Showing posts with label link building. Show all posts
Showing posts with label link building. Show all posts

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Beginners Guide to Boost Your Rank in Google


Having a well ranked website is always a plus point for business and other aspects. But gaining a rank in Google is not like an easy job. Now at present only deserving and well reputed website with unique and informative content deserves to be ranked well in Google. This article that I am writing serves the purpose of educating the person own a website but knows nothing or less about process of ranking in Google. The process of ranking well in Google is known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization), lots of things are required to be performed on a website to increase its rank. Basically SEO includes On-page and Off-page optimization both of the aspects plays a very vital role in the performance of website in ranking process and I will take both of them in consideration below.

All of the work that used to be done in previous years to make a website rank well has now been eliminated because Google is getting updated frequently for providing better quality results to its users and compete with other search engines. And still performing black hat techniques on the website can even harm your website and decrease your website importance to rank.

How Google Works?
Before starting and talking about search engine optimization I would like to throw some light on how actually Google works. Google is required to provide most relevant and related search results to its user by crawling, sorting and indexing thousands of similar web pages, it is not an easy task, and to perform this task Google performs various actions which collectively figure out the importance of specific web-page should be come on a certain index. When a user enters search query in search bar and hit search button what actually happens is:-
1. Googlebot :-
googlebot is basically a Google web crawler robot. Actually googlebot requests the Google web servers for the respective web pages then it downloads them and hand over them to Google Indexer for further indexing process.   

2. Google Indexer:-
Googlebot hand over the downloaded pages to Google Indexer. And Google indexer then stores them into Google’s index database for further process. After this stored pages are sorted alphabetically and index them. Now after indexing process Google query process performs the final task to rank every individual pages on a certain place in SERPs(Search Engine Results Pages) listing accordingly to their intelligent algorithm measuring factors (approx. 200 factors in this process to measure or figure out the importance of a webpage should be ranked on a place for a particular search query).

3. Google query processor:-
Google’s query processor is responsible of providing top most relevant and related search to the user. To accomplish this task query processor evaluates and matches the query with related documents or web pages and ranks them on the basis of page authority, domain authority, links and other on-page and off-page factors. In the end this is how results are shown to the user in a perfect sorted manner. All this happens in fractions of seconds and user doesn’t even think about it.
 
Natural and Paid Results:-
Basically Google shows two kinds of search results when anybody types a query in search bar one is known as paid and other one is generic which also known as natural or organic search. Following image will clarify more:-


As shown in image above 1st three searches with color in background and searches on left hand side are paid one which is also marked with boxes, and others are generic or natural below the top three. For the paid one website owner pays Google to keep its website on top and website will be at top most position till owner pays Google which is also known as Google Adwords where they provide full dashboard to the advertisers to keep track their paid searches. And second one which is also known as organic in this part website needs to earn its rank on list, here website is first judged by Google on various aspects and relevant query search. 

Domain Authority and Page Authority:-
Simply domain authority can be described as a prediction about how a website will perform in Google rankings. Domain authority shows domain’s strength and this strength is calculated on various aspects.
Page authority is basically shows the content strength of the page and shows how a particular page will rank in Google rankings.
Basically all of the SEO aspects that we are going to discuss below are only to increase a website’s domain and page authority. 
Following we are providing a video by SEOmoz describing page and domain authority in depth:-

Keyword Research :-
The most important part of SEO process where website owner needs to find out and confirm that on those phrases his website must rank well. Actually one must do a proper keyword research before going for SEO process, basically keyword research is a part of On-page Optimization and have a finalize list of keywords will help the owner to focus on only those keywords.

The thing is if you don’t target and specify any keyword for your website and are not likely to rank for anything on Google.

How to do keyword research :- 
Google itself provides a facility where you can check and see which keyword or phrase has been searched more than any other searches (results not more accurate). The service is known as Google Keyword Tool. Following image will make it more clear :-

As above shown with the help of this tool you will be able to capture the exact picture of the phrase on which you are going to focusing on.

Generating Page Titles :-
After the keyword research you are required to utilize that research in the proper manner. We generated page title always add a plus point in your website. 

Let me clear it to you with the help of an example:-
If a user searches for games online then Googlebot will select only those pages containing   games online phrase either in title or description or rest of the content in that respective web-page. The web page with word games next to online will be given more preference than webpage containing games and online both at different places.
 
Enter the researched keyword in title and content to be rank well on the prospective of that phrase. Because Googlebot first crawls and match the entered query with title and description of the page. Basically title of the page helps the Googlebot to know that what the page is about.

Links :-
This is another thing besides keyword research that Google takes into consideration when ranking a webpage. Links can be described as a word or phrase containing a hyperlink to another web page or site. These links are known by Google as a website is referring to another website and the referred website will get profit or a vote. Links must be obtained from high authority websites because Google also considers the referring websites domain and page authority with the relevancy both parties have each other now having more importance and crucial factor in this regard to count high quality Links.

Links count as votes.
Go, get more links for your website!
More links that a website contains higher rank the website gets. 

Link building can be made from some of the areas I use are:-
News and Media
Communities
Blogging
Articles
Guest posts
Q & A

Social media :-
Social Media plays a very important and vital role in website’s ranking process. Social media is a mean where video, text, and images can be published with the interest of gaining more people interaction. Basically social media is a platform where your visitors can interact with you; they can even have the authority to comment and question. More audiences your website have, more trust and value your website will gain. A good social presence can also give a website boost in ranking serps.  You must surely take help of social media for promoting your website. Following are some of the famous channels I use are:-
Google+ 
Facebook 
Twitter 
Pinterest
Youtube
LinkedIn

To rank well in Google one must have to use Google+ in order to promote website because Google gives first preference to websites having Google+. 
In previous times social media was not preferred much but now at present social media is one of the most important aspects of Of-page utilization. Following video will describe the importance of social media:-
Following questions must be answered if you want to rank well for a targeted keyword:-
  • Do you have target keyword in page title?
  • Do you have target keyword in your content or article?
  • Number of links pointing to the page?
  • Are links coming from high domain authority websites?
  • links should be created naturally with your brand
  • the page, you are going to take a link has relevancy with your niche
I hope you understand well in my words. Be in touch , there will be more tips and guidance will be going to publish soon. Don't forget to comment if you like or not or want give back suggestion over the topic. 

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Google’s Penguin Update How Impacts Keywords

On April 24, Google released an updated algorithm with the codename Penguin. The purposes of this update are to reward websites with quality content aimed at good user experiences and penalize sites practicing black hat tactics with nefarious link profiles. Since the release of Penguin, several articles about the impacts of Google’s changes have circulated the Internet. Many website owners fear that their rankings will drop, but the key to success remains the same: providing unique, quality content for users.



Throughout the history of SEO, business owners have placed a high emphasis on keyword density and placement. The importance of these factors has changed with the new updates because Google is trying to eliminate sites with keyword stuffing and link spamming from search results. It is still beneficial to place your main keyword in the titles and beginning of articles, but keyword diversity is also important. Modifications of keywords and related phrases are good to use throughout content because they sound more natural while promoting high quality articles. Crawlers still search sites for keywords, but an over-abundance of repeated phrases will raise a red flag to Google and cause those pages’ rankings to drop.

The weighing of anchor text works in a similar fashion. The main focus of Penguin is to determine the relevance and quality of websites based on their link profiles, and the anchor text plays a large role in the algorithm’s methods. Google crawls through the displayed text of hyperlinks in order to gauge the relevance of linked pages. Before Penguin, some businesses took advantage of this algorithm by spamming links on blogs, forums and comment pages to improve their rankings. Google hopes to discourage this tactic and improve search results for users by penalizing websites that use matching keywords for multiple links. The majority of websites affected by the update maintained the same keywords for their anchor text in at least 65 percent of their inbound links.

The changes to the way Google analyzes anchor text do not limit a website’s potential for link building. The best post-Penguin method is to build a natural backlink profile with diversity in the anchor text. Using keyword variations in your anchor text will yield better results. When commenting on other sites and blogs, make sure that your keywords are relevant to the content while linking to high-quality pages. Google places negative weight on websites engaging in practices that resemble link spam, so it is best to attract natural links by producing informative content that is worth sharing.

Google’s focus has always been on providing high quality and relevant results for search engine users, and Penguin aims to penalize sites that take advantage of the algorithm’s loopholes. Websites that satisfy desires for informative and helpful content will be rewarded through higher rankings on organic search results. Keywords are good in moderation, and the bottom line is unique content that meets or exceeds expectations.
Written By: CitrineFox Source: TextBroker.com

Friday, May 18, 2012

213 Must Have Tips & Takeaways from SMX London WordTracker 2012

Mal Darwen, Julie McNamee and Andrew Tobert were at SMX London this year. We've gathered up 213 tips and takeaways. Read through, learn, and share these tips.


