Why You Should Build Links

Link building gives you more authority in the search engines. When you have tons of links that point to your website from many different sources, the search engines consider your website to be an “authority” with relevant information since so many websites link to you. Think of each link as a sort of recommendation.

Getting links from relevant websites is better than getting irrelevant links. For example, if you’re a dentist with links from dentist directories and dental websites, you’ll achieve better rankings than if you have links to your dentist website coming from gardening blogs, a pet supply website, and work from home directories.

#1 – Directories

Directories are a great source for links because they have different link categories, which make them a relevant link source as long as you place your link in the right category. Make sure you use your keywords in the text of your directory listings to increase your search engine optimization.

#2 – Blog Comments

Leaving comments on blogs relevant to your industry is another effective way to build links. When leaving blog comments for link building purposes, make sure you really add to blog posts with your comments instead of just leaving a link to your website and the words “Great post!” or “Enjoyed reading your post!” Leave comments that work double duty so people visiting the blog click on your comment to visit your website to learn more about you. This makes your comment a good link building opportunity along with being a source of traffic itself.

#3 – Social Bookmarks

Another great way to build links is through social bookmarking. Bookmark your articles, blog posts, and any of your other content with Delicious, Stumble Upon, Technorati, Digg, and other social bookmarking websites to increase your traffic and build links. Many social bookmarking websites have free widgets you can upload to your website that allows visitors to bookmark your content and recommend the page to others themselves. Just as with blog comments, this means the bookmark itself becomes a traffic source in addition to helping you build links to increase your search engine rankings.

If you follow these three link building tips, you’ll be on your way to building a ton of relevant links that increase the rankings of your website. If link building still sounds a bit complicated to you, let Seattle SEO Consultant help. We’re experts at relevant link building that increases search engine rankings.

Stop Cat Hissing, For Example

Say you have a website called CatInfoByStephanie.com that covers all kinds of general information about cats. While you may offer helpful tips for someone looking for a way to stop their cat from hissing, someone searching the internet for the keyword “stop cat hissing” is more likely to visit StopCatHissing.com than CatInfoByStephanie.com.

Why? Because not only is this domain exactly what the searcher is looking for, but it gives the immediate impression this website is an expert on cat hissing instead of just providing general cat information.

Keyword Domains Rank Well

Keyword domains also typically rank high in the search engines. CatInfoByStephanie.com may have the keyword “stop cat hissing” included in the text and might even have a page dedicated to cat hissing, but StopCatHissing.com would probably still rank higher simply because the search engines see it as providing the most useful and focused information available.

Effectively Using Keyword Domain Mini-Sites

Always include useful information on your keyword domain mini-sites instead of just redirecting the domain. For example, don’t buy StopCatHissing.com and then just automatically redirect it to open your CatInfoByStephanie.com website. Not only will this result in many visitors hitting the back button because they think they’ve been duped, but you’re also losing a valuable opportunity for some good search engine optimization.

Don’t include the same word for word content on your keyword domain mini-sites as on your main website. Always rewrite it so the search engines don’t see it as being duplicate content. Include keyword backlinks in the text of your keyword domain mini-sites that point back to your main website to increase your link building and search engine optimization while further establishing your main website as a leader.

Keyword domain mini-sites also offer the ideal place to include links to affiliate products, especially if you don’t want to include affiliate links or ads on your main website. Include links to your own products on your keyword domain mini-sites as well. (StopCatHissing.com’s visitors don’t necessarily have to know CatInfoByStephanie.com owns both websites.)

Consider setting up a few keyword domain mini-sites in your niche to gain higher search engine rankings, great one-way backlink opportunities, excellent search engine optimization, and even a steady stream of extra income. If you want to set up keyword domain mini-sites that complement your business, let SeattleSEOConsultant.com help you get started today!

1. It All Starts With A Goal

It may sound corny and cliché, but success with a PPC marketing plan begins with a goal. Do you want to sell just one of your products or services? Do you just want email list sign ups and leads? Do you want to test the pull factor of a particular ad or a new product or service? Don’t skip over taking the time to figure out what you want to gain before setting up a PPC marketing plan or you’ll get a bunch of clicks that really accomplish nothing for your business.

2. Keywords Can Make Or Break Your Campaign

Most PPC marketing plans go wrong here. If you choose the wrong keywords or keywords that are too general, you’ll spend tons of cash. Unless you’ve got a pricey product that will sell like hotcakes, even if you make some sales you’ll likely spend more money than you make. Never optimize for general keywords like “books,” “lose weight,” or “make money.” The best keywords narrowly focus in on exactly what you have to sell.

