What to Look for in a Link Partner

You need to make your links count. Every single one must be relevant and worthwhile. As said before, you should choose your potential link partners based on the theme of their website and also check out their PageRank (PR). You want to aim for pages with a PR of three or more. A good tool for this is the Google Toolbar. It displays the PR of each page that you visit so it’s as easy as browsing to the page and looking at the number displayed. Here is a quick breakdown of how to check your competitors sites for backlinks:

- Enter the keywords you wish to search for in Google,
- Look at the top twenty or so organic results and note the URL of the one you wish to look at,
- Type the address into the Google search box preceded by link: and search. (i.e. link:www.competitorsurl.com)

This procedure will bring up a list of all backlinks to the URL in question. These websites have already created links to similar pages as yours and my be persuaded to do the same for you. A one-way link from their site to yours will be far more beneficial than a reciprocal link with regard to search rankings. Always remember to check the authenticity of the sites in question and aim for the highest PageRank possible for maximum effect. You can also talk to other Webmasters and try to gain links. The best way to do this is to have information rich content on your site, content that other websites may find useful.

Another way to check out potential partners once you have found a few through the method above is to take note of the HTML Title displayed on a link partners page (the text displayed at the very top of the browser window). You can then enter this (or the first few words) into Google and search for similar sites that may be interested in your content and links. The top 10 rankings in a Google search are generally trusted sites or they would not have been able to get to the top so you can be pretty sure that they are worth the link. That said, always check the sites first as you don’t want to destroy your hard work by choosing a dodgy site! Another thing to consider is that a high PR doesn’t always mean high trust so again, just do the research before committing!

In summary, you want as many one-way backlinks from reputable, trusted and relevant websites as possible. These factors are what will get you your rankings so MAKE SURE you have chosen well.

I hope this article has been helpful and always welcome any suggestions for improvement. Please feel free to leave comments or constructive criticism and don’t hesitate to contact us for more advice.

There are many websites on the Internet that will have trouble attracting the volume of natural backlinks needed to reach top page rankings, normally due to the nature of their business. This is where a link building campaign can be useful to ‘fill in the gaps’. You don’t have to spend much money, and there are several companies that can help. Always be careful if choosing a link building company as many will claim that they can do more than they promise and some may even incorporate bad practices, causing penalties to your search ranking. ALWAYS research the company before committing to anything.

Link building companies do a lot of the work for you but that does not mean that you cannot do the legwork yourself. Contact desired webmasters and request a link exchange. You should have something to offer in return, be it advertising space, positive reviews of their site or other positive initiatives that will benefit them. It can be much more difficult uncover your own artificial backlinks but this should not stop you from trying. Any backlinks that you go after should be researched first to ensure that the site is trusted and valued.

One thing that you should realize is that search engines asses a websites acquisition of links over a period of time. This means that a sudden influx of backlinks could create suspicion and again, gain you penalties in your search rankings. You must attempt to create artificial links as naturally as possible. Many links that include the same or similar anchor text may also arouse suspicion. If Google believes that you are attempting to manipulate the results of a search they will attach a link devaluation penalty to your website for backlink over optimization (BLOOD). The same would apply if Google suspect you of creating many sites for the purpose of link building. DO NOT think that you can create a network of sites with the sole intention of boosting your search results. This is not an SEO tool by any measure and will incur serious penalties from Google.

I will endeavor to show you how to encourage natural backlink growth as well as explaining ways to setup and manage a successful, low cost link building campaign. I will also show you those areas you should avoid and the reasons why.

Many areas will be covered, including the use of ‘link bait’ to increase your Google ranking, the dangers associated with artificial link building, how to avoid the Google backlink over optimization penalty (BLOOD) and exactly why and how links affect your ranking.

Please Note: I will mainly use Google in examples but the methods are basically the same for all search providers.

A Quick History and Reasoning Lesson

Search engines have proven their worth time and time again and the algorithms used have evolved significantly within the last few years. Although content and keyword density still plays an important role in SEO, an increasing emphasis has been put on search spiders to consider ranking pages based on the quantity and quality of their incoming links (known as backlinks).