General

1) There's no fixed date for the launch of Google Search Plus For Your World in Europe.
@theamitsinghal, http://www.google.com
2) Google made 525 algorithm changes last year.
Amit Singhal
3) Check you've been penalized. If you lost ranking on some keywordss but not others, you probably weren't, it's just that some links lose value. If you file for re-inclusion with Google, it won't make any difference.
The Search Marketing Experts Panel


PPC

4) The basics in writing copy for your PPC ad:
  • Highlight your USP - include prices, promotions and exclusives
  • Tell your customers what they can do
  • Include at least one of your keywords
  • Remember user intent
  • Use tried and tested phrases such as "Official site" and "Free Delivery"
  • Use language that turns the wrong customers away
  • Match your ad to your landing page
  • Experiment
    Ben Beard, http://www.adobe.com
5) Use Google Ace to experiment on ads, ad groups, keywords, placements, ad creatives, remarketing lists etc.
Ben Beard
6) Bear in mind the types of buyer out there - survivalist, scarcity, convenience, prestige, social, value-minded, fearful, goal-minded.
Pamela Olson, King Schools
7) People buy on emotion and justify with logic. It's when they've gone past the research stage to the buying stage (and you can appeal to that emotion) that you can grab them.
Pamela Olson
8) Nobody wants to make a bad decision - they don't want DRED - discomfort, risk, embarrassment or doubt. So try to allay these fears in your ad copy.
Pamela Olson
9) Use keywords such as reviews, information, testimonials, best, comparison, cost for the person at start at the buying cycle.
Pamela Olson
10) Create a sense of urgency for those further on in the buying cycle.
Pamela Olson
11) Use the term "Your Guarantee" rather than "Our Guarantee" - your prospect will feel that you're talking to them.
Pamela Olson
12) Address fears and be more product-specific by using sitelink extensions.
Pamela Olson
13) Try testing 3-4 ads at a time if you have the amount of traffic that can handle that number. Try out different headlines, offers and USPs.
Pamela Olson
14) Use call extensions if you're the type of business that that suits - eg, if you're a restaurant or taxi firm.
Pamela Olson
15) Use keyword search queries to help increase your CTR and bring down your CPC (cost per click).
Pamela Olson
16) ENVY: Your ad copy should appeal to the consumer's Emotions, Needs, give them Validation and provide the Yay factor (make them feel they've got a deal).
Pamela Olson
17) SQRs (site query reports) should form the backbone of everything you do in PPC
Ed Schofield, Expedia
18) Start with a Broad Match strategy, run that for a couple of weeks, then start using Negatives, Exact Match, Broad Match Modifiers etc.
Ed Schofield
19) 25% of consumers scan the URL for indicator of relevance in search results, so try to have a relevant keyword in there.
Ed Schofield
20) Test attribution models and understand media impact drivers.
Ed Schofield
21) Move beyond last click attribution. Last click is last year!
Ed Schofield
22) Keyword Reports with PPC - put each keyword in its own Adgroup so you can get an impression share report
Scott Krager


SEO

23) Brands possess immense SEO power.
Marcus Tober, http://www.searchmetrics.com
24) On researching .co.uk SERPS, the key finding was that for the number one placing, social signals dominated (although Google+ data is not yet reliable).
Marcus Tober
25) Bounce rate, clickthrough rate in SERPs (search engine ranking pages) and time on site can all be measured.
Marcus Tober
26) A 40% average clickthrough rate (CTR) uplift is being seen with a three line sitelink and 17% with one line.
Ben Beard
27) Backlinks are still a major ranking factor, but quality matters.
Marcus Tober
28) Measure social media signals: motivate users to make your company more famous.
Marcus Tober
29) Become a brand and have recognizable products.
Marcus Tober
30) Google wants to rank the best site for the user, not the site with the best SEO.
Marcus Tandler, http://www.mediadonis.net/
31) Google wants to know which sites get lots of direct traffic (the user expects to see those sites as a result).
Marcus Tandler
32) Be careful with link profiles - use brand terms as well as target keywords.
@DaveNaylor, www.davidnaylor.co.uk/
33) Track keyword data while you still can - track Goals in Analytics (if you're not doing it now, then start).
Scott Krager, http://www.notprovided.com
34) Track keyword rankings - proving your case with numbers can win budget!
Scott Krager
35) Control what you can. Measure what you can.
Scott Krager
36) Share everything with your clients/boss. Transparency is coming.
Scott Krager
37) Power Articles work well: 1,000 - 2,000 words, good quality, in-depth researched material, published weekly.
Duran Inci, http://www.optimum7.com
38) Power Articles are what Google recommends; great content for the user; attracts links; is more effective in social.
Duran Inci
39) Identify pages with poor bounce rate/visits/time on site and de-index them (add no-indexes or no-follows to your robots.txt/).
Duran Inci
40) Microdata is not easy to implement but there are big wins if you do it right.
Duran Inci
41) 45% of algorithm search results are now personalized.
Craig Macdonald
42) Social and intent are going to become bigger ranking factors than links and on-page SEO.
Craig Macdonald
43) Don't assume there's only one English, Spanish or French language. The challenge is to find out the lexicons and slang of local users.
Jonathan Ashton, http://www.tbwa.com via @ShaadHamid
44) It's not a developer task to build schema.org microformats into your content - it's not too complicated.
Richard Baxter, http://www.seogadget.co.uk/
45) Authorship: link content to your Google+ profile, check the implementation and wait for Googlebot crawling!
Pierre Far, http://www.google.com
46) Authorship links should be to the author's page, NOT the publisher's page.
Pierre Far
47) Make sure that your rich snippets markup is correct and complete - many webmasters do this wrongly.
Pierre Far
48) Only use relevant rich snippet markup - make it visible and not misleading.
Pierre Far
49) You can find links to Google Webmaster hangouts at http://bit.ly/KqlTTk
Pierre Far


Landing page optimization

50) Look for inspiration outside the bun fight that is the search results pages - otherwise everybody's ads will end up looking the same. For example, have a look at a magazine to see how it grabs attention.
Guy Levine, http://www.returnondigital.com
51) The greatest uplifts in CTR are seen with the use of sitelinks.
Ben Beard, Adobe
52) Test your images in Facebook (check out the clickthrough rate) and whichever gets the most clicks, add to your Merchant Center.
Ben Beard
53) Don't violate design conventions - lurid colours, black backgrounds etc.
Malcolm Graham, http://www.limetreeonline.com
54) Don't make an ad too obvious eg, "Buy Me Now!" People will avoid the hard sell.
Malcolm Graham
55) An example of a very good landing page is Mailchimp
Malcolm Graham
56) If you're selling complex and expensive products you'll need lots of informative content, or people won't buy it.
Malcolm Graham
57) Offer something free with lots of branding to get good conversion rates.
Malcolm Graham
58) The home page is not a great place to send PPC traffic - it's just a waste of your money.
Guy Levine,
59) Think above the fold.
Guy Levine
60) Repeat your messages - lead the user by the hand to show them what you want them to do.
Guy Levine
61) Restrict the navagation - don't give them too many options.
Guy Levine
62) Build trust - use video.
Guy Levine
63) Every landing page should have a purpose and defined most required response.
Guy Levine
64) Use convincers (mentions in the media, awards, association membership logos.)
Guy Levine
65) Not everyone is in buy mode - use information and a two step sell to get them back to your site.
Guy Levine
66) Use forms scientifically - short increases fill, long improves quality.
Guy Levine
67) Ensure a tight correlation between your ad and your landing page copy.
Guy Levine
68) Measure specific conversion actions - not page views and time on site.
Guy Levine
69) When testing buying pages, the call to action button is the biggest priority.
Guy Levine
70) Your site should say - we are experts, this is what you should buy, please buy it from us!
Guy Levine
71) Landing page mistake: visual bullying - "Buy Now" within an enormous orange button. Brian Lewis
72) Don't use too many font treatments as it's too difficult to read.
Brian Lewis
72) Don't use rotating banners - it's distracting and slows the loading of your page.
Brian Lewis
73) Use tabs for more info etc rather than long, long web pages.
Brian Lewis
74) Make text easy to ready - use high contrast. Eg, blue on a white background.
Brian Lewis
75) 'Use cases' - defining the roles of people coming to your site. What's important to them? Price, warranty, what's their level of knowledge, where are they coming from, who are they?
Brian Lewis
76) They could be there for pre-research, early research, research on your company's advantage, browsing, pice comparison, ready to buy - create content that will be useful to all these people.
Brian Lewis
77) 4 types of trust and credibility
  • Presumed credibility (they already know your name)
  • Visual credibility
  • Industry (insignias and emblems, members of an association, "as seen in New York Times")
  • Social (testimonials and reviews)
    Brian Lewis
78) Relevance - the landing page should represent what they're looking for. If you mention an offer on the ad, point the link to a page with the offer on.
Stephen Pavlovich
79) Attention - have a clear call to action, an image that grabs.
Stephen Pavlovich
80) Show don't tell eg, Hyundai had an ad where 40 monkeys are challenged to pull apart one of their cars.
Stephen Pavlovich
81) Read "Made to Stick" by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. Make ideas simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, and do they tell a story?
Stephen Pavlovich
82) Orientation - look at CampaignMonitor for a good one. Guide the user's hand as they go through their website so that they don't get lost. Make it obvious what they've to do next.
Stephen Pavlovich
83) Basecamp have great landing pages.
Stephen Pavlovich
84) Add a point of action reassurance underneath your call to action button (eg "You can cancel at a later date, there's a 30 day guarantee").
Stephen Pavlovich
85) "Steal" people's ideas with user testing, surveys and speaking to people in coffee shops.
Stephen Pavlovich
86) Google has changed its rule on Exact Match (it now gives close variations eg, plurals and misspellings) - you can revert to the old way in your settings.
Stephen Pavlovich


