Jeffrey Hales
Over the past six months, I have been researching trends in top-ranking sites on the three most popular search engines - Google, Bing, and Yahoo - and what I have found is that developing a well-optimized website is not even half the SEO battle. All of the first page sites you will see on ANY basic search utilize ongoing link building campaigns that establish trust with search engines, and target audiences over time.
Anyone can do what the popular sites do to gain that coveted top ranking, but in order to do this, you must build what is called a quality link portfolio. What is that, you might ask, and how do I go about it? Well, I know, and I am certainly not going to hold out on my faithful readers...
You must first practice diversity, and that is simple enough. There are - literally - millions of links on the 'interwebs', and more coming out every day, but the best way is to embed a liberal share of relevant ones within your own content.
Some of the most popular tactics are as follows: blogging and engaging with your readers (commenting), press release distribution, directory submission, social networking (including, but not limited to YouTube), and video marketing. It's also important to note that you cannot rely solely on just one or two of these because it will leave your site vulnerable to search engine algorithm updates. Not only that, but it will also limit your own visibility among audiences who prefer one platform over another.
Next, you must designate a great content curator. An organic link-building campaign will not help at all unless you create content other authorities deem worthy to link with theirs. The (new) old adage among marketers, "Content is King," can only be true for your site with captivating and share-worthy content! It should give your audience some sort of value, and/or can even provide an informational or educational component. All hope is not lost if writing and developing great content isn’t your strength. A great number of companies - including those top-ranking sites - outsource content marketing and freelance writing these days, and it's less expensive than you might think.
I believe the next order of business in the battle for SEO is to pretend (even if you're not) to be a social butterfly. Your presence on social media can not only help build your brand, but also force the search engines to pay attention to 'social signals' and links that are shared. Social media sites play a vital role in search engine ranking... just in case you didn't already know.
A step not to be forgotten is to link to internal pages. We all know there's more to every website than just the homepage, and it's very important to note when maintaining yours that the search engines rank each web page individually. Web pages and an internal services or product page can also rank well as long as it is trustworthy among other links.
Remember to utilize anchor text! There are things called search engine spiders that scan links in order to determine what a webpage contains. So, if an inbound link is hyperlinked to a phrase like 'purple embroidered shirts,' the 'spider' understands that the page includes information about purple embroidered shirts. Anchor text such as 'click here' is obsolete and worthless because it tells the spider absolutely nothing. Beware of spiders. They can be your best ally in the War for SEO!
You must network! Notice the word, 'work' within! It takes a great deal of painstaking, hard work to do this correctly. Establishing and maintaining relationships with others can - and often does - lead to new opportunities, but it can also lead to a chance to site link. Don’t be afraid to reach out and ask your friends and/or connections if there is a possibility for you to contribute content to their site. This is what I like to call a win-win that improves visibility, and establishes quality inbound links for everyone.
However, you should run occasional link audits on your site, say, at least twice annually. While conducting these audits, you should click each link on your site, no matter how many there are. Depending upon how you decide to conduct your audit, it’s absolutely mandatory to do it. Likewise, you should also consider running link audits on competing sites. This will not only give you a good idea of how well you stack up against your competition, but it will also aid in discovering new link building opportunities as well; such as: industry associations they a part of that you might join, forums and message boards they are active on, blogs they are writing guest posts for, etc... You can peruse their activities in order to find new places to build inbound link opportunities to your own site which will certainly level the playing field.
Link-building is nothing short of an art form, and it is certainly easier for some than others. The most successful people doing this are the ones that are always thinking about it and looking for new opportunities. The key is to think outside the box in order to uncover new sites that can potentially be a perfect match for link building. A great place to start, however,are those previously established relationships. For example, think about your current advertising campaigns and all of those contacts. What traditional marketing methods do you use? From print ads in news and magazine publications, to radio, TV, and/or billboard, these businesses all have websites. So, if you are already investing with them,I can pretty much guarantee they would all be more than happy to include your link on their site. And, if your company participates in any local event marketing and/or sponsorships, the same guarantee applies. Sources of links are literally everywhere, but the best ones are the connections you already have within the industry, such as bloggers and social media followers. It takes time to establish these connections, so you shouldn't expect any from the onset. You must first establish a business relationship over time that will eventually lead to your pick of the litter, so-to-speak, of link opportunities. And remember, it works both ways in that respect. You can't assume others will automatically want to link to your content if you aren’t willing to share or promote their work from time to time. Sometimes, you will get a flat out no, but it doesn't end there. It’s always worth it to ask because in many cases, the site owner will have no problem including a link to your website and/or blog...
In order to create a successful SEO strategy, it’s important that website owners keep their SEO partner abreast of any changes, especially if they are planning to redesign/rebuild their site. Failing to do this could result in some pretty unfortunate scenarios and/or penalties that I will cover in a future blog.
When it comes to link building for SEO purposes, it’s extremely important to have a broad focus. A good strategy to develop a strong link building campaign that spans over, say, a year with monthly activities built-in, you must commit to stick to it. However, that doesn’t mean those tactics are the ONLY ones you should implement. A typical strategy includes activities like press release distribution, directory submission, social media engagement, social bookmarking, article marketing, local profile creation, as well as business profile creation.
This is an extremely phenomenal starting point, but you never know what types of opportunities may come along as that year progresses. It's also imperative that you keep your eyes peeled for these types of opportunities. Remember, the best link portfolios are diverse, which basically means that your inbound links are coming from a variety of sources. That’s why it’s also important to be creative, and to think outside the box when you are building your links.
It’s always important - and okay, mind you - to be thinking, 'How can I get a link out of this?" Sometimes, all you have to do is ask. A great way to build links that should be an integral part of any link building strategy is to write guest blog posts on other industry related blogs. What about blogs that aren’t necessarily in your industry, but are somehow related? For example, if you are a food critic, you don’t need to pigeonhole your guest blog posts, and stick to the restaurant community. Who eats? Everyone! Reach out to restaurant owners, or foodie blogs in order to gain visibility in an untapped area, and build additional credible links. You should always avoid sites that are (Ahem! Rickey Stokes...) loaded with ads, have questionable, low-quality content, and only sporadic traffic. You also want to avoid building links from sites that are in no way, shape, or form related to what you have to offer. That is what is called a 'spammy' approach that WILL lead to search engine penalties. The key takeaway is that more sites are fair game than you may think, and that it’s advisable to broaden your link building horizons.
Last, but not least, don't waste your time on sites with low-quality or unoriginal content. If these sites haven’t already been dinged by Google’s Panda update, they will be very soon. Mass-submission sites that automatically publish content may look like a great place to get a few inbound links, but everything that glitters isn't gold, you know, and in this world, it's called 'black-hatting'. Those tactics used to work in the dark ages of the internet, but beware of practicing crap like this nowadays! Save your content for the best sites that get more traffic, social signals and lots o' love from your favorite search engine!
Now go! Be great! Be cool! And begin to optimize!
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