Web Hosting Geeks' Blog » link building http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog Web Hosting Industry News, Latest Trends, and Analyses. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:48:19 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 The Dummies’ Guide To SEOhttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/14/dummies-guide-seo/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/14/dummies-guide-seo/#comments Wed, 14 Sep 2011 06:24:43 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=2305 Search engine optimization (or SEO) is an absolute jungle. Just like chocolate, cancer, and pregnancy, the rules for effective SEO management seem to change just about every other day, leaving most of us bewildered, slightly disgruntled, and all the way confused. Thankfully, there are a few trends you can be sure to capitalize on. Even more graciously, we’ve compiled them all here. Starting with the top, Pilgrim, enjoy your Dummies’ Guide to SEO Management!

Repeat After Us: “Keywords Are My Mates”

Seriously, though, keywords are just about the most important part of search engine optimization. If you haven’t got them, it’s like eating a BLT with nothing but chicken underneath the hood: You need a different foundation.

Keywords are what the major search engines look for when they spider your site. If you have the right density, those engines will start to favor your content over other articles that also feature the same keywords. The proper keyword density should be about 3 per-cent. This means that, if your article is about web hosting, the words “web hosting”—or some derivative thereof—should be included across 3 per-cent of all your total words. Any more, and Google might think your site is spam. Any less, and Bing might not know what your article is about.

Also: “Titles Need Keywords, Too”

Don’t forget to be snazzy with your webpage titles. If your page is about buttery spreads, and your keyword is some isotope of “buttery spreads,” then include the phrase in the title and perma-link of your page. Not only does this give Google some idea what to expect from your content, but it also helps clue in your readers, as well. The proper density for your title is somewhere between 30 to 70%. Just keep in mind that creativity is good, but only if the core keywords are there.

Finally: “Links Are More Or Less My Mates, Too”

Search engines like to see links, because links to other related pieces of content make it easier to form topic-based associations between sites. With this in mind, include as many appropriate links to other sites (yours or not) as you can. If your article is still about butter, include some links to buttery recipes, or the health of effects of butter. Try to keep to links that include your keywords, or are closely related.

However, don’t over do it: Many search engines are trained to ignore sites with too many links, so just be sensible. What would you like to see when booting a site for the first time?

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/09/14/dummies-guide-seo/feed/ 0 SEO 101 : Focusing on Backlinkshttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/08/09/seo-101-focusing-on-backlinks/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/08/09/seo-101-focusing-on-backlinks/#comments Tue, 09 Aug 2011 19:31:56 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=1818 When devising a strategy for SEO, many webmasters place a huge emphasis on the website itself. They are typically concerned with Meta tags, keyword density, titles and headings. While these aspects of SEO are important (especially with regards to content), they are insignificant when compared with links. SEO practitioners spend their time obsessing over link building while site owners ignore them completely.

Creating an Equilibrium

This is due to the fact that a website is a tangible object that can be seen many millions of visitors. On the other hand, links are a vague concept that does not have associated tools. Therefore, building backlinks is usually secondary. Luckily there are several tools that will create equilibrium of website design and SEO.

Google Webmaster Tools

The first key point to consider is not use search operators to check your links. This method will produce inaccurate results and is commonly regarded as being used for entertainment purposes. Instead, utilize Google Webmaster Tools which provide a wealth of information about what exactly Google knows about your website, how it performs in the search engine rankings and, recently added, +1 statistics.

Independent Tools

There are two additional competing independent tools outside of Google Webmaster Tools, SEOmoz’s Open Site Explorer (OSE) and Majestic SEO’s Site Explorer. If your run your website through both programs you will find that they conflict with one another. Ironically, neither agrees with Google Webmaster Tools either.

The Collection Process

Although all three programs work by crawling the web, they are programmed differently and discover different links. Each then filters the collected links and remove those they see as spamming or lack relevance. Unfortunately, the three programs follow different criteria to make a judgment. You will also notice the two independent tools provide limited functionality for the free versions.