Cookie Law

87) 2011 Cookie rule asks for consent - May 25th is the cut-off date in the UK.
Andy Atkins-Krueger, http://www.webcertain.com
88) There are different rules for different countries - France's are some of the toughest.
Andy Atkins-Krueger
89) In the UK users need to actively configure their browser settings. But it doesn't affect analytics cookies.
Andy Atkins-Krueger
90) Your cookies should be harmless and non-intrusive.
Andy Atkins-Krueger
91) Audit your site to see if you have "aggressive cookies".
Andy Atkins-Krueger
92) Work to the lowest common denominator eg France's conditions are much tougher than Ireland's.
Andy Atkins-Krueger
93) Do a cookie audit before the Cookie law comes into force (UK). Do you know how many 1st and 3rd party cookies you drop on people's websites?
Andy Atkins-Krueger
94) One of the large Fortune 100 companies is putting the warning into a small Privacy Statement in the footer of their home page.
Anthony Haney
95) Watch what the giants are doing eg, Google and Amazon.
Anthony Haney
96) According to an Econsultancy report, 82% thought cookie opt-out is a bad idea for the consumer. But 80% of consumers thought it was a good idea.
Craig Macdonald, http://www.microsoft.com
97) In another survey 55% considered a cookie to be malware.
Craig Macdonald
98) Opt-out rates are low - only 2% for email (according to a US-based survey). So it may not be so bad when people are asked to opt-out of cookies.
Craig Macdonald
99) Even though the Cookie Law is so far only in Europe, US websites are going to have to pay attention because they have to tailor their websites to the lowest common denominator.
Craig Macdonald


Local search

100) Consumers are adapting to social at faster rates - be nimble.
Jonathan Ashton
101) Don't determine content with scripts for different languages - use a tunnel with hard links to country-specific urls.
Jonathan Ashton
102) Local operations need local pages.
Jonathan Ashton
103) SEOs must form good relationships with IT managers to achieve good results.
Jonathan Ashton
104) Make sure your local site is 'Venice-friendly' (the name of the localization Google algorithm) - build relevant landing pages for each location.
Aleyda Solis, http://www.fxclub.com
105) Maintain a flow of fresh and relevant localized content to succeed in local search.
Aleyda Solis
106) Curated user-generated content can be a great help in local search.
Aleyda Solis
107) Build citations for each location you target - collaborate with local media and bloggers.
Aleyda Solis
108) Mobilize your local presence - use tools like Screenfly to check how your site looks on a mobile.
Aleyda Solis
109) Monitor and follow local activity - stay in touch!
Aleyda Solis


Mobile

110) Use a free app to promote a premium one.
Andy Atkins-Krueger
111) And use a free app if your goal is to promote your brand.
Andy Atkins-Krueger
112) Things to bear in mind - use HTML geared towards mobile, or use apps to drive traffic?
Andy Atkins-Krueger
113) Comscore reports 60% of activity on mobile phones is done at home or in the office - static rather than properly mobile.
Andy Atkins-Krueger
114) Mobile's role from 1% to 20%

115) % of mobile website visitors in the UK has risen from 1% in 2010 to 20% in 2012.
Neil Walker, http://www.seomad.com
116) There's a higher clickthrough rate on mobile although conversions and transactions are still lower than on desktop. This may well change in future, though.
Neil Walker
117) Mobile usability. You have three choices: using a third party mobile site service, building a new mobile site in-house or re-designing your website using responsive design ...
Rob Kerry, http://www.ayima.com
  • A third party site is currently not a good option - the site will not be attractive, duplicate content is a result, plus a broken user experience and increased bounce rates and link dilution.
  • The best option is reponsive web - re-design your website so that it scales gracefully depending on screen resolution.
    Rob Kerry
  • Site redesign: same urls, same content, better usability uses existing infrastructure and CMS but requires a website re-design use HTML5 and CSS3 and responsive design.
  • Building a new mobile site will cause duplicate content problems which you can solve with rel=canonical code but you do have more control than you would with a third party site.
  • Look at WPtouch plugin or the Magento M-Commerce platform for setting up a mobile site - though not just as good an option as responsive design.
    Rob Kerry
118) Don't automatically think of an iPhone app when designing. Think of who your customers will be. Eg China are big Android users.
Rob Kerry


Social

119) In Google Webmaster Tools use Fetch Googlebot>Submit to Index to submit pages to Google to have them prioritized. (Up to 50 URLs a week, domains only (not subdomains)).
Maile Ohye, http://www.google.com
120) And use an accurate (last modification date) to get your updated pages crawled faster.
Maile Ohye
121) Eliminate known duplicate pages or low quality content.
Maile Ohye
122) Only link internally to quality pages and check Webmaster Tools for any internal links to old pages.
Maile Ohye
123) rel="author" is the biggest social signal and Google is ranking individuals over companies and publishers.
Lisa Myers, http://www.vervesearch.com
124) Link building = creativity, communication and execution.
Lisa Myers
125) Timing is becoming more crucial. Experiment about when the best time to tweet is.
Lisa Myers
126) Social is all about personality. Make sure there are distinctive voices writing for you who are known or who can get themselves known.
Lisa Myers
127) Telling an employee not to tweet is like telling a 15yr old not to drink. But if they have a big Twitter following you can give them guidelines rather than telling them not to.
Lisa Myers
128) Facebook is for a general audience, whereas Google+ and Twitter are about news and technology.
James Carson
129) Think about your influencers. You don't always have to follow A-listers. Being tweeted by someone with 50,000 followers might not be as beneficial as being tweeted by someone with fewer followers but with many who have with their own medium-sized following.
James Carson
130) Gameification - eg, have your users earn badges the more comments they make, as a way of encouraging them to do so.
Simon Heseltine
131) Hijack a large happening event, and tweet your way through it eg, Huffington Post tweeted quotes from the state of the union address as it was happening.
Simon Heseltine
132) Don't just worry about the shares you get. Look at your engagement metrics.
Simon Heseltine
133) There's no harm in re-tweeting evergreen posts as long as it's not a time-reliant post.
Simon Heseltine
134) Optimize where you put your social buttons: put them in an obvious place or you won't get shared.
Lisa Myers
135) Google+ isn't terrible, but it's not as good as Facebook. Google+ averages 3 mins per month per user on site as opposed 20 mins per user day on Facebook.
Bas van den Beld, http://www.stateofsearch.com/
136) Don't think of Google+ as a Facebook competitor - it's more of a data-gatherer than a social network.
Bas van den Beld
137) People succumb to peer pressure, taking on recommendations from authorities and people we trust.
Bas van den Beld
138) When we sign up to Google+ we're passing on our identities, our friends and employees' details and information on how we're using the web.
Bas van den Beld
139) Find out what information Google+ has on you at http://www.google.com/s2/search/social
Bas van den Beld
140) Tell intermediaries what content you'd like to see and with a bit of luck the A-listers will get to know about your requests through them.
Bas van den Beld
141) Create content based on what your users want to see rather than what you think it should be based on.
Bas van den Beld
142) If content has been Google+1'd it will appear artificially high in the SERPs, but you may see a lower than average CTR because it's less relevant.
Kevin Gibbons, http://www.seoptimise.com
143) The result of a case study showed that a site with no Google+ profile showed a decrease in organic traffic of 19.5% and those with a strong Google+ profile an increase of 42.6%.
Kevin Gibbons
144) Whatever you do, build up a great content team - bloggers, video producers, writers. Keep doing that and you'll start looking forward to ranking updates.
Kevin Gibbons
145) Force yourself to share something on Google+ every day.
Kevin Gibbons
146) Google said that links are like a democracy - maybe a democracy where you have to be white, male and a property owner. When they said this you needed a blog or a site and you needed to be web-savvy. These days it's much more democratic with social - anyone can comment on anything.
Danny Sullivan, http://www.searchengineland.com/
147) "If you're doing something you don't want the world to know about, maybe you shouldn't be doing it."
Bas van den Beld quoting Eric Schmidt of Google


