I thought this would be a good read for anyone of any skill level, link builder or not. Google has a lot of patents and I’ve been wading through them in what is left of my spare time. They usually give a good insight into what Google is currently implementing, and what they might consider in the future. This document, to the best of my knowledge, was created by the fine folks at SEOmoz, perhaps Rand?
seo
Google Patent #20050071741 Analyzed
1 Comments
May 18 | Link Building | Ryan Clark
Tagged google, Link Building, seo, spam
New York Times Online Paid Experiment: Let’s Watch
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May 14 | News | Ryan Clark
So the New York Times has announced that it will be charging for content on their website, a last ditch effort to make some money perhaps. The NYT does do pretty much all of its reporting, so you can see why they might be wanting to try this effort out. I for one, think it`s going to flop like just about every other attempt like this attempted. What is different however, is that the NYTimes.com website been seeing a lot of growth in the past 5 months, and hopefully this doesn`t hurt that effort. With a lot more popular content going away from the Google Index, I wonder if they`ll still manage to keep organic traffic up.
I think this is a great opportunity from a marketing and SEO perspective because we can monitor any changes, without footing the bill of course. I`m also wondering about how much organic and social media traffic they`ll lose to those big stories. I`ve seen other paid newspapers have there paid content landing pages rank well in Google, and that pissed me off quite a bit, so hopefully we don`t see that here.
What are your thoughts?
Tagged marketing, new york times, nytimes.com, seo
PokeSEO Goes Live
June 10 | Link Building Tools | Ryan Clark
The world finally has its first SEO application for the iPhone thanks to Tanner Christensen and John Cotant. PokeSEO is its name and on the go statistics is its game. I know that most of my readers are most likely the same as me, and are heavily addicted to stats. With PokeSEO you should be able to get your fix anywhere you can find a wifi connection.
I wanted to write about the app mainly because Tanner and John put in a backlinks feature which caught my eye. So what does PokeSEO do? It’s simple and it’s beautiful because you get on the spot statistics like a site PageRank, as well you get backlink numbers from 4 of the major search engines. The backlink data comes from Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL. To top it all off you can then fire off a report to your clients, yourself or your boss on the weekend while you’re on the golf course.
PokeSEO also automatically updates with fixes and new features so you never have to worry about re-downloading the latest version. As most iPhone apps, you don’t have to pay much to get a lot and you can have this app for only $1.99 USD!
I have 5 promo codes. The first 5 people to tweet about this post and then email me will receive their promo code. If you’d like to get in touch with the fine folks that put this app together then you can DM them on Twitter.
Tagged application, iphone, iphone app, pokeseo, seo
Don’t Forget Aboutus.org
May 30 | Link Building | Ryan Clark
Almost every SEO Consultant is aware of Aboutus.org, but from what I’ve seen a lot of webmasters, bloggers and SEO’s do not take full advantage of what they offer. For those of you who don’t know what it is, it’s basically an about your website page that is powered by a Wiki and some custom technology. It’s arguably the most popular site like it, and it gets the most love in Google’s eyes.
Aboutus catalogs over 10 million websites, has 26 million pages indexed and does a grade A job of internal linking. If you want to see how a site sculps their page rank by the books then hunt around Aboutus with your favorite SEO browser plugin. I haven’t done too much editing to the Linkbuildr Aboutus Page, but as you can see I’ve done some editing which is more than I can say about others.
If you’re working on a client, or wanting a SEO boost then I highly recommend paying for an Aboutus Sponsor Review. For $197 USD you get can have their staff write a review of your webiste/business which will get you a content rich profile page. This can include video, audio and as well you get the benefit of dofollow links. The free pages limit you to nofollow and less social media features, but it is still worth the time to fill out. I’ll be working more heavily on mine over the weekend and I suggest everyone do so as well!
**Update
Kristina from Aboutus was too kind in coming here and giving me some more information. If you want to make a great page you can have the option of getting a couple dofollow links. check out the ProFollow tips and you could be on your way to more SEO benefits.
Tagged aboutus, Link Building, seo
International Link Building Tactics & Strategies
May 19 | Link Building | Ryan Clark
I wanted to start off with a quick overview of international SEO to make sure that you start your international link building campaign with a solid foundation.
Make sure to target a specific country instead of a language with your international SEO campaign. The reasons for this are that countries may use differing terms to describe the same thing (for example a “pickle” in the US is a “gherkin” in the UK). Also, countries have specific indexes in Google as opposed to languages. I have been noticing that Google is putting allot of emphasis on localized results and this seems to be especially true for International SERPs. A few things to consider when targeting a specific country are as follows;
1. Get the specific Country Code Top Level Domain (CCTLD) of your target country
2. Get your site hosted in the target country
3. Localize your site for your target country (instead of translate)
4. Make sure your URLs are written in the target Language
5. Get links from sites located in your target country.
Having links from sites that are located in your target country is a great way to show Google that you are highly relevant for queries within the country.
