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“Google can make or break my business, so I have to do whatever they say.” I can’t even count how many times I’ve heard similar things from small business owners and webmasters. Do you know what I say to them?

“Then you don’t know enough about running a website to be making this your business.”

Why so harsh? Because I’m tired of the “Google God” nonsense, where people truly believe Google is the be all and end all for any site on the Web. It’s not. It’s a search engine. More importantly, Google is a tool — a tool for finding websites and a tool for helping people find your website.

There’s nothing wrong with Google on the surface (okay, so that’s a bit debatable), and there’s nothing wrong with making reasonable efforts to rank well for truly relevant terms. Still, that’s a far cry from Google making or breaking a business. And if you know what you’re doing, neither Google , nor any other third party will have that much control over your project. Why? You’ll diversify.

Website Survival With or Without Big G

There are other traffic sources out there; some are much better than search engines when it comes to bringing targeted traffic. Even if your Google traffic disappeared tomorrow, you could still run a highly successful site or online business.

“But where would my traffic come from?” you might ask. Here’s a quick list with some ideas to get you started. All of these things can help you attract targeted visitors to your website, without worrying about SEO and potential Google bans if you happen to do something they don’t approve of:

• Run a Blog – If your site already has some traffic, add a blog. The subscribers will keep coming back regardless of search engine rankings.
• Issue Press Releases – If you’re doing something newsworthy in your niche or industry, put out a press release / news release. They’re a great way to build relevant links and traffic not only directly but through your pick-ups (each time the release is republished or used as a source for a story in the media or on other blogs). If you don’t have anything release-worthy, come up with ideas. Release a new tool. Publish a free report. No matter what industry you’re in, you can be newsworthy with your audience with just a little bit of effort.
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  Use Social media – Social networks, social bookmarking, Twitter, etc. can be fantastic sources of traffic that by-pass the whims of search engines. You’ll want to spend a bit of time building your network with these social media tools. The bigger your audience there, the more traffic those tools can bring.
• Advertise - If you have an advertising budget, use it! If not, maybe it’s time to consider one. Sure, free traffic can seem more appealing than paid traffic, but advertising has its benefits. It might save time (and let’s face it, time really is money) when compared to things like maintaining a strong social media presence. It allows you to target very specific audiences as well, by picking and choosing which sites you want to advertise on. Of course, if you’d rather not bother with manually choosing publishers to advertise with, there’s always the option of going with ad networks.

Those are just a few of the most popular and effective ways to get traffic to your website without having to rely on search engines. Can you think of any others? Leave a comment and share your tips with other readers.

The fact that Google is really just a single tool in a much bigger toolbox of smart webmasters everywhere is just one thing site owners seem to forget. Just for fun, here are a few other helpful “reminders.”

• No, industry jargon is not cool. Lose the buzzwords already. If your neighbor’s kid in the 8th grade couldn’t understand your site, it’s time to re-work things. If you cater to the small group that understands and actually likes to talk that way, you’re missing out on a potentially huge market segment that doesn’t.
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  That splash page you think is really sweet, really isn’t. People don’t want to wait for your page to load. They click a link or type in your URL and they expect the information they want to appear… like magic… yeah, that quick. If yours doesn’t, optimize. Trying to be “with it” creatively can really piss off your visitors who frankly couldn’t care less. Unless your site exists specifically to show off such designs or it’s absolutely necessary, don’t. You can be stylish without being slow.
• Your site might be online all the time, but your audience is not. If you’re neglecting offline marketing tactics for your website, you’re losing out on visitors (and potentially buyers). Don’t assume Internet marketing is the only way to market your website or online business.

Have you made these mistakes? Have you made others you’d like to share? Leave us a comment and let us know what else website owners sometimes forget when it comes to managing and marketing their sites.

The success of both your organic SEO and your PPC campaigns rely directly upon keyword research. Target the right keywords, and you’ll get quality traffic from customers who are ready to buy your products and services. Target the wrong keywords, on the other hand, and you’ll get buried in the search results and/or get low-quality traffic that doesn’t convert.

• Do: Focus on long-tail phrases—Long-tail keywords are those phrases that are very specific to the product or service you’re selling. As an example, let’s suppose you offer dinner cruises in Galveston, Texas. Some potential long-tail keyword phrases include:

1. Galveston dinner cruises
2. Dinner cruise in Galveston
3. Romantic dinner cruise in Galveston, Texas

Now, these are just a few basic examples, but the point is that long-tail keywords very specifically describe what you have to offer. As a result, these phrases tend to be easier to rank for, and they often attract customers who are late in the buying cycle. This means a higher conversion rate from the higher quality traffic you’re receiving.

• Don’t: Target keywords that are too broad—Before I became a freelance copywriter, I worked as a copywriter at an SEO firm in Houston. While I was there, we had a client that manufactured and sold windows. The client told us that he wanted to rank #1 in Google for the term “windows.” Clearly, he didn’t understand that: 1. It would be impossible to make that happen and 2. Targeting broad keywords is a poor strategy as it attracts low-quality traffic that’s next to impossible to convert.

• Do: Target seasonal keywords—Seasonal keyword research lets you target phrases that get high search volumes for a brief period of time each year. For example, people will likely search for ski apparel during the fall and winter months. Likewise, searchers looking for swimsuits and sun block will probably be doing so during the spring and summer months. Use Google Trends to analyze seasonal search volume for various keywords in your niche.

• Don’t: View keyword research as a one-time task—Keywords are always evolving. There are new phrases to target and new search trends to jump on. Never assume that once you’ve done your keyword research, you never need to do it again. Keyword research should be performed on a regular basis to ensure you’re getting maximum search engine exposure.

• Do: Study your competition—Studying your competition’s SEO efforts is important for a few reasons.

