Article Categories

SiteProNews Blogs

DIY: Backlinking Strategy

11 2011 Tuesday

By Phillip Longmire in Linking Strategies

When it comes to getting backlinks there are a lot of methods to consider. Matter of fact you might want to take into consideration all the methods that are available to you. I am not referring to black hat tactics, but legitimate methods of backlinking.

What some people do is rely on one “magic method”, but when it comes to getting backlinks to your site, there really is not one “magic method.” There are better methods, but there is no longer one method for backlinking. Depending on how hard it is to rank for a specific keyword, you will need to step up your game and implement several backlinking strategies.

First and foremost, unless your article, web page, or whatever you’re trying to rank for is optimized and contains great content, you won’t make it very far, and it won’t stay on the top page of search engines for very long.

Creating great content is the best method for backlinking. When others share your content, then you have a winning solution for any post, article, or webpage. So if you want a 100% whitehat backlinking strategy, then make sure it involves great content, great onsite optimization, and allowing others to link back to your site.

One way to get your site out in front of people is by utilizing basic RSS strategies and bookmarking. This is what I will cover in this article. I will show you how I do this.

However Be Warned: Some backlinking strategies can be aggressive, and in some cases will not be considered playing nice by Google. Remember that Google doesn’t like it when you try to build links with the purpose of getting higher rankings.

If you look around the internet and see some of the backlinking strategies outlined by people, you will see that they are not considered whitehat by Google, and they do carry some degree of risk. For instance, if you see an ad that says One Billion backlinks for a dollar, you might want to think twice about plopping down that dollar.

SEO experts will tell you that backlinks cannot hurt you, and while that is probably true in 99% of cases, it is wise to know that anything that you do in backlinking for the sole purpose of getting better rankings in Google carries some degree of risk. The risk is also strongly proportional to how aggressive you get with your backlinking strategies, the overall quality of your site, and your promotional endeavors.

Just know that whitehat backlinking strategies are generally considered more long term and sustainable, while greyhat or blackhat promotion aims to take advantage of current loopholes, and is much more likely to see traffic dry up or websites banned in the long term. You need to weigh the risks and rewards carefully.

So now that I have scared you, let me show you how to get backlinks to your site using a completely whitehat method. You can use this with any keywords and any site you may be trying to boost in readership.

This is a great whitehat method of getting instant backlinks to anything you place on the internet. It takes some upfront work but once you have it all put together, it runs on autopilot.

Automatic Backlink Formula.

First thing you need to do is get a Ping.fm account.

Next you need to look at all the platforms that Ping submits to and then sign up for those platforms. This is where your backlinks will come from automatically.

Once you have those accounts set up, you then connect them all together. In other words, every time Ping gets info on your post or article, you want it to send to all the social networks you signed up for. So post once, and have that posted to several social networks in one go. The downside to all this is that you have to log into ping.fm to do it each time.

One way around this is by creating a Hootsuite account, which takes RSS feeds that can be fed to Ping. So you send your RSS feed (such as the RSS Feed from your website), and connect Hootsuite to Ping. Now every time you post on your site, it goes to ping.fm (via Hootsuite).

The beauty is that now you are getting automatic backlinks and exposure from these social networks. There are more sites you can auto-post to other than those listed in Ping. You can look at Hellotxt, PixelPipe, and other sites that do this as well. So you go sign up to those sites individually and add your RSS Feed. Now every time you post you get backlinks and exposure from these sites too, all automatically.

Another thing to do is create a free account with Onlywire. This account gets connected straight to
my blog. So with every post, I get a crazy amount of backlinks right off the bat.

But you are not only getting instant backlinks with this strategy!

If you are doing appropriate linking strategies within your posts or articles, you want to have a link about every 120 words. If you do this, then when all these places crawl and bookmark your site, or link to it, then all your links are getting crawled and indexed as well.

That means they are now following those links to the pages you linked. This builds authority and strength in these backlinks. SO…what you want to do is find a way to bookmark all the places and articles you create, so that you are getting links to links.

I hope this one tip will help you with getting the organic backlinks you need for your site.

