useful way to increase traffic to your site and increase your search engine ranking.
You can go through the more popular methods of creating backlinks. Social networking, social bookmarking, blogging and other tools take time to get established. If you are looking to drive more traffic now, then you may want to look into paid linking services.
Why Backlink in the First Place?
Like we said, backlinks can increase traffic to your site. Anytime that someone sees your comment on a post or an article in a directory that they want to use, they will also have links included that they can click to check out your other work on the website. Whether your site sells a service, information or a product, the increased traffic will potentially increase your sales and conversion rates. That is always a good thing.
Not only will people find you through your backlinks, but the number of backlinks help when search engines rank your website. It is every website owners dream to be in the first page of search results. That way, everyone will see you first. Most people don't look past the first page anyway since it is rightly believed that the results deemed best by the search engines can be found there.
Paid Linking Services
Paid linking services speed up the process of finding good quality links for your website. It works this way. You pay a monthly fee to "rent" a link from another website. These websites will be ones that are of high quality and rate high on search engines.
There are two ways to acquire paid links:
- Use a paid link service
- Go to a company directly
Most people will opt for the first one but you must be careful. Search engines like Google are cracking down on paid links. To them, paying for a link doesn't demonstrate that your site is creating a quality backlink. The website "sponsoring" you may never have known your site existed before you asked for their links. On the flip side, sites that have worked hard to build their brand want to share the good fortune, so why shouldn't they get paid for it?
Internet marketers suggest that if you use a paid link service, don't go with the overt ones. Try text link ads since they are integrated into the body of the content and are harder to separate from other hyperlinks.
You can also go to a company website and petition them for use of their link. They may say no or ignore you altogether. You can make a reasonable rental offer for their link and they may accept or not. But, you won't know unless you try.
Using paid links is one way to get the ball rolling on your traffic situation at your website. You can use paid links in combination with other methods to see which will bring you more traffic and more sales.
Blogs are fun ways to get your expert information into the hands of others. Also, if you have a business website, blogs are useful for communicating with customers and prospects. If you don't have a blog yourself, consider lending your brain to someone else's and enhance the traffic coming your way at the same time.
When you run an online business website and/or a blog, there don't seem to be enough hours in the day. Providing quality content alone can take up several days not to mention handling the marketing and the administrative duties. For a few fortunate entrepreneurs, they have learned the benefit of outsourcing. With more time to concentrate on lead generation and traffic, guest blogging is more fun than marketing campaigns.
Blogging?
If you have written content for your site, then you can write a guest blog post. They are usually shorter and slightly less informative. That doesn't mean that the quality of the post isn't good, it just means that the surface of a topic is touched upon so that the reader will look forward to future posts for more information.
The field is wide open for you, initially, you'll want to blog on topics with which you have at least a passing familiarity. As you establish yourself as an expert in your business area (through other marketing tools), others may be beating down your door for the opportunity to have you guest blog for them.
Choosing where to Blog
Choosing the quality of your guest blogging venues is as important as choosing the quality of your backlinks. Always go forward and not backwards. Start with friends and business contacts. The super busy folks that are familiar with you won't usually pass up an offer to have someone else blog for them.
An intimate knowledge of the blog topics gives you an idea of what topics will work and which ones won't. Try to choose a topical area where you can write a series of similar articles. For instance, choosing a 4-part post on constructing email templates for your affiliates is easier to manage than four different post topics. Besides, your readers are sure to come back for more of the same.
Blogging Nuances
Ask about links in your posts. Some blog owners may say yes to contextual links or just offer you a bio box. Take either one and use it to your advantage to create quality backlinks.
Interact with those who comment. Getting to know your audience will increase their trust of you and the chances that they will click on your link and head on over to your website.
Want to increase backlinks to your site? Guest blogging for others whose sites can elevate your status swells the traffic to your site so you can make more sales.
Backlinks are an important traffic generation method. By linking to your site from other sites and blogs, visitors always know how to find you with a click of the mouse. Article marketing is one tool in your arsenal that can yield a wealth of backlinks.