Viewing Trends

In the free versions of all three programs you are given two numbers for your sites that will usually differ. Always keep in mind that none of these figures is the absolute number, which would be extremely difficult to determine. Instead these figures should be viewed as representing exactly how other sites link to you. When viewing trends over a long period of time the numbers will begin to paint a picture of how your site is doing.

These three webmaster tools were developed to be more of a guide for focusing on backlinking than a concrete answer. A great way to use these tools is generate a report from each on a monthly basis and chart their change over time. If you see the numbers are increasing then you are on your way to success.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/08/09/seo-101-focusing-on-backlinks/feed/ 4 Search Engine Optimization – Link Building the Fast Wayhttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2010/11/05/search-engine-optimization-%e2%80%93-link-building-the-fast-way/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2010/11/05/search-engine-optimization-%e2%80%93-link-building-the-fast-way/#comments Fri, 05 Nov 2010 19:46:22 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=1208 Link building is undoubtedly one of the central aspects of search engine optimization, if not thew single most important aspect. The process of link building is defined as generating backlinks for your site through various methods including social bookmarking, web 2.0 blogs, and providing quality content that is worthy of being linked to. There is a lot of confusion surrounding link building and SEO, particularly in regards to whether it should be done using software or manual methods. In actuality, a mixture of manual and automated techniques should be utilized to maximize productivity and avoid appearing to be a robot in the eye’s of the search engines. Although abnormally hasty link building is discouraged in the SEO community, there are ways to build links fast without being penalized by Google and other search engines.

Diversification

Diversification is absolutely necessary when building links quickly, because search engines tend to disregard links when there are a lot of them coming from the same site. The best way to diversify your link building structure is to build what are known as link wheels, which link a network of sites in a  related niche together to bring page rank to the main site that is linked to by all of the pages. The easiest way to do this without purchasing a lot of sites is to use free web 2.0 properties like blogs, many of which already have a significant amount of PR themselves. Another way to diversify your link structure is to engage in “deep” link building, which establishes backlinks to every page on your site, rather than just the home page.

Outsourcing vs Automation

This is a heated debate in the field of SEO, however experienced webmasters know that automation can be just as good as outsourcing when used correctly. Every task on the internet can be automated via pre-programmed macros and scripts that remove the hassle of performing mundane repetitive tasks on a daily basis. Paying someone to do these takes would not make sense when you could hire a programmer to create a macro that will easily replace that employee with a one-time investment. The only tasks involved with SEO that require outsourcing are writing and web design, however some people even use scripts to spin content from other sites and still rank nicely in the search engines.

Consistency

If you want to get the most out of to your SEO campaign then you need to be consistent, but not to consistent as to arise suspicion in search engine algorithms. Search engines are designed to detect fraudulent and spam-like activity, so it is important to maintain a reasonable amount of backlinks each day without going overboard. Although consistency is important when building backlinks, quickly, it is not nearly as imperative as diversification, as search engines are forgiving of massive amounts of links as long as the page content is worthy and the links originate from diverse and unique sources. For example, a viral video on a page about a recent news trend could easily receive thousands of backlinks overnight form tons of blogs around the internet without being penalized by Google. If your site is relatively new and does not yet have the daily traffic to substantiate that kind of link building, then search engines may become suspicious.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2010/11/05/search-engine-optimization-%e2%80%93-link-building-the-fast-way/feed/ 0 How to Get a Better Service from Your SEO Firmhttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/10/22/how-to-get-a-better-service-from-your-seo-firm/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/10/22/how-to-get-a-better-service-from-your-seo-firm/#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:23:09 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=585 Many website owners are not getting quality results from their SEO efforts.  This even holds true for those who have decided to outsource these tasks to professional third-party companies.  While you are paying the company for its services, there are some responsibilities that must be handled on your end in order to get the best bang for your buck.   In this article we will give you a few pointers for getting the most out of your SEO firm.

Lend Valuable Insight Where Needed

It does not matter how good the SEO company is, there is no way they can be fully grasp all the activities and processes going on within your organization.  By emphasizing some of the essentials upfront, you can shed light on areas that aid the outsourced agency and result in a win-win situation for both sides.  Don’t want until the SEO firm has almost completed the project to bring up matters that should have already been discussed.