Panda, Penguin and content

148) 43% of all searches done on the web comprise of four or more words. 64% of searches no exact match.
Ken Dobell, http://www.dacgroup.com
149) Create highly relevant content for the user and for the search engine.
Ken Dobell
150) Panda's had a much greater impact than Penguin but they're both part of a campaign to get rid of webspam.
Ken Dobell
151) Google decides your link profile on many criteria, including age of the page, last date of edit, reciprocity, number of links, age of link, type of link (image,text), and location.
Simon Penson, http://www.zazzlemedia.co.uk/
152) Content marketing is going to be key in future.
Simon Penson
153) Something has changed re using anchor text as a ranking signal. Might it have been turned off altogether?
Simon Penson
154) Remove over-optimized anchor text links avoid/remove sitewide links.
Simon Penson
155) Remove non-relevant links.
Simon Penson
156) Add high quality links.
Simon Penson
157) If you have Penguin-related problems, fix them before your Panda problems.
Simon Penson
158) Clean up your site's index by dealing with extraneous URLs.
Stephen Croome, http://wwwSEOGadget.com
159) Delete or rehome orphan pages and low quality internally linked pages.
Stephen Croome
160) Improve site internal linking - tidy it up and add good internal links to quality pages.
Stephen Croome
161) Get rid of categories that have no content in them.
Stephen Croome
162) Increase the ratio of your good content by throwing away your worst content.
Stephen Croome
163) It's obvious from Google's updates that they are valuing diversity, freshness, quality and authority.
Stephen Croome
164) Content wins big long-term.
Vince Blackham, http://www.97thfloor.com
165) If you're making infographics don't try doing it in Word and saving as a jpg - make it beautiful. Interactive ones are even better with links off to other pages.
Vince Blackham
166) Put your infographic on Pinterest and have the version on your site larger than the one on Pinterest (at least 500px width and 2500px in length), so people will have to click through to see the infographic properly.
Vince Blackham
167) Use Tineye to find out who has used your images and go after links from the sites that have used them.
Vince Blackham
168) Entity rank rather than page rank - is that going to become more important?
Simon Penson
169) Yandex said that either Google are talking to aliens or gods, or they're using the clickthrough rate as a ranking factor.
Andy Atkins-Krueger
170) People avoid spammy-looking URLs.
Andy Atkins-Krueger
171) User testing has shown that people love clicking anything with a numerical character in it on SERPs pages.
Andy Atkins-Krueger
172) Think natural when it comes to anchor text - use brand plus something else. Exact match anchor text looks like a paid link to Google.
Andy Atkins-Krueger


Remarketing and retargeting

173) Understand what the re means - do it again and do it better.
Lisa Williams, http://www.acquisio.com
174) Test on multiple platforms. Different ones will have different pricing structures and customer service etc.
Lisa Williams
175) Use Facebook to get a better feel for your demographics. Target your ads to different groups of people to find out which likes them better.
Lisa Williams
176) Look at your metrics to see what remarketing is doing for other areas of your marketing: brand searches, conversions etc.
Lisa Williams
177) When you're retargeting look at the sites that don't deliver and remove them.
Lisa Williams
178) "Win moment" - if you can target them on the same day you'll get a 50% higher conversion if you don't.
Ariel Bardin, http://google.com
179) There is a significant drop-off in conversion after an hour.
Ariel Bardin
180) Make better decisions - make sure you make use of all your data and that it's in an accessible place.
Ariel Bardin
181) Your conversion is 136% quicker if you use search and display together. And you'll get five times more conversions.
Ariel Bardin
182) The more control you give users, the more engaged they will be.
Lisa Williams


Paid search campaigns

183) Product listing ads is relatively new and up to now there hasn't been much information on them.
Ann Stanley, http://www.anicca-solutions.com/
184) There are two formats for product extensions - linear usually performs better.
Ann Stanley
185) Most companies still don't use it - it will give you a competitive advantage.
Ann Stanley
186) Product listing ad brings extra brand enhancement and a better CTR, although it appears randomly. You have no control over when it is seen.
Ann Stanley
187) Use social extensions if you want your customer engaged with your business before or even after conversion.
George Popstefanov, http://pmg.co/
188) Seller ratings come from external sites such as Reviewcentre, Ciao, Trustpilot, Resellerratings as well as reviews on your site.
George Popstefanov
189) The customer must be searching on Google and you must have at least 30 unique reviews. If your rating isn't four stars or higher they won't show it.
George Popstefanov
190) You don't need to have a Google Merchant Center account for your ads to be eligible for seller ratings.
George Popstefanov
191) You can have up to eight sitelinks.
George Popstefanov
192) Use sitelink extensions as shortcuts to your best-selling products or to highlight offers, but make sure you keep them updated.
George Popstefanov
193) Dynamic search ads where Google generates the headline and the template is worth trying out. Use them if you don't have time, if you're not sure what you're doing or if you have a huge inventory which changes frequently. (Only available as Beta in Europe at the moment, but full version available in the US).
George Popstefanov
194) You can specify that Google uses just one section - eg a category, or pages that contain certain words so you are in control.
George Popstefanov
195) For your ad templates (which you create) have a universal message about your brand, use offers that apply to everything on your site eg free shipping, mention any free resources.
George Popstefanov
196) When a relevant search occurs, Google dynamically generates an ad with a headline based on the query, and the text based on your most relevant landing page.
George Popstefanov
197) With sitelinks: Test -Learn - Roll out - Test. Then do it all again.
Paul Risebury-Crisp, http://www.adobe.com
198) Make sure your sitelinks point to the relevant landing page - don't have them pointing to your home page.
Paul Risebury-Crisp
199) On a mobile screen you have significantly less space so if you have sitelinks you'll take up more of it than your competitors without.
Paul Risebury-Crisp
200) Have sitelinks as part of your brand launch - don't wait for a few weeks to add them.
Paul Risebury-Crisp
201) Google Brand Logo beta - next big thing?
Paul Risebury-Crisp


SEO and social media tools

202) Majestic SEO have launched two new metrics - citation flow and trust flow, alongside their link metrics.
Dixon Jones, http://www.majesticseo.com
203) Pay attention to your competitor rankings but don't obsess about yours.
Dixon Jones
204) For Google Analytics alternatives, try Yahoo Web Analytics.
Dixon Jones
205) Google custom search lets you input specific sites. With every algo update, create a profile of winners and losers. You can then see qualitatively what google is looking for.
Dixon Jones
206) Use Mockingbird for site mockups.
Aleydra Solis
207) Test responsiveness with Screenfly
Aleydra Solis
208) Automate social tasks with IFTTT
Aleydra Solis
209) Social Mention tracks buzz across the web and lets you see the top influencers.
Neil Walker
210) Use Google+ Ripples for Google+ analytics.
Dixon Jones
211) Basecamp for project management.
Dixon Jones
212) If you get a "you've been busted" email, correct everything before you quibble with Google.
The Search Marketing Experts Panel
213) Check you've been penalized. If you lost ranking on some keywordss but not others, you probably weren't, it's just that some links lose value. If you file for re-inclusion with Google, it won't make any difference.
The Search Marketing Experts PaneCredit Source: wordtracker.com

Saturday, May 5, 2012

2 Important Post on Google's Penguin Update by SEOmoz

5 Penguin-Friendly Link Building Tips


Since Google launched their Penguin update on April 24th, millions of websites have been falling down the rankings like losing soldiers in the battlefield! Google has been cracking down on "spammy" websites like never before.

Penguin
This update has indeed been very effective at knocking down spam sites, but many believe that some legit sites have also wrongfully been hit and have voiced their opinions on Google's forums and social media outlets. Google's Search Quality team listened and has set up a form that webmasters can use to notify Google that the Penguin has been unfair to them.
If you have used any unnatural SEO techniques in the past and your website is still proudly standing on the first page, it doesn't mean you're safe. In fact, Google said that the updates will be gradually deployed throughout the next few weeks. Expect a lot of movement in the SERPs!

If you are feeling bad while reading this because you do remember using some slightly shady link building techniques in the past, don't worry, it's never too late to repent.