Article Marketing
Many people overlook article marketing as outdated, but it gets the job done and in the simplest fashion. What you want with a website is traffic and credibility. With so many websites and blogs all clamoring for attention, having a terrific reputation goes a long way.
Article marketing lets you share quality content with other online entrepreneurs and writers. When you submit to article directories, others can view and use your content. You get the all-important resource box to lead others to your online headquarters so that they can see more of you.
If you find an article directory that allows links in the body of the content, then readers can click and immediately find themselves on your website. Or, you can use the resource box to post a direct link to your site.
Optimize Your Articles
While you are writing informative content that others will want to read, don't forget that these articles are also ranked by search engines. With each article consider using keywords to enhance your rankings.
Let's say that you were writing about baking. Well, "baking" is a common search word so you could use some other word like "bread" or "baking bread." For that two-word phrase you want to use try and rank this article high by having it appear naturally several times. For a 450-word article, you don't want your keywords to appear more than 4-6 times. Search engines frown on overstuffing with keywords.
Using Backlinks
If you get a chance to use contextual links, for goodness sake, don't use anchor text (the words that disguise the link) like "click here." That sounds just like an ad and others won't click it. Also, the service may frown on it as blatant advertising.
For your resource box, include catchy and enticing words. You will end with a link to your website, but this can be masked with anchor text as well instead of just the usual website address.
With your articles, don't give away all of your secrets. If you tell everyone all they want to know, why will they want to click and visit your website? Give them a taste of what you can offer. For the rest, they will have to make use of that link.
The written word will not be trumped no matter what anyone predicts. Article marketing has an important place in your marketing plan and adding links to all your articles (or resource boxes) multiplies your chances of success.
People are interested in a variety of things. As a business owner, you want to find the people who are interested in your product or service. To help you in that process, choose a niche before you do anything else.
Part of selling a product is in knowing who you are going to sell it to. The worst thing to do is to have a great product that no one wants. Before you do all of that work, start off defining your niche.
Do Some Research
Yeah, no one wants to hit the books (or in online business - the search engines), but it is necessary if you want to be successful. Just like you would research keywords for your articles, blog posts and other areas of search engine optimization, research is important for narrowing down the best niche for your product.
Where do you start? Some have a product and then look for the niche. Others have decided on a niche that they would like to pursue, but don't have any idea of a product or service to offer. In both cases, see who is interested, if there is any interest at all.
Let's say that you have decided to do something with pets. Well, there are tons of pet species. Maybe you like dogs. Even then, there are still hundreds of dog species that people all around the world have as pets. Since you know that you want to pursue dogs, choose a specific dog. Is there interest in pugs? How about schnauzers? Who will you look at, those who already have that specific type of dog or potential owners of the breed?
That last question is important because of how you market your product. If you have a special dog collar or a pet bed, the target market will be people who already own that particular dog. Offering content on your website about how to get a schnauzer to sleep in their bed won't necessarily interest someone who wants to buy a dog but hasn't decided on a schnauzer.
Join a Niche Forum
Are there a large number of schnauzer owners out there? If so, is your product unique? Find places where schnauzer owners hang out online and investigate. Don't just ask questions like a reporter or an investigator, but get involved to find out what they really want.
Use your research information to fine tune your product or service and your marketing plan for building your list. You don't want your marketing plan to hit too general an audience or the wrong focused audience. Choose a viable niche first to help develop a successful list and increased chance of profit later.
Linking is important for website ranking, but link building is not the easiest thing to accomplish. When people get to know you hopefully they will want to link to your site. To help them along, give them some content they can't resist.
Inbound Links
A website is your place in cyberspace. When people learn how great you and your products are, they can let others know about you. Linking to your website is one way to do that. It is also called a backlink. It is a link to your site on their website or blog.
There are two kinds of inbound links: reciprocal links and organic links. Reciprocal links are those that you get when you agree to swap links with another site. It could be a friend who wants to help you out and vice versa. Getting links like this is okay but not the best when it comes to moving up in the ranks.
You have to look at the quality of the sites that you are linking with. They may offer to swap links but if the site is not optimized, reputable and/or well-presented it can backfire. You can be marked down for poor link building. And paying for links isn't much better. After you have worked so hard on your site, you don't want it to go to waste like that.
