Back Links and Anchor Texts

A back link or anchor text is when you find your URL or a text, on another website, that when clicked on the browser goes to your site. Links building is thought to weighs significantly in Google ranking. So, it is important for SEO and to drive traffic to your website. Like any other SEO boosting tool, this needs some time and patience, but will ultimately be profitable. Here are some thoughts about how to build links to your website:

Link Building

• Use directories. It is easy to find directories on Internet, and then you should list your website in the adequate category. Here, be creative in using anchor texts with your keywords to have maximum impact

• Ask other website owners to link to your website. Do this only for websites that are truly related to your category. Quality links over quantity seems to pay on the long run.

• Who is linking to your competitors? To see who is linking to any given URL you need to enter in the Google search box the following:

Link: the URL you are looking for.

You will have all pages linking to this URL. Websites linking to your competitors are more likely to connect to your website. Just ask them!

• Automatic link building programs: this is often a bad idea. You can easily get caught and penalized: your website won’t show up for any search. Outsourcing linking to your website is an option, but make sure you will have quality links.

• Link search or as said my teacher "fishing". This is a kind of obscure (but totally legal) method. The goal is to use Google/Yahoo to search for pages that let you add a link (reciprocal, paid, etc.) that already have your keyword or some closely related content on them. The real prize is pages that give free links or offer paid links to sites they feel are important - many of the highest PR links can be obtained through this method.

These searches for instance can be tried:

· intitle:add+url "keyword phrase"

· intitle:submit+site "keyword phrase"

· intitle:submit+url "keyword phrase"

· intitle:add+site "keyword phrase"

· intitle:add+your+site "keyword phrase"

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Back Links and Anchor Texts

A back link or anchor text is when you find your URL or a text, on another website, that when clicked on the browser goes to your site. Links building is thought to weighs significantly in Google ranking. So, it is important for SEO and to drive traffic to your website. Like any other SEO boosting tool, this needs some time and patience, but will ultimately be profitable. Here are some thoughts about how to build links to your website:

• Use directories. It is easy to find directories on Internet, and then you should list your website in the adequate category. Here, be creative in using anchor texts with your keywords to have maximum impact

• Ask other website owners to link to your website. Do this only for websites that are truly related to your category. Quality links over quantity seems to pay on the long run.

• Who is linking to your competitors? To see who is linking to any given URL you need to enter in the Google search box the following:

Link: the URL you are looking for

You will have all pages linking to this URL. Websites linking to your competitors are more likely to connect to your website. Just ask them!

• Automatic link building programs: this is often a bad idea. You can easily get caught and penalized: your website won’t show up for any search. Outsourcing linking to your website is an option, but make sure you will have quality links.

• Link search or as said my teacher "fishing". This is a kind of obscure (but totally legal) method. The goal is to use Google/Yahoo to search for pages that let you add a link (reciprocal, paid, etc.) that already have your keyword or some closely related content on them. The real prize is pages that give free links or offer paid links to sites they feel are important - many of the highest PR links can be obtained through this method.

These searches for instance can be tried:

· intitle:add+url "keyword phrase"

· intitle:submit+site "keyword phrase"

· intitle:submit+url "keyword phrase"

· intitle:add+site "keyword phrase"

· intitle:add+your+site "keyword phrase"

Return To Homepage

What Google analytics told you about traffic to your site in October 2010?

As you were tracking traffic to your website using Google analytics or any software you might noticed a big change to the number of visitors in October 2010. Some people got a sharp drop of up to 50% in the number of visitors. This is indeed a serious issue especially for an electronic commerce website. Our seo blog will go back to what happened. According to many sources, especially the Alexa ranking website, this wasn’t an isolated incident or any problem with you Google analytics, traffic to many websites changed, some for the best some for the worst. It was apparently caused by changes in the Google ranking algorithm, a deliberate move from Google. We haven’t heard much about this incident since. Webmasters and marketers are quickly back trying to adapt to the new environment.

Why is Google algorithm for web search constantly changing?

Like any software, the Google search algorithm needs to be improved in order to provide users with what they are looking for timely and friendly. If users aren’t satisfied with Google search engine results they will switch to another search engine, and giving that Google wants to keep its dominant position in this market its search engine will keep improving. In addition, Google has to cope with black hat hackers, an increasingly expanding Web content and traffic to websites from computers, intelligent phones etc.

Google has the last word!

So, in this dynamic environment, if you own an electronic commerce website or even such an seo blog, it is important to know that driving traffic to your website isn’t static. You will have to continuously work on improving your ranking. Google in the meantime will keep giving you some hints to improve your SEO. However don’t forget that Google is in a dominant position and its search engine algorithm is one of the best kept secrets. Don't expect Google to inform you before they change their algorithm and don't expect Google to tell you every thing!

