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Benefits of Link Building

Popularity; being well-liked is important to some people. It’s also important to businesses. Generally, one can assume that if a business is popular that it is good and provides a valuable service or product. But, is that always the case?

If you can make a thousand people say you’re the most popular person, are you really the most popular person? If you can create a system to have a thousand websites link to your website, does that mean your website provides the most valuable information? That was something Google and other search engines had to fix when link-building was at its height of popularity.

If you own a website and have undertaken any sort of SEO over the years, you’ve likely heard the term ‘link-building’. When SEO first became a method of marketing, link-building was one of the most important tasks an SEO professional would undertake.

As with many things, some took it too far and all of a sudden directories build specifically for link-building were created. People began offering link-building services and the entire process could be automated for $10 to $100. Those who didn’t understand the reasoning behind getting links to a website never cared where the link came from, they simply wanted more links. Because of this, links became diluted.

Although link building got a bad rap, it’s still an important part of the SEO process. But, even as was the case back then, it’s important to seek quality links to your website and/or to help links develop naturally.

Why Links Are Important

The idea behind link building stems from popularity and authority. If your website is popular, provides authority in your industry and has relevant topics, people will like it, share it and link to it.

This signal shows Google and other search engines that your website is valuable and valid and can help in ensuring your website ranks well for popular keyword search terms.

In addition, if your website is linked to from another website, that’s another avenue of traffic for you.

Both of these can help increase your SEO rankings. So, in turn, link building is still good for SEO. But more importantly, it’s good for your website traffic and to gain potential targeted leads.

Search engines use links for two fundamental reasons:

The first is to help them discover new pages for their databases. Every time your website publishes an article or a blog, the search engine needs to find it before they rank it. If your internal linking system is well-structured and you have a good xml sitemap, this might be easy. But, the more websites that also link to this content, the easier and quicker it might be for the search engines to find.

Search Engines also use links to help determine how a page should rank for a particular keyword. A link can be seen as confidence about the content and information that is to come.

It’s important to keep both of these linking fundamentals in mind when you begin to build links for your website.

Link Building Benefits & SEO

White hat link building has long-since been touted as an effective part of an SEO strategy. It’s otherwise known as link-juice and is one of many ranking signals used by Google and other search engines to determine the validity of a website for a specific keyword phrase.

Link metrics are calculable. There are programs designed to help you determine the quality of a website and link from that page. Alternatively, you can seek out new links by hand. But, it’s not wise to rely solely on link metrics alone. Natural links may not have passed your link metric test; however, they can prove to be invaluable. The same goes for a link that actually drives valuable visitors and potential leads to your website.

Having websites point back to your domain improves your domain authority. It provides search engines with a signal that your content is worth linking to. In turn, if you’re generating website traffic from these links, this too can help with your SEO.

The Indirect Benefits of Link Building

Link building should be a task on every SEO professional’s to-do list. Yes, because it helps with SEO and ranking on search engines. But, and perhaps even more importantly, the real benefit of additional links is more indirect.

Builds Trust – When someone links to your content, it’s their way of saying they trust you enough to share you. This influencer traffic is an important citation for your website. The more industry authority you can have, the more serious your website will be taken. Consumers today are looking for trust signals before they make a connection with a business. This comes from testimonials, citations and authoritative content.

Builds Branding – The more your business is mentioned elsewhere, the more known your brand will be. You might not derive a sale from a link; however, there is a subconscious act of knowing that takes place and the more a person sees your business name or website, the more likely they are to subconsciously begin building trust in your brand.

Increases Visitors – A well-earned link on another niche or popular website can increase targeted visitors to your own website.

Increases Leads – While some think about link building primarily from an SEO standpoint, when you curate links for the benefit of actually building business, this is when you really win. There are local websites, directory websites, resource websites etc. that people visit every single day. If you have related content, or a related link, you could actually earn business, rather than just link juice. And, that’s the real point, right?

As an example, let’s imagine you are a mortgage broker. You can list your business in local directories. Perhaps you exchange links with fellow mortgage brokers across the country as part of a referral network. You may have a link on your main company’s website. As you start to create good content (video, podcasts, articles and blogs) you may find that people begin sharing your content. Now, think about places where your content could naturally live:

  • Real estate agent websites
  • Home design websites
  • Home builder websites
  • Real estate lawyer websites
  • Financial planning websites

The link authority from any of those types of websites would be good. But, the visitors to those websites likely have a vested interest in your service. So, if your content is excellent and authoritative, if people begin to trust your brand, you can use this opportunity for more than just the link juice. You can use this link to actually generate visitors and business leads.

