43037

When it comes to good website marketing strategies, you will soon learn that some are good and will gain you loyal customers while others are more problematic about what it is they offer to the normal consumer. Ethical link building is an important part of joining the visible web community and as with many endeavors, you'll find that if done badly will effect your operation for the worst. When thinking about ethical link building, there are a few facts that it is important keep at the forefront of your mind.

The first thing to remember is what link building actually is. With search engines like Google becoming all the more popular as time goes on, the algorithms that are used by the searches are also growing more sophisticated. One of the things that search engines now use to rank their search results is the "popularity" of a website; this is determined by how many nonreciprocal links that website has leading to it. When you are thinking about using link building as a way to put yourself in the public eye, you will be taking advantage of a very powerful tool, but remember that there are pitfalls.

First, remember that the links leading to your site must be nonreciprocal. While exchanging links is a good way to target the audience of another site, keep in mind that this link will not help you raise your rankings in terms of search engine rankings. While these links won't necessarily hurt you, neither are they helping you get the top slots in the search results.

Ethical link building can be a tricky thing. While it is possible to get hits through plastering your links all over the place, this is in fact a poor idea. People come to your site with certain expectations that you have built up, and if you fail to deliver, then they will just as easily leave again. Ethical link building helps you draw relevant customers to your site and you will find that when you deliver what you promised them, they will stay and browse. Using articles as "teasers" are one way to get a good link building campaign underway, but remember that the content on your site should be more inclusive and more detailed than what you put on the directories.

When it comes to ethical link building, there is a lot of material to keep in mind. The first if you want help, it is out there! There are plenty of professionals who are offering their expertise in this regard, and especially if you are new to website marketing, their help might be one of the best investments you make regarding your website. Essentially, there is no reason that you should have to stumble through learning the ropes of ethical link building, then there are plenty of people who are available and eager to show you the way.

This is an extremely important part of getting your search engine listing higher in the rankings, and as a matter of fact, good visibility can make or break your business. Make sure that you learn everything you can about this important concept.

Ben Norman is the MD of UK search engine optimisation company Impact Media Ltd, specialists in ethical link building. Impact Media work with a wide range of businesses helping them to make more money from utilising the search engines natural & paid search results.

Link building is an essential ingredient in ranking your website highly on the major search engines. There, now that we've got that brilliant grasp of the obvious out of the way let's move on to what you can do to actually create them. Before we launch into the nitty-gritty of link building, no beginners guide would be complete without a brief explanation as to why links are important and the different elements of them. Being a beginners guide this won't be an entirely complete list but it will be enough to get you going on the right path. Understanding what you're trying to do will help you do it better and more importantly, understanding the "why" of the situation will help you stretch your tactics outside of this and other articles on link building.

Why Are Links Important?

To put it simply: a link is a vote. Every link pointing to your site from another website tells the search engines that the other site finds your resource valuable and thus, the engines read this as a vote for your site. So it must be about getting tons of links and you're done right? Wrong. This is incorrect as ...

Not All Votes Are Created Equal

Unlike your own vote in an election, some votes are worth more than others and some votes are worth SIGNIFICANTLY more than yours (unless of course you're a content writer for the Google.com domain in which case you obviously have the top vote). The basic factors that affect a link's value to your website are:

The site strength - the strength of the site that is pointing to yours is a significant (and historically abused) factor in the valuation of links. In the absence of other easily-visible criteria let's look at PageRank as a key valuation of a site's strength. If a site with a PageRank 8 links to your site, this vote is worth significantly more than a link from a PageRank 3 site. This is because a PageRank 8 site is, in Google's eyes, a more important site than the PageRank 3 site.

Relevance - the relevance of a site linking to you is, if anything, more important than a site's strength. If you run a bed a breakfast in Utah a link from a PageRank 3 bed and breakfast will be worth more than a link from a PageRank 5 web design site. This area is a bit grey in that it relies on the engine's ability to determine what is relevant and what is not however we've seen evidence that this area is strong at this stage in the game and is only becoming more important over time.

