Monday 2 March 2009

Search Marketing Round Up #2 - Week Commencing 23-02-09

In Search Marketing Round Up I like to share all of the best blog posts and articles I’ve read in the last week on the topics of link building, SEO and everything else relating to search marketing.

Well, there’s been a real treasure chest of useful stuff published this week, particularly for anyone interested in link building so let’s dive straight in.

Link Building

Nofollow Is Dying: The Impact Of Micro-Blogging & Nofollow On SEO - A theory on how the growth of micro-blogging could change the way search engines interpret nofollow links.

12 ‘DoFollow’ Video Sharing Sites To Distribute Videos & Build Links - Ann Smarty offers up 12 sites to help promote your video content.

Essential Qualities Of An Exceptional Link Builder - Melanie Nathan discusses the traits that make for a successful link builder.

5 Reasons You Should Link Out To Others From Your Website - Rand Fishkin explains the benefits of sharing link love.

Using Analytics To Build Target Lists - Valarie Bastek from Zeta Interactive shares a tip on using referral data to identify link opportunities.

Advertising Strategies That Improve Your Link Popularity - Great post from Wiep on how your advertising activities can help link development.

Linking With “High PR Website Versus High PR Webpage” - Those nice people at linkpopularitymatters.com clarify the true PR benefit of your links.

Article Distribution vs. Guest Blogging: Is There A Difference? - Karon Thackston blogs on the evolution from article submission to guest blogging and the benefits of using both.

Marketing Strategy

The Long Tail Of Page One Rankings - A look at the importance of long tail traffic with Glenn Gabe from hmtweb.com.

Future Proof Your SEO - The Gypsy gazes into his crystal ball to help you succeed in the SEO of the future.

Travel SEO & Internet Marketing Guide - If you're looking to market a travel related site this post from linkbuildr.com is a must read.

On-page SEO

Are You Making The Most Of Your Page H1 Tag? - Nice post on extracting full benefit from your H1 tags.

Dy-No-Mite Solutions To Dynamic Content Problems - Everything you need to know to fix/avoid SEO problems with your dynamic content.

SEO 3.0 = Digital Asset Optimization - Jonathan Ashton discusses how search marketers can succeed with video, audio, images and more.

Keyword Research

Why It Makes Sense To Target Longtail Keywords First - Aaron Wall explores the benefits of the longtail for growing a new website.

The Golden Rules Of Keyword Research - SEOptimise provides a superbly simple overview on improving keyword research for PPC campaigns.

Google

Google's New Search Engine Rankings Place Heavy Emphasis On Branding - Excellent post from SEO Book theorising the extra importance Google's algo now places on brands.

What If Google Was Wrong - Michael Gray campaigns for a Google rebellion by the World's media.

Last but by no means least a special mention for Searchcowboys.com. There's been a lot of buzz this week about Google joining twitter but Searchcowboys went a step further with a huge list of search engine twitters for you to follow.

As always if you feel I've missed out an important post please feel free to drop a link in the comments along with an overview of the article.

Thursday 26 February 2009

Link Building With PitchEngine

PitchEngine is a free-to-use press release builder that allows anyone to promote their PR and business news through social media outlets such as twitter, friendfeed and facebook.

Marketed as “PR for the social web” PitchEngine offers an incredibly easy way for sites of all sizes to gain more exposure from their PR. If that wasn’t enough, you can also use PitchEngine to build links to your website & social media profiles.

The Benefits Of Link Building With PitchEngine

When you set up a PitchEngine account and start publishing press releases you can take advantage of the following link building options:
  • Create a link to your website in your profile page; you can also include links to your social media profiles for added reputation management. As well as your profile page these links will appear on every press release that you submit.
  • Add resources and related links to each individual press release, this is a great opportunity to vary your anchor text and deep-link to pages on your site.
  • At present all links are dofollow so the links will pass on juice to your destination pages.
Other Marketing Benefits Of PitchEngine

As well as being a great source of links PitchEngine has many other benefits to offer and I would urge everyone to make the most of this great service and, as always, please don’t spam.

Here are some of the other reasons to use PitchEngines in your PR campaigns:
  • Create more exposure for your brand and generate additional direct traffic to your site. The URL of each press release is also Google News compliant.
  • Spread your PR message with a selection of social-media-friendly options such as sharing and bookmarking.
  • Add videos and logos to the left of your press releases to further reinforce your message and brand.
So, if you’re looking for opportunities to build free links to your site and promote your brand and message at the same time then PitchEngine is definitely worth a look. Check out their homepage for examples of working press releases and sign up to get started.

Happy Link Building!

Wednesday 25 February 2009

Link Building With Article Submission Sites

Article submission is still an extremely popular method for building links. The process is very simple; all you need to do is produce a piece of content (normally between 300-500 words) and submit to an article directory. Within the article you are allowed to include a pre-defined number of links that point back to pages on your own website.

Article submission sites allow you to submit content to their site in return for placing advertising around the pages you create. This will usually take the form of banners, buttons and adsense. Some article directories allow publishers the opportunity of a revenue share. While this may be attractive to some the focus of this post is how you can use article submission to boost your link building campaigns.

How To Build Links With Article Directories

The first step is to find a selection of sites to which you will submit your articles. To make this easier there’s a list at the end of this post to get you started. Once you’ve signed up to these sites and taken advantage of any profile links on offer it is time to go through their submission guidelines. Each site will have different guidelines and familiarising yourself with these will make it much easier to get your articles published at the first time of asking.