Because of this evolution you cannot rely solely on the optimization of your content for SEO. In order to gain the best possible search results you must include various methods, the most predominant being link building. Your aim is to create relevant backlinks with unrelated websites that base their content around the same ‘theme’ and search engine marketing strategy as you. In short, you are looking for similar pages with relevant information to boost your search ranking.

One way of explaining the reasoning behind link buildings prominence in search engine rankings is to look at it almost like an online voting system. As you increase your backlinks you increase the number of ‘votes’ in your favor. Any website that has a direct link to yours is effectively saying “I trust this web page and believe it to be relevant”. This approval from other sites helps the search spiders to weed out spam sites and other, just as useless content. The idea is that these ‘bad’ sites will not gain popularity and backlinks from others as their content appears to be of no use or relevance.

The need for substantial links from reputable web pages has encouraged many online vendors and others to find ways to artificially boost the amount of backlinks to their content. This is a must if you wish to compete with others on a level playing field. It is a good idea to consider setting up a link building campaign that will increase your standing in Google and with other search providers. This has to be undertaken with great care and careful management as it can be very easy to create the wrong links in the wrong way. This will attract the attention of search providers and gain you penalties, especially from Google.

1. Content, content, content…

- Content is a major bonus in producing a search friendly site. The more text you have, the more likely it is that your keywords will be picked up by Search Engines. This does not mean shut your eyes, let your brain go numb and pour out hundreds of lines of pointless text! You want the text to be search friendly and keyword rich. Aim for more than 100 words, obviously the more text you have, the better your chances.

- Search engines cannot read graphics. Graphics look great and can make your site stand out but a fundamentally graphics based site will not do well with search engines.

- Remember to use your title tags for better search results; Include keywords and relevant text. For example: Your site is called www.pedigree-in-space.co.uk and you market space ware for pets, (I don’t know why you would but just humor me!) instead of your title reading “Pedigree in Space” it should say something more like “Pedigree in Space - Space Ware for Pets”. This is more descriptive and targeted. Again, use your keywords.

- Meta tags are another great way of getting high search results. Meta tages are hidden in the code of your site and tell search engines exactly what your keywords and page descriptions are. If you are using a Web Design program such as Frontpage or DreamWeaver you will find that they have the option of including keyword and description Meta Tags.

- If your site includes a shopping cart system or you mainly use a database to display items on your site, make sure that it is configured to pull the item titles to your Title Tags and the descriptions to your Meta Tags.

- There are some general rules that can be followed whilst refining your content although it is a good idea to experiment with this yourself to achieve the best results.

- Make sure to use your most relevant keywords around 3 - 8 times for every 100 words you write.

- Check your keyword density and make sure that you correctly format your Meta Tags.

- Keep adding pages of relevant content to your site and ensure that your Title Tags include keywords

2. Link Building

- The first thing I would suggest before going any further with your link building is to download the Google Toolbar. You can use this nice little add-on to view a websites PageRank (PR) which is a good measure of their credibility and relevance in Google (as well as other search providers).

- Links are a great SEO tool as they can help prove your standing in the online community to search engines. The more relevant links you have, the stronger your search ranking will be. One way of increasing your links is to enter into a link exchange with other sites in your industry. A link exchange is exactly what it sounds like; an exchange of links! You can look for link partners and request an exchange. Make sure the pages you are linking to are relevant to your site and aim for sites with a PR 3 or higher.

- You can also buy banner ads or text links an other sites which should be a direct link to your domain. This will help your standing and will also double as a marketing and awareness tool. Include keywords in the anchor text of the links in the same way you would for your Title Tags. Make sure that tracking code is not used as these forms of ads are not classed as ‘natural links’ and will not boost you link popularity.

- Use a link popularity checker to show you all links from and to your site and keep track of your progress.

3. Site Linking Structure

- This is the way that your website is linked together, it is yet another important SEO tool and can often be overlooked or neglected.

- Your most important pages should be linked from every other page on your site. You could setup a page template to save you having to add these links for every page and insert the different content for each unique area. This will also help to keep a continuous theme throughout your site.

- You can also include keywords within your internal links so that the search engines know what the page is about.

- If you decide to use Java, Flash or graphic links and navigation it is good practice to include text links at the bottom of your pages to aid search engines.