For example, don’t use “auto parts.” It’s too general. Searchers will click to see what kinds of auto parts you sell. If you’re selling 2010 Chevrolet Tahoe front air deflectors and they’re looking for a 2009 Mazda 3 gas cap, you just bought yourself a click that accomplished nothing. Better keyword choices would be “2010 Tahoe front air deflector,” “buy Tahoe front air deflector,” or “Chevy Tahoe air deflector.”

3. You Gotta Have A Strategy

Find out the bid amounts for your keywords and then develop a bidding strategy for your PPC marketing plan instead of just bidding the highest amount for #1 placement. For example, if #1 costs $2.00 a click, but the #3 position only costs $.25¢ a click, it might not be worth an extra $1.75 per click just to rise up to #1, especially if you write a stronger ad than #1 has.

4. Home Pages Don’t Convert, Landing Pages Do

Second to making really bad keyword choices, the next most common mistake in a PPC marketing plan is sending clickers to your home page. You never want to send people to your home page unless the exact product or service they’re searching for is on your home page.

It’s happened to me tons of times, so I’m sure it’s happened to you. You click on an ad for this really cool product you’re looking for and the click directs you to the website’s home page. Then you have to spend your valuable time searching the pages of the website to locate what you were looking for when you clicked on the ad. If you’re like me, you probably don’t even search. You probably just click the back button and head to their competitor’s website where you’re redirected to a focused landing page.

For example, don’t send someone clicking on your ad for a “Garmin GPS bike computer” to the home page of your 2,000 product online bike shop, forcing them to look through 2,000 products to find it. Direct ad clickers to the exact page featuring the Garmin GPS bike computer.

5. Test, Track, And Change

You can’t just set and forget your PPC marketing campaign. You have to test and track different ads to see what performs best. Change what doesn’t work, keep what does work, and constantly keep the process going because what worked great this month, might be a dud next month.

There’s a lot more involved in creating a winning PPC marketing plan, but implementing these five steps will help get you started on the right track. If it all sounds like a big hassle to you, let Seattle SEO Consultant handle your PPC campaign. Call us at 888-574-6067 for a FREE 15 minute consultation to talk about it today!

Unfortunately, most of these comments will become a permanent internet fixture, even if you resolve your beef with the comment poster. Luckily, there is a solution for minimizing the damage from negative postings with search engine reputation management.

Online Reputation Management

With search engine reputation management, you use search engine optimization techniques to protect your online reputation by combating negative remarks that appear in the search results. You can accomplish this by pushing these negative comments down in the search engines.

In fact, with some good online reputation management tactics, you can push negative opinions about your business down in the search results so far that your potential customers never see them unless they’re willing to surf through pages and pages of results.

Keyword Research First

The first step to online reputation management is keyword research. You need to find the keywords that cause the negative postings to appear in the search engines. Once you have a list of keywords, it’s time to take action. Keyword optimized press releases offer a great way to push negative results down in the search engines fast.

Press Release Distribution

Create numerous press releases optimized for the damaging keywords. Since press releases rank high in the search engines quickly, they offer a speedy way to push negative remarks down in the search results.

Keep your press releases newsworthy and stay away from including information that relates to any online negative comments. While you do want to include backlinks to your website in your press releases, the links are not as important in online reputation management as drafting a professional press release that makes a great impression.

Distribute your press releases through multiple press release distribution websites to ensure complete search engine coverage. Write at least one press release for each damaging keyword and distribute them widely for optimal online reputation management.

Bookmark Your Press Releases

After distributing your press releases, help them work even harder for you by bookmarking them on Del.icio.us, Digg, Technorati, StumbleUpon, and other social bookmarking websites. You can even include a link to your press releases on your website and on your other social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to increase your search engine reputation management.

Time is of the essence when a negative comment appears in the #1 position of the search results for your main keyword phrase. Take action quickly to minimize the damage through search engine reputation management.

While press releases offer an effective way to push negative comments down in the search engines, they aren’t the only way to accomplish good search engine reputation management. Contact Seattle SEO Consultant to learn more today!

While choosing keywords is critical to your successful SEO efforts, it’s often difficult to separate the keywords that will produce profits from the keywords that will not. You need more than a gut feeling that you’re choosing keywords that will convert.