Now you need to produce an article, 300-500 words on your chosen topic will usually suffice (check the submission guidelines to be absolutely sure). An important point to remember here is to produce good content. Submitting articles of a good standard increases the likelihood that they will be published and reflect well on your site. While good content is necessary always reserve great content for your own site.

Once your have your article ready it’s time to start submitting. Again being familiar with the guidelines and processes is important here. Depending on the article directory you’re using you can at this point add keyword rich anchor text links within either the article body or author bio (or in some cases both). Make sure these links appear naturally within the article and are relevant to your content.

After hitting the publish button you’ll need to wait a short time for your article to be reviewed and approved; time periods vary from one site to another but 3-4 days is fairly standard. It is worth submitting each piece of content to around 4-5 different article directories to increase the direct link benefit of your articles. Check back regularly to see whether or not your articles are approved (addressing any issues as they occur) and keep an eye on your back link volumes with Yahoo Site Explorer as the links start to roll in.

Five Benefits of Link Building With Articles
  1. Quick and simple to implement.
  2. Cost effective, important if you are link building on a budget.
  3. You have total control over the destination URL and anchor text of your links.
  4. Potential for additional links if your article is picked up and republished by other sites.
  5. Great for anyone who is new to link building and looking to build up their skill-set.
A Few More Tips

When link building with article sites be sure to vary your destination URL and anchor text. This link building technique can be used to target longtail keywords as well as large generics so take advantage by mixing up your URLs and keywords.

Track which sites republish your articles through the use of Google Alerts, networking with these sites could open up opportunities in the future.

Don’t spam; only submit relevant content that is written to an acceptable standard, stick to the submission guidelines and use links correctly.

Where To Submit Your Articles

As promised here is a selection of article submission sites to get you started:
Footnote: some people may say that article submission is no longer a worthwhile link building technique. While everyone is of course entitled to there opinion I genuinely believe that article directories still have an important role to play in any link building strategy.

Article links might not be as powerful as in days gone by, but done correctly they can still help improve and support your rankings; especially if you are just starting out in the world of link building or looking to target longtail keywords where the competition is not as intense.

Happy Link Building!

Thursday 19 February 2009

Search Marketing Round Up #1 - Week Commencing 16-02-09

I thought it would be nice to kick off my first post at Link Building Mojo by sharing the link love. After all you’ve got to spend money to make money as the saying goes.

While this blog will focus on link building I take a healthy interest in all aspects of search marketing and try to read as many blog posts and articles as possible.

Each week I’ll be posting a summary of the most useful information I’ve stumbled across on my travels. So without further ado here are this weeks little nuggets for you all to devour.

Link Building

Passing PageRank Through Google Profiles - Dixon Jones conducts an insightful experiment with Google profile links.

The Psychology Of A Linkbait - An excellent overview on crafting linkbait that people will actually link to by Ryan Caldwell.

Mahalo Caught Spamming Google With PageRank Funneling Link Scheme
- Aaron Wall shares his frustrations with Mahalo's link development project.

Blog Directory Links : List Your Blog - A Daily Seo Tip from Loren Baker on using blog directories for link building.

Remember: Link Building Is Not Just For SEO - A timely reminder from Distilled that links aren't just for rankings.

The Canonical URL Tag

Specify Your Canonical Version - Big news for anyone with duplicate content worries.

Learn about The Canonical Link Element In 5 Minutes - Get up to speed on the canonical URL tag with this slideshow from Matt Cutts' blog.

Canonical URL Tag - The Most Important Advancement In SEO Practices Since Sitemaps - Randfish gives his view on the canonical URL tag with some lovely illustrations.

Marketing Strategy

Web Business Startup Marketing Guide - Awesome post from Linkbuildr on how to promote your new web startups.

How The Small Guy Can Use Trust To Win The SEO Game - A post to inspire the "small guy" from SEOBook.

5 Easy Ways To Promote And Market A Website - Patrick Altoft offers a good summary of basic website promotion techniques.

ROI for SEO: Proving Value To The CFO - Bruce Clay recommends how to answer the question of ROI on your SEO projects.

How to Start an Internet Company That Will Be Noticed - In this series Danny Dover invites you to follow the startup of his new internet company.

On-Page SEO

Using The Hash In URLs for SEO - More Whiteboard Friday brilliance from SEOmoz, learn how to control duplicate content, affiliate links and more.

Use Excel To Plan Meta Tags, Titles & URLs For SEO - Loren Baker blogs on using Excel to organise your on-page SEO.

Forget about Keyword Density - Learn how to correctly understand keyword density in under 30 seconds.

Best Of The Rest

Analytic Mashups For Advanced Keyword Research - Marty Weintraub provides a great overview on combining different data sources for indepth keyword research.

PPC Marketers: You Must Track Phone Calls! - Brian Carter of Seach Engine Journal covers the benefits of tracking telephone calls in your PPC campaigns.

Ultimate How-To: Social Media Buttons, Tools and Badges Resource - An extensive collection of social media buttons, badges, icons and widgets from Patrick at 10e20.com

Feel I’ve missed an important search marketing article? Then please drop a link to it in the comments; I can’t spend all day reading this stuff you know!