Phillip Longmire has been doing internet marketing full time since 2008. He is a speaker, writer, and business owner. He works with business owners teaching them how to get more traffic to their sites. All his articles, advice, and know how comes from the front lines. http://philliplongmire.com

8 Best Places For Building Authoritative One-Way Links

10 2011 Monday

By Titus Hoskins in Linking Strategies

linkbuilding For any online webmaster or marketer, two things will consume most of your time: rankings and traffic. Usually, these two objectives will go hand-in-hand, the higher your rankings the more traffic you will receive. However, as you probably already know, getting higher rankings and traffic can be somewhat difficult.

One of the best ways to achieve both, is to build one-way links from existing authoritative sites on the web.

Now, let’s be honest, building quality one-way links will take some effort and time on your part. However, this can be done much quicker if you know exactly where to look for those authoritative sites or places which will let you create links back to your site.

Here are some good places or sources for Authoritative One-Way link building:

1. Press Releases

Press releases have become what article marketing was just a few years ago… excellent way to get quality one-way links back to your site. You can use both free and paid press releases to get your message out. Many marketers have had success with PRweb, but it can be somewhat costly but highly worth it. A well written press release will usually get picked up and displayed on numerous niche-related sites, boosting both your traffic and rankings.

2. Wikipedia Type Sites

Such places as Wikipedia and Google Knol are also excellent sources of quality one-way links. These can also give you those all important in-content links, as well as links in the resource section of the article. Everything will be theme focused, so your links will carry more PageRank juice in the eyes of Google.

3. Powerful .edu and .gov Link

Mainly because they are seen as non-commercial and coming from prestige sites or institutions, .edu and .gov links are some of the most effective and powerful one-way backlinks you can receive. Try to go out of your way to build these types of links for your site. For example, if you went to a college or university, try getting links from any Alumni pages. If your college has a newsletter section, try to get links there.

4. How To Sites

Yes, we know, Google with its Panda Update and countless follow-up changes to its algorithm, have hit these kinds of sites hard. But the quality ones are still great places to build one-way links. Often if you write a great how-to guide in your niche and place it on these sites, you will get an instant page one Google listing. For starters, try sites like eHow and Squidoo.

5. DoFollow Social Sites and Profiles

If you haven’t noticed, the web has gone social. Some of the best places for authoritative one-way links are in these social networking/bookmarking sites and profiles, especially if you build up your followers and subscribers. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Google+… will all give you opportunities to build your one-way links.

6. Memberships and Testimonials

You must always be pro-active when it comes to link building, so go out of your way to get links from any memberships you may belong to. Also, giving testimonials for your favorite site or product can be another excellent way to get authoritative links as these links are usually displayed on the main/index page of a site.

7. Embedded Videos/Slideshows/Software

Many webmasters have had great success by using embedded software, videos, awards, slideshows… to create one-way links back to their sites. For example, just look at how Slideshare.net builds its backlinks. You can try something similar or use that program to share your content and build your own links.

8. Site And Blog Commenting

While many sites are cracking down or making all their links NoFollow… commenting on blog and sites is still an effective way to get those backlinks. Many online marketers create Google Alerts for their targeted keywords and when any related links are indexed in Google, they get an email. They then thoroughly check out those links to see if it is worth their while to make a comment.

There you have it, some of the best places to help you build your all important authoritative one-way links. Many marketers simply take a few minutes of each day to build these types of links back to their sites. Over time these links will increase and you will receive more traffic and higher rankings as a direct result of these powerful one-way links.

The author is a full-time online marketer who has numerous websites. For the latest web marketing tools try:http://www.bizwaremagic.com If you liked the article above, why not try this Free 7 Day Marketing Course here: http://www.marketingtoolguide.com Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

My Top Six Link Building Strategies For Beginners

09 2011 Wednesday

By Toby Russell in Linking Strategies

In this article I want to cover off back links, what they are, why you need them and how to get them. Now if your just starting out you’ll have heard of these but certainly I know for Sam & I when we first started out in internet marketing there’s so much info to take in, it blows your mind so I thought a brief explanation, beginners guide if you will might be handy, so here goes…

What are Links?