Organic links come from those who are not asked to link to you. They have heard about you (through your stellar marketing campaign) and want to let others know something awesome is in their midst. These links are rated higher by search engines. When you are just getting started it is hard to get links like this.
Obtaining Links
How do you get the links you need and want?
- Use your content. Writing content that is optimized for keywords in your niche can rank high. Others will click on you first. Sites within your niche that are trying for those higher spots will check you out to see why they can't knock you off the top.
- Establish expert status. Post content to article directories. Write for other blogs. Being found in other places increases your visibility and adds to your credibility. Everyone wants to be associated with an expert.
- Comment on blogs within your target market. Go to where your potential customers are. Give sound advice and add a link to your website. Pretty soon these people may become loyal readers who will link from their blogs to your website.
Use your content to help build quality links. The combination can lead to increased traffic and subsequently more sales.
When you set up your website for business, your primary concern is getting up and running. You may ask friends who hosts their websites to help you decide who to go with. But, choosing the right website host can help with your SEO marketing strategies.
What to Look for in a Host
There are tons of website hosts out there. Some are free and some require a fee. When you are looking for real estate for your business, you don't want to go with the free options. They would be good for those who are producing websites for family and friends or maybe even some affiliate mini sites but not for a full-fledged business enterprise. There are too many limitations.
What kind of server do they have? The server is where all of the information is stored. A server needs hosts websites for the hosting company. When someone wants to access a page on your website, the server lets you access it. More powerful servers are faster at their job and pages appear in seconds for your visitors.
One of the most popular servers is Apache. Apache is open source which means that it is free for web hosts. Also it supports a number of applications including content management systems and blogging platforms. If you use Joomla or WordPress, you are using an Apache-based server.
One problem that users of free hosting services run into is lack of bandwidth. They won't be able to upload files, videos, audios and the other Internet marketing tools used to increase your site's salability. You will be limited in what you can do. Once your site is up and you are promoting it, changing hosts midstream can be a nightmare.
Why is this Important?
Search engine optimization involves a lot of different aspects. You will be optimizing content for your site and uploading it to many different web pages. You don't want to be limited in the number of web pages that you can create either. Each page represents a unique URL and a different keyword that you are focusing on.
You may be the one designing your website or a website designer. You don't want to be limited by your platform as to what you can so. Changing templates for different times of the year or just to fit the way you want to conduct business are important. The wrong web host can make this difficult to tweak templates to be more SEO friendly.
Also, with free hosting you probably won't have full administrative control of your website. You can add files to prevent spamming on your blog (and you can add one with better web hosting) and also to capture website stats or place a web counter on your site pages. Just having enough access to edit content on your site is not enough.
When you are in the planning stages for your business, don't forget to consider web hosting and its impact on your SEO strategies. Choosing the right one can make all the difference.
When you see people perusing magazines on racks, when they find one they want to read, they are not reading every article inside. They look for headlines and titles that catch their eye. The same goes for websites on the Internet. You can learn to write titles that will have visitors stopping in for a spell.
Title Basics
A title is not just a little blurb at the top of your content. That title can be used to further optimize your page. Here is an example. If your website page is about chocolate (a sweet and reoccurring example), the content needs to relate to confections. But, your title doesn't have to be simply "chocolate."
A well-optimized title will include some or all of the following:
- Keywords - You have yet another place on your webpage that keywords can be used to help improve your rankings. If you choose keywords carefully, you can match a phrase that most people are going to use.
- Hook - What is going to entice people to keep reading? Tell them what they will get. "How to Make Chocolate Strawberries" is interesting. Readers know just what they will be learning. Using numbers is even better. "5 Ways to Melt Chocolate" let's readers know that they don't have too much to read and that you will lay it all out for them.
- Focus - Don't take up two lines with your title. Use as few words as possible that will appeal to readers and also include a keyword or a keyword phrase. To reinforce that title, use that keyword again in the first sentence of the opening paragraph.
Even if you have titles on articles you would also benefit from a headline on your webpage. The article is just one portion of the information contained on your webpage. Don't forget that headlines can be optimized as well.
