|
|
| Traffic Building Information |
|
|
|
|
Jump-start Your Link Building (without Getting Sandboxed)
Link popularity has been written about ad nauseum, but most articles address the subject from a perspective circa 2001. The available information usually focuses on topics such as reciprocal linking or the current price of a PR6 link. But following outdated link building advice is more likely to get your Web site penalized than it is to help you gain top rankings. Google's increasingly sophisticated algorithm has largely caught on to PageRank brokers and has successfully filtered out the benefits of many bought links, as well as those of reciprocal links. The risk of obtaining these types of links is even greater for a new site, as detection of an "unnatural" link structure has recently gotten many sites "sandboxed" to the bottom of the SERPs. For this reason, a link popularity campaign must be conducted carefully and yield relevant, "natural" links. The methods described in this article will give your Web site backlinks that fit the following criteria, which are important for keeping a site out of the "sandbox": Numbers 1-3 are important so that your Web site's new backlinks are independent and natural, and do not trip a filter in the search engine algorithm; number 4 ensures that you can move on to more advanced link building tactics before your competition gets further ahead. Directories Directories have always been cited as a basic starting point for a link popularity campaign. Listings in the Open Directory Project and the Yahoo! Directory ensure that a site will be spidered and indexed quickly and also provide a reputable backlink. In the past few years however many general and niche directories have sprung up, most charging a yearly or one-time fee to be listed. Webmasters have questioned the ROI from being listed in these second-tier directories, as most provide little traffic and charge 10-50 USD per listing. But listings in these directories provide important link popularity benefits for a Web site. A link from a directory fits the four criteria we laid out above-each of these directories has a unique set of backlinks and is hosted on a unique IP, the site's URL will be placed on a topical page, and all of the directories review and add new submissions within a week. With directory listings alone, a new Web site can gain a few dozen quality backlinks for under 1000 USD (not counting Yahoo!). Aaron Wall of SEO Book has provided a good list of directories at http://www.seobook.com/archives/000166.shtml. Press Releases Press Releases provide an opportunity to announce your Web site, and just as importantly, provide a backlink to your Web site from a relevant page (it had better be relevant-after all, it's an article about your Web site!). A press release should be well-written and submitted to multiple newswires. In less than a week, it will be published on its own Web page by each newswire and possibly by the newswires' syndication partners as well. The writer should be sure to include a link in the body of the press release in http://www.mysite.com format. Again, these backlinks meet the four criteria we laid out above. Newswires usually charge a fee to publish a press release, although a few offer this service for free. You can view the Open Directory Project's category of press release services at http://dmoz.org/Computers/!Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/Promotion/Press_Release_Services/. Articles Another great method for gaining quality backlinks, as well as publicity, is to write and publish a helpful article. The author can write a relevant, informative piece on your Web site's subject, which of course includes a link to your Web site in http://www.mysite.com format. General "how-to" sites (and often, news sites in your particular niche) accept article submissions and will often reprint a relevant, well-written piece. It's free content for them, and a backlink for you-a win-win situation. The author of THIS article swears by this method, and once again notes that it fits all four of our criteria for a timely and quality backlink. Aaron Wall of SEO Book has provided a list of Web sites that accept article submissions at http://www.seobook.com/archives/000099.shtml. Just Say 'No' Although it may be tempting, you should stay away from reciprocal linking, except in the rare case where the link is relevant and helpful to your visitors. Likewise, you should avoid renting links from link brokers or networks; the links they sell are usually filtered by Google. These two types of links will have a minimal impact on your search engine rankings anyway and may even get your Web site "sandboxed." Instead, seek quality one-way inbound links by the methods described in this article; if you have exhausted these tactics, or if you have run out of money, you can always beg for links from relevant Web sites. If your site contains quality, original content, you may not even need to beg! Conclusion The success of a search engine optimization campaign depends greatly upon link popularity. Getting a Web site listed in directories, distributing press releases and submitting articles for syndication are three ways to gain a slew of legitimate backlinks from unique IPs relatively quickly. This will keep the site out of the "sandbox" and give any SEO campaign a sound link structure to build upon. About The Author Andy Hagans is a search engine optimization consultant who specializes in link building and risk management. Visit http://www.andyhagans.com/ for more information.
