Matching the Appropriate Keywords to Your Website’s Pages

Chances are during your keyword research, you ended up with about 5 – 10 main keyword phrases that you want to target. For example, a digital marketing agency may discover the following keywords and match them as follows.

Once you have done this exercise, you should have listed the top keywords for your homepage and main pages on your website. List the keywords in the order of preference, ie. the first keyword should be the main one you want to target on each page.

On-Site Optimization

Now you will go through your homepage and the main pages on your website to optimize them for the related keyword as follows.

Title Tag

The title tag is one of the most important elements of optimizing a page on your website for a particular keyword. Title tags should be 70 characters or less – any characters past 70 will be cut off in search results.

Meta Description

While the meta description doesn’t help with keyword rankings, it does show up (in most cases) beneath the title of your website and the link in search results. If someone has searched for a keyword phrase that appears in the meta description, it will be bolded. This will help your website stand out. Consider the meta description (up to 160 characters) your chance to convince people to click on your link in search results.

URL Structure

If possible, try to set up your website with a URL structure that uses keywords. The URL yourcompany.com/digital-marketing/ is more likely to help with search rankings than the URL yourcompany.com/?p=123.

Header Tags

You can use header tags (H2, H3, H4) in the content on each page to break up text and emphasize particular keyword phrases. For example, if you have a main services page for your digital marketing company, you could use H2 or H3 tags to create a header for each of your main services. Then include a short description of each service and a link to the page for that service.

Internal Links

Internal links are links within your content to other pages on your website. You can use specific keyword anchor text to help optimize these internal links for specific keyword phrases you are targeting. On the same services page example, you could have summery text about each of your services, then a line that reads “Learn more about our social media marketing services.” By linking social media marketing services to your social media marketing services page, you will have a perfectly keyword optimized internal link.

SEO for Images

Having at least one image on each page of your website can help your page rank for particular keyword phrases. As an added bonus, that image can also rank well in Google Image search which can be another huge traffic generator.

To ensure your image will rank well for particular keywords, simply use those keywords in the filename of your image as well as in the ALT text when you add the image to your page. The image on your social media marketing services page should have the filename social-media-marketing-services.png and the ALT tag in the HTML code should include social media marketing services.

Keyword Density

Your main goal should be to make your text enjoyable and informative for people. That said, you should mention your targeted keyword phrases throughout the text in a natural way. Aim to mention it at least once, preferably in the first paragraph of the page.

Avoid Over Optimization

Google likes pages that are optimized for viewers, not search bots. Make sure that any keyword optimization you do (title tags, meta descriptions, headers, internal links, etc.) flow naturally for visitors to read. Avoid stuffing keywords left and right to the point it makes your content not friendly for readers.

Local Search Optimization

If you have a local business with one or more physical locations, you will also want to optimize your website for local search. For starters, you will want to incorporate your location into your keyword phrases. So instead of just digital marketing company, you could add your city to make it digital marketing company london.

Next, you will want to help your website rank in the local search section of Google. If you have one location, just add your street address and local phone number (not a 800 number) in text format on each page throughout your website. Most do this in the footer. Also create a contact us page with that information and preferably a Google map.

If you have more than one location, create individual pages on your website for each location that includes the street address and local phone number.

Content Optimization

The earlier mentioned on-site optimization elements (title tags, meta descriptions, etc.) should also be applied to content on your website such as blog posts, press releases, and articles. You can expand your keyword research to include longer keyword phrases in order to receive more visibility within search. For a company that offers social media marketing services, they may want to also rank for Facebook marketing, Twitter marketing, and similar keywords. This way, they will attract customers interested in social media marketing.

Social Profile Optimization

Some would consider your social profiles as off-site optimization, but they are important in terms of optimizing your own online properties to be discovered for particular keywords. The keys to social profile optimization are as follows.

• Use your real name or business name as the name / username for your social profiles.
• Use your main keyword phrases in the tagline, bio, description, introduction, and about information for your social profiles.
• Use your real name or business name as the filename of the image you upload for your profile photos. Use keyword phrase in the images that you upload to your photo albums and wall posts.
• Use keyword phrases (when appropriate) in status updates.

Once you have done all of the above, you will be well on your way to being discovered in search engines for your desired keywords!

