SEO Dance

Exchanging links is a common practice among website owners. But before agreeing to a link exchange a little background check will make sure that you want to exchange links. You wouldn’t invest in a stock without doing your homework or let your teenage daughter go out on her first date with a total stranger. Then why link to a website that might be a suspected bad neighborhood.

Just what is a bad neighborhood on the World Wide Web? It’s a website that either takes part in black hat SEO practices or could be a spam website with no real content just links or ads. You can use a text link checker to see just exactly the website links to and if any of those sites are suspected as being questionable. It’s simple to conduct a check. Just enter the website you want to know more about.

You’ll then get a summary of all the outgoing links on the website. Listed at the bottom of the results will be any questionable links. You can then judge for yourself if the website is still one you want to link to. When I did my website, some of the questionable links were to websites that were perfectly fine but have a category entitled “sex,” so it garners them to be flagged by this checker. So, look over the results before making a decision about linking with a website. Some flags might just be the wording of a category and not necessarily an indication of content.

Link baiting is the practice of garnering links to your site with inticing content that people will want to link to without thinking too much about it. Incoming links are vital for traffic and SEO, so link baiting might sound like a bad practice but is really just incentive to write quality content of interest to your readers.

What makes good link bait material? Look no further than the news. What is going on in the world? What is everyone talking about? Spin a different angle to a story and watch the links rise. To have content related to popular searches but with a different approach than the 20,000 other articles on said content will make your readers take notice. The best way to get this new enlightening angle is through discussion. What are friends saying about the hot topic of the day? You don’t have to look far to get some great insight on the day’s big stories than your circle of friends or network. Sometimes a flippant comment can make a great subject to explore. Keep your ears open for your next great post idea.

Link bait at its core is writing compelling content that automatically moves the reader to share it with others. It might be hard to “break” happening news, but it can be easier than you think to put your own “spin” on it. Just be a good listener, and the ideas will flow.

There are many benefits to running a contest on your website but there are also benefits to taking part in contests, too. Increase exposure to your website and brand by jumping right into various online contests. Running a contest can increase traffic and exposure to a blog or website. It can also increase exposure to the participating bloggers or webmasters as well.

I recently entered a contest where the entry was a blog post about the contest. It was easy enough to do. When it came time for voting, a link was placed on their website to my blog entry encouraging their readers to click on the links to read the entries. Reviewing my stats, I noticed a nice amount of referrals from this one link.

So taking part in contests can be good for not only an all-mighty link to your website but also be a chance for your blog or website to be seen by new readers. You might just even win a cool prize, too.

contests

With any website or blog, self-promotion is a vital part of success. If you don’t spread the word about your blog, then who will? Taking part in a blog community can be a great experience and a good way to drive more traffic to your blog.

The two communities that I use and really enjoy is MyBlogLog.com and BlogCatalog.com. They both have their strengths. MyBlogLog.com is a good blog directory for finding like-minded bloggers to swap links with. MyBlogLog also gives you some code to embed into your blog that will give you stats about your blog. The pro account gives you more access and information, but the free service is still pretty nice. You won’t be able to view stats like referrals and off-site clicks until the next day. I don’t spend that much time on MyBlogLog.com but have received a few link trade requests just the same.

BlogCatalog.com is another blog community that is somewhat different from MyBlogLog. Blog Catalog does have some simple stats for your website that you can view at any time. What makes Blog Catalog different is the sense of community among its members. There are plenty of discussion threads that feature topics from self-promotion to what you did this weekend. So, there are a lot of varied threads which create a great way to get involved with the community. People might want to know more about you and will click on your profile. From your profile they will see all of your blogs and be able to visit or join your blog community. MyBlogLog has a similar setup with your profile as BlogCatalog.

Taking part in both blog communities will just help to promote your blog that much more. MyBlogLog is a little more like thumbing through business cards while BlogCatalog is more of a community effort. Whichever fits your style the best, then concentrate on that blog service. Not only will you find that these sites help to drive traffic to your blog, you might find some interesting blogs to read.

blog communities

In recent months there has been a movement by some in the blogging community to remove the no follow tag from comment links. The no follow tag means that the link is from an untrusted source. The whole idea behind the implementation of the no follow tag was to fight comment spammers looking for free links to their website. Now with so many tools and methods to fight comment spam, should bloggers turn off the no follow tag?

Links with the no follow tag aren’t counted as links when it comes to Google. Using the no follow deters spammers from posting useless comments on blogs. Bloggers who want to rewards readers have removed the nofollow attribute from comments, so those links to the reader’s website will count for something in the eyes of Google. It can help with PageRank and possibly search results for linked word or phrase. Some readers use a search keyword instead of their name when commenting on blogs.

While this is good for building brand, it has begun to annoy some bloggers who feel the comments on their do follow blogs are becoming too spammy with many people just there for the free link. It has prompted some to revert back to using nofollow on comments. Other bloggers are considering taking the same step.

When considering dropping the nofollow attribute, bloggers should figure in all the factors. There could possibly be hundreds of comments on their site that could possibly drain their “link juice” (Lord help me. I never thought I’d use that term!) and weaken all of their other links. It could also hurt their PageRank if the ratio of outgoing and incoming links is offset too much.