Broadly speaking Links are a ‘link’ between your site and another, so as an example you may find a site in the same niche as you links to you because you are not the same but complementary to one another – that’s the basics. You then get ‘one way links’ & ‘back links’- now stay with me on the detail here because One-Way links are also termed back links.

But the unique thing about one-way links is that they do not return a link to the website linking to them, in other words they are not reciprocal. One-way links convey a message to the search engines that the website is so interesting or useful that the other websites had to tell people about it. One way links are the preferred back link for any website owner, so hold onto the concept as we move on.

How Do You Get a One-Way Link?

One way links are achieved is when your website is deemed to have great information and unique content that other websites believe is worthy enough to be referenced by them and shared elsewhere – hope that’s clear and everyone understands it.

Bear in mind also a website will naturally link to another that has content that will consolidate its own site standing. Here are just a few ways you may be able to get or acquire a one-way link status. They are:

Top Tips for Obtaining Back Links

1. Submitting your site to the major online search engine directories such as Yahoo! and Dmoz.org. When you have your link in these websites, your site value will automatically increase.

2. Submit articles to articles directories. There are so many article directories you can submit your article to which will provide you with a back link to your website. Again, as I’ve commented before, if you are submitting manually, still stick to the key directories – that’s where the traffic and ultimately the links will come from.

You can be sure that if it contains quality content someone will click and link back to you. Also bear in mind that by submitting your articles many other website owners looking for quality content will have your article syndicated to them by the directories and in turn your resource box will contain your links back to your website. So, over time you could quite easily have a number of sites featuring your material all linking back to you. This is the power of article marketing.

3. Another way to get one-way links is to search for industry specific search directories and submit your websites to them. There are search directories that are tailored for specific industries e.g. Travel. Getting listed on these directories may be free or at a fee, so you’ll have to decide the worth if you need to pay for it.

4. Create e-books and short reports. When you create e-books and short reports, these can be given away free on the Internet through your website or other avenues. If the e-book has high quality information within it (e.g. Quick hints and tips), you can attract a lot of one-way links over time. You also have the opportunity of a really good report possibly going viral – being passed on to others, friends etc. To achieve that objective, you should include your website on the pages of the e-book or report and embed links within the text.

5. Use videos. Video is a great way to get one-way links to your site. A good video will move around very fast over the Internet. Many Website owners often take an already created video and embed it in their own site to add content and improve the overall design and look.

6. If you have a website that is good and you are confident that it will appeal to other website owners in a similar niche as yours, you can approach them and ask to have your link included on their site. However, the reason why this method should not always be relied on is that more times than not they will demand a reciprocal link. Now this can be ok but unfortunately human nature being what it is people don’t always keep their promises, so just a heads up there.

Top Tip – Also search engines, especially Google, frown on sites with too many reciprocal links. Therefore, although back links are good, if the basis of the link is always reciprocal, it might not achieve the desired result and can actually damage your rankings if you are not careful.

Hope this information helps to get you started with your own link building strategies. It’s important for your online success so don’t sweat it. Do a bit at a time and slowly but surely it will build.

Toby Russell offers tried and tested methods to help you succeed on line. Find out how to generate highly targeted traffic to your own Internet Marketing business with his popular 94 page Free Special Report, “The Secrets to Starting your Own Internet Business Today” available at =>http://www.startinternetmarketingonline.com

Write A Press Release and Get Backlinks

09 2011 Monday

By Nick Thorne in Linking Strategies

linkbuilding Your aim, by crafting a press release, is to get publicity. But there is a way of doing this while ensuring that you get something else that can be valuable to you. I am talking about pushing your website up the search engine rankings. So here is a fantastic marketer’s tip: Always make sure that you send your press release out to the online press release websites. The extra bonus that you can gain from doing this is that while you are displaying your press release to the media, in the hope that they decide to run a story based on it, should they not bother to do so you still win! You see you will be spreading backlinks on the web that are great for SEO and loved by the search engines. Your website needs all sorts of links coming into it and these sort are well worth having in the scheme of things.