The post SEO for Small Business Part II: On-Site Optimization appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.

In-House SEO Team

Choosing an in-house SEO team for your small business has one major advantage. Your SEO team will be dedicated to your business. They will know the ins and outs of your products and services, they will be readily available to discuss strategies for your business, and, depending on their skillets, they can be utilized for other tasks within your business.

Of course, then there are some things you have to consider. First off, depending on the size of your business, you may or may not have need for a full-time SEO person or team. If you’re just getting started from scratch, then maybe. But on-going SEO after the base elements have been implemented (on-site optimization, local search optimization, etc.) may not require the attention of someone 40 hours a week.

You also have to think about educating your SEO team. Even if you bring in one or more experienced SEOs to work with your business, each person will need to maintain on-going education about the search marketing industry. You don’t want to hire someone who is using the same tactics from one year to the next because of the constantly evolving landscape of search. What works one year may not the next. Worse yet, what worked last year could get you penalized this year. Education can range from time each day to read the top SEO blogs to sending your SEO team to search marketing conferences throughout the year.

Your best bet if you go this route is to hire people who can perform SEO for your business alongside other tasks. Just be careful that you don’t overwhelm your SEO team with so many client deliverables that they never get a chance to actually work on your SEO.

Freelance Consultants

If your business isn’t able to hire an in-house SEO team or to afford a monthly agency contract, a freelance consultant may be the right fit. While they might not cost as much as an agency, you shill should expect to invest in someone who knows what they are doing. Get ready to grill the individual about how they help clients rank in search engines, what they do to avoid sending their clients into the Google penalty box, and how they will report their progress.

Remember that Google is constantly working to improve the quality of the websites in search results. You get what you pay for is especially true in the SEO industry – if you don’t pay for a knowledgeable consultant who strives to deliver quality work, then you might not like the results.

Agencies

There are lots of great small to medium sized agencies who are willing to work with small businesses. One of the nice parts about working with an agency is, assuming you do your homework and choose a good one, they have the resources to help you with every aspect of your search marketing campaign.

For example, if you have an in-house SEO team that decides an infographic is a good way to market your business, then you will have to figure out who to outsource design and research. If an agency decides you need an infographic, they will handle everything on their end once they run topic ideas by them.

Just because you are choosing to work with an agency doesn’t mean you should trust them wholeheartedly. One way to see if an agency knows their stuff is to look at their blog. Most agencies will blog about topics that relate to the services they offer. If they don’t, then you can go back to the grill ’em method of seeing what strategies they use to help customer rank, how they stay up to date on the latest things that are working (or not), and so forth.

SEO Packages

The other SEO option you may run into when researching is a link building package. If you see a package (or anything) that guarantees you will rank #1 for your desired keyword, think twice. While you can be guaranteed improvement in search rankings, no one can guarantee you’ll get the #1 spot without knowing what your keywords are and what your business has to offer on their website.

Also, remember that quality links tend to be expensive. If you see a package of 500 links for $99, then beware. They are probably not quality links and they could get you penalized by Google. And while we’re talking about low quality links, avoid services that promise hundreds of links for $5 through Fiverr. Even if they say they are getting you PR 8 backlinks, what they really mean is they are getting links on PR 8 social bookmarking networks or blogs. Chances are, for a large quantity of links, they are using some sort of automated program that does not guarantee quality.

How did you choose between an in-house team or outsourcing for your search engine marketing? Have you had good results with SEO packages? Please share in the comments!

The post SEO for Small Business Part I: DIY or Outsourcing appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.

Find Infographics in Competitor’s Top Linked Pages

If you know your competitors are using infographics for link bait, then your best bet is to start by doing a little digging into their backlink profile to see which infographics make a dent. You can start with the inBound Link Analysis tool’s list of top linked pages to see if infographics make the cut of the top 20 linked pages on the domain.

You can also use the Visual Link Explorer to see top linked pages and hover over them to see which ones are infographics.

The Visual Link Explorer will let you know which infographics have the strongest backlinks based on the dot size.

It can also help you quickly find the types of sites that would be likely to link to your infographics. Make sure to note these as you might want to pitch them your infographic once it’s published. The site owners may even appreciate it if you let them know that you’re sharing your infographic with them because you saw that they published something similar in the past.