And, that’s why, when it comes to link building, good content is always stressed. Know your audience. Know your target. Know their target keywords and ensure that your content is authoritative, different and relatable.

Natural vs Curated Links

A natural link is one that happens more by accident. You haven’t done anything to secure the link; rather, someone has liked something on your website and has chosen to link to it from their own.

A curated link is a link you have specifically requested. Maybe this is on a local website or an industry-leading informative website. Maybe you have created relative content for a related industry.

Both natural and curated links can be valuable for your business and for your website.

How to Get Natural Links  

Have good content – this is the best advice for when you want to get links to your website. Have well-written, easy-to-read shareable content on your website that is unique from what a person could find anywhere else. Answer questions. Have a unique solution to a common problem. Update your blog regularly. Make your content so good that people want to share it or source it on their own websites.

Write guest blog posts – find niche websites and request to write a blog or article for them. Be sure to include keyword rich backlinks to your own website when applicable.

How to Curate Good Links

Link Requests – It’s ok to ask for links still; you just want to be sure that you’re asking for links on a quality page that isn’t a ‘link building’ page. If content is related and your website would be a valuable resource, it doesn’t hurt to ask.

Directories – Local or niche directories provide a valuable service for visitors. So, ensure your site is listed if related and that your profile is properly filled out.

Social Media – Keep your social media profiles up-to-date with a link in your profile. You can also use your own social channels to share your good content. Others might pick it up to post on their own website, thus creating a natural link!

Here are the Top Benefits of Link Building

Build relationships – the very act of sourcing out related links to your website could help you build business relationships.

Get your content indexed faster – When you create good content, it’s important that the search engines can find it. Having your own website and others link to it will help ensure search engines will find it, spider it and index it faster.

Build your website authority – A well-placed link on a related, good website is a signal of trust and authority.

Receive traffic from other websites – Great links are for more than just SEO; they actually provide website traffic and leads for your business.

Improve your seo – Links are used as a ranking factor for SEO. If you’re looking to increase your ranking for a specific keyword phrase, ensure you have good content related to this keyword and then begin sourcing links to this content.

Improve your brand visibility – The more times a person can see your brand, the more your brand will make an impression on them.

Link Building Tactics

Have good content including video, infographics, images and articles – content is king, queen and everything in-between, especially when it comes to links. Having content that is shareable and digestible is always a good idea when it comes to link building.

Guest blogging – Find related websites and ask to have your content featured. Be sure the content you provide is unique and answers a question or solves a problem in a way that is conducive to both that website and your brand.

Build links from broken links – the Internet is filled with links that no longer work. If you have content that could fit, you could ask the webmaster to link to your content instead. This involves a lot of research and work but can be invaluable to your success in the long run.

Research who links to your competition and request links – This is usually stage one of link building. Research the competition and find similar link building opportunities.

Whether you are new to SEO and link building or have been doing it for years, if you’re reading this article, you know link building is important. How to build links and where to get them from is always changing; however, the idea behind links has always been the same. It’s when you try and find quick wins that you begin to steer yourself in the wrong direction.

Gaining high quality links for your quality content hasn’t changed. It’s the cornerstone of any link-building campaign, and always has been. It’s just become harder (or more clear) to find what constitutes as a high quality link.

White hat link building strategies are good for any website. But, this opportunity takes research, effort and time. The benefit will pay off. Good link building is building for tomorrow, not this instant. Isn’t that the case with content, too?

While the landscape for link building is always changing, one thing remains unchanging. The benefits for producing quality content will never go away. The benefits of quality links will never go away.

There has always been a benefit for having quality links to your website. So, if you’re looking to improve your website’s visibility, seo and traffic it’s important to start creating shareable, unique content that is worthy of a link.

If you still have questions about Link Building, please call our SEO experts here at 1st on the List at 1-888-262-6687.

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What Does it Take to Rank #1 on Google?

According to marketing consultant Mathew Barby in his recent article How to Rank Number One in Google: A Study of 1 Million Pages, some of the most common elements of top ranking websites in Google are:

  • Backlinks
  • Anchor text
  • Page titles
  • Target keywords
  • URLs

In this blog post we are going to discuss more of Barby’s findings of what it takes to rank on Google in 2017 and provide a brief rundown of how this might impact your SEO roadmap.