The press release should always be a major component of your public relations strategy and as such it should be used wisely. When you begin to plan your piece start by thinking of the five “Ws” that you are going to write about. I am referring to the Who, the What, the When, the Where and the Why. These are so important to the success of the press release because failing to consider them can make the whole exercise a total waste of your time.

Most press pieces are written and distributed by talented PR professionals; but don’t let this put you off as it is certainly not beyond the ability of someone with a good command of English to write one for themselves. Simply aim to keep the following key points in mind as you write.

My Top 12 Tips for Writing a Killer Press Release

1. Capture the media’s attention with a short and punchy first paragraph. It must communicate the ’5 ‘Ws’ and the rest of the press release should be used to expand on them. The main purpose of any press release should be to inform the media about something newsworthy. It should never be used as simply a means of selling your product, that is the job of an advert. Of course, making sales is a wholly honourable by-product of the press release, but not its main function.

2. Always use your keywords in the title because this is what will give you the SEO juice as it duly spreads across the internet.

3. Avoid, however, any temptation to go after longtail keywords in the title.

4. When writing, always use the third person and never ever use “I”.

5. To add some weight to the press release use quotations to communicate your key message in a lively way. Advice that I was given was to quote in a tone that conveys how ‘thrilled’ or ‘excited’ you are to be announcing the news.

6. Verbosity is a killer – write only between 300 and 800 words as a rule.

7. Compose a press release that is newsworthy and not simply a page of hype. Are you sure that what you are writing about can be considered as news? If it’s not really interesting, or exciting news, then don’t bother the press with it because they are certainly not going to be amused. Also, make sure that you can always back up any claims that you have made in the press release.

8. Everyone loves a story, whether it’s about your business or specific people.

9. Target your audience or niche by personalizing your press release.

10. If you are able to, use hyperlinked anchor text in the body. The search engines like this type of backlink.

11. Add images, videos and audio that relate to your product to give it an edge.

12. Lastly, at the bottom of the press release do remember to include your full name, phone number, mobile and email
address so that the media can contact you. This strategy should get you backlinks and the chance of media interest in your newsworthy item.

Nick Thorne reviews systems and software to help you succeed in your online business. Find out more about how to have your own successful information marketing business and get free mini-course at: =>http://www.informationvideoproducts.com/info/478/how-to-have-your-own-online-business

A Successful Home Page Is a Link Rich Page – A SPN Exclusive Article

08 2011 Monday

By Gayle Hawks in Linking Strategies

spn_exclusive Recently I read an article about the rise and success of link rich home pages over the past several years. After reading through it and processing the information, I thought it would be a good idea to highlight some of the ideas that were brought forth from that article. It’s especially useful for business owners since we rely heavily on our websites’ ranking and position in order to generate consistent traffic.

“Nobody starts their design with the objective, “We need our home page to be as complex as we can possibly make it.” On the contrary, everybody wants to build simple designs. Yet, somewhere along the line, simplicity translated into “Provide as few links on the home page as possible.”" – Jared Spool, User Interface Engineering

This quote sums things up well. It also targets exactly what we need to do to make a site successful for end users. This is one of those cases where we need to ensure that our focus is on what is best for the site users. It’s a complex negotiation between what you envision as the optimal website while at the same time ensuring that the end user has a website that will work well for them too.

Is your own home page link rich? Are you providing your site users with relevant, beneficial links that will potentially take them deeper into your site and further showcase your company’s products and services? These are important questions to mull over when thinking about the function, style, and format of your website’s home page.

News websites have long understood the need to provide multiple links on their home pages. The majority of news sites are loaded with links designed to deliver in-depth information to users. CNN, Fox, the Drudge Report, and many major newspaper sites have hundreds of links displayed on their home page. How many is too many? Take a look at the sites listed below and check out their standings.

Website Google Page Rank Alexa Ranking

Yahoo.com 9 4
CNN.com 10 52
NYTimes.com 9 86
LATimes.com 8 321
FoxNews.com 8 171
BBC.co.uk 9 42
Bls.gov * 7 5697
Craigslist.org 6 34

*The Bureau of Labor and Statistics website isn’t a news site. However, it is a good example of a home page that is comprised almost entirely of links. While this site is very narrow in its appeal, it is heavily used as you can see from its rankings. The same holds true for Craigslist – its homepage is comprised completely of links.