See Infographics Published on Mashable

Another way to find out what infographics are likely to get the most amount of attention (and thus, the most amount of backlinks) is to look at the infographics published over at Mashable.

Since they changed the layout, you can keep scrolling down to continue loading older posts. Then use your browser’s find option (usually CTRL+F or command+F) to find infographics on keywords related to your industry. You can even hover over each of the posts to see the social sharing summary.

Another top site to find infographics that are popular? Holy Kaw! They don’t have an infographics category, so you might just want to use Google search (site:holykaw.alltop.com infographic) to see if they’ve published infographics on a specific topic.

Want to get your infographic published on a site like Mashable or Holy Kaw? Start building relationships with the people who write the infographic posts through blog comments, social shares, etc. Then you may be in a good position to just “let them know” about your infographic in hopes that they will publish it.

Identify Trending Topics Related to Your Niche

If you have access to a designer, then one way to make sure you get lots of social shares and links is to create an infographic based on a trending topic. You can see what Google considered a trending topic at Google Trends. You can also watch the top news blogs in your industry too see if they all start talking about a specific topic.

The key to trending topics is timing. The sooner you can get your infographic published, the sooner you can start getting links to it. Once you publish it, you should use keep an eye out on all the blogs that are writing about the topic. Then contact them to see if they want to add an informative infographic to their post. If your infographic is good and has lots of relevant information, you’ll likely get your link.

SeoQuake in Google Search

Speaking of Google Search, you can use SeoQuake to find out how many backlinks each page in search results has. You can then sort the pages by number of backlinks.

In some cases, you’ll probably find posts with a collection of infographics. These are good pages to research as you’ll see what kind of infographics bloggers love. Getting your infographic published in one of these posts can lead to a strong backlink since collections get linked to often.

What other ways do you research infographic topics that will be great link bait?

The post Identifying the Best Topics for Infographic Link Bait appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.

In this post, we’re going to look at how these article directories are doing today as well as the top directory that was never affected by the Google Panda updates. Plus you will get some tips on how to approach a quality link building campaign through article marketing.

Article Directories Today

Curious about the state of the top article directories? Here’s what you need to know.

EzineArticles.com

EzineArticles.com currently maintains a Google PageRank of 6 and Domain Authority of 93. Since being struck by Google Panda, they have given their website a facelift and emphasize that they accept high-quality, original articles only. They have also revamped their guidelines to specify that articles cannot be rehashed (aka, spun), must be a minimum of 400 words (with a suggested length of 400 – 700 words), and should include proper HTML formatting throughout. Overall, their guidelines want to gear articles towards being reader friendly vs. just SEO friendly.

Authors get special treatment on EzineArticles with a complete bio page that includes multiple links to business websites, a blog, and a personal site. You can also get links back to your main social profiles including Google+ in order to claim authorship of your articles.

Now, let’s look at the traffic EzineArticles receives. The below graph shows their traffic prior to the first Google Panda update and after.

This shows that traffic from search has not recovered their traffic since the original Panda update. Since Google hasn’t given EzineArticles their rankings back, it is questionable whether links from these artless will hold any as much weight as they used to as far as Google is concerned.

In terms of traffic generation, SEMrush shows that out of 190K keywords they ranked for in January 2013, almost 2,200 are at the number one position. This means that you can still generate a good amount of traffic from EzineArticles depending on the keywords your article ranks for and their search volume.

Hubpages.com

Hubpages currently maintains a Google PageRank of 6 and Domain Authority of 90. After they were hit by Google Panda, they revamped their website in a big way. Author profiles and articles were moved from the main domain to personalized subdomains (author.hubpages.com). Unfortunately for the authors, all of their articles and profiles lost any PageRank and Page Authority they had gained. And while author pages are nicer looking, authors have lost the ability to place links with keyword anchor text in their bio. They can only link to one website and their social profiles using icons.

The major changes that Hubpages made did work in regaining them their rankings in search about six months after the first Google Panda update.

Although their search engine traffic has been slowly declining again, they still rank for over 2 million keywords which is much better than EzineArticles. Over 10K of those keywords are at the number one position. One of the keywords in the number one position receives 22K searches per month and outranks 24 million other items in search – including a result from Wikipedia! One can assume they are still in Google’s good graces and that links from their network count.