Backlink Quantity

Barby found that backlinks outperformed any other aspect of the study with the Top 2 Google results sharing 38% of all backlinks of page 1 search results. As always, organic and natural link building is clearly an area on which to focus.

Backlink Variety

Pages ranking #1 had 168% more linking domains that pages ranked #5. This indicates that the number of backlinks from multiple domains is more fundamental to search results than a large number of backlinks from one domain. A natural backlink profile with a diverse set of authoritative domains is important.

Anchor Text Focus

Anchor text driven by keywords is still a significant ranking factor. Pages holding the #1 ranking position had the keyword they were ranking for take up 5.4% of the anchor text. Focussing on your anchor text and keyword placement within it are a priority.

Shorter Titles & URLS

The optimal length for page titles was shown to be 8 words. The shorter the URL length, the higher the ranking position of the page. Barby’s study found that URLs under 60 characters also equate to higher ranking, and when combined with short page titles, could make excellent snippets that have high Click-Through-Rates which in turn can further strengthen the ranking. Optimizing in this way for snippets alone can be an extremely effective tactic.

Title/URL Keyword Placement

Surprisingly, the keyword presence in the title for 15.8% of number 1 pages has less to do with page presence itself than the consequence of click-throughs on the search snippet. As always, keyword placement within the URL was significant as well. If you are interested, read our recent article 3 Ways Featured Snippets in Search Can Boost Your Website Traffic to learn more about the implications of a featured snippet ranking.

HTTPS Ranks!

This study reports that 33% of pages ranked in the first 3 positions had implemented HTTPS. Google has confirmed the importance of HTTPS and in their continued efforts to make the web more secure will undoubtedly put more ongoing weight behind it where page ranking is concerned. For more information, check out our HTTPS Everywhere page.

Utilizing the items discussed in this article as next step advancements or maintaining them as an on-going part of your SEO strategy will likely improve your SERP presence. Don’t abandon other important aspects of SEO such as schema markup or mobile friendliness. Instead, include them as parts of a diversified, comprehensive, and ongoing web presence master plan.

If you have any questions about the development of your website SEO, call us today at 1-888-262-6687. Or, you can reach us by email at contact@1stonthelist.ca.

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Resource Roundup: Link Building in 2015

Backlinks and the process of link building has reached a unique position where website owners are being told two very different messages. The first is that Google says to avoid backlink building because it can do more harm than good. The other message is that you can’t rank without backlinks.

So what is a website owner to do?

We have recently come across three great articles about Link Building and thought they are worth sharing here on our blog to help you better understand the right way to naturally go about obtaining backlinks to your website.

Link Building: No Longer about Manipulation

In this article over at Search Engine Land, Andrew Dennis makes the statement that manipulation is no longer a sustainable route to link acquisition.

Instead he challenges website owners to question how to improve their authority, relevance, and value online. The purpose of link building in a Post-Penguin era is to ensure that Google recognizes your website’s importance.

Dennis also revisits four main reasons we link to other sites that were relevant before Google incorporated links into its ranking algorithm that are still just as true today:

  1. Navigation – you create a pathway for your visitors to see another site.
  2. Reference – you provide your visitors with more information on the topic.
  3. Citation – you need to acknowledge the original source of the content.
  4. Endorsement – you genuinely want to support another person, company, product, event, etc.

Rather than trying to manipulate the Search Engines with links focus on acquiring links with an audience-first perspective. Always keep in mind the four reasons why links are used. Dennis challenges readers to reach out to real webmasters and actively seek out websites that are relevant to both your website/ industry and to your audience.

It’s worth checking out Dennis’ comparison of good verses bad examples backlinks in guest posting, resource link building, directory listings, and blog commenting.

Earning Links through Trust

In another article posted on Search Engine Land over six weeks ago, columnist Jim Yu argues that neglecting critical on-page elements, site design, and content quality will impact your ability to gain natural links to your website. He touches on several key points:

  • Quality Over Quantity – as Google becomes better at understanding the actual language on your website rather than just strings of text it will depend more on the quality of content rather than the quantity of backlinks pointing to the content.
  • Website Design – your website design will impact who and how many people will want to link to your website. Factors such as page load speed, a simple design that reflects customer expectations, fewer advertisements, high quality and suitable graphics, page layout, and navigation are all factors that will impact who will link to you. Backlink acquisition aside, these factors also have a huge impact on how your own visitors interact with your website.
  • Value of Content – “good” content is what will attract people to your website in the first place, entice them to come back, and even illicit them to link to you from their own website. Yu suggests that quality content needs to meet several criteria including understanding visitor personas and educating them on topics of interest. Keeping your content updated regularly is another key factor.