Judging from the rankings shown above for these link rich sites, it’s a good choice to include many links on your homepage. However, my advice would be to take a look at the manner in which links are displayed on these sites. With the exception of the BLS site and Craigslist, most of these sites display links in a tasteful, organized manner. So essentially what I’m saying is that you can still maintain the simplistic design approach while at the same time creating a ‘link rich environment’ which will perform well for the end users of the website.

This is also good reference material for you to use when discussing site creation with your web designer. Please feel free to use the information in this article to point out the need to create a great looking, link rich home page on your website. Hopefully this information will help them understand just how important it is for them to allow you to create a home page that will grab a user’s attention and provide them with a wealth of information in an easy to use, easy to navigate format that is beneficial for your company.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we’re eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Print Business
Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding online business cards design or business card management.

SEO – A Link Is A Link?

07 2011 Friday

By Michael Byrne in Linking Strategies

A few years ago to combat blog comment spam, the search engines implemented no follow backlinks. These changes wreaked havoc for big business and small business SEO.

These no follow backlinks were suspected of having no SEO value because they don’t pass PageRank from the linking site. It now appears that although they may no pass PR, they do have value.

In the recent SEOMoz Search Engine Ranking Factors report, a correlation exists between ranking and the presence of no follow links.The ratio of no follow to do follow links appears to be a search engine ranking factor. If do follow links greatly outnumber no follow links, the site or page link profile may seem unnatural. The search engines expect that in the normal course of link getting, links from both do follow and no follow sites are normal.

If your site link profile has a very high ratio of do follow links, you may need to get more no follow links from social media sites, no follow blogs and other sources to balance your profile.

What About Authority?

It’s probably true that PR is not passed with a no follow link. That statement may not be completely true, but let’s assume it is. My question has been for some time now, even if no PageRank is passed, is a link from an authority site related to the linked-to site valuable?

Some SEO teachers and specialist have been saying for awhile to ignore no follow and just get the link. They say that in their testing it didn’t seem to matter. I’m wondering out loud, if link juice is not passed through PR, are other signals being used to determine authority and relevance.

The Search Algorithm

For a lot of reasons, search engines are designed and tweaked to provide the best result for search queries. The algorithms look at off page and on page factors. Let’s look at factors from off page. A link from a site provides a vote to the destination site. If the link is no follow, the PageRank (PR) is gone, but I’m thinking other signals in the algorithm are present that make the link from an authority site valuable.

Google says there are over 200 factors in the algorithm, others say it’s more, why wouldn’t they be including the relevance of the link in relevance factors.

Let’s look at an example. Two sites have on page content and factors that are exactly the same. There’s nothing to choose between them. Based on on page factors, it’s a dead heat. Still, one ranks higher than the other. Why?

On site factors are the same, so the ranking must be based on off site factors. Let’s say now that both of these sites have the same PR profiles. Each has 1,000 links with the same distribution of PR, the same anchor text distribution and the same distribution of no follow and do follow links.

I am submitting that where the links come from is an overlooked factor. If the first site’s links are mostly from sites related to the content, while the second site get its links from general or non-related sites, the first site will rank higher. Few would argue this point, but it appears that no follow links may be passing relevance and authority signals even if there’s no PR value.

A New Life for No Follow Links?

So, just maybe, no follow links have value after all. I don’t know how valuable these links are, but if search engines are not ignoring these links completely (there not), no follow links must be passing signals for some reason. There appears to be link profile signals. Are there one or more relevance signals for no follow links as well? While I won’t advise ignoring the follow tag, in an SEO or local SEO program it now appears that those no follow links are more valuable than we thought.

Visit Daytona Beach SEO at http://seo10x.com/daytona-beach-seo to learn more about Local SEO http://seo10x.com/local-seo/the-elements-of-local-seo/

Top Tips For Effective Backlinking Strategies

06 2011 Friday

By Toby Russell in Linking Strategies

linkbuilding Link Building – Why Do I need It?