Squidoo.com

Squidoo.com currently maintains a Google PageRank of 7 and Domain Authority of 95. It was one of the article networks that was not affected by the original Google Panda update. In fact, their network has only seen a steady growth in rankings.

In terms of strategy, they have a similar setup to Hubpages when it comes to content. They allow you to add text, video, images, and other Squidoo type widgets. Ironically, they allowed for more spam within their articles than Hubpages with a widget that allowed visitors to Squidoo articles to add links at will – some dofollow, some nofollow.

They currently rank for over 5 million keywords.

Article Marketing the Right Way

So how can you take advantage of article marketing for links and traffic – the right way. Here are some tips!

• Reserve your best content for your own website, then for guest blogging opportunities. Regardless of how great an article network is, you will want your best content to be on your own website first. Your next best content should be focused to guest blogging efforts in your niche. If the latter doesn’t exist, then you can apply that content towards article networks.
• Create unique content geared towards readers, not search engines. While optimizing your articles for search is a good thing, they shouldn’t just be written for search engines. Imagine your next client was going to read an article you posted on Squidoo as their first impression of your business. Write your articles with an end goal to actually drive a visitor back to the website you link to in your article or or your author bio.
• Skip automated spinning software. This includes any service that offers to take one piece of content and syndicate it across article networks. It goes back to unique content, and spinning software creates anything but.
• Build up your author profiles. Most of the good article directories allow you to create a strong author bio. Be sure that yours includes important information about you and your company as well as links to your website and social profiles.
• Claim Google authorship. Assuming you’re creating quality, unique content, you won’t mind sharing it via the authorship link between your articles and your Google+ profile. Having a picture by your articles in search could result in more clicks and more traffic back to your website.

Do you still use article marketing in your search marketing strategy or to generate traffic? What networks do you use and what additional tips would you give?

The post How to Get the Most Out of Article Marketing Today appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.

The first piece of evidence to consider is the video by Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam team.

The second is the number of blogs that are closing their doors to guest post submissions.

The reason the doors are closing and Google is considering scrutinizing guest blogging? Abuse by marketers, plain and simple. So how can you still benefit from guest blogging? Here are some best practices.

Create Valuable, Unique Content to Submit

Google has nothing against quality guest blogging, but they do have something against any form of spammy link building technique. If you submit low-quality duplicate content as a guest post, then this is the kind of guest blogging that Google may later discount in your link profile.

So the first thing you can do to ensure the best possible results in guest blogging is create valuable, unique content to submit as guest posts. If you can’t create the content in-house, consider hiring professional freelance writers to create the content for you. Note that you get the content you pay for, so if you pay a cheap rate for content, you’ll get cheap content.

Seek Out High Quality Blogs

If you see that a blog is covered with ads, links, and low-quality content, you likely do not want your content or link on that blog. It’s easy to tell when you have found a blog with good content vs. a blog that may be getting paid to publish anything for a link. Just because it has good PageRank does not mean ti is a good site to focus your guest blogging efforts towards.

Target Blogs with Traffic & Engagement

One way to ensure that you don’t submit your content to a low-quality blog is to aim for blogs that have a decent amount of traffic and social engagement in the form of social shares and comments. If you aim to place your quality content on blogs with the goal of reaching people instead of building links, you will not only build links, but you’ll gain click throughs to your websites (or your clients’) leading to a better ROI.

Get to Know the Blog First

If you’re running into a lot of problems with getting your content accepted, and you know your content is good, then you need to slow down and get to know your target blogs first. Evaluate the types of posts they generally publish by quickly glancing through their RSS feed – subscribe in Google Reader so you can just scan the titles.

Next, let the blog owner become familiar with you by interacting with their blog through commenting and social sharing. Once the blogger recognizes you as a regular member of their community, you are much more likely to receive a positive response about your guest post submission.

Get an Introduction

If you are targeting a larger blog with multiple writers, then you might want to go by the way of an introduction. See if you know any of the other writers on the blog and ask them if they can introduce you to the blog owner or editor. This way you can bypass the general submission form that probably receives a flood of inquires every day and get right into the main editor’s inbox. This will increase your chance of getting published in a timely manner. Otherwise, even if your submission is accepted, it will be thrown into a queue that could take weeks or even months to publish.