Now is the time to "whiten your hat" and re-think your SEO strategy. Here are some valuable link building tips that will help you not only survive the Penguin update, but safely improve your rankings for the long term...

Tip #1 - 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 lazies out there, there are tons of plugins and tools that can help you automate this process. Twitterfeed 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!

Tip #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 backlinks 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 plugin like SEO Smart Links that can automate the whole process.

Tip #3 - 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. *ahem ahem*

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.

Tip #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.

Tip #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.
This is the safest, most natural, and most efficient form of SEO.
Written By: AnimeR Source: SEOmoz.org

Penguins, Pandas, and Panic at the Zoo

Google’s war on lovable critters escalated on April 24th with the release of the “Penguin” update (originally dubbed the “webspam update” by Google). While every major algorithm update causes some protest, post-Penguin panic seems to be at near record levels, worsened by weeks of speculation about an “over-optimization” penalty. Webmasters and SEOs are understandably worried, and many have legitimately lost traffic and revenue. Before you go out and burn your website to the ground for fear of a penguin in the pantry, I want to offer some advice on how to handle life after an algorithm update.

1. What We Know
First, let’s review what we know. I’m going to break the rules of blogging and recommend that you stop and read this level-headed Penguin post by Danny Sullivan. It covers some of the basics and is the most speculation-free post I’ve read on the subject so far. Glenn Gabe also had a good post on potential Penguin factors.  There’s still a lot of speculation, but likely culprits include:
  • Aggressive exact-match anchor text
  • Overuse of exact-match domains
  • Low-quality article marketing & blog spam
  • Keyword stuffing in internal/outbound links
Many people have suggested low-quality link profiles in general, but analysis of Panda has been complicated by Google’s recent attack on link networks, which seems to have been manual and has probably been going on for weeks. The overlap has made analysis difficult, so let’s take a quick look at the timeline.

What’s the Timeline?

The official roll-out date for Penguin was April 24th, and it seems to have rolled out, for the most part, in a single day. Unfortunately, it came on the heels of other events. On April 19th, Panda 3.5 rolled out (most likely a data update). On April 16th, a data glitch caused a number of sites to be mistakenly tagged as parked domains. Throughout April (and weeks before Penguin), Google started sending out a large number of unnatural link notices via Google Webmaster Tools. Sadly, it seems that April really was the cruelest month.


How Bad Was It?

Google officially claimed that Penguin impacted about 3.1% of English queries, compared to Panda 1.0’s 12%. Since rankings change daily – even hourly – even with no updates, these numbers are nearly impossible to confirm, but it does appear that the impact of Penguin was immediate and substantial. This is an internal SEOmoz graph of Top 10 ranking changes around April 24th (please note that the Y-axis is scaled to accentuate changes):

Graph of Top 10 changes (Penguin vs. Panda 3.5)

Pardon the slightly cryptic nature of this graph – it’s for an upcoming project – but the core point is that the impact of Penguin dwarfed either Panda 3.5 or Google’s 4/16 glitch.

Is It Going Away?

In a word: no. Penguin wasn’t accidental, and Google is clearly serious about combatting spam tactics that have been lingering for too long. As you can see from the graph, it doesn’t appear that there were any major reversals in the few days since Penguin rolled out. Does that mean Google won’t make ANY adjustments? Of course not – it’s entirely likely that they’ll continue to tweak Penguin.
For comparison’s sake, remember that Panda 3.5 came 14 months after the initial launch of Panda 1.0. We’ve come a long way since the monthly “Google Dances” of 2003. Keep in mind, though, that Panda was somewhat unique – we believe that it feeds multiple variables into a single ranking factor that gets updated outside of the real-time index. There’s currently no compelling evidence to suggest that Penguin works in the same way. The Penguin update appears to be integrated directly into the main algorithm, like a more traditional Google update.

2. What to Do

Given the overlapping timelines, this advice applies to any Google update, and not just Penguin. The algorithm is changing constantly (Google reported 516 changes in 2010, and that rate seems to be accelerating), and I want to give you the tools to survive not just Penguin, but Zebra, Skunk, Orca, and any other black-and-white animals Google can ruin…

DO Take a Deep Breath

I’m not trying to be condescending or to minimize any losses you may have suffered. Over 17 years of working with clients, I’ve learned that panic almost never makes things better. No matter how hard Penguin hit you, you need to stop, take a breath, and assess the damage. Dig into your analytics and find out exactly where you sustained losses. Segment your data (by channel, engine, keyword, and page) as much as possible. It’s not enough to know that you lost traffic – you need to be an expert on exactly which traffic you lost.

DO Check the Timeline

Even though the overlapping timelines make analyzing the core Penguin factors difficult, the actual timeline when Penguin rolled out is clear. If you saw major traffic losses between Tuesday, April 24th and Wednesday, April 25th, odds are good that Penguin is at least part of the problem.

DO Double-check IT Issues

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been involved in a Q&A or consulting situation where a website owner was 100% sure they had been hit by an algorithm update, only to have their 17th message to me go something like this:
Oh, by the way, our site was down for 3 days a couple of weeks ago, right before our rankings dropped. I’m sure this wasn’t the problem, but I just thought I’d let you know.
Um, erp, what?! I’ve died a little inside so many times from messages like this that I’m not sure that I’m technically still human. Especially if your losses weren’t sudden or don’t match the algorithm timeline precisely, make absolutely sure that nothing happened to your site or changed that could impact Google’s crawlers. One of the worst things you can do in SEO is to spend a small fortune solving the wrong problem.

DO Quickly Audit Your SEO

Likewise, make sure that you know exactly what SEO efforts are underway, not just within your own team but across any 3rd-party contractors. I’ve had clients swear up and down that everything they did was completely white-hat only to find out weeks later that they hired an outside link-building firm and let them loose with no accountability. Make absolutely sure you know what every agent under your control did in the weeks leading up to the algorithm update.

3. What Not to Do

Panic leads to drastic action, and while I don’t think you should sit on your hands, bad choices made under uninformed hysteria can make a bad situation much, much worse. I’m not speaking hypothetically – I’ve seen businesses destroyed by overreacting to an algorithm change. Here are a few words of advice, once you’ve taken that deep breath (don’t forget to start breathing again)…

DON’T Take a Hatchet to Your Links

It’s unclear how Penguin may have penalized links, or if recent reports of link-related issues are tied to other April changes, but regardless of the cause, the worst thing you can do is to start simply hacking at your back-links. Even low-quality back-links can, in theory, help you, and if you start cutting links that aren’t causing you problems, you could see your rankings drop even farther.
I highly recommend this recent interview with Jim Boykin, because Jim has freely admitted to dabbling in the gray arts and he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to risky link-building. Tackling your problem links is incredibly tough, but start with the worst culprits:
  • Known, obvious paid links
  • Links in networks Google has recently delisted
  • Footer links with exact-match anchor text
  • Other site-wide links with exact-match anchors
Whenever possible, deal with low-authority links first. If a link is passing very little authority AND it’s suspicious, it’s a no-brainer. Cutting links is tough (see my tips on removing bad links) – if you don’t have control over a link, you may have to let it go and focus on positive link-building going forward.

DON’T “De-optimize” Without a Plan

One complaint I hear a lot in Q&A is that the “wrong” page is ranking for a term. So, to get the “right” page to rank, the well-meaning SEO starts de-optimizing the page that’s currently ranking. This usually means turning a decent TITLE tag into a mess and cutting out keywords to leave behind Swiss-cheese copy. Sometimes, the “right” page starts ranking again. Other times, they lose both pages and their traffic.
“Over-optimize” is a terrible phrase, and that alone has people in a panic. There’s nothing “optimal” about jamming a keyword 87 times into 500 words of copy and linking it to the same affiliate site. “Over-gaming” would be a better word. You think you figured out the rules of the game, so you pounded on them until there was nothing but a pile of dust on the board.
If you think you’ve played the game too aggressively, step back and look at the big picture. Does your content serve a purpose? Does your anchor text match the intent of the target? Do your pages exist because they need to or only to target one more long-tail variations of a term? Don’t de-optimize your on-page SEO – re-optimize it into something better.