1. It lets you gauge your chances of ranking well for certain keywords
2. It allows you to identify and capitalize keyword phrases they’re overlooking
3. It helps you find new keywords to target

Competition analysis should always be apart of your SEO campaign and keyword research process.

• Do: Localize your keywords if applicable—Are your products or services available only in a specific region? If so, you should geographically target your keywords to reflect this. The earlier example of “Galveston dinner cruises” is an example of properly localizing your keywords. Targeting geographically-specific keywords attracts higher-quality traffic and makes it easier to grab top search engine placement.

• Don’t: Assume all keyword research must be done online—Before you use your favorite online keyword research tool, spend time doing some offline brainstorming. I like to take out a notebook and jot down various phrases I think describe the products and services being targeted. Ask others what they would search for if they were looking for these products or services online. After you’ve jotted down a good number of ideas, start to enter these phrases into keyword suggestion tools to refine your keyword research.

Which keyword research tips would you add to this list? Please share your thoughts in the replies.

If you’ve been in the SEO industry for very long, you know by now that a lot of people out there don’t like you. They think you’re a spammer who is making the internet a worse place to be. And if you haven’t yet experienced the disdain many have for SEOs, just take a trip over to Digg or ReddIt to get a taste of it firsthand. Let’s just say, those crowds aren’t our biggest supporters.
So, why do people hate SEOs? Is it all because of a big misunderstanding? Or do they have a point?
• The industry is littered with snake oil salesmen—The sad fact is the SEO industry is overflowing with its share of snake oil salesmen and scam artists. We’ve all seen these companies before. They guarantee #1 rankings in Google, and their website copy and promotional videos come off like a bad used car salesman trying to take your money. I do feel like many of these shady SEO companies have gone away over the past couple of years, but there are still far too many of them around.

• To many, SEO is “gaming the system”—The biggest complaint I hear from SEO haters is that SEOs are gaming the system and creating artificial search results. They believe that whatever your natural search engine ranking is, that’s what it should be. If you try to improve it, you’re gaming the system. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of spammy websites out there with nothing of value to offer that really are trying to game the system using underhanded tactics. But I fail to see how following sound design principles and online copywriting principles that let your visitors and the search engines know what your website is about is “gaming the system.” SEO done right is all about making it easier for the search engines to accurately classify your website and improving the user experience for your visitors.

• They’re a little jealous—Even though they would never admit it, many SEO haters are just bitter that they’re being outranked in the search engines. Hell, I know I get a little jealous and upset when I see one of my competitors outperforming me in the search engines. They wish they could do the same for their website(s), but they either don’t truly understand SEO or just don’t know where to begin.

• SEO isn’t an exact science–Let’s face it: A lot of what passes for SEO advice is really nothing more than educated guesswork when you get right down to it. The search engines are routinely changing their algorithms, and they’ll never fully disclose their criteria for ranking websites. So, the best we can do is to go on the information given to us, and test out different techniques like crazy to see what works and what doesn’t. And honestly, I think this rubs some people the wrong way.

What do you think? Why do people hate SEOs? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Web robots – often referred to as crawlers, bots, or spiders – are software programs that constantly travel the web, indexing the information found on millions and millions of websites every single day. Some sites, however, don’t wish to be indexed in search engines or accessed by these Web Robots. Now that you know what a Web Robot is and what it does, it’s important you know what can be done to limit their access to your site if you so desire. There may be a number of reasons for wanting to prevent bot access to a website page or specific directory. The most common reasons are related to security, privacy and duplicate content.

The Robots Exclusion Protocol, more commonly referred to as a /robots.txt file, provides webmasters with the ability to provide instructions on indexing the site to bots. The file, which must reside in the domain’s root directory, serves to limit the bots’ access to files within that domain’s root directory. There are often a large number of pages that make up an entire site, but many of those pages – like registration, login, 404 error, privacy policy and order confirmation pages – should not be indexed by search engines. The /robots.txt file also comes in particularly handy for webmasters with a wide network of sites with identical privacy policies, terms and conditions or e-commerce sites that have checkout pages, shopping carts, etc.

Addressing Duplicate Content with /robots.txt

The /robots.txt file can also help to eliminate duplicate content issues that arise with blogging software, such as WordPress. With WordPress – and all blogging software, for that matter – content from blog posts is published on the post URL itself, but copies of that content are also published on category pages, as well as tag and author archives. This inadvertently creates several pages of duplicate content. Since duplicate content can have a negative impact on a site’s ranking in the organic search results, the /robots.txt file can help to reduce the potential for duplicate content that can adversely affect the site’s search marketing strategy.

Understanding How To Use /robots.txt

In order to function properly, the /robots.txt file should be accessible at http://www.domain.com/robots.txt and reside in the domain’s root directory. The file itself should be created as a plain text document. Do NOT use Microsoft Word or another word processing program – the standard Notepad program that is installed with Windows or SimpleText/TextEdit with the Mac OS work best. The file name must be robots.txt and uploaded directly to the domain’s root directory. The commands within the file itself can be as simple or complex as your needs demand.

The standard, generic /robots.txt file – one that does not limit access to any of the information in your domain’s root directory – would be formatted like this:

User-agent: *
Disallow:

In order to block bot access to the domain’s root directory completely requires adding only one character to the standard or generic /robots.txt file and would look like this:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

What if you want to limit bot access only to certain subdirectories or specific pages of the site? Not a problem. You would simply add each individual subdirectory or URL to the /robots.txt file as follows:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /checkout.asp
Disallow: /add_cart.asp
Disallow: /view_cart.asp
Disallow: /error.asp
Disallow: /shipquote.asp

The Robots.txt File Is Not Fool Proof

While the /robots.txt file does a good job of blocking a bot’s access to the domain’s root directory, it isn’t fool proof. Each individual page you do not want bots to index should also incorporate a properly formatted robots META tag. The standard robots META tag is configured like this:

<meta name=”robots” content=”index,follow” />

To help to prevent the bots from accessing individual URLs, the robots META tag in the header of the page should look like this:

<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex,nofollow” />

or

<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex,follow” />

The Bottom Line

A /robots.txt is a very useful tool and, unfortunately, an often overlooked and neglected aspect of web development. Now that you have a better understanding of what it is, what it does and how to use it, take some time to consider how your site may benefit from having a properly configured /robots.txt file. In the meantime, start checking out the /robots.txt files of the sites you visit to familiarize yourself with different configurations and uses for it.