Customize Your Author Bio

If you are using the same author bio from one site to the next, you may want to reconsider. Take a look through your target blog and see if you can match your author bio to those of previously published authors. Also be sure to vary your anchor text. If it’s a blog with a high volume of traffic, consider creating anchor text that lures readers into clicking on the link as this can be more valuable to your business than just trying to up your keyword rankings.

Create a Portfolio

Blog owner and editors want to see a list of your past accomplishments. Each time you have a successful guest post, add it to your portfolio. You can create a writing portfolio easily on your own blog or website. As an added bonus, your regular readers and visitors may be impressed by the fact that you are writing for so many other sites in your industry. Having a strong writing portfolio can be a huge reputation booster!

Be a Great Guest Blogger

Last, but not least, be a great guest blogger. Promote your post through your social networks, reply to comments on your post, and follow up with the blog owner / editor to see if they have any feedback, positive or otherwise. The latter can help you improve your guest blogging technique so that you have even more success as you submit to larger, more authoritative blogs.

What tips do you have for using the guest blogging strategy in 2013 to build links? Please share in the comments!

The post Link Building Through Guest Blogging in 2013 appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.

Quality Directory Checklist

Here are some ways to test a directory to see if it is a good fit for your link building strategy.

Domain Authority

First off, you will want to make sure that the directories you choose for building links to your website have a good domain authority, Google PageRank, and any other metric you value most. The stronger the directory domain, the better the backlink.

Authoritative Backlinks

Are authoritative websites linking to the directory of your choice? This shows that the directory not only gets recognition but it also gets traffic.

Cached & Indexed Pages

Is the page your link will be placed upon indexed in Google search and cached? Be sure to check by doing a quick site:domain.com/category/page and cache:domain.com/category/page query. This may not work for newer categories, but if one seems well established with several links, then you should find that it has been visited by Google search bots.

Outgoing LInks

One of the reasons DMOZ is such a valuable link is because it is so hard to get into. The directories you submit your website to should have a strong moderation process, regardless of whether you pay or not. If a directory links out to bad websites, then it is not one you want to add your link to.

First Page Opportunities

Generally, the first page of a specific directory category will have the highest rankings, authority, and traffic. Hence you will want to make sure that your website will be placed on the most relevant category’s first page – and that it will stay there. That may be worth the investment in a featured listing.

Social Shares

Check to see if your directory has some social shares. This shows that people are talking about the directory (hopefully satisfied customers) and that the directory might be getting social traffic along with direct traffic from referrals and search engines.

Quality Content

Last, but not least, does your target directory have quality content of their own? This can show Google that it is more than just a directory and you that it is a constantly updated site. Having quality content should mean that the directory is less likely to get penalized and that your link will not lose its value.

Directory Submission Tips

Submitting to a quality directory is not the end of the story. You need to make your submission count by doing the following.

• Submitting to the proper category. You might be tempted to aim for a page with higher authority, but make sure that it is also relevant.
• Don’t use keyword anchor text. Google will not need it if your website link is in the proper category.
• Vary your descriptions. Especially if the directory is niche specific, make sure your description matches the audience that would be browsing the directory.
• Use all of the options. Some directories allow for additional deep links, longer descriptions, and social links. Get your money’s worth by using them all.

Directory Coupon Codes

Since you’re probably ready to start submitting your websites to directories, here are some coupon codes that you’ll find useful. These directories all have a minimum Domain Authority of 60.

• Directory Journal – Get 20% off all listings with coupon code DJ20GM.
• Alive Directory – Get 20% off all listings with coupon code ADC2013.
• Abilogic – Get 15% off listings with coupon code ABIKEY13.
• Jasmine Directory – Get 30% off listings with coupon code JD2013.
• Aviva Directory – Get $20 off listings with coupon code growmap.
• Hot vs. Not Directory – Get 20% off listings with discount code GM20HVN.
• Ezilon Directory – Get 30% off listings with discount codes s1z8v if you pay vial PayPal and SMV8Z if you pay via credit card.