DON’T Submit a Reconsideration Request

While I don’t think reconsideration will doom you, Penguin is an algorithmic change, not a manual penalty, and reconsideration is not an appropriate avenue. If you think you were impacted by the recent crackdown on link networks, IF you have removed those links, and IF you aren’t engaged in other suspicious link-building, you might consider requesting reconsideration. Just make sure your house is in order first.
Google has created a form for sites unfairly hit by Penguin, but it’s unclear at this point whether that form will result in manual action, or if Google is just collecting broad quality data. If you sincerely believe that you’re an accidental victim, then feel free to fill the form out, but don’t base your entire recovery strategy on clicking [Submit].
Fix What You Can Fix
Recently, I had a long debate with a client about whether or not they had been hit by a specific algorithm update. In the end, it was a pointless debate (for both of us), because we had two clear facts: (1) organic traffic had fallen precipitously, and (2) there were clear, solvable problems with the site. From a diagnostic standpoint, it definitely helps to know whether you were hit by Penguin or another update, but after that, you have to fix what's in your power to fix. Don't spend weeks trying to prove to management that this was all Google's fault. Isolate the damage, find the problems you can fix, and get to work fixing them.
Written By: Dr. Pete Source: SEOmoz.org

Imrpoving Your SEO Strategies after Panda & Penguin updates by Google

For the past few months, I have been practically living in an analytics dashboard, constantly monitoring my clients’ organic search data for even the smallest hint of a Google slap. If you haven’t noticed, Google has been busy updating their search products (see: NovDecJan, Feb, Mar).

On top of those changes that they have publicly documented, we are also seeing additional SEO-specific updates by Google. We’ve had a “page layout algorithm” update, Panda updates and even a bug in Google’s system that caused sites to accidentally be delisted.

Now, there’s a Penguin in the mix. Pandas, Penguins and bugs – Oh my! It’s like I’m at the zoo. And a zoo is pretty much what the SEO world feels like right now.

Also in the mix was the Matt Cutts announcement about a penalty for overly-optimized sites. And then a few weeks later, we started hearing more and more about ‘negative SEO’, which is essentially the process of sabotaging someone’s organic search rankings by generating tens of thousands of “bad” links to their website.

That is really sad, but apparently, there is evidence that it can work (although some people predict it will only work in specific situations, such as sites that already have suspicious link profiles). Yeah. Let that sink in. SEOs targeting SEOs. It makes me sick.

If you remember the good old days, you remember when Google would make one big change every once in a while. Rarely was it several major changes at once, and algorithm updates that had massive SEO implications were even more rare. The infrequency of major algorithm updates made it much easier to identify and measure the impact to rankings and all other metrics.
The best SEOs would figure out which factors changed and/or which factors had received more or less weight and then adjust their sites accordingly. This is not the case today. Lately, SEO is more like an gun fight where the dust never settles.


All Is Fair In The Land Of SEO?

Do you see that? Is Matt Cutts launching another algo update?
Do you see that? Is Matt Cutts launching another algo update?

As I mentioned earlier, SEOs are now living in a zoo, where every day feels like an adventure in controlled chaos. And with ‘negative SEO’, we’ve got a situation where SEOs are basically trying to eat each other. So instead of a zoo, maybe it’s more like Jurassic Park.

With Google’s Panda and Penguin updates affecting so many sites, I’m paranoid that my sites might be next.
One moment, I’m seeing a minor fluctuation in my traffic, and it’s like I’m hearing the footsteps while staring at the water rippling in the cup on the dashboard. Then, I feel like I’m riding in the jeep with Jeff Goldblum as we try to outrun the tyrannosaurus rex. And I’m a white hat! I’m the good guy!
I’m building fresh, quality content. I’m spending hours and hours researching market trends and creating value for my site’s visitors. I’m *not* buying thousands of links on private blog networks. Rather, I’m spending time contacting webmasters of websites related to my niche to advertise and build contextual links that make sense for my site.

I’m active on the social media front. I’ve invested in usability, information architecture and landing page optimization. But none of that matters because lately it seems like Google is targeting blackhat SEOs, but in the process they are affecting whitehats and blackhats alike.

I can’t help but think that there have been quite a few false positives related to Panda and Penguin. In fact, it must be a high number, as Google created a form to complain that your site was unfairly targeted.
Google may be targeting spammers and blackhats, but they are also inadvertently chasing people who actually care about their websites’ value, content, and overall marketing campaign. Google shows no sign of slowing down.

In that classic scene from Jurassic Park, the T-rex chases the jeep for awhile and then gives up. I can only hope that Google does the same. At least give us a chance to catch our breath.

Don't move! He can't see us if we don't move.
Don't move! He can't see us if we don't move.

So we’re living with Panda, Penguin, and all the other updates going live every week. Sometimes I think I’d feel safer if I just didn’t move. Maybe Google won’t see me if I don’t do anything at all. But I can’t do that. I’m not going to live like that. But I will be smarter about everything that I do and recommend.
So where do we go from here? Below are some tips for moving forward and getting settled on your piece of land in the SEO zoo.


Link Building

If you are managing SEO and link building for a big brand, I recommend ceasing all paid link building campaigns. I’m sure I’ll take some heat for that recommendation, but I just can’t recommend paid link building to big brands right now. It’s just too risky at this point in time.
If you have a knowledgeable, experienced link builder working for you and you haven’t been slapped by Google in any of the recent updates, then you are probably okay.
However, it’s still a big risk, especially when you consider what you are risking. But if you’ve got money burning a hole in your pocket and if you must insist on maintaining some form of paid link building, here is my advice:
  • Stop building exact match anchor links.
According to pretty much everyone, this is the biggest red flag in the land of links. If all of your links say ‘blue widget’ because you want to rank for ‘blue widget’, then Google will eventually punish you. It’s just not natural to have all of your links be exact match anchor text. You should be diversifying the anchor text, focusing more on links that mention your brand and less on links that mention non-branded keywords.
Don’t balk at links that say Read More, Here, or www.yourdomain.com. Having these types of links will make your link graph look more organic (pun intended).
  • Make your link building consistently inconsistent.
For example, if you have a budget of $2,000/month, then you are probably building a set amount of links each week or each month. And when Google looks at your link growth, what they’ll notice is that your link count is growing by the same number each month.
This type of is link velocity is unnatural, especially if you’re buying all the links from one network. It’s easy for Google to notice this type of paid link growth because Google is smart. So be more like a MLB pitcher: throw some fast balls and some change-ups. Don’t make it easy for Google to find a pattern in your link growth.
  • Diversify the quality (read: PageRank) of the sites you are buying links from.
If you are only buying links on sites with PR1 and higher, it is easy for Google to detect because that is unnatural. Obviously, you want to get links from sites with PR here and there, but don’t strictly focus on that factor.
Be very selective in your paid link placement. Diversify your paid link portfolio. Go for a range of sites that are big, small, popular, unpopular, no PR, higher PR, etc. Also, don’t be afraid to buy nofollow links. Don’t ignore potential links from social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. However, as you get more selective, be ready to spend more on links.
  • Buy a site/blog instead of buying links on a site/blog.
Buying a blog can be a much more effective use of your money in the long run. You’ll get a lot more value than just the links, and you won’t run the risks of being penalized for buying paid links.
  • Find all the free links that you already have.
Get familiar with your 404 reports, log files, and broken internal links. Check Webmaster Tools. Look for any indication of internal and/or inbound links pointing to inactive URLs. Look for links that are being 302 redirected to a final URL. Also look for URLs that are going through multiple redirects. Make sure all links are finding their ways to your active pages without passing through 302 redirects or some sort of redirect chain.
When I’m beginning a new SEO campaign, it never ceases to amaze me how many broken links I find in Webmaster Tools accounts. Sometimes the numbers is in the thousands. These are free links! These are free links that you earned! Make sure they are 301 redirected to active URLs!


Creating Content

Because paid links are a little too risky for me right now, I’d recommend moving the majority of any paid link budgets over to the budget for content creation. And when it comes to content creation, here are some of the ways you can spend money to add unique content and value to your site:
  • Write how-to guides
  • Develop infographics
  • Dust off the old corporate blog and start publishing new content on a daily basis
  • Build microsites
  • Build new landing pages
  • Create a buying guide for your most popular product categories
  • Write weekly press releases
  • Create video reviews of your products
The thing about great content is that it will generate links. But more importantly, great content will add more value to your site’s visitors. Just be sure to promote your new content. Encourage your visitors and customers to share your content and products.

In the end, you may be surprised that you get more bang for your buck with rankings via content creation than paid link campaigns. Also, the lessons you learn with content are priceless. It can really help to educate entire businesses about what their website visitors are looking for, enjoy, dislike, prefer, etc. You can use that information to make your site better overall.

Obviously, I could also include an entire section in here about the importance of being active on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. But I’ll leave that to the social media folks.

I could also write a how-to guide outlining the importance of AgentRank and setting up the rel=author and rel=me tags for all your authors and contributers, as a recent study reported that 17% of SERPs are showing author integrations. But this post is already getting too long. So maybe I can write about that next time.

"That's right, Sam Neill. I would make an awesome SEO." - Jeff Goldblum
"That's right, Sam Neill. I would make an awesome SEO." - Jeff Goldblum

In the meantime, hang in there. Be smart. Be cautious. If you can, wait for some of the dust to settle before you make any moves that could in any way risk your search rankings.