11 Ways for Local Businesses to Get Links

Over on the Moz Blog Casey Meraz offers up practical ways for local businesses to get links to their website. Here are some of the favorites:

  • Try to get a nomination from your Chamber of Commerce, “Best Of” List, or other local awards for businesses
  • Sponsor a local event
  • Help host a community event
  • Support a local club, organization, or charity
  • Offer discounts for students, alumni, seniors, or another special group
  • Ask for links from manufacturers and wholesalers as they likely have an authorized reseller list or store locator on their website
  • Leverage business relationships (ex. if you are a mortgage broker your best Realtors may want to link to and recommend you to their visitors)

As one commenter points out, these ideas are great not only for SEO value but also for driving traffic and generating awareness among your local audience.

Link Building Key Takeaways

So what can be learned from the general attitude towards link building in 2015?

  • Backlinks are for discovery and visibility, not ranking value.
  • A good backlink will provide value to the person who sees it.
  • Your site needs to be valuable, professional, and inviting for others to link to.
  • You should market your business appropriately through links.

For more information about natural link building please contact our office at 1-888-262-6687.

 

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What is a Spammy Website? How Many Spam Factors Does Your Website Have?

In the last couple of months Open Site Explorer released a new Spam Score Metric as a way to evaluate your backlink profile and measure penalization risk for unnatural backlinks.

The original purpose of the tool is to check spammy backlinks to your website, evaluate potential links, conduct link cleanup and help with disavowing files in Google Webmaster Tools.

However we think you should also look at the Open Site Explorer Spam Score metrics to review your own website for spam factors that you may or may not realize are even affecting your website.

How does your website compare to what Moz, Open Site Explorer and Google would consider a “spam” site?

Spam FactorRatio*Reason
No Contact Info11.8Quality websites and real businesses have prominent contact information such as email, social profiles, and addresses.
Small proportion of branded links8.5The natural way for websites to link to you are through branded anchor text, not keyword rich anchor text.
Domain name with numerals7.5Spam websites often include multiple numbers because the domain names are automatically generated.
Large site with few links5.7Large quality websites will naturally attract a large number of links to it.
Low number of pages5.5Quality sites tend to have more pages than just one or two.
Low number of internal links4.9Quality websites will link heavily to other related pages on the site through navigation or content links, unlike spammy websites that are more likely to link to external websites.
Domain name length4.9Spammy websites often have very long domain names to accommodate keyword stuffing or differentiate from other related, equally spammy domains.
Ratio of Followed to Nofollowed domains4.6Quality sites will have a good balance of both Follow and Nofollow links, not just Follow links.
Thin Content3.9Quality websites will have balanced ratio of page specific content to navigational content.
Anchor text heavy page3.9Quality websites tend to have more content and less outgoing links and anchor text.
External links in navigation2.8Quality websites tend to have a navigation, sidebar and footer with links to pages on the site, unlike spammy sites that have external spam links on website’s navigation.
Low site link diversity2.6Quality sites will have a wide diversity of links from a number of different domains.
Large number of external links2.6Quality websites often have fewer links going out to other websites, unlike spammy websites that link heavily to other sites.
Top Level Domain associated with spam domains2.4Quality websites are not associated with spammy domains.
Site mark-up is abnormally small1.3Quality websites will invest in both content and rich markup like HTML, JavaScript, etc, to improve user experience.

* Example: 5.7 means websites with this are 5.7x more likely to be spam than a site without it.

What’s your spam website tolerance?

The makers of the tool have actually calculated the probability of spam based on the number of flags your site might trigger:

  • 0-4 factors: less than 7.5% chance of spam
  • 5 – 7 factors: 11.4 – 30.6% chance of spam
  • 8 – 10 factors: 56.8 – 77.3% chance of spam
  • 11 – 13 factors: 87.3 – 98% chance of spam
  • 14+ factors: 100% chance of spam

How to tell if a website is spam? If your website has more than 8 factors there is a good chance that Google could be viewing your website as spam. Fewer factors could still be hurting your website’s quality and trust score, and as a result, your rankings.