What are your favorite directories? Please share in the comments.

The post How to Find & Evaluate Directory Links appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.

Local Review Sites

If you’re not interested in the reputation management benefits of local review sites, then you will be interested in building local links. Most sites will allow you to have a link to your website along with your business listing, but only if you create or claim your listing.

When it comes to SEO value, however, you may not be looking at the holy grail of anchor text and dofollow. Here’s what you will get on the following popular local review sites.

• Links from Yelp are redirected.
• Links from Merchant Circle are dofollow. Anchor text is the domain URL without the http://.
• Links from Yellow Pages are nofollow.
• Links from Zomato (for restaurants) are nofollow with “Website” as the anchor text.
• Links from TripAdvisor are redirected.

Regardless of the direct SEO value, having your website listed in local review sites counts as citations which can help you rank well in local search results. So if you can take advantage of these sites, be sure to do so.

As you create or claim your local profiles, be sure to complete them with at least the basics. You’ll want to add your address, phone number, a blurb about your business, and at least one photo if not more. If you want to expedite the process, you can try services like Universal Business Listing – they will submit your business listing to the important local review sites for you and maintain those listings with continued membership.

Local Directories

Another link building strategy is using local directories. If you don’t list yourself in any other local networks, be sure to at least get listed by creating a local page profile on Google My Business (formerly Google Places), Yahoo Local, and Bing places for business.

When you create a business account on a third party website, make sure you have the correct company’s contact information displayed, such as name, address and phone number (NAP). Google My Business is a great place to start and run a business online, also. Focus your strategy on local SEO optimization to dominate local search engines. 

Creating an account on Google My business will bring you a lot of benefits. For example, if you search for restaurants in New York first will appear the results from Google maps (with information you added in your Google my business account) and then the results from Google search. Usually the results from maps take a lot of space above the fold, you can see the rest of the results if you scroll down. 

If you don’t use that you might loose a significat percentage of the users that could end up on your site and in your physical business location.

Once you’ve covered these local search directories, then you can branch out into discovering additional local directories to get listed in. One way to discover them is to find a local business in your industry that ranks well in local search and use the backlink reporting tool to see what local directories they are listed in.

You’ll get a quick glance of what directories they have links from, what locations they are listed in, and which ones offer dofollow links along with their overall domain authority.

Also note that some mainstream directories have local listings. Citysearch, for example, has a list with all the states from US that allows you to navigate to regional listings.

You can find more directories on Directory Critic which allows you to sort by various criteria. You can find localized directories under the Niche Directory Lists section, making it easier for you to get links from local sites.

When you’re submitting your website to non-localized directories, you can add the local element to your submission by using local anchor text (if allowed) such as New York Dentist instead of just Dentist. As always, remember to vary your anchor text across the links you build.

Local Partners

Are there businesses in your region that are in the same industry, but not competitors? Are there business owners in other industries that you network with at local events? If so, consider making them your partners – link partners, of course.

Suggest that both link back to each other on a page from your websites named partners, local resources, or similar. Make sure the businesses have good websites and do not link out to miscellaneous links – only other local businesses. Think of it as a high quality, very relevant local link exchange.

One way to make the link offer more appealing? Pitch it as a way for both of your businesses to send each other referral business. Maybe add a bonus such as offering the other business’s customers discounts for your business’s products or services. 

You can start by joining or creating a local community and buitl relationships. Send press releases, share information on social media and get the word out there. It is a safe method, it takes some tine ended, but on the long term you will end up with relationships that are more valuable. This is more about earning links,  rather then building them.

Local Broken Links

Broken link building can be very effective on a local level. The strategy (in a nutshell) involves finding websites that are no longer live, finding links to them, and suggesting that the webmaster replaces the dead links with a link to your website.

There are lots of ways to find broken links. When it comes to finding broken local links, you can analyze pages with lots of local links using a broken link checker like Check My Links for Chrome or Link Checker for Firefox. Another way to do it is by searching Yelp for closed businesses in your industry using the following search query.

site:www.yelp.com intitle:closed intitle:city industry

Site Explorer has an easy way to show you broken pages. If you search you site or your competitor’s site, then go to the Broken Pages you’ll see a list or you may not see anything if you don’t have broken links. Lucky you!

