by Carl Weiss
Last week we talked about how to keep your website atop the
heap no matter how the search engines alter their algorithms by concentrating
on the creation of outstanding content.
In this installment, I am going to show you how to increase your
backlinks, how to generate favorable reviews and recommendations, as well as
how to get a bead on what the competition above you on the search engines is
doing and how you can turn the tables on them.
Being Upfront About Backlinks
For many years the major search engines have put a premium
on how many sites link to your site.
Back a few years this actually caused a great deal of conflict, since it
spawned backlink factories that turned out backlinks like linked sausages. You’ll know you have come across someone who
has worked with these firms if their backlinks are in Farsi or Chinese. The good news is that the search engines
cracked down on these bad boys bigtime.
The bad news is that most search engines still rate a portion of your
worth on backlinks. Is that’s what’s
bothering you, Bunky?
Other than spending hour upon hour of identifying and
emailing firms in your industry begging for backlinks, or spending thousands of
dollars on software that does virtually the same thing, what if there was an
easier way? In fact, what if you could
develop backlinks every week as part of your normal website update
procedure?
Well there are several ways of creating backlinks without
working up a sweat. One of them is
article marketing. If you google “free article submission” you will be
presented with scads of sites that are hungry to publish your articles. By publishing your blogposts with these sites
you will achieve a wider following and you will also be granted a byline and an
opportunity to include a link back to your site. When anyone republishes your articles, they
are obliged to include both the byline and backlink. So the use of this technique can spawn backlinks
like rabbits, once you have established yourself as an authority by publishing
a number of articles.
Of course, this isn’t the only opportunity to cultivate
backlinks. You can also create backlinks
by republishing your blogs on your social networks, by joining in on online
discussion groups and by becoming affiliated with any number of online
professional organizations.
Sharing the Wealth
Speaking of networking, another way to increase your site’s
SEO value is by having those who know and do business with you to write a
review or recommendation online. Such
sites as Google Local, LinkedIn and Merchant Circle
Getting a Bead on The Competition
Once you find yourself on the top of page two or the bottom
of page one on the search engines, it is time to start employing advanced
techniques to get a bead on what the competition is up to. Online this couldn’t be easier, since there
are a number of free sites that will give you the competitions battleplan
chapter and verse. The one I use is http://websitegrader.com By entering a url in the dialog box on the
main page, along with the urls of as many as 5 competing sites, you will be
presented with an analysis of competing sites.
You’ll be presented with such things as how many backlinks a site has,
along with their Twitter and Facebook ratings, how well their homepage is
optimized and a score of other statistics. If you want to see in black and white what it
will take to take the high ground, simply have the site analyze your site along
with those of your competitors and then get cracking.
While SEO isn’t as complicated as rocket science, it can be
daunting to the uninitiated. That’s why
so many firms employ professionals to keep their SEO up to snuff. Personally, I prefer it if clients work with
us tag team style, where they supply some of the content and allow us to put it
into play. After all, we may know more
about how to feed the search engines, but they certainly know more about their
businesses. All I can say is that if you
want to generate search engine results, there is no shortcut to success.
Carl Weiss and Hector Cisneros are going to make their online tips and
techniques interactive in two weeks when they start their “Working the Web to
Win” online radio program. Stay tuned
for updates and check their work out at http://jacksonville-video-production.com
and http://websiteknowhow.com
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