Anchor text - the actual text used to link to your site is extremely important. I've seen extremely strong sites get beaten out by weak ones simply due to the poor use of anchor test. If you're building links to your site be sure to include your keywords in the text that links back and, if possible, the exact phrase you are trying to rank for. At the same time, you can't make all your anchor text exactly the same - how can that possibly look natural?

Position - the position of a link on a page and the number of other links on that page impacts the value of a link. A link in the footer of a page is given less weight than a link near the top, a link in the content of a page is given more weight than a link in a list of links and a link on a page with 50 other links is given less weight than a link on a page with only a few other links. If we think about it - this makes sense. All of these things indicate whether the site with the outbound links actually intends for one of their visitors to click the link or not. From an engine's perspective - the more it appears that a site wants a link to be clicked on, the higher the weight that link (or vote) is given.

Admittedly there are a number of other factors but this is a beginners guide. Following the considerations above will insure that as you make each link decision - you're odds of making the right choices will be significantly higher than if you ignore them. Ignoring them may not get you penalized or banned but it will make your task far more time consuming as you secure less valuable links and thus need to build far more than following he right methods.

So far we've covered briefly the why of link building, now let's get into the real-life, here's-how-to-do-it side of things. Below I'm going to cover three of my favorite link building tactics. These are tactics that apply to virtually every scenario. The number of ways to build links is only limited by your imagination however and this should not be viewed as a comprehensive list. This is, after all, a beginners guide and I'm trying to list the tactics that apply to virtually every scenario.

Side Note: Reciprocal Link Building

I'm not going to count this as one of my favorite and so it won't count as one of the three noted above and I'll only touch on it briefly. There have been a number of assertions that reciprocal link building is dead. This is simply not the case. I have seen and competed against sites that were very successful with reciprocal links as their primary link source.

The problem with reciprocal links isn't so much in their value which does seem to be a bit lower than non-reciprocal links however often more easily attained. No, my problem with reciprocal links is in the management. Unethical webmasters' removing links after you've put the link up to them, sites expiring and not being renewed, sites getting penalties of their own due to their bad tactics are all inconveniences the reciprocal link manager must deal with.

As an SEO company, a huge issue we faced was leaving our clients with this task after a campaign was over if they decided not to go on a maintenance package. Non-reciprocal links may be a bit harder to attain in some cases however that issue is much easier to overcome than the sum of all these issues.

And now on to the top three ...

Articles

If you're paying attention as you read this you'll probably have guessed that I'm a fan of article writing as a link building method. If you look to the "about the author" section you'll notice a link to the Beanstalk site (and if you don't, well ... let me know as somebody's stealing it without permission). While I genuinely enjoy writing and sharing my experiences with others - the purpose of getting the article distributed is primarily as a link building tactic, secondarily as a great source of qualified traffic and thirdly for my own enjoyment.

You are an expert in your field. Who knows more about your business than you? So share. Writing an article may not be easy but it is rewarding. If you can't think of a topic, think of what you get asked. If you're asked common questions repeatedly then chances are, it's a good topic for an article. I often get asked about link building, and you're reading the result.

Once the article is completed you need to get it syndicated. Using an article submission service is a simple way to get your article out to a large number of publishers quickly. On top of this you'd do well to seek out specific sites in your field using one or all of the major search engines to find highly relevant sites that accept articles and submit to them.

And oh, don't forget an "about the author" section. :)

Directory Submissions

Directory submissions are likely the most painful of the link building tactics you'll employ. Why? Because it's tedious and time-consuming work. To be done right directory submissions must be done manually, the titles and descriptions must be tailored to the specifications of the directory in question and often, you'll have to decide if a review fee is worth it.

While there are a good many directories that accept free submissions there are also a large number that's require a review fee. The fee can range from a few dollars to a few hundred. If you see that a directory has a low PageRank, is general in it's nature (i.e. it isn't about your specific field) then it likely isn't worth more than a couple dollars if that. If the site is strong, and strongly related to your site then it's obviously worth more.