I have a very love-hate relationship with article marketing. On one hand I come from a public relations background, so I’m a big fan of focusing on building visibility and authority status in a niche. Article marketing does that. On the other hand I hate seeing the Web filled with spammy, rehashed articles that people obviously wrote only for the backlinks. Article marketing does that too.

So where’s the line? How can you reap the benefits of article marketing without cheapening your own image on the Web? Let’s start with the basics.

What is Article Marketing?

In its simplest form article marketing is really nothing more than publishing articles. The marketing aspect refers to the fact that your by-line and / or a link to your website are included in that article. This way the articles bring name recognition, demonstrate expert or authority status in a niche, and might also bring in backlinks (for better search engine rankings) and targeted traffic.

Basic Article Marketing

When most people hear the phrase “article marketing,” they tend to think of article directories. Here’s what basic article marketing might look like:

1. You write ten articles in your niche.
2. You run those articles through a spinner to get five different versions of each (optional, but common and why basic article marketing can come across as search engine spam).
3. You add a resource box to each article with your name and link.
4. You publish those 50 articles to an article directory like EzineArticles.com.
5. You wait.

Once your articles are published to article directories, you give other people the right to publish them (as long as they include your link). That gives you 50 backlinks from the article directory (and you’d probably submit them to more than one article directory), plus more links over time as publishers and bloggers pick up the articles. The strategy is straightforward — it’s all about quantity.

Advanced Article Marketing

What I refer to as “advanced article marketing” is really nothing new. It actually predates the now more common form of article marketing. In the past it was just good old fashioned PR — still is.

Here’s the key difference: You focus on quality rather than quantity. You also have to look beyond the Internet alone (and yes, you’ll still get links — higher quality ones at that). Here’s what an advanced article marketing campaign might look like:

1. You write ten high quality, authoritative articles in your niche or industry. You have two options: features (evergreen material that won’t get outdated) or timely stories (playing on the news value). In some cases you’ll complete step two here before writing.
2. You compile a targeted media / publication list (trade magazines, industry websites, blogs, etc.). If you’re serious, you’ll even take the time to find personal contact information for the appropriate editor and you’ll review any writer’s guidelines they might have.
3. You write a brief pitch letter.
4. You pitch your articles to those publications.
5. They publish your articles (usually first rights, but sometimes exclusive rights).
6. You wait.

Most people I know who frown on this approach don’t like it for two reasons: they assume it will be too much work, or they can’t get over the difference in quantity (10 articles published versus 50 published in more than one place). Then again, I’ve never known someone to try this approach, do it right, and go back to basic article marketing (and I’ve helped quite a few clients do just that). Here’s why:

Advanced article marketing might mean fewer pieces are published, but there’s value in exclusivity. If you can be found on every Tom, Dick, and Harry’s website with the same content published and the same links tossed in, you’re really not contributing to the niche beyond the first article on a topic. Readers do get around, and if they see the same material all the time it becomes unsolicited clutter — search engine spam basically.

Advanced Article Marketing and Building an Authority Status

When it comes to building authority, it’s not about the number of sites your articles are posted to. It’s about which sites (or offline publications) pick up your content, and what their reach is. Let’s look at it this way:

We need to pick a niche, so let’s say you’re a personal trainer (there seem to be a lot of them publishing on article directories). You want to publish fitness articles to promote a new workout DVD series, or book, or whatever amazing new weight loss product it is you’re trying to unload at the moment.

What’s going to bring in more sales?

1. Publishing 50 articles (plus lots of reprints on sites barely anyone reads) to get quick incoming links, in a spammy kind of way that can make you look like a sleazy salesman to some members of your market, or…
2. Publishing ten unique articles on high traffic fitness sites or women’s sites (let’s face it, weight loss products sell like hotcakes with a female audience)

Hmmm…

Experience tells me quality will get you much further. Even if you focused on print publications the same is true. Why? Because they’ll often include your URL for readers to check it out, and if nothing else you’re credited (and authoritative publications and sites do much more to build your own authority with your audience). On top of that many, if not most, print publications also have a Web presence these days where they’ll post resources from their print editions (and sometimes even republish the print article online in full).

So let’s examine it again: 50 links from Susie Q’s blog and similar unknown sites looking for free content or ten articles found by readers in places like Self, Woman’s Day, Fitness magazine, iVillage.com, maybe a relatively high traffic network site like a fitness site on About.com, and a few top blogs read by women or those looking to lose weight. Which makes you look like a more authoritative source? I’ll give you a hint. Nobody cares about Susie Q’s blog in comparison. If you want authority status, you need to target true authority sources in your niche (and of course you have to actually have expert knowledge and not just rehashed content).

Advanced Article Marketing Leads to More Targeted Traffic

For the same reasons I mentioned above, you can see how advanced article marketing can lead to more traffic. More importantly, the traffic is often better targeted. That’s because Woman’s Day, for example, has a certain type of readership (and a nice-sized readership at that). When people really trust a site or publication, they have a better reason to trust you because the editors thought your information was worthwhile.