Don’t Get Labeled as a Spammy Website!

If you have read through the above list of factors and think you could potentially be considered a spammy website give us a call at 1-888-262-6887. We offer full SEO Website Audits that include a thorough analysis of your website and recommendations on how to improve your website so that Google moves from ranking it as a spam site to a quality website.

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Is link building the old school way of determining trustworthiness?

The recent buzz over Search Engine Land is about how a group of researchers at Google are proposing new ways to determine the trustworthiness of a web page. The Google research team published this paper on Knowledge-Based Trust (KBT) which explains how Google may soon look at the accuracy of the web page to determine the quality of the web page rather than backlinks which are easily manipulated:

“The quality of web sources has been traditionally evaluated using exogenous signals such as the hyperlink structure of the graph. We propose a new approach that relies on endogenous signals, namely, the correctness of factual information provided by the source. A source that has few false facts is considered to be trustworthy.”

What do you think? Even if this shift in evaluating trustworthiness is far in the future it’s a good time to double check the accuracy on your website:

  • Is each one of your services properly represented on your website?
  • Are prices correct?
  • Are your business hours up to date?
  • Is product information up to date? Are out of stock products marked as out of stocked?
  • Do you provide references for statistics you use on your blog?
  • Are your blog posts attributed to an author that is credible?

Spend some time reviewing all the pages on your website and ask a few others to do the same. Sometimes a fresh set of eyes is all it takes to spot accuracy issues.

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Google Says Avoid Link Building

In a recent Google+ Hangout John Mueller, a Webmaster Trends Analyst of Google Switzerland, answered the point blank question, “Is link building in any way good?”  Depending on your opinion of backlinks you may or may not be surprised by his answer:

That is a good question.

In general, I’d try to avoid that.

So that you are really sure that your content kind of stands on its own and make it possible for other people of course to link to your content. Make it easy, maybe, put a little widget on your page, if you like this, this is how you can link to it. Make sure that the URLs on your web site are easy to copy and paste. All of those things make it a little bit easier.

We do use links as part of our algorithm but we use lots and lots of other factors as well. So only focusing on links is probably going to cause more problems for your web site that actually helps.

So what can you take from John’s response?

  • If you haven’t already stop making link building your primary focus, in fact, try to avoid link building.
  • Building links for the sole purpose of links is a poor strategy.
  • Purposefully building links can cause you problems.
  • A lot more goes into Google’s ranking algorithm than just number of backlinks.
  • Look at how easy you make it for others to link to your content.
  • Make sure your content is interesting and well written, even if no one else links to it.

If you are interested in learning more from John Mueller you can watch his recent Google hangout with Webmasters.

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Happy 1st Birthday Google Penguin! 5 Best Google Penguin SEO Resources

This morning I was browsing some information about the Google Penguin update and happened to notice that it was officially launched on April 24, 2012 but only got its endearing name on April 26, 2012.

That means somewhere in the last 2 days Google Penguin had its first birthday.

For those who have not heard the term “Google Penguin” is a code name for Google’s algorithm update designed to lower the rankings of websites that violated Google Webmaster  Guidelines by using black-hat SEO practices such as keyword stuffing, cloaking, link schemes and duplicate content.

So in honor of this important milestone for the Google update that sent the SEO community into a frenzy this past year  here are five highly informative SEO Google Penguin resources that cover everything you need to know about where it has come and where it is going in the future.

Google Penguin 2.0 and Bad Neighborhoods

Search Engine Watch author Simon Penson covers a variety of factors that can indicate your backlinks are coming from “bad neighborhoods” across the web. He says that no one is in a position to determine what is coming next but that we have been warned:

“Google will turn the knife a little more making link building in its former sense a more risky tactic than ever.”

Penson predicts a heightened level of allowable spam in the future and the increased importance of knowing what neighborhoods your backlinks are coming from.

Google Algorithm Change History

SEOMoz puts together a great resource if you are interested in following all the Google algorithm updates. Perhaps you noticed a change in your website traffic and want to see if it correlates with something Google tweaked. Whatever your reason this is a great resource for seeing all of Google’s updates, dating back to 2000!

Google Penguin Infographic

If you preview pictures over words check out this infographic on Visual.ly outlining the impact, how to be prepared and what Penguin combats.