As Jeff Goldblum puts it in the movie: “I’m simply saying that life, uh, finds a way.
As an SEO living in the days of Pandas and Penguins, I, too, will find a way.
Remember that in the end, Jeff Goldblum makes it out of Jurassic Park alive.
So if you’re stuck and needing help making a decision about your SEO campaign, just ask yourself: What would Jeff Goldblum do?
Written By: Kerry Dean Sources: SearchEngineLand.com

Monday, April 30, 2012

Top 100 List of Blogs That Allows Guest Post

In the recent times, Google has slapped lots of blog networks and websites that were selling paid kind of links or were over optimized. Lots of link building techniques, which were working in the past, may not work any more in present or future. But guest blogging is here to stay for long. Google will never penalize your website for writing a high quality guest post on a blog in your niche.


Reasons for Guest Blogging

We could have lots of reason for choosing guest blogging and some of them are:
  • For getting high quality, targeted and niche specific backlinks
  • For driving more targeted traffic to our website
  • For increasing our website page rank and search engine rankings for targeted pages and targeted search terms
  • For Branding purpose
  • For building relationship with other bloggers and to connect with their blog readers
  • To show your expertise about a specific topic or for improving your overall writing skills
In case you are unaware about SEO benefits of guest blogging, read this guest post by Jonathan. There can be many more solid and logical reasons due to which website owners and bloggers decide to go for guest blogging. Why you have decided to use guest blogging, please share in the comments section.

100 Plus Blogs List That Accept Guest Posts

Here is the ultimate list of popular blogs across different niche’s that accept guest posts. Against each blog, I have mentioned its guest blogging guidelines, contact details, its Alexa Rank and Page Rank. The following list contains blogs in Blogging, SEO, Social Media, Affiliate Marketing, Web Designing, Web Development, Finance, Technology and Health industry that are accepting guest posts.


Blogging & Social Media Marketing Blogs That Accept Guest Posts

1. Blogging TipsWrite For UsContact
Alexa Rank: 16329
Google Page Rank: 5
2. Bloggers PassionSubmit Guest PostGet in Touch
Alexa Rank: 60990
Google Page Rank: 4
3. Freelance FolderWrite For UsContact
Alexa Rank: 16884
Google Page Rank: 5
4. Blog GodownWrite For UsContact
Alexa Rank: 55117
Google Page Rank: 4
5. GDI BlogWould You Write For UsContact
Alexa Rank: 274744
Google Page Rank: 1
6. Million CluesGuest BloggingContact
Alexa Rank: 95321
Google Page Rank: 3
7. BlogsoluteGuest PostContact Us
Alexa Rank: 43663
Google Page Rank: 4
8. Better Blogging for BloggersOpen for Guest BloggersContact
Alexa Rank: 354491
Google Page Rank: 3
9. TechnogatiBecome Our WriterContact
Alexa Rank: 209749
Google Page Rank: 3
10. Tricks DaddyJoin Tricks DaddyContact Us
Alexa Rank: 42306
Google Page Rank: 5
11. John ChowWrite Guest PostContact
Alexa Rank: 7708
Google Page Rank: 5
12. Quick Online TipsGuest Blogging GuidelinesContact
Alexa Rank: 7470
Google Page Rank: 5
13. SmartBloggerzWrite For UsContact
Alexa Rank: 29406
Google Page Rank: 4
14. Daily Seo TipContribute an SEO Tip – Email seosmarty@gmail.com
Alexa Rank: 40364
Google Page Rank: 4
15. ProBloggerGuest Posts at ProBloggerContact
Alexa Rank: 2560
Google Page Rank: 6
16. MashableSubmit NewsContact Us
Alexa Rank: 214
Google Page Rank: 8
17. How To Make My BlogWrite for How To Make My BlogContact
Alexa Rank: 36751
Google Page Rank: 6
18. Serradinho BlogSubmit Guest PostContact Us
Alexa Rank: 118143
Google Page Rank: 3
19. Search Engine PeopleSubmit Your Guest PostContact
Alexa Rank: 14235
Google Page Rank: 5
20. ReveNewsWrite At ReveNewsContact ReveNews
Alexa Rank: 61783
Google Page Rank: 5
21. Earners BlogSubmit a Guest PostContact
Alexa Rank: 71219
Google Page Rank: 3
22. TechnshareWrite For UsContact Us
Alexa Rank: 48975
Google Page Rank: 4
23. Search Engine JournalWrite For Us – Email seosmarty@gmail.com
Alexa Rank: 3175
Google Page Rank: 5
24. Famous BloggersSubmit Your ArticleContact Us
Alexa Rank: 8905
Google Page Rank: 4
25. Tips BloggerSubmit Guest PostContact Us
Alexa Rank: 29175
Google Page Rank: 4
26. CopybloggerGuest Post GuidelinesContact Us
Alexa Rank: 2782
Google Page Rank: 6
27. YoungPreProSubmit Guest PostContact
Alexa Rank: 16044
Google Page Rank: 4
28. WebmasterFormatSubmit Guest PostContact
Alexa Rank: 105457
Google Page Rank: 4
29. MrdefiniteGuest BloggingContact Me
Alexa Rank: 176675
Google Page Rank: 2
30. TechMaishWrite For UsContact Us
Alexa Rank: 16508
Google Page Rank: 4
31. Daily Blog TipsGuest Post GuidelinesContact
Alexa Rank: 5349
Google Page Rank: 5
32. We Blog BetterContribute Guest PostContact
Alexa Rank: 25880
Google Page Rank: 4
33. HelloBloggerzSubmit Guest PostsContact
Alexa Rank: 251827
Google Page Rank: 3
34. Basic Blog TipsSubmit Guest PostContact
Alexa Rank: 16194
Google Page Rank: 4
35. Problogging SuccessSubmit Guest PostContact Jane
Alexa Rank: 18421
Google Page Rank: 3
36. Hot Blog TipsGuest PostingContact
Alexa Rank: 42220
Google Page Rank: 3
37. AzblogtipsWrite For UsContact
Alexa Rank: 89513
Google Page Rank: 3
38. Dragon BloggerGuest BloggingContact
Alexa Rank: 34805
Google Page Rank: 0
39. iBlogzoneBe A Guest BloggerContact
Alexa Rank: 13200
Google Page Rank: 4
40. The Dot Com BlogSubmit Guest PostContact
Alexa Rank: 114879
Google Page Rank: 3
41. Blog SuccessApply to Guest BlogContact Us
Alexa Rank: 73468
Google Page Rank: 4
42. Successful BlogGuest Post Guidelines – Email: lizsun2@gmail.com
Alexa Rank: 75806
Google Page Rank: 5
43. Social Media ExaminerWant to writeContact
Alexa Rank: 2111
Google Page Rank: 7
44. Geek BusinessGuest Post GuidelinesContact
Alexa Rank: 534575
Google Page Rank: 5
45. Blog EngageGuest Blog HereContact
Alexa Rank: 7858
Google Page Rank: 4
46. One Woman MarketingGuest Post GuidelinesContact
Alexa Rank: 194821
Google Page Rank: 4
47. KikolaniGuest Post OpportunitiesContact
Alexa Rank: 15904
Google Page Rank: 4
48. SmallbiztrendsGuest Posting GuidelinesContact
Alexa Rank: 9415
Google Page Rank: 6
49. Pronet AdvertisingWrite For UsContact
Alexa Rank: 123260
Google Page Rank: 5
50. ShoutMeLoudJoin ShoutmeloudContact Us
Alexa Rank: 6161
Google Page Rank: 4
51. Small Business BrandingWrite For UsContact Us
Alexa Rank: 180377
Google Page Rank: 5
52. Blogging JunctionWrite For UsContact
Alexa Rank: 20326
Google Page Rank: 3
53. BloggingProGuest PostingContact
Alexa Rank: 20068
Google Page Rank: 4
54. Extreme JohnGuest PostContact Me
Alexa Rank: 55009
Google Page Rank: 3
55. The3dtechnologiesGuest PosterContact
Alexa Rank: 117371
Google Page Rank: 4
56. StayOnSearchWrite For UsContact
Alexa Rank: 28051
Google Page Rank: 4
57. WebtrafficroiWrite For UsContact
Alexa Rank: 34974
Google Page Rank: 4
58. BlogussionWrite For UsContact
Alexa Rank: 45738
Google Page Rank: 5
59. ClickfireBecome a Guest AuthorContact
Alexa Rank: 88769
Google Page Rank: 4
60. TechZoomInWrite For UsContact
Alexa Rank: 86403
Google Page Rank: 4
61. WphostingdiscountSubmit Guest PostContact
Alexa Rank: 362460
Google Page Rank: 2
62. AllbloggingtipsWrite For UsContact
Alexa Rank: 41534
Google Page Rank: 3
63. GrowMapGuest PostingContact
Alexa Rank: 26002
Google Page Rank: 4
64. WPKubeWrite For UsContact
Alexa Rank: 76325
Google Page Rank: 3
65. SocialhGuest PostContact
Alexa Rank: 70401
Google Page Rank: 6
66. Magnet4MarketingWrite a Guest PostContact Us
Alexa Rank: 43891
Google Page Rank: 3
67. I Need Di$ciplineGuest PostContact Us
Alexa Rank: 97775
Google Page Rank: 5