Let’s look at it this way: Now we’ll talk about doctors. I’m always amazed at how many doctors think they’re doing anything good for their credibility by spamming the Web via article directories in a desperate search for attention and links. Yuck. Does that really make you respect someone as a medical professional? Not me. In fact, they immediately lose credibility points with me if that’s where the information comes from. Why?

Article directories have no serious editorial control (and I don’t mean the auto-rejections if you have too many keywords — I mean real editorial control where you can be assured the information has been fact-checked and reviewed by another professional before being fed to consumers as the gospel truth). What that means is this: anyone can publish anything on an article directory. It doesn’t speak to their authority in the slightest if a kid down the street could reword their article (copyright infringement in some places so don’t do it unless you have permission folks) and publish it as their own “expert” knowledge. Without the backing of an authority source (as in the site or publication releasing your article), you really don’t know who’s doling out that medical information.

Therefore when people come across those types of articles, they don’t necessarily carry as much authority. That means they don’t instill as much trust. And that means your chances of getting targeted traffic who actually trust you after reading your article and who click your link and who then go on to buy, well, they’re just not as good.

Will you get traffic? Yes. Will you make sales? I’m sure you will. But you won’t likely maximize your return that way. As a businessperson it’s your responsibility to get the most out of everything you do, and advanced article marketing does that — it gives you more. And of course there’s that little thing about authoritative sites simply having more targeted traffic to send your way to begin with.

Advanced Article Marketing for Better SEO

SEO is about building awareness / gaining visibility. It’s really nothing more than basic PR — raise awareness, start building an image with audience (it starts with even simple things like your choice of title and description), and build a relationship from there.

Credit: Svilen Mushkatov (vis Sxc.hu)

Awareness isn’t about quantity any more than authority status is — at least not in terms of how many backlinks you get. What’s far more important is that you go back to quality. Yet again, articles on authoritative sites with larger audiences tend to have more value than the smaller types of sites that will pick up content from article directories. And that goes beyond the fact that relevant authority links can help your ranking more than other types. Here’s why:

In basic article marketing you essentially treat the article directory as the “authority” site. It’s not though. It might have a high pagerank, but that’s not enough – it’s not a truly relevant link (not to mention that your article will likely be pushed into the archives relatively quickly). You do it because you hope others will see it there and re-publish.

You do the same thing with advanced article marketing, but the results can be much better. Let’s say a major site in your niche publishes a timely article by you. Chances are very good that others in the niche are then going to see it and potentially cover that topic. That generally involves linking to the authority source to cite it, and then adding to the conversation in some way (if they’re not just passing the link along as an interesting read).

The more authority your original article has (based on where it’s published and your credentials), the better your chances are that the article will go viral. You’ll also likely have your name credited on those secondary, trickle-down sites leading to more exposure. Those links also increase the rankings of your article itself (if online), which means your own backlink there may eventually carry even more weight and also lead to more targeted traffic as more people are directed to your article (and therefore directed to your site).

Not too shabby for ten articles and some pitching, is it?

Advanced Article Marketing Challenge

Advanced article marketing isn’t for everyone. If your article marketing is designed to drive traffic to a relatively generic MFA site for example, then you may simply not have the credentials to get picked up in larger publications. In that case, hey, stick to basic article marketing if it does what you need it to do. I don’t advocate it unless you can manage to do it without spamming the search engines with repeat garbage, but I’m not naïve enough to think most people will stop. If, however, your site makes any effort to focus on readers rather than solely rankings and ads you can benefit (even if you just target more popular blogs than your own with guest posts).

For those who do have real credibility in their niches and who want to focus on article marketing tactics that will help them improve their image, forward their authority status, reach more targeted readers, drive higher quality traffic, and build higher quality and more relevant backlinks, I challenge you to give it a try. You may just be surprised where you could be published.

For those who do want to give it a shot, here are a few final tips for you:

1. If you’re not a decent writer (decent enough to be published on those larger sites, in trade magazines, etc.), then hire a writer. Preferably, hire a writer who specializes in your niche.
2. You don’t have to spend money on expensive media directories to find trade publications and their editors’ contact information. Get a copy of the latest Writer’s Market instead (or subscribe online at www.WritersMarket.com for a few dollars per month). It’s a less expensive option that targets writers who want to sell articles to these publications. Your edge is that you’re offering the articles for free. It’s a good resource for telling you how certain publications and websites like to be pitched.
3. Always read the writer’s guidelines of a publication before submitting anything. They’ll tell you what word counts they need, what topics they do and don’t cover, and what their policies are about self-promotion in the article. You won’t have a problem finding publications and sites that let you include a URL and your company name.

Now go ahead. Give it a try. Pitch even one publication. The worst that can happen is that they say “no,” and you learn something about pitching. Talk to a publicist if you need help with pitching, or try to find a pitch letter template you can adapt. In time though, you’ll get the hang of it and you’ll find it easier to get accepted. Use your credentials to your advantage. Remember, you’re looking for the best return you can get when promoting your business, product, or service. If you could be doing better, then it’s time to do something about it. Give advanced article marketing a try.

Believe it or not, new people join the search marketing world every day.  Frankly, that scares me a little bit.  It’s not the competition or the potential loss of business that scares me, but the sources people are relying on to give them the “right” information.  That said, here are the top 6 most classic SEO articles that I suggest anyone new to the industry read.  And then read again.  Some things in SEO/SEM world haven’t changed much…and a refresher is always a good idea.

“Successful Site In 12 Months With Google Alone“

Written by Brett Tabke at WebmasterWorld over 7 years ago, the fundamental steps for getting started down the road toward success in Google are covered in this archived post.  While I don’t agree 100% with everything included here – like the idea of dismissing the use of keywords in the domain and the necessity of submitting the site to search engines manually – I love the emphasis that Brett puts on creating quality content regularly.