Google Penguin Slide Share from SES London

This is Kevin Gibbin’s presentation from SES London earlier this year that includes some humorous slides to outline how links evolved and where Penguin stepped in. Generally, he says that Penguin penalizes you for thin or weak content that links to you.

Gibbons also outlines where Google is going next and touches on:

  • Increasing data signals
  • Importance of author verficiation and the cost of remaining annonymous on the web
  • Plus what to do if you’ve been hit.
Some of the pieces of advice I like best because they are fairly unique in link building discussions are to:
  • Find out what a #1 site profile looks like in your industry and replicate it.
  • Consider removing links that have no value to users (everyone thinks this but very few have the courage to say it out loud)
  • Focus on human engagement

Ideas for Link Building in a Post-Penguin World

There are thousands of articles listing ideas for how to keep building links for your website. This one by Anna Moseva posted over at MarketingProfs lists some realistic ways to keep building links. Some of the key items of food for thought include:

  • Rely on social not for links but for sharing and ask yourself what the point of your social fans and followers if you aren’t showing them your content?
  • Don’t focus on building links to just one page. Most of your real content is on inner pages of your website where you put videos, posts, articles, guides etc. You need links to these resources.
  • Quality over quantity means that getting one really good link from a high quality blog is much more valuable than 30 links from unreliable, shady sources.

What the Future Holds for Google’s Penguin

So what’s next for link building and how Google evaluates our website and the link neighborhood it lives in?

Matt Cutts (head of webspam at Google) mentioned at SMX West 2013 that we can anticipate a large Penguin update in 2013 that will be one of the more talked about Google algorithm updates of the year.

If you haven’t already it’s time to start taking your backlink profile seriously!

If the Google Penguin update hurt your rankings or website traffic call us at 888-262-6687. We can help you clean up their shady backlink profile in abide by Google’s new Penguin standards.

 

 

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The Web’s Best Must Read Articles About Natural Link Building Strategies

Does the task of developing a new strategy for natural link building keep you up at night?

The truth is that good, 100% natural link building requires time, effort and creativity, but the end result is much better and much more long term than any other type of link you could acquire.

 

Your natural links must add value across the web:

  • Add value to the website that is providing the link
  • Add value to the visitor who clicks on the link
  • Add value to your website in the form of highly qualified traffic

In light of the value the question remains …

How do I build good natural links?

Over the past few months we have gathered some of the very best articles about natural link building from around the web; useful articles that are full of strategies and ideas that follow Google’s definition of a natural linking.

10 Ways to Use Images for Link Building

If your company has a visual website with lots of great graphics and photographs then this article at KaisertheSage.com is for you. Trade in your old and dull contextual link building strategy and learn how to use infographics for linking, building your network on Pinterest and reverse image search to branch out.

10 Types of Unnatural Link Building Tactics +10 Quality Alternatives

This article over at Search Engine Journal seems to hit the nail on the head. Rather than just pointing fingers at the poor or unnatural link building techniques common in the SEO industry Corey Northcutt takes it a step further and offers practical alternatives. For example, in reference to blog commenting, Northcutt suggests:

“Blog owners / authors love comments where they can tell the comment author read their content and legitimately want to add to the discussion beneath it. By providing valuable, intelligent comments, you can make a good impression on the blog owner, content author, and other readers scrolling through the comments.”

Real Guide to Getting Links and Traffic from Trending Topics

This is a great blog post for companies who want to stop trying so hard to be popular on the web and to just start being popular (and trendy). As Bonnie Stefanic best puts it in her introduction, “Taking advantage of trending topics is a tremendous opportunity to net more links and more traffic for your site while using a relatively small amount of resources.” Stefanic shares great tools for monitoring trending topics and practical tips for choosing, writing, optimizing and promoting your trending topic.

12 Questions to Ask a Prospective Link Building or Contact Marketing Client

We know that we are compiling this list for a mixed audience … both SEO and website owners. No matter who you are Tom Demer’s list of Internal Resources halfway through the article is a great place to start brainstorming new ways to pursue natural links. Can you blog, create great graphic designs, have non-electronic brochures, videos or charts you can promote? Sometimes the obvious answer can be right under your nose.

The 10 Golden Rules to Attracting Authority Links

Check out Rule #9 which seems counterintuitive … “Buy links without penalty”?!?

How do you do that without violating Google’s policy? Neil Patel suggests that you donate to a charity, pay an influential blogger to post on your site or to fund research. The key point here is that there is an exchange of value between both parties with a relevant connection…meaning that there is such a thing as an ethical way to “buy” links.