There is no hard-and-fast set of rules for how much a listing is worth. I'd recommend to start your hunt for directories (don't forget the topic and/or region specific ones), submit to all the free ones and make a list of all the ones that require a fee. After you've gotten a solid number in you "needs to be paid list" you can get a general idea as to what's out there and what you can get and for how much. This will enable you to make solid choices knowing what all your options are.

Forum Posting

I just know I'm going to get a couple comments and/or emails for listing this as a link building tactic but if it's done right there's nothing wrong with it. Forum and blog posting got a bad reputation as a link building tactic when it came under huge abuse by unethical webmasters spamming forums with useless garbage just for a link. They even went so far (and still do) as sending out spiders to automatically submit posts. To this end, I have to agree that it's a bad tactic however ...

If you're seeking out forums related to your site, reading the threads and responding with solid advice or with questions and not just firing off some sales-pitch then you're doing what you're supposed to be. Another perk to this is that, like articles, if you do this right you're gong to see traffic as well and what more can you ask from a link building tactic than traffic as well as links.

Conclusion

Above we've covered the basics of link building. As I've noted repeatedly, once you're done reading this and applying some of what you've read you'd do well to read other articles, forums and blogs. This isn't a complete breakdown of everything link-related (that would be a full book) but it will keep you out of trouble and save you countless hours of wasted time getting poor links that haven't held value since 2003.

Dave Davies is the CEO of Beanstalk Search Engine Optimization, Inc. Beanstalk offers SEO services, consulting, training and link building services.

Dave has been involved in SEO since 2001 and shared his experience through articles, speaking at conferences as well as on his weekly radio show Webcology on WebmasterRadio.fm.

Despite the fact that SEO (search engine optimization) services are very effective they are hardly affordable.

SEO services from leading experts have quite often been known to lift up web sites from oblivion to high traffic within no time at all. And the advantages of this includes the fact that the web site or blog site is able to continue enjoying this high traffic long after the SEO expert has left the scene. This is probably one of the main reasons why seo services are not affordable as it seems that the service provider more often than not seeks payment for a little of your future traffic.

Yet there is a way that seo services can be very affordable. And that is when you decide to hire an seo writer to generate content for your site. The other reason why smart webmasters prefer to hire seo writers is because they are easily able to measure the results of each article generated for their site. It then becomes easy to measure the exact results and impact of the SEO work done by the writer.

This makes it easy for the webmaster to make an informed decision on future investment into seo services because they are able to predict their possible impact on traffic and revenue for the site.

Get an experienced SEO writer now.

To achieve deep indexing of your Squidoo lenses by search engines, you do not have to use the tortuous strategies that other webmasters (websites and blogs) have to use to get the desired outcome. Here are my Top Ten Tips on how to encourage search engines to deep index your Squidoo lenses.

Tip 1: Have your primary keyword in your Squidoo lens url.

There is no doubt that the search engines favor sites that have a url that matches the search term.

Tip 2: Include your primary keyword in the Squidoo lens description.

I am often astounded by how many Squidoo lensmasters fail to do this and instead provide some obscure lens description. The search engines use the lens description in the search results.

Tip 3: Mention your primary keyword in your Squidoo introduction module.

Make sure that your primary keyword and variations on the keyword are included in the introduction to your lens.

Tip 4: Use variations of your keyword in your module titles.

This strategy works really well. Use keywords relevant to your theme that have a high search volume but low competition when creating titles for your modules.

Tip 5: Use keyword variations throughout your text.

In the text of your modules, try to vary the keyword and include long tail versions of keywords, e.g. digital storytelling online, digi-stories using still photos, software to make digital stories.

Tip 6: Bold the primary keywords and variations

Bolding grabs the attention of search engine bots. Be selective when using bolding and don't overdo it. You can highlight keywords by using italics as well.

Tip 7: Add a variety of relevant sources of information.

The two critical words here are "relevant" and "variety". Make sure that whatever you add to your lens adds value through relevance. Squidoo provides a wide range of modules that can access multiple sources of information such as blog posts, videos, online shops, RSS feeds, images and Flickr photos. Use the different modules wisely and exploit the variety.