Hi there as we all know getting and sustaining a worthwhile amount of traffic in your internet marketing business is never easy and can certainly take up some considerable amount of your marketing time, certainly for Sam & I it’s a big chunk of our workload.

One way to improve search engine ranking is through link building. Link building is important and so should be done on a regular basis to facilitate your rise in the search engine page ranks. You can bring (or link to if you like) a reader directly to your website by using appropriate keywords in the anchor text of your article, just always make sure your keywords incorporate what you have already researched that readers in your niche are searching for.

Remember ‘Targeted Traffic’ is Vital

Some website owners have devised methods to get their own back linking from subsidiary websites created by them. They have built other websites and back linked them to the primary website which also has links to those websites.

This is known as a link wheel. The link wheel can be as large as you can make it but do bear in mind its takes time and there needs to be synergy between the various sites – you want & need targeted traffic not as an example weight loss visitors coming to a gourmet recipe site brimming with lots of high calories recipes

It’s All a learning Curve – Don’t Sweat it

When I first started my Internet marketing business, I didn’t fully understand the concept of back linking. I knew about submitting articles to directories which I did but my primary objective was to get known in my niche and to get traffic back to my website. I then had a light bulb moment and realized that by submitting articles I was actually achieving both and improving my search ranking as well – its amazing how dumb you can be sometimes!!

Certainly made me feel a bit stupid but hey we learn by our mistakes don’t we.

The Old Favorite!

Apart from article marketing, there are other ways to get backlinks to your website. One of ways is forum posting. Forum posting helps you get backlinks because by commenting and offering helpful advice many of the visitors who read and devour those posts will over time come and visit your site because you have offered up some useful & worthwhile help with your responses to either them or others on the forum In other words you become a bit of a trusted source, you’ve helped others – get what I mean?

Get on The Forums In Your Niche Now

Forum commenting and posting takes time but is easy and you’ll soon discover that although you may consider yourself a bit of a newbie you’ll soon find there are others out there that are far newer to internet marketing than you.

For you to post on a forum, you would be required to register as a member – its easy There are two ways to benefit from forum posting. The first is using the signature file.

The signature file gives a place to put your link and always appear beneath each post you make. The second way is to put a link in the post itself Now a word of warning here many forums don’t allow that and will ban you – so the golden rule read the regulations for each site you sign up to and adhere to their rules.and stay within the regulations.

A key to successful back linking through forum posting is to contribute helpful information while making a post. That way you are not seen as an opportunist and you become a trusted helpful source.

Become A Regular Blog Commentator

Blog commenting is also a way to gain backlinks from other websites. When you post a comment on a blog that is related to your niche, you can get backlink from there. Comments on blogs are often moderated by the Webmaster, so your comment must be useful to the blog don’t for heavens sake just say “useful info – thanks” that’s just taking the micky, be creative.

Some webmasters contact website administrators directly, asking for a backlinks from them in exchange for a link from their own site. Although this method does work at times it is not always reliable because not every website administrator will maintain their site and therefore your back link

Beware & remember ‘Targeted’ Another way to gain back links is through link exchanges. Through link exchanges, you get your links in other people’s website while you do same for them by placing their links on your own website.

The disadvantage of this is that you may have a lot of links coming from unrelated websites which the search engines don’t really like – so I’d be careful with that.

You can also use Press Releases as a way of building back links. Press releases can offer up the same affect as article submissions when used properly but do bear in mind a press release needs to be timely and news worthy so. The major difference with articles is that press releases need to be in the form of news flashes. When submitted to PR directories, they return a back link to your website and this is even better if the press release is taken by other sites as again you’ll get a back link from them as well.

So there you have it some simple, no cost (apart from your time) methods to get you started on your link building strategies, just try them out and remember its not necessarily about volume its doing it consistently and regularly.

Toby Russell offers tried and tested methods to help you succeed on line. Find out how to generate highly targeted traffic to your own Internet Marketing business with his popular 94 page Free Special Report,”The Secrets to Starting your Own Internet Business Today” available at => http://www.startinternetmarketingonline.com

SEO Article Writing: What Can Tom Hanks Teach You About Link Building?