You’ll likely find several closed businesses similar to yours. Lookup their websites and if they are no longer active, check the backlinks to those websites to see if you can get the webmasters to update their links from the broken one to yours.

Do you utilize local link building strategies? Please share your tips in the comments!

The post Utilizing Local Link Building Opportunities appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.

Photo Credit: dcJohn on Flickr

Google Alerts for Brand Mentions

If someone mentions your name, your business name, or your website online, then you’ll likely want them to link to you to. Google Alerts makes it easy to keep track of your mentions via email or RSS.

Each time you see a mention, check it out to make sure the website is linking back to you. If they or not, or you would prefer they link to something else, send a friendly email to the webmaster, author, or editor to see if you can get them to add or change the link. Most typically respond positively to this type of request.

Redirection for Missing Pages

Google Webmaster Tools makes it easy to find out if you have any missing pages on your website. You can find these under Health > Crawl Errors, then click on Not found errors (if any).

To find out how valuable this strategy can be, simply click on some of the URLs listed as missing. Then click on the Linked from tab to see how many backlinks are pointing to the missing URL. You could gain redirection juice on a huge amount of links if you go through the redirection process.

If you’re not a fan of messing with your server side files and have a WordPress website, you can create redirections from your WordPress dashboard using the Redirection plugin. Not only can you create the redirects, but you can see the number of times people have clicked on the bad link which should further convince you to keep up with your broken links!

Change Requests for Old Domains

While you can redirect broken links on your own domain, if you no longer own a domain that you once possessed, you won’t be able to simply redirect those links to new ones on your current website. In this case, you’ll want to contact anyone linked to you old domains and ask for your links to be updated.

This can be a tricky task, however, if your old domain is now owned by someone else who has a similar purpose or similar content.

Aside from domains you’ve lost, this is also a good way to reclaim links built to properties you used to own on hosted sites like WordPress.com or other free platforms. Maybe you started out your blog on Blogger and received a lot of links to it, but now have a blog on your own domain. It never hurts to go back, check your old properties’ backlinks, and see if you can get them changed to your new site.

Updated Links for Lost Offsite Content

Have you ever submitted a great piece of content to a site, only to find that down the road, the site no longer exists? If you saved your content (which you always should), you could get some links from this opportunity.

First, you’ll want to see if there are links built to the URL your content previously existed upon. If there are, take that content and place it on your own website. Then you’ll want to contact all of the sites linked to your old piece of offsite content and ask them to link to the new content. This should lead to good results as most people would want to make sure the content they linked to is still live, assuming those sites are still being maintained.

Credit for Content

If you use infographics in your link building strategy, then you will want to make sure you have gotten the maximum number of links possible for each infographic. No matter how simple you make it for people to link back to your website along with your infographic, you may still discover lots of websites using it without a link.

To find out, use Google Image search. Upload your infographic and let Google go out and discover any instances of it on the web. Alternatively, you can also do a Google search for the exact title of your infographic. As you discover sites using your infographic, you can contact them and ask that they add attribution back to your website.

This strategy also works well for Creative Commons images. If you create great images that people can use on their websites and blogs, make them Creative Commons licensed. Share them on sites like Flickr. Then look for websites using the images to make sure they have been credited properly back to you with a backlink to your website. If not, request one.

What other strategies do you use to claim pre-existing link opportunities? Please share in the comments!

The post Link Reclamation – How to Get the Links You Deserve appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.

This is where using a link building persona can come in handy. It takes a little evaluation of the site you are targeting and the person (webmaster) you are going to email to decide what persona to go with, but if you choose the right one along with a well-composed link request, you are going to stand a better shot of your link.

Photo Credit: Nicolas Nova on Flickr

Here are some example link building personas to choose from, why they work (or don’t), and keys to using them effectively.

The Online Marketer / SEO

Most link builders fit into this category as many people hire out to agencies and consultants for their SEO work. Emails from SEOs are typically more focused on getting the link details down to a point and less focused on building a personal relationship with the webmaster. SEOs usually do not have a lot of enthusiasm for the websites they are building links for, and that generally shows in the email.