Several times within the post Brett mentions content, creating logical directories for content, keeping new content flowing, etc.  That is one thing that certainly hasn’t changed.  Content is still king and the sites the provide the most relevant and useful content always seem to work their way to the top of the SERPs.

The search engines may now be looking for more kinds of content (i.e. video) than back in 2002, it’s important to recognize that serving up the content that will be most helpful to users is still the goal of search engines.  Convincing the search engines that your content will be most helpful to search users is yours.

“SEO Is Easy? Let’s Look At The Hard 5 Percent“

A more recent post this time, by Todd Friesen, published in the 100% Organic section of Search Engine Land which helps to draw the line in the sand between some aspects of SEO that many believe can be done by anyone and the vastly important last 5% that if done incorrectly can have far-reaching and long-term consequences that can spell catastrophe for a site.

Todd highlights the following aspects of SEO as “The 5 Percent”:

• URL Structure (the fixing thereof)
• Advanced Linking
• Appropriate Cloaking (err…IP Delivery)
• Dynamic Template Modification
• Client Management (agency life)
• Redirection (site moves or redesign)

Particular emphasis is placed on the importance of managing clients’ expectations and having clear lines of communication.  He notes the particular challenges faced by both parties when the client feels they’ve received lackluster results, while the agency suffers the frustration of their changes not being implemented.

“Filthy Linking Rich And Getting Richer!“

Written by Mike Grehan back in October 2004, this post still holds true today.  With statements like:

“…And I’m afraid some of it may be pretty bleak reading if you have newly created, lowly indexed web pages and you’re desperately waiting for someone to link to them so that they stand a chance of ranking in a search engine with a static link based algorithm…”

And:

“…In fact, it has been proposed that “the rich get richer” effect drives the evolution of real networks. If one node has twice as many links as another node, then it is precisely twice as likely to receive a new link…”

Mike Grehan finds some important correlations between science, psychology and the underlying reasons that some sites build links more easily than others.  This post takes a strikingly scientific turn with references to Hungarian mathematician and genius, Paul Erdos and a study by sociologists Fredrick Liljeros and Christopher Edling of Stockholm University, the post itself possesses a great deal of insight into why the idea of “the rich get richer” does not just apply to power and wealth in a traditional sense, but in the virtual world of online currency – links.

This may be one of the more challenging posts you read this week, but it’s well worth the effort.

“101 Ways to Build Link Popularity“

Aaron Wall and Andy Hagans joined forces for this gem of a post highlighting the importance of link building back in 2006.  As illustrated by this quote, not that much has changed in the world of link building since then:

“Link Building… Time-intensive. Frustrating. Sometimes confusing. Yet Unavoidable. Because ultimately, it’s still the trump card for higher rankings…”

Obtaining high quality links from trusted sources is no easier today than back in 2006, and yet – no less important either.  While social networking and social voting sites like Digg and StumbleUpon have provided opportunities to expose content to a much larger audience, demands on the quality and type of content have increased significantly, as well.

“Spam Guide for Raters“

While I hesitate to recommend that anyone follow a SPAM guide, this article at Henk van Ess’s Search Bistro will help anyone identify SPAM techniques, regardless of intent to either abuse or report them.  The blog may not have been updated since late 2007, but this guide is as useful today for identifying spam-o-rific tactics – or, more constructively – understanding what is considered SPAM, than ever.

Topics covered include:

• Sneaky Redirects
• Hidden Text / Hidden Links
• Thin Affiliate Doorway Pages

“Hilltop in Plain English“

Jason Duke addressed the infamous “Hilltop” update carried out by Google in 2004 that seemed to throw a monkey wrench into the Link Olympics going on at that time.

The essence of “Hilltop” was a significant shift in attention from merely quantity of links to a site, to more quality links to a site from sites that are topically related or considered more authoritative.

Oh, How Little Has Changed…

What do all of these posts have in common?  They are all well beyond the time period in which they should be relevant and useful in the world of SEO.  Yet, they’re not.  They all include very important, basic and fundamental information that still applies as much today as it did when they were originally written.

There are several other posts that deserve a mention here, and probably hundreds of others I just don’t have room to mention.  Don’t discount a post’s relevance based solely on its age.

• “Tips for Attaining One Way Inbound Links“
• “SEO Friendly Affiliate Systems“
• “SEO 101 – The Timeless and Classic Hits“

Read them, test the theories when & where you can and determine for yourself what still applies and what doesn’t.  You’ll find that shockingly little has changed from an on-site SEO perspective and that links still rule the world.  What’s changed is where the links come from and understanding how to appeal to those that may link naturally to your site.

There is no quick and easy way to build links.  If something is quick and easy, it’s almost guaranteed to be worthless.  Building links is no different.  Before going any further, you should understand the difference between FOLLOW and NOFOLLOW links.  If you’re unsure, “What are DoFollow links?  What is NoFollow?  Remove the mystery” should help you understand.

Unless you are using a Firefox plugin – such as SearchStatus or SEO For Firefox, you would never know that many of the links you click on during your time online are NOFOLLOW links.  Just because a link is NOFOLLOW doesn’t mean it holds no value.  NOFOLLOW links from sources like StumbleUpon, Digg and Twitter still hold a great deal of value due to their potential to drive traffic.  They aren’t, however, useful for increasing a site’s inbound link count.

Directories – Easy to Get, but Low Value

Keep in mind that the easier a link is to get, the less value it will hold in the grand scheme of things.  What do I mean by that?  Online directories are a great example.  There are thousands of directories and a decent percentage of them offer free submission.  It can take several weeks for a link to appear as a result of a free submission, but they’re not hard links to obtain.

Many directories also offer a few paid options, typically ranging from a few bucks up to about $20 for a basic link.  You’re not paying for the link – you’re simply paying to jump to the front of the line and have your link added to the directory faster.  So, the moral of the story – if the link is easy to get, it’s on the low end of the totem pole of value.