That’s where pay per click (PPC) marketing can help. PPC marketing is a reliable and cost effective way to test keywords so you can focus on the ones that will produce the right results for your business.

PPC Marketing Is Fast And Easy 

Not only is PPC marketing a fast and easy way to test keywords, it’s also relatively inexpensive to test keyword potential before you spend time optimizing your website. The following conversion test checklist will help you test keywords with PPC marketing the simple way. 

• Narrow your list down to five or less keywords
• Set up an account with Google AdWords
• Assign each keyword its own exact match ad group
• Turn off Google Content Network
• Write two different compelling ads for each ad group
• Set each ad variation to rotate evenly
• Bid between 50% and 100% of the suggested bid amount so your ads appear in the top five positions
• Set up a separate landing page for each ad, each with a different offer or call to action
• Enable Google AdWords Conversion Tracking

Gathering And Evaluating The Results

Continue your PPC marketing to test keywords for at least 100 clicks per ad. Track your results and test keywords all the way from a person clicking on your ad to what they do when arriving on your landing page. This will let you know not only how well your test keywords will do in the search engines, but also how your different landing pages will convert.

If you don’t generate a lead or a sale within 100 clicks and your ads do appear in the top five positions, you may have a keyword that will fail to perform. If a keyword doesn’t convert with PPC marketing, it might not be worth optimizing your website for that keyword.

Obviously, the test keywords that convert into numerous leads and sales are the ones you should use in your search engine optimization efforts.

Don’t risk wasting time and money because you were wrong about your keyword choices when it’s so simple to test keywords with PPC marketing. If you need help with PPC marketing to test keywords, SeattleSEOConsultant.com can get started with your keyword test today.

This post looks at how you can get the most from your SEO article marketing so you can reap the benefits and convert traffic that builds your business.

Provide Real Information

You’ve probably read articles online that are just a bunch of fluffy words that don’t provide any real information. Sometimes these articles don’t even make sense. Not only will more web publishers republish your content if it provides valuable information, but you’ll also convert more traffic. After all, if your articles don’t provide good solid information, why would a potential customer think your products or services are any good?

Don’t Keyword Stuff

Many businesses making use of SEO article marketing think the more times they stuff their keyword in an article the better. This actually works against the success of your SEO article marketing because it makes your articles difficult to read and puts forth a poor impression. Today’s web surfers are wise to article marketing and they can tell the difference between an article that really works to help the reader and a spammy article simply meant to drive traffic. Articles like this may still drive traffic, but they won’t convert readers into customers.

Grammar And Spelling Matter

If you think writing an article for SEO article marketing full of grammar and spelling errors doesn’t really matter, think again. SEO article marketing with awkward sentences and glaring errors will make people hit the ‘back’ button at lightning speed. Keep your sentences short and use easy to understand words.

Guide Your Reader To Take Action

For successful SEO article marketing, it’s important to lead your readers through your article and guide them to take a certain action. If you don’t, they won’t. Whether it’s to click to visit your website, sign up for your list, or make a purchase, let readers know what to do next.

By keeping these simple tips in mind, you will easily enjoy the benefits of SEO article marketing.

Search For Your Keyword

The first step is to visit Google, Yahoo!, and Bing to search for your keyword. All of the websites ranking higher than you are your competitors. Make a list of these domain names.

Search For Links

The next step is searching to find out who links to your competitors. It’s important to visit all three of the major search engines as they’ll all offer different results. I usually find Yahoo! gives me the most links, but you should check all three. When visiting the search engines, use the following model to search for your competitor’s links.

Google
link:www.domainname.com

Yahoo!
link:http://www.domainname.com

Bing
 link:www.domainname.com

Write down the web directories, websites, and blogs that link back to your competitor’s websites. You can ignore links coming from within your competitor’s website, from article directories, and from websites unrelated to your field or industry. You want to focus in on the quality links coming from relevant sources.

Getting Your Own Website Linked

Now that you have the high quality links of your competitors, it’s time to get your own website linked in these places. You can usually insert your link into web directories yourself. Getting websites and blogs to link to you is a little more difficult, but not impossible.

Consider leaving blog comments with your backlink or write a guest blog post to gain blog links. Don’t be afraid to ask website owners to link to you, especially if you have something valuable to offer their audience.

Take your time building these links to improve rankings because you can actually do some damage to your rankings if you build links too fast. Build your links nice and slow so they seem natural to the search engines and you’ll be rewarded with higher rankings.