Technology Blogs That Accept Guest Posts

1. Technically Personal!Guest BloggingContact
Alexa Rank: 9629
Google Page Rank: 4
2. Techie BuzzWrite For Us Guest PostContact Us
Alexa Rank: 7574
Google Page Rank: 6
3. Techie BloggerWrite For Techie BloggerContact
Alexa Rank: 83204
Google Page Rank: 4
4. Digital InspirationWrite for Digital Inspiration – Email: amit@labnol.org
Alexa Rank: 2129
Google Page Rank: 6
5. Teck.inGuest Blogging at TECK.IN – Email: sree@teck.in
Alexa Rank: 20687
Google Page Rank: 3
6. TroubleFixersSubmit Guest PostContact
Alexa Rank: 26704
Google Page Rank: 4
7. FriedbeefWould You Write For UsContact
Alexa Rank: 116425
Google Page Rank: 5
8. Right Now In TechGuest Post – Email: antriksh@rightnowintech.com
Alexa Rank: 583185
Google Page Rank: 4
9. Devils’ WorkshopWriting PostContact
Alexa Rank: 22543
Google Page Rank: 4
10. ReadWriteWebGuest BloggingContact
Alexa Rank: 2708
Google Page Rank: 7
11. CallingAllGeeksWrite for UsContact
Alexa Rank: 66413
Google Page Rank: 3
12. The Web SqueezeWrite For UsContact
Alexa Rank: 118687
Google Page Rank: 4
13. InspirationfeedWrite For UsContact Us
Alexa Rank: 7771
Google Page Rank: 5
14. The Pragmatic BookshelfWrite for UsContact Us
Alexa Rank: 24456
Google Page Rank: 6
15. SitePointWrite For UsContact
Alexa Rank: 1058
Google Page Rank: 7
16. THE KERNELWrite For UsContact Us
Alexa Rank: 71663
Google Page Rank: 5
17. TechWallsWrite For UsContact
Alexa Rank: 61770
Google Page Rank: 3
18. TechTricksWorldWrite For UsContact
Alexa Rank: 29425
Google Page Rank: 3
19. iTechCodeWrite For UsContact Us
Alexa Rank: 25843
Google Page Rank: 3
20. TechAtLastGuest Posting GuidelinesContact
Alexa Rank: 18394
Google Page Rank: 3
21. Computer How To GuideGuest PostContact
Alexa Rank: 86441
Google Page Rank: 2
22. ComptalksGuest BloggersContact
Alexa Rank: 47216
Google Page Rank: 4


Web Design & Web Development Blogs That Allows Guest Posts

1. Smashing ShareContribute Guest PostContact
Alexa Rank: 79672
Google Page Rank: 6
2. Smashing MagazineBecome An Author – Email: review@smashingmagazine.com
Alexa Rank: 629
Google Page Rank: 7
3. Cats Who CodeGuest BloggingContact
Alexa Rank: 8987
Google Page Rank: 5
4. Logo Design BlogGuest Bloggers InvitedContact
Alexa Rank: 215780
Google Page Rank: 4
5. Men With PensGuest Post GuidelinesContact
Alexa Rank: 68221
Google Page Rank: 5
6. RegularGeekGuest Post Guidelines – Email: info@regulargeek.com
Alexa Rank: 265358
Google Page Rank: 4
7. Tripwire MagazineWrite for us!Contact
Alexa Rank: 2377
Google Page Rank: 5
8. Web And DesignersWrite for usContact
Alexa Rank: 46964
Google Page Rank: 5
9. SkyjeWrite For UsContact
Alexa Rank: 25804
Google Page Rank: 6
10. Web Design NewsSubmit An ArticleContact
Alexa Rank: 68309
Google Page Rank: 4


Health Blogs That Allow Guest Blogging

1. Weight Loss PointsSubmit Guest POstContact
Alexa Rank: 908352
Google Page Rank: 3
2. Hive Health MediaGuest blog postingContact Us
Alexa Rank: 43159
Google Page Rank: 4
3. For Your Cats HealthSubmit Guest PostContact
Alexa Rank: 606783
Google Page Rank: 2
4. Health on a BudgetSubmit Guest PostContact
Alexa Rank: 391483
Google Page Rank: 3
5. HealthyoneGuest PostingContact
Alexa Rank: 163019
Google Page Rank: 3
6. MayanzSubmit Health Guest PostContact
Alexa Rank: 269150
Google Page Rank: 2


Finance Blogs that Accept Guest Post

1. Get Rich SlowlySubmit a Guest PostContact
Alexa Rank: 10573
Google Page Rank: 6
2. Bigger PocketsWould You Write For UsContact
Alexa Rank: 15612
Google Page Rank: 4
3. Top Finance BlogGuest Posting – Email: finance@topfinanceblog.com
Alexa Rank: 152123
Google Page Rank: 3
4. One Money DesignGuest PostContact
Alexa Rank: 139622
Google Page Rank: 3
5. Modest MoneyGuest Post PolicyContact
Alexa Rank: 95671
Google Page Rank: 0
6. Nil2millionWrite For UsContact Me
Alexa Rank: 121701
Google Page Rank: 3
7. InvestopediaWrite For UsContact Us
Alexa Rank: 1615
Google Page Rank: 7

How Guest Blogging Should be Done?

Guest blogging is used in all niches, but it seems to be utilized to its full potential in Blogging, SEO, Making Money Online and Social Media Niche’s only. It’s not the case that people from other industries are not using guest blogging at all. Guest blogging has started showing its potential in other big industries like Health, Finance, Travel and Entertainment etc.

Need List of Blogs That Accept Guest Post

To start doing guest posts, you need to have the list of top blogs in your niche that accept guest posts. With this post, I’m aiming at solving this problem of yours by sharing the list of 100 plus blogs with their contact details and popularity (Page Rank and Alexa Rankings) in different niches that accept guest posts.

Approach Guest Blogging Websites

What you have to do is approach owners or concern persons of these blogs with a polite email. You should highlight your intention to write guest posts for them. And in case you have already written guest posts for some popular blogs in your niche, please mention them as well in your email. Once you are finished with sending guest blogging request emails to 8-10 bloggers in your niche, wait for their responses. You should receive positive response from most of blog representative, as they are always hungry for fresh, unique and targeted contents for their blogs. Click here to know how to Build Your Reputation as a Guest Blogger.

Write Excellent Guest Posts

Once you have received 1-2 positive responses against your guest post request, it’s time to show your blogging skills to the rest of world. In case you don’t know how to write excellent guest posts, this is the step-by-step manual you should follow for the same. Once you are finished with writing a targeted guest post as the guest post guidelines, send it over to the concerned person. Now write one more guest post and send it to the next blog owner expecting a guest post from you.

Share and Reply

If blog owners find your guest posts good enough to be published on their blogs, they will share the guest post link or inform you about the time when your guest post will get live on their blog. Once any of your guest post gets live, next thing you should do is share it in your social networks and most importantly reply positively to all comments coming on your guest post. You should subscribe to your guest post comments section to keep track of new comments coming on it.

General Guest Blogging Guidelines

There are some general principles or guidelines you should follow while doing guest blogging. Here is that list:
  • You should use your best work as guest post
  • Don’t submit the same guest post to multiple blog owners
  • Don’t send duplicate or guest post with bad English. You should proofread your guest post before sending
  • Follow the guidelines of each blogger to increase the chances of your guest post being accepted on their blog
  • Don’t send too many emails to a blog owner for any reason and if you must, you need to be very polite in your approach
  • You should include self-promotional links in a guest post as per its blog owner guidelines. Each blog owner has its own style of giving credit to guest bloggers for their work.
Now I’m seeking help from my blog readers. With this special post, I have compiled the list of 100 plus blogs that accept guest post. Do you know any popular blog in any niche that accept guest post, please let me know in the comments section? I will love to see those great blogs in the list mentioned above. I’m aiming at making it as the one stop shop for guest bloggers seeking websites for guest blogging.
Written By: Anil Agarwal Source: BloggersPassion.com