The result: Emails from this perspective are ignored by many webmasters. Alternatively, the ones that know many SEOs will pay for a link will respond to the link request by requesting compensation, regardless of whether the SEO mentioned whether they would pay for the link in the request. The overall success rate with this approach is probably lowest.

The Website / Business Owner

Approaching a webmaster as the website owner, business owner, or employee of the website you are building usually has a more genuine feel. Emails from someone directly involved in the website or business are typically more focused on introducing the website / business and why it would be a beneficial link for the webmaster to share with their audience. Great enthusiasm for the website they are building links for is shown in the email.

The result: Emails from this perspective are usually met with a more positive response. Instead of buying a link, you may be redirected to purchase advertising, but it will happen less often.

The trick (if you are not affiliated with the website or business) is making webmasters think that you are. While you can use a generic email address like Gmail, it’s best if you can get an email address from the domain of the website itself (you@domain.com). Let your client know that the best responses happen this way. Just don’t do anything spammy with the client’s domain-based email address or you could get them in trouble.

A Fan of the Webmaster

This persona allows you to interact with the webmaster in a helpful manner. It’s a good one to use when you are working on a broken link strategy which entails looking for pages with broken links relevant to the website you are building links for and asking the webmaster to replace the broken link with yours. You can also use it for a regular link request where you simply suggest to a webmaster that the website you are building links for would fit perfectly on a specific page on their website.

The result: Emails from this perspective are usually viewed as being helpful, especially if they are coming from someone who is a fan. Hence, they can be effective. There is little chance that the webmaster will expect compensation coming from this approach.

The key is to make sure that the webmaster knows you are a fan by mentioning something about their website outside of the page you are building the link upon. For example, you regularly check out their site for resources on that particular topic and happened to find another resource that would go great with the ones the webmaster has already suggested.

Do you use personas for link building? What other approaches have you attempted and what have been the results? Please share in the comments!

The post How to Get More Links Using Personas appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.

Look For Advertising Networks / Directories with Real Customer Traffic

There are lots of directories out there that receive tons of traffic, but that traffic isn’t necessarily the kind that will lead to click throughs and conversions for your website. So instead of looking for SEO directories, you’ll want to look for those whose traffic is made up of potential customers.

For example, wedding vendors can start an advertising account with The Knot. This site is not only a huge hotbed of potential-customer traffic, but also allows a dofollow link back to your website. Depending on your niche, you’ll likely find similar advertising networks / directories that allow you to build links and customers simultaneously.

Give Free Trials / Samples to Bloggers

When you find blogs that have your potential customers as readers, don’t just reach out to them for a guest blog post. Instead, look to establish a relationship with them. If you give bloggers the chance to try out your products or services and create a great experience with them, you are likely to create new brand advocates for your business.

This can lead to more positive reviews with links from their blog to your website as well as links from other blogs the blogger writes for. And as an added bonus, the more often the blogger mention you, the more likely their audience is to invest in your products or services.

Partner with Related Businesses

Know some businesses that would make the perfect partners in your industry who aren’t competitors? Partner up with them. The simplest way is to offer a mutually beneficial referral option – you’ll link to their website as one of your partners if they do the same.

This is different from the standard “link exchange” in the sense that they are actually relevant to your business and you are both referring to each other as business partners, not just link partners. To increase the likelihood of conversions, look at other ways to partner with them such as offering their customers a discount for your products or services.

Offer Discounts

Want to really cement a converting link? Offer a discount! Create special discounts for the advertising networks / directories you sign up for, bloggers you offer free trials to, business partners, local directories that allow you to create coupons like Yelp, and any other place you can think of. Especially when it comes to bloggers and business partners, if you offer a discount they can share with their visitors, it will make them that much more likely to publish a link back to your website.

The key is to ensure relevance and vary the anchor text / description for each offer. You don’t want to be like Overstock and get busted for offering discounts to EDU sites for links. While it was a great strategy to grab valuable EDU links, it really only makes sense if you have a legitimate relevance to students. Discounts for bookstores, local businesses by the college itself, and products / services relevant to students or faculty would work. Links to vacuum cleaners, gift baskets, ceiling fans, and other items (as shown in the example above) with very specific anchor text can cue Google in to a possible link scheme.

The post How to Get More Links and Conversions in 2013 appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.