05 2011 Monday

By Steve Shaw in Linking Strategies

linkbuilding If you are totally confused as to what people are talking about when they talk about building links and doing article marketing, and if you are a fan of the movie “Cast Away” with Tom Hanks, then I’ve got a beginner-friendly article that just may drive things home with you.

As a new website owner you know that a brand new website is awfully lonely. Your website sits by itself on the world wide web like a gorgeous but deserted island sits in the middle of the huge ocean.

You’re sort of like Tom Hanks in the movie “Cast Away” when he was stranded on that deserted island.

When you first launch your website, likewise, no one knows that it’s there. You post information and you think you might as well be talking to yourself. You start to go stir crazy after a while because you want someone to interact with, kind of like Tom Hanks did in that movie.

Remember how that volley ball he found became his closest confidant? Let’s not let it get that far…

New website owners can learn a lot about building a successful website by the way Tom Hanks handled his isolation problem in the movie “Cast Away”.

You Can’t Survive Without Links

I supposed Tom could have lived on that island all by himself indefinitely, but the thought of it was torture to him. He said to himself: “I can’t live like this–I need to get in touch with civilization.”

In the same way, you say about your website, “I want people to find out about my website–I can’t just sit here twiddling my thumbs waiting for a random person to accidentally come by. I need to take action…”

Tom’s Raft Is Like Your Links

What did Tom do to solve his problem? He built a raft. His plan was to build a raft and then use the raft to put him in touch with civilization.

For Tom, his very survival was riding on the success of that raft. If the raft wouldn’t float or if it was not sturdy enough to withstand the waves of the sea, then he would either die out in the ocean or be permanently stranded on his little island.

The links that you build when you submit articles are like the raft that Tom built. How is that?

1 - The raft was a means of traveling from one point to another.

Similarly, a link is a means of traveling from one spot on the internet to another. If you click on any link, it will take you from the page that you are looking at to another location on the internet.

When you create links to your website, you are creating a means of transporting visitors to your website. Without this method of transport, your website will remain unknown and isolated.

2 - The raft positioned Tom so that he would be noticed by others.

Tom built his raft and set out on the high seas. For a long time there was no one in sight, but eventually his raft floated beside a huge cargo ship that noticed him and pulled him out of the water.

Likewise, the links that you build when you submit articles put your website in a position of being noticed by Google and the other search engines. Search engines evaluate your links to determine what your site is about, what words it should rank for, and where to place your site in their rankings.

Then, the search engines bring your website to the attention of people who are searching for the type of information that you have at your site.

Google is the huge cargo ship.

The cargo ship united Tom with his family and friends. Google unites your website with the people who you want to become your customers.

Getting Connected Takes Time…

Tom floated around on the raft for a long time before his raft was noticed by the cargo ship.

In the same way, you start building links by submitting articles, and even after you build links to your site, you will also “float around” waiting for Google to notice the links that you have created. It can take somewhere from three to six months for Google to calculate the new links that you build and adjust your website’s ranking.

During that time of waiting, like Tom, you just need to be patient.

I hope this unconventional link building illustration has been helpful to you in understanding what links are and why it’s important that you build them for your website.

Steve Shaw is a content syndication specialist. Do you own a blog? Need content? Join thousands of other blogs and get free high-quality, niche-focused, human-reviewed content from quality authors sent on auto-pilot – and it’s all 100% free! Go to www.autoblogit.com for more information.

6 Tips to Quality Directory Submissions

05 2011 Monday

By JD Hoopes in Linking Strategies

There are a lot of advantages to directory submission for search engine optimization. Primarily, directory submissions result in one-way links to your site. In addition, if it is a high traffic directory, you can also get visitors to your site through the directory, though I would not count on this kind of traffic.

Of particular value are specialized directories that are related to your site because these provide relevant one way links back to your site. The other big advantage is that as you become listed on high profile directories such as DMOZ, it improves your site’s credibility and facilitates other link exchanges because people are more willing to work with webmasters and sites that are well connected and have a
good reputation.