Tip 8: Use RSS modules in your Squidoo lens

RSS modules enable you to display RSS feeds from blogs, article directories, news services and Google itself. Use RSS feeds wisely to keep your lens auto-updating
with keyword-rich content.

Tip 9: Use tags effectively

Squidoo allows you to use up to 40 tags on each lens. Use the whole 40 tags available. Select these carefully and check your lens stats to see what keywords people are using to find your lens.

Tip 10: Vary your anchor text for hyperlinks

When creating hyperlinks in modules, use a different keyword in your anchor text from the keyword incorporated in your lens url. The search engines will record the url anyway, so you get two bites of the cherry by having a different keyword in your anchor text.

These simple steps will capture more long tail keyword searchers and boost your lens traffic, your PR rank and lensrank.

Ron Passfield, PhD, Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster, provides free resources to build and market Squidoo lenses for affiliate marketing. Visit Ron's Squidoo lens for more information: Squidoo affiliate marketing

What is a reciprocal link?

If Site A links to Site B and then Site B also links back to Site A, then we have a reciprocal link. Back in the good ol' days these links were the way to a search engines heart. But reciprocal links have been much maligned recently. Are reciprocal links fatally flawed?

What's the problem?

The issue is that Google and other search engines have devalued certain links in their algorithms. These links include links from "bad neighbourhoods" and irrelevant sites. That means that a link from a spammy site to yours won't count for much, or worse, will count against you!

A link from a golfing e-tailer to a mortgage brokers won't have much value to Google. Of course, the opposite is also true - a link from the golf site to a fitness site might be quite valuable.

So if the mortgage broker and golf sites have reciprocal links neither site is being helped out much in Google's ranking due to the devaluation in the algorithm. That's the basic problem with reciprocal links.

What can we do about it?

3 words: obtain relevant links. Simply put, but that's the essence of good reciprocal linking. Only add links that visitors to your site might find useful and forget about the numbers.

Google describes this concept like so:

A useful test is to ask, "Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?"

In fact that last is a great rule of thumb to follow when considering all aspects of search engine optimisation.

Need some more helpful search engine optimisation advice? Log On Technology is a small and friendly seo consultancy based in Dublin, Ireland - we provide a free initial consultation so get in touch with us today

A Link building service is a must use for any serious minded search engine marketer. There is no alternative to a link building service in the existing climate of search engine marketing. The alternative to not using a link building service will be failure to achieve your desired ranking in the search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN to name a few. Obviously this means you wont achieve the success or wads of cash you desire in competitive time.

Before we delve any further into what a link building service entails link building encompasses locating safe and profitable link partners and. locating more and more partners. It also requires maintenance of the links to make sure your link partners do not de-link without you knowing and importantly, that your link partners do not violate Googles terms of service otherwise you might share in Googles sanctions on erring sites you are linked to or who link to you. A link building service manages this process enabling you spend time on growing business and enhancing ROI.

The number of links coming into and going out of your website; the number of links, the existing rank of the websites who decide to place a link to you will determine your popularity in the search engines. The idea is that if your website has relevant content other websites would naturally want to link to you or theyll want you to link to them. The bottom line is that Google wants to make sure searches produce the most relevant of results and the number and quality of links to your website determines how you rank in the search engines.

A link building service, while vital, is just one part of an intricate process of search engine marketing which involves amongst other things; keyword research, optimizing your web page on page and optimizing your web page by a link building campaign. The vital place of link building is at the heart of the creation of many link building services.

A great many search engine marketer however prefer to have one platform that deals with all the intricacies of creating a website and making it rank highly in the search engines and its incredible what the top notch software can do. The great link building service dont just help you build links but go a long way to helping you stay competitive by checking competitors website for measure of competitiveness and keeping excellent track of your link building campaign.

Did you find this link building service review useful? In my opinion the best link building service and all inclusive platform is? Click Here!

Do make sure you grab the freebie as well Click Here!

Online marketing companies can assist other companies to brand their product and services. Marketing strategies and solutions for advertising their business online. Although there are many products available which an internet marketing company could offer you for promoting your company website. Some online experts feel only a few that are effective and will deliver a return on investment.