- Font size - Your headline needs to stand out from the rest of the information on the page. Use a larger bolder font but nothing too flowery. You want readers to see it not grimace at it.
- Use keywords - What is the page essentially about? Use that keyword so readers know what all of the information will pertain to.
- Use a link - When someone runs their mouse across the headline they will realize that it is clickable. It can link to the homepage, your site map or anywhere else on your site that would be helpful to visitors.
Titles and headlines are front and center on your page. Make them eye-catching and enticing so visitors will stay and read more.
Your website is a gold mine. It can take your business from so-so to wow. All you need to do is learn how to use your statistical information to help you get it done.
Website stats tell you a variety of things. You can find out where your products are booming and busting. You can learn what visitors like and dislike about your site. Are your keywords working? That can be explained also.
The sum total of your website is not content. While content is still king when it comes to providing useful information, it is just one aspect that can be optimized on your site. So much has been written about keyword optimization in content that some might wrongly believe it is the only important part of website optimization.
That is what we are really talking about here - website optimization. Start with the content but don't leave it there. Search engines bots will crawl the entire page for keywords not just your content. Let's take a look at other options for tricking out that website and making it sell itself.
1. Anchor Text - Anchor text is the text that is displayed over hyperlinks on your content. If your article refers to information found elsewhere on your site, don't just say "click here" to find more information, use keywords from that page as your anchor text. Not only are you getting credit for the keyword but it links to another page that also is keyword optimized (or it will be once you are done).
2. Picture Text - People love pictures especially on websites and shopping carts. It can be a big mistake to buy sight unseen. Each picture can have a tag associated with it. When someone runs across the picture with their mouse, they can again see relevant keywords for that page.
3. Links to Other Website Pages - One technique for creating your webpage is to list what services you offer or what your product can do on the homepage. That homepage can be doing more. If you have dedicated a separate page to each unique feature, place those links on the homepage as well. In your list of product features, use keyword-rich anchor text to describe them and have each description link to a different page. Search engines love that.
Are you getting the idea? Your website can be more exciting to the search engine crawlers with just a few changes.
Search engine optimization can be one of the hardest and most rewarding tools in your business arsenal. It helps with marketing, advertising and selling your products or services. Because it is a wide category, there are plenty of places where you can go wrong with it. Here are just five of them.
Under-Using Your Website - Optimizing your website involves every aspect of your site. Most people think that the only important part is the content. Optimizing content is only one piece of the pie. When you concentrate on content and not on leveraging all areas of your site, you are robbing your own pockets.
You will get visitors if your content is on point, but the search engines can rank you even higher if you used keywords in other places. Articles have titles, pages have headlines and pictures have captions. Learn to use them all to your advantage.
Keyword Overload - Search engine bots are smarter than most people give them credit for. Using keywords too much will cause them to just skip over your content and thus give you a lower ranking for those keywords. It seems like you could use as many as you wanted in an article and that would make you more visible but it's not true.
Search engines recognize when people are cheating by overstuffing their articles with keywords. Content that is well written will stay within the allowable keyword density. And, those keywords will show up naturally throughout the article so it doesn't sound like it was thrown together just for the keywords.
Keyword Density - You can have too few keywords as well as too many. Some people write their content without even thinking about keywords. You might have a strong article that talks about cutting edge information but without something to help the search engines look upon you favorably; no one will ever read it. Using the word once or twice in an article is not going to cut it.
No Variety - For better optimization, a website doesn't use just one keyword. If you started with the word "chocolate", your entire website wouldn't be based on it. People use a variety of similar words alone or in combination to find what they are looking for with search engines. If you make and sell chocolate fudge, there are better words to use: fudge, Candace's fudge, how to make fudge, etc. it's like throwing all your eggs in one basket if you don't diversify your keywords.
Reciprocal Links - While it is true that backlinks can increase your search engine ranking, all links are not equal. And search engines like organic links better than simply offering reciprocal link sharing. You want others to link to you because they like your product and what your website presents to others. Using quality content on your site, in article directories and on social bookmarking sites can increase your quality inbound links for higher ranking.
Start out on solid footing with SEO. Learn how to avoid common mistakes that first-timers make.
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