Social Media – Great Traffic Sources, and Some Link Popularity Too

The popularity of social networking has led to the development of a seemingly endless number of sites with a social focus.  While many of these, like Digg and StumbleUpon, employ NOFOLLOW links, some – like Reddit – don’t use exclusively NOFOLLOW links.  That said, not only do links from these sources have the potential to drive visitors directly from the sites themselves, but links from them also count toward your site’s overall inbound link count.

Keep in mind that it is not only the sites themselves that can provide you with much needed inbound links.  The profiles you set up on them often include links to your website that have FOLLOW links.  BrightKite, Technorati, and Identi.ca profiles, for instance, all provide FOLLOW links.

Blogs – Become Part of Your Industry’s Online Community

As long as inbound links and PageRank play such a significant role in ranking, building links back to your site or to individual posts on your blog is essential.  Laying the ground work for future link building possibilities and enticing others to link to you of their own accord is all about building relationships.

Don’t underestimate the value to being active within the blogs and forums that cater to your industry or complimentary industries.  While many blog comment sections incorporate NOFOLLOW links by default, many do not.  Even the NOFOLLOW comment links hold value – particularly if you’re commenting on a highly trafficked blog – but only blogs that use FOLLOW links in the comments sections will increase your site’s number of inbound links.

There are plenty of blogs and forums that use FOLLOW links.  Monty’s Mega Marketing, JR’s Internet Marketing Strategies, Court’s Internet Marketing School, Life Learning Today, and Tucson SEO Solutions each provide lists of FOLLOW blogs and forums that you can use to get started.

Here’s a tip – don’t be a tool.  If you do nothing but drop links to your site without contributing something useful and worthwhile to the community as a whole, you’ll soon be dismissed as a spammer.  Yes, the comments you leave on a blog or forum using FOLLOW links may still help with link popularity, but wouldn’t it be nice if those comments actually encourage people to visit your site or blog, as well.

Remember, building links isn’t just about building links – it is about building relationships and exposing your site to as many potential visitors as possible, then providing those visitors with something of value upon their arrival.

Link Baiting – Enticing Other Sites to Link to You

These are the most difficult links to get.  Unlike directory listings, blog comments and social media profiles, you have no real control over these links.  You may be able to influence their decision in a variety of ways, including coming right out and asking for the link, but the decision is ultimately in someone else’s hands entirely.

Here are some tips that will help your keep a visitor’s attention and entice others to link to it:

1. Make a good first impression.  We’ve all heard that before, but the adage holds true online, too.  You’ve got a few seconds to make a good impression and that’s it.  Problems like broken links and images that don’t load quickly lead to frustration and reduce the chance of someone wanting to link to your site.
2. Give people a reason to come back.  If your site is made up of five static pages that tell about your business and your products, visitors have no reason to come back or link to you.  Provide something of value on a regular basis – like a useful blog post – and people are more likely to come back, as well as link to you.
3. Be YOU!  Whether you’re a one-person operation or there are 10,000 members on your team, the website should have a personality.  People are tired of the same old corporate line of bull, which is why Social Media has taken off like a rocket.  People want to deal with people – not corporate entities.  Give visitors a glimpse into who you are and they’re much more likely to find something of value worth linking to.
4. Don’t be afraid of controversy, but understand the difference between controversial and offensive.  You don’t want to shy away from controversial topics because controversy breeds traffic and encourages other sites to link to you.  You do, however, want to avoid alienating huge groups of people.  Tackling a controversial topic can backfire – approach it carefully and with a clear purpose.

There are more and more bloggers all the time and usually they want to do it well.  What characterizes a good blog post?  It is not as easy a question as you might think.  Here we will explore what is involved.

The single blog post

Any exploration of the quality of a blog post must start with the content.  Just imagine the blog post printed out on a sheet of paper.  It probably will not appeal to everyone.  What counts is its intended audience.  How does this blog post appeal to a typical reader from the target audience?  Unless this much simpler replica of the blog post works for this reader, it is unlikely to be effective when it goes live on the Web.

Considering this replica, we can understand that the headings and layout of the page and the images, if any, will all be important in determining the reader’s liking for or dislike of the blog post.  The copywriter’s skills are important here in crafting appealing content.  So it must work at this level but there are other factors involved once it goes live online.

Search engine visibility

The most important factor after the essential content on the blog post page is whether those target readers ever get to see it.  Some readers of course will be loyal blog subscribers who eagerly await every new post.  The majority will happen on the blog post by chance, most often when they are looking for web pages on a particular topic.  Their search will often be done using keywords in their favorite search engine: for many that will be Google.  Therefore it is important that blog posts are visible in such relevant keyword searches.

One blessing here is the blog structure works particularly well in leveraging the blog post content for good search engine visibility.  Going beyond what appears in the body of the blog posts, it is also important to maximize the effectiveness of what appears in the head of the blog post — what might be called the blog post’s metadata.  The Title and Description are particularly important here.  If using WordPress it is important to use a plug-in like the All In One SEO Pack to be able to optimize the content of the title and of the description.

This important topic is not the main subject here, so for further reading on this you may wish to study one of the following:

• Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide (PDF file download)
• SEO Basics – a knol by Aaron Wall
• Writing Memorable Search Visible Blog Posts – The Other Bloke’s Blog
• 21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic – SEOmoz
• 15 Tips on Improving Search Engine Visibility – louisgray.com

Blogging objectives

Up to this point, we have stated that body content and search engine visibility must be right.  What more must be considered in our attempt to create highly effective blog posts.  To answer that, we must back up and pin down exactly what our objectives may be.