How to Gain Natural and Valuable Links from Universities

We all know that .edu links can be very valuable. But how do you obtain these types of links if you aren’t connected with Universities?

Webarts’ guest blog post on the YouMoz gives some great ideas of how some niche markets can provide value to University professors. Start thinking outside the box and apply these ideas to obtain links from .org and other authority sites! We particularly like the “give an award” and “find and replace a broken link” ideas. Be sure to check out the comments section as well….why not offer alumni discounts or sponsor a scholarship?

Using Passive Link Building to Build Links with No Budget

If you are looking for blog focused link building tips, this article is for you. Craig Bradford’s process for passive link building is based on the idea that, “It is better to give than to receive” and “Help someone out and it’ll be harder to say no when you ask something from them”. From guest blogger page, blogger networking and turning those spammy link request emails into something of value. Plus, Bradford reminds us, don’t forget about Rel=Author!

Complete Guide to Link Building With Local Events

Are you a business that already hosts great local events in your community? Be sure to read Kane Jamison’s article on obtaining links throughout the entire process of planning your event. Part 2 has great tips for finding sites promoting local events and, if you are advanced, Part 6 for tactics such as citation building and schema.org implementation.

Have you written a great article or have Unique Natural Link Building Techniques you use? We’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment or contact 1st on the List directly at 888-262-6687.

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7 Ways to Get Local Google Places Reviews from Your Customers

Let’s admit it … getting your customers to write reviews can be very difficult no matter how outstanding your products and services are.

But just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you can ignore the fact that you need reviews.

A key component of a successful Google+ Local (formerly known as Google Places) listing for your local business is getting several positive reviews.

Before you rush off to run a contest or offer bribes in exchange for reviews make sure you fully understand Google’s Policies and Guidelines as they relate to soliciting customer reviews:

“Reviews are only valuable when they are honest and unbiased. Even if well-intentioned, a biased review can undermine its credibility. For instance, don’t offer or accept money or product to write positive reviews about a business”

Here are 7 popular tactics to try and increase your customer reviews … earning you improved local visibility and more potential customers!

(If you don’t already have a Google Places listing read our introductory Help Local Customers Find You with Google Places article first and note that Google Places is now merged with Google+ Local)

1. Ask Your Loyal Customers

One of the easiest places to start is asking your most loyal and happy customers. Perhaps you have a few customers that go way back. These customers are willing to do almost anything to help promote your business and see it grow. Simply ask if they would be willing to write a review on your Google+ Local. Help make it as easy as possible for them to do so!

2. Link Your Emails to Google+ Local

The footer in all your outgoing emails is valuable real estate. Along with your contact information try adding a link to your Google+ Local listing with a call to action to write a review.

3. Follow Up Emails

If your business normally sends follow up emails after a sale try adding a section that solicits a public review of the product or service. Sometimes a public place to voice their opinion is what your customers are looking for as it creates a greater sense of being heard.

4. Integrate with Your Site

If it isn’t already, make sure that your site is linked to your Google+ Local page. One idea is adding a “Review Us” section into your website with a link out to your Google+ page or adding the Google+ logo to your linked Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin logos.

5. Link Up With Your Suppliers and Partners

Does your business have key relationships with others in the industry? Why not do them a favor and write an honest review on their Google+ Local listing to see if they will do the same for you. There’s no harm in promoting your accountant, marketing consultant, office supplies vendor, building maintenance crew or anyone else you can write a thoughtful review for and honestly endorse. What goes around comes around!

6. QR Codes

QR codes are a great way to digitally engage your customers. All that your tech saavy customers will have to do is use their mobile phone’s QR app to snap a picture. Link your QR code to your + page and they will instantly be able to write their review. QR codes make writing reviews a one step process. You can place QR codes on your business card, brochures, receipts, invoices, tables and anything else that goes into your customers’ hands.

7. Ask Your Family and Friends

This may seem like the most obvious way to collect reviews but remember you have friends and family who have seen your business in action. It’s a great place to start if your reviews are far and few between. Just be careful if your business is named after your family and your four sons by the same name all write a review! It may look a little unusual.

Bonus Tip: How to Deal with Bad Google Places Reviews

Can I remove negative Google reviews?

The answer is no. In reality all businesses collect some negative reviews no matter how great they are. In order for reviews to remain unbiased you do not have direct control over what a customer says in a review and if that review is visible.