It’s a Catch-22 since you want to give the link but at the same time it might hurt your site in the long run. Dropping the nofollow attribute could be a good thing for your blog in some aspects but might be determinable in other ways. It just depends upon which is more important to the bloggers: rewarding their readers or the blog’s outgoing links.

nofollow, do follow

I write for a very popular women’s website, and I often get comment submissions from webmasters asking me to link to their website. These requests I usually don’t respond or give a link to. Why? The reason is usually it isn’t a quality website. Also in the request is never an offer to link back.

When approaching a webmaster about a link, make sure to offer to include a link back to their website. I like to do link exchanges with websites that are along the same subject. That way when a reader clicks on the link, it might be of interest.

When doing a link exchange, find out exactly where the link will be placed. Some websites seem to hide their links inside their webpages. The webmaster may even have a directory where he puts link exchanges.

While links to your website can help increase PageRank and search engine placement, links from relevant websites can boost traffic, too.

The Best Links in Life are Free.

Don’t you agree?

Tino Buntic is one of those bloggers who is indirectly advocating this. His project of linking to 2000 Bloggers in one page has been doing mojo to the Technorati rankings of those he has linked to.

If you’re on the 2000 list already, check your Technorati rankings; they’ve been increasing for everybody (that’s a nice unintended benefit). if you’ve just been added, check Technorati in a few days and you’ll see that your own rankings are increasing as well.

If you’d like to join in the fun and grab yourself some sweet link together with other 1,999 bloggers, leave a comment to Tino Buntic’s blog post - 2000 bloggers.

via Work-at-Home Business Opportunities

Brian Clark of the great Copyblogger has shared wisdom on five link building strategies that work.

Aside from the age-old tactic of using article directories, embracing the social media through networking emails and using social network sites and making guest appearances, one way to help the link popularity of your site grow that Brian has highlighted is to simply link out.

Linking out or mentioning links on your blog posts is what I’ve also witnessed to be a subtle way of asking for a link exchange. Sure, getting a link back may not be the usual reason why one would send link love to a person. But a link that’s reciprocated is usually appreciated.

link popularity, link building strategy, copyblogger

Guy Kawasaki, who’s mantra is to “empower entrepreneurs”, included improving your Google PageRank as one of the ways on how to use LinkedIn. LinkedIn, dubbed as MySpace for adults, is what I consider as one of the most popular method to control one’s online identity. How? Sign up and create your LinkedIn profile and wait a few weeks and then search for your name and you will know.

I think this is the very reason why Guy finds LinkedIn helpful in improving one’s pagerank. However, I think he means one’s Google search engine results pages visibility. PageRank is different from SERPs placement since one does not have to have a high pagerank to gain better search engine placement.

See how he puts it:

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Aside from writing linkbaitable content and submitting your site to directories, learn the easier way to get some more inbound links from the best bloggers there are in the blogosphere through blog carnivals, group writing projects and reviews .

Here is a list of bloggers offering free linkbacks:

John Chow

After experimenting on PayPerPost, he decided to get free reviews and linkbacks by asking other bloggers to review his blog in exchange of an inbound link from his blog. With a Technorati rank of 1325 as a result of 1,030 blogs linking back to his blog, it’s a good source of IBL juice, especially if your blog is relevant to John Chow’s blog, which is now containing posts about blog monetization and Here is John Chow’s Review to Get a LinkBack.

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A Digital Point forum member with the handle of Bag has been providing free search engine optimization service to DP members since Christmas day.

Today, he or she has opened again the doors to those who would like a free SEO report:

Blog, forum, website, whatever that runs on the web and you feel like getting higher search engine rankings, this is the topic for you. And you don’t have to pay a thing, so you have nothing to loose!

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Aside from content optimization for related and trusted sites to link to and link baiting, Google suggests participating in services such as Yahoo! Answers to build link-based popularity. According to the official Google Webmaster Central Blog, Yahoo! Answers and similar services can help build one authority to consequently earn a good reputation.

This sounds like the “Report Abuse” feature of this Yahoo! service will soon need to be used often.

link development, link building strategy, SEO strategy, Yahoo! Answers

What could be sweeter this Christmas than to have these sweet cupcakes as gifts? And what a definitely smart linkbait idea from Jayvee of Abuggedlife.com, don’t you think?

He even has cellphone cookies inspired by his Cellphone9 blog.

Jayvee Fernandez, Christmas linkbait, linkbait idea, Cellphone9

There’s the linkbait, drinkbait, sharkbait, all kinds of baits.

And one has just become more creative with a hatbait. Search Marketing Gurus’ Liana Evans is the brainchild behind this fun linkbait in the form of voting for your favorite hatbait pictures. Pictures of many of the most prominent search engine marketing experts holding the linkbait posters have joined. So who do you vote?

Aside from the main winner, here are some possible additional awards:

If there’s enough comments on the picture, perhaps will bestow an “honorary” HatBait.com award …. like “Most Tortured HatBait Participant”, or most “OxyMoronic HatBait Picture”.

Who will I vote? Who else?!

hatbait, search marketing gurus, linkbait

Link development is not an easy task, esp. if you have too few friends with quality sites to ask inbound links from. But what do you think will make it easier for you to gain those coveted links that will make your site get a good search engine placement for better visibility?

This how Mike Grehan, author of the Search Engine Marketing book:

When you’re looking for links, take a brutally honest look at your own site. Make a list, check it twice. If you can’t list 10 good reasons someone would want to link to you, then ask who you built the site for and why.

More link building discussion from SES Chicago 2006.

link building strategy, SEO link building, SES Chicago 2006, Mike Grehan, search engine marketing