Popular marketing strategies - online!

Website design, search engine optimisation, and link building campaigns. Each client will be designated an account manager, who will offer you a keyword analysis service and a competition analysis so that an online marketing company can work on an effective marketing strategy for your website. They will offer guidance on technical issues and will provide you with fortnightly reports so you can monitor progress.

Web Design:

From the initial conceptualization, designing and uploading of your desired websites in the Internet, Natural Search will work with you, to give you a competitive edge over others.
We have a reputation for creating clear, crisp, unique and interesting websites and help you achieve your business goals and needs. We work with an organization ranging from a small business to a larger one and enable them to extend their business reach globally.

They offer you complete web solutions suited for all your business needs. They specialize in designing websites that are quite unique and innovative yet easy to understand. And guarantee you that our customised web designed sites arrest the attention of your visitors, prospective buyers and investors.

Link Building:

Search Engines consider link analysis important criteria to ranking websites in their search algorithms. Hence, building links and improving existing links is critical in ensuring top search engine ranking for your website. Natural Search's link exchange and link popularity campaigns are targeted to enhance your website's popularity. It not only determines your popularity and target customers' flow but also hints your online visitors about your trustworthiness.

Identifying potential link partners by reviewing potential link candidate websites.

Measuring their market relevance to your site on numerous factors.

Initiating correspondence with potential linking websites by email highlighting the benefits of linking to your site.

Reporting regularly on the link popularity campaign progress.

Pay-Per-Click programs are quite popular and the most sought after Search Engines for their excellent reach and ROI. They provide you list of targeted keywords/keyword phrases without much efforts and select a landing page, and submit customized titles and descriptions for each keyword to appear as advertisements displayed in the search results.

One of the most appealing aspects of Pay-Per-Click advertising to marketers is that its costs are performance based. Your payment is on a per click basis and you only pay for people who click through to your website.

Reliable Guide to Online marketing companies in India: Online marketing companies in India

Your display ads services: Online display banners

Link Popularity is one way to build traffic into your website. The idea is initiated by Google cofounder noting that if one website A points to another website B, this implies that website A is endorsing B on its own website. Therefore, the better a website is, the more links pointing to that particular site.

This concept is now known as link popularity. A lot of webmasters are obsessed about their site link popularity. Some tried unscrupulous way by buying hundreds of text link from another site. But this method works only in the short term. A frequent updates from Google, also known as Google dance, change its algorithm periodically.

The effectiveness of buying the so-called text link has been decreasing as Google made some changes to its algorithm. Recently, some suspect that the latest Google update also diminish the value of reciprocal link.
Reciprocal link is exchanging link with other sites where site A link to B and site B made a link to site A.

I am no expert in search engine algorithm. The only individuals who know how Google works is those folks residing at Googleplex themselves. However, I believe that there are some ways you can do to gain link popularity.

First and most importantly, you need to build lots of contents. Having lots of contents enable you to give information to search engine users. When these folks like your thought or insight, some of them will eventually quote your article and provide a source, the equivalent of a linkpage, pointing to your website.

Furthermore, as your content grows, you will be viewed as the expert in your field. This will in turn attract more surfers and webmasters which will ocassionally give you a link back.

The second way to get more links is to open your own web log or blog. People that read your blog will click on the link you provided if you can give them an interesting article to read.

The third way to gain link popularity is to submit a one way link page to web directories. While this method is less effective, a one way link is a safer way to go rather than a reciprocal link. The reason is that your site normally do not get penalized from a bad link pointing towards you. After all, you can
only control your links pointing to other websites and not the other way around. If you are doing reciprocal link with a 'bad' website, google will penalize you too since you 'endorse' their websites by providing a link back. With this method, make sure you don't oversubmit your website to one specific directory.

Google's spider may suspect lots of links pointing to your site as a sign that you are buying a text link from that particular site.

List your website for free to our directory at http://www.noviceinvesting.com/Directory. In addition, you can also get your free investing idea by visiting our commentary section at http://www.noviceinvesting.com