Link Building is ranked one of the most important SEO tactics by the experts, and while there are numerous guidelines and ‘best practices’ for getting quality links, link building is not a simple task. Julie Joyce, owner of Link Fish Media, a link building company, co-founder of the SEO Chicks Blog and monthly columnist for Search Engine Land, joined us last week to address the challenges that come with link building. In case you missed it, here is what Julie and the rest of our chat participants had to say: Q1. If your goal is to get a link penalty in the shortest time possible, what is the first thing you would do? If you don’t want Google to penalize your links, don’t do these six techniques: 1. Get Low-Quality Links or Buy Links If you obtain numerous, low-quality links, either from a tool like GSA or from a number of Private Blog Networks (PBN), Google will most likely take a closer look at your link building strategy. A1: create a PBN and link away … [Read more...] about The Biggest Link Building Challenges and How to Solve Them #SEMrushchat Recap
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Build it and they shall come: Why your site architecture and search strategy must be aligned
As a society, we have been conditioned with the age-old saying “Build it and they shall come”. However, does this hold true for the digital world and your website? And more specifically, what about Google? In most organizations, organic search optimization becomes a layer that is applied after the fact. After the brand teams, product owners and tech teams have decided what a website’s architecture should be. However, what if I were to tell you that if search were a primary driver in your site’s architecture you could see a 200%+ performance gain out of your organic channel (and paid quality scores if you drive paid to organic pages), along with meeting brand guidelines and tech requirements? The top 5 benefits of architecture driven by organic search Match Google relevancy signals with audience segmentation and user demand Categorization of topical & thematic content silos A defined taxonomy and targeted URL naming schemes Ability to scale content as you … [Read more...] about Build it and they shall come: Why your site architecture and search strategy must be aligned
Build it and they shall come: Why your SEO architecture and search strategy must be aligned
As a society, we have been conditioned with the age-old saying “Build it and they shall come”. However, does this hold true for the digital world and your website? And more specifically, what about Google? In most organizations, organic search optimization becomes a layer that is applied after the fact. After the brand teams, product owners and tech teams have decided what a website’s architecture should be. However, what if I were to tell you that if search were a primary driver in your site’s architecture you could see a 200%+ performance gain out of your organic channel (and paid quality scores if you drive paid to organic pages), along with meeting brand guidelines and tech requirements? The top 5 benefits of architecture driven by organic search Match Google relevancy signals with audience segmentation and user demand Categorization of topical & thematic content silos A defined taxonomy and targeted URL naming schemes Ability to scale content as you … [Read more...] about Build it and they shall come: Why your SEO architecture and search strategy must be aligned
5 Link Building Tactics to Avoid (and Modern Alternatives)
Few SEO strategies have changed as dramatically or as consistently as link building. Despite some occasional claims to the contrary, link building is still a necessary element if you want to earn any significant rankings in search engines. In fact, Google recently confirmed that inbound links are one of the top two ranking factors in the algorithm. Links have always existed as a kind of third-party validation for the trustworthiness, credibility, or authoritativeness of a page or website as a whole; if there are hundreds of sites with links pointing back to yours, clearly you've made a positive impact, and are worth listening to. Therefore, according to Google, you're worth ranking highly. However, without those links, it's virtually impossible to gain any kind of search visibility.How Link Building Has ChangedOld link building strategies were somewhat straightforward: do whatever it takes to get more links. Link quantity was the main focus, along with anchor text, and there weren't … [Read more...] about 5 Link Building Tactics to Avoid (and Modern Alternatives)
Eleven Tips For Optimizing PDFs For Search Engines
The SEO purist may argue why anyone would ever want to use PDF content on a website for search purposes. The reality, however, is that many businesses have a lot of PDF assets. These may include sell sheets, brochures, white papers, technical briefs, etc. The purist simply says why not convert these to html? In the real world, not everyone has the time, budget, and expertise to do that. There may also be other “marketing” reasons. Perhaps a company wants its prospects to experience the content along with all the other brand elements inherent in its print materials. Whatever the reason, there are lots of PDFs available on the web, and you can optimize PDFs to get high-ranking search results. Here are some tips on the right way to do it. 1. Make sure your PDFs are text based. Okay, this first one is pretty obvious. However, we still find companies whose materials were designed in an image-based program. When the PDF is made using these programs, the PDF is an image; there is … [Read more...] about Eleven Tips For Optimizing PDFs For Search Engines