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Finding Keywords to Build Your Web Site Traffic What are web site keywords and how do I go about finding keywords that will work for me? Vote for Your Own Website - Nobody Will Mind OK boys and girls. Today we're having a pop quiz. Free Traffic Course - Day 2 This is the 2nd day of "Free Traffic Course" and it will explain how you can save much time and efforts on looking for the targeted joint-venture partners and affiliates for your web site. Links Exchange ? a Hazardous Business? So we gather in all the relevant information we can possibly find, and include it in all the right places, taking great care in linking our pages properly, optimise each page in turn with a list of 'keywords' - and making sure that the most relevant keywords are reflected in each pages 'title tags'.. How to Get Customers for Free There's no shortage of ways to spend money promoting your online shop - and certainly no shortage of people willing to take your money! However, search engines can be sending you qualified customers all day every day. How do you get a piece of this traffic? It's estimated that 70% of people stop at the first 10 results in most search engines and over 90% don't go beyond the first 30. If your shop isn't in the top of the search results, you're missing out. We'll go through the five steps to getting you higher in the search engine rankings. John Reeses Top Traffic Secrets! Track all sources of traffic generation. Generating Website Traffic with Sub-domains Sub-domains are websites that are located within a directory of your main site and have their own domain name. Because they use the same resources as the main website, they are normally much cheaper than getting another hosting account. Their low cost and flexibility make sub-domains a great device for directing traffic to your site without breaking the bank. Winning The Hit Exchange Game "How do I get more traffic to your site?" That's the eternal question. Or to be more precise, "How do I get more targetted traffic to my pages, people who are going to be interested in what I have to offer?" Website Visitors - Building Strong Website Traffic It is worth looking at some values and strengths of a few technical and promotional elements of your website that will help you to lay a foundation in building profitable online success. Once you have decided on your market and have chosen a relevant domain name for your online business, you need simple and effective tools and methods to put and keep your business on a profitable track. Ideally you will want to make use of easy-to-use methods for your business that keeps the visitors coming to your website and deliver results. Lets look at a few practical ideas. Submitting Your Articles To E-zines and Viral Marketing Viral Marketing Defined Linking for Traffic: The Shift from Link Directories to Hyper-Targeted Linking There's a stiff wind blowing in a new direction on the web. And you'd benefit from taking the time to notice the direction its headed. Reciprocal Linking Techniques Building a successful web site is a process that works best when done in a deliberate, logical step-by-step manner. The first step is to build a top quality web site that is packed with interesting and useful content. Rethinking Linking - Link Exchange Back to Basics In the old days of the internet, links were the primary communication path between web sites. Search engines were not as sophisticated as today, and search results rather crude. Actually, even today links are reported to be more used than search engine results; but the latter are increasing their share. In a way, this began to change when Google entered the scene. In an effort to make search results more relevant, Google implemented an algoritm that judged the quality of a web site by the number of other sites linking to it. It seemed rather obvious that a popular, much linked-to, site should be of higher relevance than a site with few links pointing to it. Increase Online Traffic - What NOT To Do Since everyone is so obsessed with ways to increase our website traffic (and of course we should be) people often are quick to jump at anything that might help. We are always talking about ways to increase search engine traffic. But, what about what we shouldn't do? The following I'll share a few tricks that you shouldn't be doing. Using an e-Signature to Guarantee a Boost in Your Web Traffic! Using an e-signature is one of the easiest, most effective ways to bring targeted visitors to your site. Many webmasters waste this great opportunity to advertise their site, and bring potential customers to their site. Web Site Marketing: Give Away Softwares And Generate Traffic And Sales If you want to get something from others, the fastest way to do that may be to give them something for free, first. 10 Mistakes to Avoid When Setting Up a Link Directory When adding a link directory to a web site there are important mistakes to avoid, or else you'll be storing up big problems for later on. I know, because I made some of these mistakes and didn't have anyone to offer any advice or tell me what I'm about to tell you. If You Dont Like The Weather...Just Wait For 10 Minutes This old saying which addresses the variability of the weather in Montana is also applicable to the market dynamics for an online business. If there is one thing that is certain about the future of online marketing, it is that it will continue to change. Marketing Made Easy Is website traffic convertible to cash? The answer is yes. But that is not the right question every webmaster might want to dwell into, the right question is "How can my site get targeted traffic without me spending too much?" Attracting Traffic with Banner Ads Internet is an ever evolving business platform. Doing business on the Internet differs in a number of ways from every day brick and mortar business. Change here is more frequent, more dramatic and may have greater impact than in a conventional business. Success in this climate can only come from quick response to the changes. Look at web advertisement! Just in a few short years, we have seen rise and fall of banner advertisement, email marketing, pop-ups, pop-unders and number of other marketing tools.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2005 |