The best thing to do is respond to negative reviews in a positive and professional way. Offer to make it right. If the reviewer still doesn’t change their mind at least you have gained some lost credibility back from others who have read the review. In fact, studies suggest that customers are more likely to trust your reviews when they see both good and bad.

You should also try to get as many positive reviews to counteract the negative reviews! If a visitor comes to your Google+ Local and see 98 positive reviews and only 2 negative reviews they will likely have a good impression. Push those negative reviews down by getting a constant stream of fresh reviews.

For more information about Google Places Business Listing visit our Google Local Optimization page or contact our office today at 888-262-6687.

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How the Search Engines View Linking

Good quality in-bound links have become more and more important in how the search engines rank web pages yet many website owners still have misconceptions about building links for link popularity and how links figure in their search engine optimization efforts.

How the Search Engines View Linking

Link pop, link popularity, page rank, PR, inbound links etc. are all industry lingo for the same thing; but understanding the meaning and importance of links is essential to your website’s success.

Most people think that good quality in-bound links from other sites is what the search engines use to determine if your website is an authority site. In fact, in-bound links are only part of the equation.

The search engines actually look at three areas of website links equally to determine if your website is an “authority” within your industry;

  1. Internal Linking
  2. Out-bound links
  3. In-bound links

Important Note: In organic search engine listing results, an authority website is considered an industry leader and that is why they are listed above the rest, at the top of the search engine listing results. The leader (or authority site) is a resource on a specific market or industry. A leader would be able to provide answers, news and information on specific topics. They would also share their knowledge in the industry as well as link to other sites who share additional or related resources about those topics.

An “authority” is not afraid to share, because whether it is a brick and mortar store or an on-line website, the leader is considered to be the most knowledgeable resource that customers remember; not just the one who pushed their sale the hardest.

For instance, when you want to make a purchase you usually have a lot of questions. You may visit three or four different places but the one who was most knowledgeable and gave you the comfort, security and trust you needed, is likely to be the one you make your purchase with.

Internal Links for SEO

These are the links that you place from one page within your site, to another page within your site.  If done correctly this provides a “map” for the engines to follow and when they do they should be following and finding pages that are related to one another.

If all of your internal links are about one subject and use that subject as the link text (anchor text) it helps you create the thought that you are an “authority” on a specific subject.  You have to determine if you will be an authority on a keyword, a topic, or an overall theme. This can be done with the keyword phrases and with the pages you choose when linking from one page to another throughout your site.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Often times I will review the inbound links of a site with the special site:www.domain.com operator within the search engines. When I do this I may see 500 links as the total number of returned results.  What I find is that the site may have 5 good quality inbound links from quality sites; but then the remaining links that were counted came from their own internal linking structure. Some may ask how is that so? Well if you have 500 pages that have achieved their own page rank, what you are considering an internal link from one page within your site to another page within your site can also be considered an “in-bound” link from one page to another on a page to page level.

Relevant Outbound Links Can Be Good For User Experience

Often times commercial sites are reluctant to place outbound links to other sites; they feel it may cost them sales and traffic; but having links that leave your site and point to sites that are relevant to your industry, as well as being considered industry leaders (or authorities) helps to build your website’s relevance as an industry leader.

Be sure to truly review the site you intend to link out to, find a specific page that discusses what your pages is about and feel comfortable that you are helping your web page relevance as well as providing a resource for visitors to your site.

Importance of Inbound Links for SEO

A common misconception is that in-bound links are the key determining factor search engines use to rate and rank a web page within the top 10 listing results; this is simply not true.

All the factors listed above help to determine if you will rank well in the major search engines. When sites find success with creating large inbound links it is usually because they had to compensate for not providing outbound links, or having a good link structure within their own site; and the search engines had to rely on inbound link text to figure out what their site was really about.

Important Note:  Quality over quantity is the tone the search engines have set as of late. It is no longer a race to see how many links you can achieve, but how many you can achieve that are in your industry, that are related to the keyword phrase you are trying to rank for, how this site is considered as an industry leader, the other websites this particular website has chosen to link to and how relevant to your theme is the content that is shown on the page supplying the in-bound link.

Understanding this concept will save you a lot of time and make the links that you decide to go after more meaningful; as well as helping your site achieve the rankings you want.

Additional insight and information can be found within our Natural Link Building Services are of our web site.

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