In some cases, the aim is to develop the best possible revenues from advertising through say Google Adsense ads.  Such blogs are often labeled as MFA (Made for Adsense) blogs.  In this case, we have almost done all that is required.  The blog post has been crafted so that as many people will come via search engines and there is a certain appeal to the page.  It is now up to Google to serve up ads that will draw the clicks of these target readers.  Provided Google does that well, they and you will be satisfied

In a sense there is a disconnect here.  The only objective for the blog posts is to get the visitor’s eyes looking at the page.  Now Google must serve up ads which will attract those eyes and encourage those clicks.  There is a delicate balance here.  The blog page must be sufficiently appealing to get the reader’s interest but then readers should find the Adsense ads more attractive than other places that might be accessed from the blog post.

Some MFA blogs are particularly weak in content, but do draw the traffic.  In this sense, they achieve their objective provided enough visitors click on the Adsense ads.  Other blogs have more challenging objectives than this and we will examine those next.

Blogs that convert prospects to purchasers  – Captology

Some blogs have other objectives than merely to maximize AdSense revenue.  For example they might display advertisements for products and services for which the blog acts as an affiliate.  Here the objective of the blog page is to convert someone who has an interest in the product (Prospect) into someone who wishes to actively make a purchase.

In a sense the blog page must persuade the prospect to take an action.  This is a field that has been extensively studied by the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab.    They use the word Captology to describe what is involved:

Captology is the study of computers as persuasive technologies. This includes the design, research, and analysis of interactive computing products created for the purpose of changing people’s attitudes or behaviors.

Part of this of course stems from the credibility that the blog establishes and here again Stanford has provided guidelines for Web credibility.   This is very much an evolving field and a slide show presentation by BJ Fogg outlines how their thinking has developed.

Engagement – the ultimate blog objective

As described to this point, it would seem that the blog post only attempts to influence the visitor.  Beyond that, the most effective use of a blog comes from  acknowledging that the Internet is for dialogs rather than one-sided monologues.  If visitors become involved in dialogs then this is the ultimate demonstration of engagement.  In other words the blog encourages them to become fully involved in the interaction.

Perhaps one good measure of engagement is the number of comments that the blog posts attract.  Engagement implies involvement.  For that, the blog post must encourage a strong wish to connect in the visitor.  Part of that comes about by highlighting the people who are involved in the blog, as BJ Fogg emphasizes.  Additionally the copy-writing must be strong so as to elicit an emotional wish to get involved.

This opens up a whole new realm of factors to consider.  An introduction to all this can be found in a recent post on Affective Feedback.  If true engagement is one of your objectives then this is an area you should be exploring.

At its best, the blog author(s) and its visitors, many of whom will comment from time to time, develop a strong sense of community.  At that point, the blog is clearly capable of fulfilling whatever goals one might wish to set.

Imagine that you were about to embark on a cross country drive from New York to Los Angeles.  Now imagine that you have no GPS, no map and no idea where you’re going.  That is exactly what trying to optimize a site without doing keyword research is like.  Nothing is more important to your initial SEO strategy than keyword research. Many small business owners don’t even know where to begin, so the effort put into optimizing a site to perform well in organic search results is often wasted and the ultimate result is a great deal of frustration.

It would be pretty easy to rank in the number one position for “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious cupcakes”, but how many people actually use that term in a keyword search?  I’ll answer that question for you:  none.  Step one of any organic SEO strategy must be to identify the keyword terms that apply to your site and determine which of them generate the greatest number of searches.  Without keyword research there is no way to properly optimize the title, META tags, text content, etc.

Step 1:  Finding Popular Keyword Terms

Choosing and sticking to some good search engine marketing software is the key. There are a large number of keyword suggestion tools to choose from.  I have selected the three that follow for their ease of use…and it doesn’t hurt that they’re also free.

• Free Keyword Suggestion Tool from Keyword Discovery – this is the most simple and straight forward of the featured tools.  Rather than reporting the average number of searches from each search engine individually, it consolidates the number of searches from various search engines into one, easy to understand average number.  It’s a good tool to use to get an idea of the popularity of a particular search term in a very general sense.This tool also provides a list of terms based on the seed keyword you start with.  For example, if you input the term “ipod”, this tool will report the average number of searches done for that specific term, as well as the average number of searches for other terms that include the original seed keyword – like “ipod touch”, “ipod nano”, etc.

• SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool – this tool operates under the same premise as Keyword Discovery’s free tool, but it provides much more detailed information.  The SEO Book tool provides results from Google, Yahoo! and MSN separately, rather than combining the estimated searches into one all-inclusive number.  SEO Book also provides links to other useful research tools like Google Trends, Google Suggest and Google Insights.Like the Keyword Discovery tool, this tool provides a list of related terms that include the term input in your initial query.  While the amount of information provided by this tool can seem overwhelming initially, it is a good idea to familiarize yourself with this data – if not right away, then at some point in the future.  This is one of my favorite tools.

• Google Adwords Keyword Tool – perhaps the most noteworthy feature of this tool is that it actually comes from Google.  Essentially that means that you’re gleaning the data right from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.  Yes, you do have to have and be logged in to your Google Account.  If you don’t have a Google Account, sign up for one.Google’s keyword tool is particularly useful because, unlike the other two, it also provides a list of related terms that don’t necessarily include the actual seed keyword.  What does that mean exactly?  In short, it means you may input the term “ipod” as the seed keyword, but the Google Adwords tool will provide you with search volume data for related terms like “mp3 player” and “4th generation”.  This is a just a glimpse into how search engines have evolved over time and that organic search results are generated based not only on the specific term used in the query, but on semantically related terms.

Step 2:  Assessing Keyword Term Competition

Now that you’ve created a list of popular terms that apply to your site, the next step is determining how competitive those terms are.  Let’s be honest…”ipod” may be the most popular term that applies to your website, but that doesn’t mean it is a good term to target.  The competition for that term is ridiculously high.  That said, there are several ways to assess the competitiveness of a search term so you can choose realistic terms that apply to your website.