4. Submit your site to Search Engines and Directories

- Search engines allow you to manually submit your website to them and this will help to speed along the process. You can submit directly to the search providers or by using a website submission service. This is an especially handy trick for new sites, especially if you don’t yet have any relevant links as it will give you a good head start. Google can take up to six months to process the content on your site fully so any chance of speeding along proceedings is worth taking.

- There are many services available to speed along the search process such as the Overture Sitematch Program. This will crawl your website every 48 hours and so updates will be continuous. This is a choice that you will have to make on your own. I would urge you to research these programs and make up your own mind as to whether they are right for you. My personal opinion is that they are a waste of time and money but I thought I would include this as many people believe it to be beneficial.

- You can also submit your site to directories, some of which are free and some not. Dmoz open directory is free but bear in mind it may take a long time for a review of your site. Yahoo also provide a directory service but this costs around $300 or more, dependent on the site. Again, this is not a method I would use but many people believe it to be a valuable asset so it is only fair I let you know! It is worth looking into and some directories are continuously crawled, in depth by search spiders. You also get the benefit of a back link to your site which can help again with link building. If you do choose this option, ensure that your site is placed in the best category for your industry.

5. Call in the Experts!

- I understand how daunting this can sound to someone with no experience and it can also eat away a lot of your time. When you get it right and you begin to see the results it can become a bit of an addiction; always striving for higher rankings and better links! It is a good idea to get an SEO company in to optimise your site but make sure that you research the company and their prices first as not all are as competitive or professional as they make out. There are also many link building cons out there so just make sure you know what your signing up for if you decide to take the plunge.

I hope this article has been helpful and always welcome any suggestions for improvement. Please feel free to leave constructive criticism and don’t hesitate to contact us for more advice.

P.S. I could always do with some extra work!

Just to let you know, i’ve decided to use a new theme! hope you like it!

Oh and ive coded some Ajax SEO tools:

Google Pagerank / Alexa Rank / Backlinks Checker

Keyword Density Checker

Google XML Sitemap Generator

Poodle Predictor

its a good idea to see what google sees when viewing your site for a number of reasons:

what does it see first on your page?
when in the crawl does the page content show up?
what alt tags are in the mix and how do they effect your keyword density?

check it out, its a tool ive used many times.

check out some keywords for SearchFriendly:

Search Friendly: 3rd for google.co.uk search Result 3 of about 30,200,000 sites
10 SEO steps: 1st for google.co.uk search Result 1 of about 2,260,000 sites
seo location: 3rd for google.co.uk search Result 3 of about 2,570,000
SEO Domains: 2nd for google.co.uk search Result 2 of about 583,000

not bad for a few SEO optimization articles?

if you feel you have a shining example of how to optimize a site, feel free to drop me an email, and ill be more than willing to show how your site is a shining example of SEO and give links. if anyone has any usefull seo information, drop me an email aswell and ill be more than happy to post it.

peace.

Google’s algorithms are second to none, and a major sign of this is that google only rewards the best content pages with the higher rankings.

here are a few things to note when marketing your website

• Updating Regularly:Update at least a few times a month, ideally you should be updating daily. although daily might be difficult to manage on product website, try adding a blog to your site and posting news about your products, and remember back to Search engine Optimisation - 10 SEO Steps To Perfection - part 1 where i tak about the importance of SEO Relevant content.
• Spelling and grammar: what’s the point of having keywords on your page if your going to spell them wrong… also google doesn’t see a page that has many errors is more important than one with perfect grammar and spelling
• Paragraphs: Keep your paragraphs in your text short. 4-5 lines, remember google was designed on the basis a web page is like a book, you need a good index on it, good titles and good grammar.
• Lists: are always good to get your point across, and like a book, google sees them as a point of interest
• Sentence length: keep sentences mostly brief (10 words or fewer). Medium-length and long sentences should be sprinkled throughout the text rather than clumped together.
• Contextual relevance: your Text must contain numerous terms related to your keywords, as well as stem variations of the keyword.

The more you update your site, the better the results will be in google!

For example for this blog, one of my keywords is Search Engine Optimization articles . I need to see what traffic in Search engines this keyword generates.

The First thing you should do is check out the competition. enter the term in google and see how many results are returned.