Below are 6 tips to help you get the most out of your directory submission process.

1. Keep a Log of All the Directories You Have Submitted To

Create an EXCEL spreadsheet or get a lined notebook to write down the directories that you have submitted your site to so you don’t accidentally waste time doing it twice. Plus, this gives you a long list that you can check off in the future when you have other sites to submit.

Also, while I generally don’t recommend paying for directory inclusion, keeping records will help you to know how much you are spending and better decide if it is worth the cost.

2. Compile a List of Directories Before Starting

There are thousands of directories out there. Fortunately, others have already compiled lists of directories for you so that all you need to do is search out these sites and sort their lists by high page rank and the niche directories related to your website. Start with these and, if you still have time afterwards, then expand your list. With literally thousands of directories (most offering little value), however, you want to start with the ones that are likely to give you the most success.

3. Choose the Right Category

Selecting the most relevant category is of key importance in directory submission. With every directory, there is a webmaster deciding whether your site is going to contribute to their business. If your site is not going to add value to their directory, then your submission is on a fast track to the garbage bin, and the fastest way to end up on this track is to submit to the wrong category. In addition, while not all directories allow you to submit to high level categories, if it is possible, you want to be on pages with the fewest clicks from the home page. The closer you are to the home page, the greater value that link back to your site will be.

4. Build Your Title Wisely

Most directories allow you to build a title for your site. This title becomes the hyperlink back to your site and so the keywords used in the title will be the keywords that Google deems important on your site. If you want your blog to rank well for ‘dance shoes’, then there is little point in titling your submission “Lilys Blog.” Once you have built a keyword relevant title, you will then want to vary it between submissions so that the link building appears more natural to the search engines.

5. Build a Keyword Relevant Description

While the description is less important compared to the title, the keywords help to determine the relevance of the link and also act as your pitch to potential customers browsing the directory. Write three short descriptions (15-25 words) and three longer descriptions (30-50 words) and vary them with each submission depending on the guidelines of the directory. Also avoid excess use of capital letters and punctuation as overt overuse of both can get your submission rejected.

6. Stretch Out Your Submissions Over Time

The search engines do not like to see abnormally large bursts in the number of links to a site as it generally suggests that artificial link building is being done. The search engines want natural link building and the more natural you make it look, the more value you will get out
of your links.

By following these tips, you should be able to enjoy a good return on your time investment into directory submissions.

Distributed by the Internet Business Assistance program, where you can start an Internet Home Business with the help of an experienced internet business owner. Our goal is to help you build a successful online business without your business ever losing money. Learn more at
http://www.yourbetterbuy.com

« Older Entries

Webmaster Headlines

Facebook Malware Scam Takes Hold

Google Hires Bouncer to Give Android Malware the Heave-Ho

Top 10 Google Chrome Plugins for Small Businesses

Young People Followed SOPA News More Than Election News

Anonymous Shows How Easy it is to Intercept FBI Conference Calls

Brand Protection in 5 Simple Steps

7 Super Social Media Marketing Links

Learn From Adele - Build Your Platform

What's the Fastest Growing Online Ad Format? Video!

How to Build an Advanced Keyword Analysis Report in Excel

Recent SiteProNews Articles

RecentSiteProNews Articles

Guru Kool-Aid: Are You Drinking It? – A SPN Exclusive Article

How to Generate Leads With Linkedin

Technology Solutions: Cloud Computing

9 Common Title Tag Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Top 5 Link Building Strategies for Your Site

6 Things You Don’t Know About Online Video Marketing – A SPN Exclusive Article

SiteProNews Blog News

Google Celebrates Art Clokey’s Birthday
Not many people will recognize the name Art Clokey. But a lot more people will recognize the green c...
more >

Reader Rescue : Should My Meta Description Tags Just Duplicate My Title Tags?
Hi Everyone From early days learning SEO, I went ahead and did all my meta descriptions with a bi...
more >

Death of Steve Jobs Fails to Break Twitter Record
We all heard the sad news yesterday that Steve Jobs, founder and visionary at Apple, had died at...
more >

SiteProNews