A Link Building Stimulus Plan
With the economy the way it is, we’re getting a lot of inquires from people asking for package programs. They’re willing to cut back on the number of link building techniques they contract for, but not the quality of the links secured. Because of the volume of requests we were getting, I decided to look for a way to trim a couple of tried and true link building programs without sacrificing quality or effectiveness. One of the programs we tweaked and have seen dramatic results in is our directory submission program. More is good Typically, when we think about directory submission programs, sites like the DMOZ, Yahoo! Directory, Best of the Web, and Ezilon come to mind. There are about 20 general directories operating and ranked within the search indexes, here’s a short list of some of them: Joe Ant Massive Links GoGuides Rubberstamped Greenstalk Business Aviva Tip: Many of these directories now accept articles and/or blogs as well, so be sure to look for additional … [Read more...] about A Link Building Stimulus Plan
A Practical Guide To Information Architecture Changes
A change in information architecture (IA) can make or break your in-house SEO program . A successful IA makeover can open up a window to previously unimagined search engine domination, or it can see years of hard SEO work evaporate in the fluttering of a URL. Despite the complexity of IA changes, by following some practical guidelines throughout the process you will maximize the potential SEO value of a well-executed IA changeover and avoid catastrophe. A practical approach to information architecture changes Information architecture is the conceptual model around which a website is built, and forms the structural foundation by which a search engine assesses individual resources (chiefly pages), and the relationship between them. Accordingly, a change to this model has enormous ramifications for how a site is indexed, ranked and otherwise represented by the search engines. Perhaps it is SEO that led the charge for an IA changeover in the first place – this is not uncommon, as a … [Read more...] about A Practical Guide To Information Architecture Changes
5 Link-Building Techniques You’ve Been Neglecting
Link building isn’t black and white, is it? There are so many methods you could be using, but it feels like each one has been… well, overused. Frustrating, isn’t it? However, I believe there are a lot of strategies out there that you’re not using — either because you have forgotten about them or are simply neglecting them. And they could make all the difference in your rankings. If you want to find out the five you’ve been neglecting the most, read on… 1. IFTTT For Link Target Discovery Automation If This Then That (IFTTT) is a beautiful platform that lets you automate a lot of your life. You can use it for social media, organizational tasks and sending those networking emails you always forget to send. But you can also use it to automate your link-building strategies. Now, let me be clear: This tool won’t be building the actual links for you. Instead, it helps with discovering and identifying potential link targets. Let me give you a … [Read more...] about 5 Link-Building Techniques You’ve Been Neglecting
5 Link Building Opportunities Minus the Content
Content is nearly synonymous with link building these days (or link ‘earning’, depending upon who you talk to). Even Google recently changed their user guidelines, which now imply the need to invest in content: “In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by creating high-quality sites that users will want to use and share.” This is a shift from their previous guidelines, which read: “In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages.” And, with the proliferation of content marketing (not to mention guest post link building), content has seen more emphasis today than ever before. That’s without even mentioning Penguin, which strictly enforces link quality over link quantity. Seemingly all of the non-content strategies have been abandoned in favor of long term investments that take a lot of time, money, and resources to pull off. But, there are still … [Read more...] about 5 Link Building Opportunities Minus the Content
5 Link Building Opportunities for Blogs and Small Businesses
Looking for link building opportunities requires creativity and a basic understanding of both marketing and psychology. You need to understand the behavior of your potential linkers and develop email pitches designed specifically for them. Your search for link building opportunities should consider the following: Relevancy. Closely related blogs are gold mines, as they not only provide links, but potentially access to clients/customers your brand is targeting. Obtainability. Can you get a link from the page? Do they list content or resources similar to yours? Capacity. Does your site have enough resources to get a link from the page/domain? Understanding these three important considerations will prevent you from wasting time by reaching out to irrelevant domains. A quick evaluation of the relevancy, obtainability, and capacity of your brand to get links can lead to an efficient link building campaign. In this post, I’d like to share a few link building opportunities you can … [Read more...] about 5 Link Building Opportunities for Blogs and Small Businesses