First, simply do a Google search using the term.  This is a very basic approach, but it can provide useful information and help you avoid wasting time doing more in-depth research into a term’s competition.  When you input “ipod” into a Google search the query returns about 240 million results.  Move on.  Focusing on a term with such enormous competition is not realistic for most websites.  Targeting a more specific term, like “refurbished ipod nano”, increases your likelihood of success substantially.

Once you’ve checked out the terms by doing a normal search, it’s time to take things a step further.  Rather than simply using the term itself in the search this time, input the term preceded by “allintitle:” (i.e. “allintitle:refurbished ipod nano” – without the quotation marks, of course).  This query will let you know how many website pages exist what that particular target term in the page title.

Similarly, doing a query for the same keyword term preceded by “allinanchor:” (i.e. “allinanchor:refurbished ipod nano” – again, without he quotation marks) will let you know the number of pages linked to with that particular anchor text.  Because the search engines use the anchor text of links to a page to help them to determine what a given page is about, anchor text is very important them.  Search engines also take the anchor text and number of links into account when ranking a page for that term, so knowing how many pages are linked to using that term is very useful.  As you would expect, the larger the number of results for the allintitle: and allinanchor: queries, the greater the competition is for that term.

Putting the Pieces Together

Once you’ve gathered useful competitive data on the list of applicable target terms for your site, the question becomes what to do next.  Rather than trying to optimize a page for an unrealistic term, like “ipod”, you can use the data you’ve collected via the allintitle: and allinanchor: queries to choose terms that are popular, but not ultra-competitive.  That is the key to developing a successful organic SEO strategy for your website – not only as it relates to on-page SEO factors titles, META tags and text content, but to link building strategies, as well.

He’s making a list

And checking it twice;

Gonna find out

Who’s naughty and nice

Santa Claus has come and gone.  However that list making he gets involved in seems to be infectious.  Making a list seems to be the rule rather than the exception as we move from 2008 into 2009.

As people look to the future and remember the past, they so often end up preparing a list.   That can either be of things past that they remember with affection or awe, or it may be of the future with things that will delight them.

Some of them are really quite long.  For example here is a bunch of Top 100 websites found in a Google search.

• Guardian UK – 100 top sites for the year ahead
• Top 100 downloads of free software & freeware for Windows XP & Vista
• Top 100 Franchises
• Healthcare 100 – Ranking the world’s top blogs and bloggers in health and medicine
• 100 Top Wine Blogs
• 100 Desi Topsites – Ranking Best Indian Pakistani Websites
• Top 100 Products of 2008 from ReadWriteWeb
• Top 100 Influential Online Marketers List

They are not even the longest lists you find.  One of the most impressive that has just appeared is

• Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2008 prepared by Tamar Weinberg.

That has almost 300 items and there are some very fine marketing posts included.

Given that one of my websites is included in Tamar’s list, it may appear churlish of me to question why so many of these long lists are produced.  Each requires a great deal of skill and effort to put together and that alone deserves recognition.  Nevertheless it is always worth questioning why things are done in a particular way, because occasionally the answer suggests an improvement.

In this case I assume that people produce these lists for the same reason that they climb Mount Everest.  It is a personal challenge and the view from the top is impressive.  The sense of achievement of such a long list producer must be immense.  Of course with modern software assembling a list of 100 URL references can be almost a piece of cake.  Nevertheless the author with a sense of pride will rigorously evaluate the collection to select only the sheep and avoid the goats.

So we can relate to the sense of satisfaction of the Top 100 list creator.  If others find the list intriguing, they may even comment on the list and thus the creator gets useful back links.  That is all good for the list creators.  What is in it for the rest of us?  Even if your blog  post or website is included in the list, will anyone ever bother to view it.  There are only so many hours in the day and we all have too little time to do all the things we should be doing.

Perhaps the long lists are more like those society columns where someone knowledgeable on the social scene and well connected writes a column listing all the notable people who attended.  Merely appearing on the list brings its own reward and bragging rights.  You get a sense that this is important from the comments that often appear attached to such long lists.  Some are from those appearing on the lists who are thanking the author for naming them.  Others are from others who thought they should have been on the list and for some inexplicable reason were not included.

This discussion should not be seen as denigrating the entries on such lists.  The quality of the list depends critically on who put the list together.  To be included, the author needs to be visible to the list creator and must have created a post or web page that compares well with other candidate items for the list.  However in a list of 100 items, the only person who is likely to make a fuss about whether their post is in or out is the author of the individual post.

The list takes on a much more incisive nature if the items appear in some order of merit.  Being third on a ranked list clearly confers much greater bragging rights than being 93rd.  However doing an effective ranking of 100 items takes much more effort than assembling the 100 items in the first place.  Most such rankings will depend on some simple combination of factors, some of which are sometimes very arguable.  In such a situation it is hardly worth the effort of debating whether one’s ranking should have been higher.

Thankfully the usefulness of these long lists erodes rapidly, just like those society columns.  The world moves on and we all live to fight another day.

The sole exception to this erosion is the long-term visibility of such lists in the search engine databases.  Years later you can still check, if you wish, that your website appeared in some Top 100 listing in 2004.  Such is fame.  Of course Google cares about those links so all may not be lost.  The weight to be attached to any link that appears on a page with 100 others is clearly miniscule.  However if you appear on enough Top 100 lists, who knows how valuable that may be?

The bottom line on all this is probably to treat these Top 100 listings exactly like those society columns.  Here today and gone tomorrow.  It is much better to put your efforts into something that deserves a whole blog post to itself. … even if that is your only 15 minutes of fame.