Holistic SEO & SEM , what on earth is that ?

In our last Internet Business class we had a very good presentation talking about SEO and ways to drive traffic to your website.

During the presentation the phrase "Holistic SEO/PPC" definitely got my attention.
At home, I decided to do some research and started to dig deeper into the subject; now, everything sounds clear as a bell!

"Holistic SEO & SEM" means that SEO, SEM, and other web optimization techniques should be integrated, with one complementing the other, in other words, these shouldn't be treated as isolated solutions or silos.

I found an interesting video talking about this subject, take a look at it:

Get started with optimizing your landing page

The landing page is the entrance door to your website or the first page visitors will get to when coming to your website for the first time, for instance, through a PPC campaign. Of course it can be adapted to where the visitor is coming from i.e. you could have several landing pages. As any Internet user knows, it is only a matter of seconds to decide whether to leave this webpage (bounce) or not. Optimizing the landing page is becoming an art that aims at preventing visitors from bouncing, attracting their attention and ultimately getting them to convert. By conversion we mean not only buying, but any action you are interested in such as: getting the visitor to see other pages or registering. Here are some advices to optimize landing pages:

• A landing page is highly targeted toward a segment of your keywords that will ultimately provide immediate information for this segment. It is like if you are segmenting visitors to your website in order to be able to serve them as efficiently as possible. For example, an ecommerce website selling sportswear can have a landing page related to running shoes or related to heart rate monitors. Nevertheless, it is also important not to completely isolate this niche from the others, simply because a visitor coming to your website for running shoes might be also interested in a heart rate monitor. Having the right balance between niche targeting and providing other routes for additional niches is what you will be looking for.

• A landing page should not be intrusive. Some landing pages seem to literally take over your computer for some time. These pushy landing pages might attract the attention of visitors but they also cause frustration and lack of trust. In general a trustworthy landing page is also a key success factor. Tell visitors how you are, for instance, is important toward building trust.

• Keep it simple! Remember you have only seconds to attract visitors’ attention. A wise graphic and a powerful message or question, with a fast impact can often be very effective. This is not easy to achieve and to point out the need to test your landing pages again and again.

• Eliminate any unnecessary length or difficulty in the process of getting information from the user. It has to be on a voluntarily basis and well understood so. A thank you is certainly a must.

Did you notice the Google instant feature? Why is it important for your keywords selection?

Google Instant is a new search enhancement feature launched in September 2010. It makes searching the web using Google even more convenient by making predictions. For instance, if you type “go” in the query box, a list of words and combination of words instantly rolls down as following: Google, Google maps, Google translate, etc. Google would be sometimes clever enough to anticipate what you were about to type, or even to give you another possibly interesting query input.

Why is this important for S.E.O?

• Google Instant isn’t good news when it comes to several-word-combination-keywords, part of the long tail keywords set. This feature leads to lazier Internet searchers. These long-combination-keywords (for which competition and hits are low) are made of four and more words. Exact match for these words will probably occurs less often. The more characters you type inside the query box the more accurate Google Instant prediction will be. It is therefore easier to select one of Google's suggestion than to go on with typing.
  

• In the other hand misspelling will offer more and more alternatives for keywords selection. Google Instant suggestions are based on what Internet users are really typing in the query box and many words are often misspelled (probably more than we thought). As a consequence Web marketers will rely more often on misspelling and certainly use Google Instant to generate more ideas.

Keywords for SEO simply explained!

Keywords are by far the most important aspect of S.E.O. Searchers type keywords in the search engine query box and you want your website to show up for these keywords as high as possible in the search results. Full keyword analysis is needed to ensure the relevancy of your keywords to what your website offers. Don’t rush here! It is important that your analysis be complete.

Here are some advices:

• Do a competitive analysis by visiting your competitors’ websites and examining the source code: What keywords are they using for their Meta tags for example, and how do they show up for different research queries?

• Use the free Keyword Tool, on Google AdWords, helps generating keywords.

• Be creative: provide for generic names, brand names, misspelling, buzz words.

• In a highly competitive sector you would probably go for a long tail strategy i.e. selecting niche keywords rather than highly competitive keywords.

• Once your initial keywords list is defined make sure to use them for your Meta tags, your page titles and your text. The important point here is not to overuse keywords in your text, it is an old webmaster practice that would be nowadays harmful for your ranking.

• SEO is a dynamic process you will need to review, test, measure impacts and optimize your keywords. It is also recommended to regularly visit you competitors’ websites in order to assess their strategies.