Build Trust within the Firm

One definite way to hinder the success of your SEO project is to challenge the service provider with justification for every little recommendation.  True, since they are working for you, the company should have no trouble providing you with the answers you require at any given time.  However, making them do so repeatedly and needlessly could tie up resources that may have been devoted to pouring more productivity into your project.  Establishing a level of trust is not always as easy as it sounds, but if it does not exist, your campaign can turn out be very chaotic very fast.

Stay Open to Change

Some SEO campaigns require that significant changes to be made to the actual content or the overall structure of the site.  Depending on your role in the project, you may have to argue on behalf of the agency in order to change existing corporate polices and bridge the two parties together.  This could be a major hold up if top decision makers are not willing to discuss the negative impact their polices could have on the project.  If it is you making the decisions, keep yourself open to exploring possible changes that will benefit the campaign.

Learn and Apply

The more you know about your campaign and what it needs to be a success, the less the SEO firm has to go over.  Therefore, if a particular area has already been thoroughly covered, the firm should be able to build on it and consistently elevate their efforts to achieve the desired results.  That does not mean you shouldn’t try to bring something to the table.  If you don’t know or care enough to add to working concepts, it is very unlikely that your SEO agency will get the support they need to successfully employ advanced methods such as link building via social media and video sharing platforms.

If you want good results from your SEO campaign, get involved with the company handling all the hard work and give aid where ever you can.  By sitting back and leaving the entire project in the agency’s hands, you are more than likely to receive less than desirable results.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/10/22/how-to-get-a-better-service-from-your-seo-firm/feed/ 0 Nine Must-Have SEO Toolshttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/10/05/nine-must-have-seo-tools/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/10/05/nine-must-have-seo-tools/#comments Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:34:56 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=554 Keyword implementation, optimal page design, link building and other SEO aspects can result in a lot of hard work.  Thankfully, there are many tools available to help you simplify the process.  Here are nine we consider must-have:

1) Thumbshots Rankings

Thumbshots Ranking offers an informative, yet fun way to make yourself familiar with search engines and learn how to optimize your site for better ranking.  Proper use of this tool can go a long way in generating the quality traffic you seek.

2.) SEOBench

This particular SEO tool analyzes results from Google and Yahoo, identifies what they have in common, and them provides a graphical display of the results in both engines.  SEOBench gives you a nice illustration which reveals that while optimizing your site for both Google and Yahoo is not necessarily an easy task, it is not impossible either.

3.) Link Appeal

Link Appeal is a very effective tool that calculates the efficiency rating of having a link on a given URL.  It relies on factors such as the number of outbound links, its page rank and the overall percentage of links to HTML.  Link Appeal can serve as a great tool for helping you decide whether to request a link on a particular web page or not.

4.) Link Popularity Checker

The Link Popularity Checker is pretty self explanatory as it informs you on how many sites are linked to your own.  We think you will find this tool quite valuable being that link popularity is such an integral part of the entire optimization process.  The more popular your site becomes, the better it will rank in the SERPs.

5.) SEO Checker

SEO Checker is an ideal tool for checking up on search engine saturation, which simply describes the number of pages a search engine indexes for a given website.  While every search engine does not report this information, a fair share of them do, and this is enough to establish a few meaningful benchmarks for your SEM campaign.

6.) Google PageRank Report

Google PageRank Report is something you can use to automatically check the ranking value for any URL you specify in the provided form.  To get the best results, simple add “www” in front of the domain in question.

7.) Link Value

This easy to use link calculator calculates the link value of your website on a monthly basis.  The value is calculated based on many essential factors specific to most of the major search engines.

8.) Keyword Research

Keyword Research is a tool that can be used to research your targeted keywords and phrases, helping you determine which as best suited to implement into your web pages.  All if you have to do is enter a given term or phrase, and the tool automatically makes additional suggestions regarding other words and phrases you should think about targeting.

9.) Google Keyword Suggestions – This handy Google orientated tool will aid you in the process of selecting popular and relevant terms that are related to your desired keyword.  Simply enter a word, and the tool queries data from a number of Google searches, which it then uses to determine the most relevant terms used by websites in that particular niche.

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