In the post-Panda world of SEO, guest blog posting has emerged as one of the last ways to build decent quality links with any sort of scale. As a result, SEO's are churning out guest blog posts at high volume. The thing is, guest blogging – for all of it's benefits – is not fun. Not even a little bit. It's hard work that requires creativity, organization, and persistence...and luck. In a word, guest blogging sucks. Here's why: 1. Writing is hard. Almost all of us passed high school English, but that doesn't mean almost all of us can be guest bloggers. Writing well takes practice and skill. Can you communicate your message concisely? Can you deliver your key points in a manner that's obvious without being...
With all the recent changes around Google’s search algorithm lately a lot more people are starting to do guest blogging. The trouble is that no one has told these new guest bloggers what it means to have good manners as they blog. Think of me as Miss Manners for guest bloggers (well, Mr. Manners, but that’s not my point). Here’s my story: I recently launched a website that has a lot of useful information on it,...
In terms of search engine optimization (SEO), there are three categories of tasks that every website owner must complete if they want their site to be found at the top of a Google or Bing search engine results page. These task categories are: On-site optimization, such as writing a proper HTML title tag, a good META description tag, ensuring that your site can be crawled, etc. Creating great content, because no website can achieve long-term SEO success...
While launching a website or other online startup may not exactly be a simple task, getting your online endeavor recognized amongst the masses of content to be found on the internet may prove to be one of the most difficult tasks that you're charged with as you pursue business success. If link building and other SEO efforts are in your future, take in any one or more of these five fantastic link building conferences to be...
Let me preface this by saying, I do not have any moral or ethical issues with the “SEO Tramp Stamp”. Just to clarify, I am referring to the link the many SEO’s place in the footer of their client’s site, which links back to their company’s site. These links are acceptable because 1) they allow a visitor to a site, who likes the site, to find out who is responsible for the site being the way...
Recently SEOs have started to be afraid of Penguins. These ferocious beasts have devoured websites the world over. Is there a cure for this blight? Yes there is- a diverse link profile. When a link builder only focuses on links with the intent of increasing the search ranking of their website they are risking the success of their website on the current algorithm. When that algorithm changes (presumably to prevent people from gaming it, like they...
The link building industry is almost entirely based around national or international, unfocused strategies. Attempting to generate as much traffic through spread links around the web, it can be effective but also forces you to expand your competition bracket. Which means you are casting too wide a net to center your audience. Unfortunately, the local link building market is harder to get into. That is why so many people choose to go with the first process...
Reviews written by bloggers are a great source of highly relevant, quality links as well as valuable publicity. In many sectors there is a plentiful supply of blogs who are happy to write reviews of fairly low value items (we normally only send out items worth $10-$20) and so building links thorough product reviews is quick and cost effective. This post looks at the process of identifying and selecting bloggers and getting the products review...
Google went a little SEO update happy this past March, releasing 50 search quality tweaks. Google has also recently come out with some major algorithm updates, including the over optimization penalty and an attack on spammy blog networks. These are all quality updates following in the footsteps of the initial Panda update from last year that targeted article farms and sites that were heavily involved in article spinning. When news of the over optimization penalty...
Although their relative importance is likely to decrease over time, citations – defined as “mentions” of your business -- are still the bread and butter of local SEO. In David Mihm’s comprehensive list of Local Search Ranking Factors, citations come in at number four, surpassed only by having a physical address in the city of search, manually verifying your Google Places page, and designating proper category associations. Needless to say, most agencies that provide...