When validating an international link, check to see where the site is hosted. Also look at the CCTLD of the potential link. You should also consider getting links from sites that are written in the same language as the language spoken in the target country.
International link building is very much like traditional link building with the added element of focusing on getting geo-targeted links. All of the major link building elements are the same, focus on quality over quantity as well as relevant and authoritative links. However, you also have to add links from within the target country into the equation. As you may have guessed, this greatly reduces the opportunities to get links. Since the options are so constrained, sometimes international link building will utilize some otherwise outdated link building tactics.
Do a backlink analysis on your international competitors that are ranking ahead of you and start looking at their quality links. Define which of those links are from sites within the country and look at each site to determine if it is a viable place to get links. This will often reveal social media sites, blogs and forums to comment on, directories, article sites and many other local sites to get links from. This also shows what your competitors are up to from a link building stand-point and allows you to assess your chances of catching up or surpassing them. One such analysis that I did recently, revealed that my client’s competitor had a significant amount of reciprocal links. So this otherwise outdated tactic still seems to be helping sites rank number 1 in international indexes.
The use of local directories is a great way to acquire geo-targeted links. Many times you will find these through your analysis on your competitors’ links. Also get Links from other countries but in the language from the country you are targeting. (So links from Argentina going to a Mexican site.) A few sites that I like are http://cv.com which is hosted in France, (I actually found this site from this blog and noticed that it was hosted in France.) I also like http://www.folkd.com which is a social bookmarking site hosted in Germany.
Next, get high authoritative links from the same places you would get links from if you were doing standard link building whenever possible. Some authoritative directories have specific regional areas like http://botw.org/top/Regional/Countries/ http://www.ezilon.com/ http://www.dmoz.org/World/ . The yahoo directory has a regional area but I would suggest submitting your site to the country specific yahoo directory i.e. (http://fr.dir.yahoo.com/) sometimes it’s free which is different from the US specific yahoo directory which will run you $199 a year or so.
This about covers the basics, I hope this post is helpful.
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Post by David Isaac Lewallen of CybernautSEO
If you would like to learn more I write a blog focusing on international SEO and link building issues. Feel free to contact me there regarding any specific questions or follow on twitter; I also work at BusinessOnLine which is an enterprise level SEO agency.
Tagged international link building, Link Building, seo
SEO Web Hosting
January 4 | Link Building Tools | Ryan Clark
SEO Web Hosting has become quite popular lately, and if you have a network of sites/blog/whatever you’re most likely wanting to have them each hosted on a separate IP address. A lot of companies have sprung up to offer specific SEO Web Hosting as it has become the buzz word even though most companies have offered this since the dawn of web hosting. It’s a smart move on their part because it made for a great new keyword to reap in tons of clients, and usually clients who were raking it in themselves. There are a handful of dedicated SEO Web Hosting companies and I thought I would list a few, ranked as I seem them now on Google according to the Google Dance Tool.
SEO Web Hosting is a full fledge managed hosting company that specializes in SEO Web Hosting. They’ve done a great job building up their backlink profile, and with a domain like that it’s no wonder why they’re holding down the number one position in Google for the term. They do a great job of splitting up the IP’s and the prices are very affordable, but if you’re in this game money shouldn’t be a problem. You can take a look at their SEO Hosting Packages or contact them at 570-574-9067. I must say though they need to get an email contact form up on their website….this is 2009 after all :)
SEO Hosting is another powerhouse SEO Hosting company that is backed by none of than Host Gator. I’m an affiliate of theirs but they have no banners or links under their program for this, so that would be nice (hint hint). Since this is with Host Gator prices are very reasonable and hosting plans start as low as $35/month and go all the way up to $544/month. The site also offers some run of the mill SEO tools and a blog that also features run of the mill blog posts…if you guys ever need a guest post let me know!
I will be updating this thread throughout the blogs lifespan and make sure to add new companies that offer SEO Web Hosting services. If I missed a company please let me know through my contact form or leave a comment in this post. I’ve also been wondering what Google might think of this as an SEO technique….border line greyhat or do you folks think its all good? I personally think it is a viable tactic, but I do see the blackhat possibilities with use a SEO Web Hosting setup for a blog network.
Tagged hosting, Link Building, seo, seo hosting, SEO Web Hosting, web hosting
The Worio Search Engine In Review
I recently came across Worio which is a relatively new search engine that brings some new twists to the search engine game, and I’m pretty impressed. The layout and feel of the site flows nicely with a clean web 2.0 feel in both the design and social interaction. Worio is set out to not only provide the way we search as we know it, but also influence how you find things through friends, new blogs and other social media aspects. This search engine was developed in my homeland at the University of British Columbia and they do a decent job of not getting the word out locally. Worio learns about your interests and dislikes through your searching habits, so the more you search and tag, the better you’ll get the content you’re looking for.
What does “Worio” mean? Worio is an acronym based on “Web of Research”, the name we gave to the group of researchers that came together at UBC to develop this project.
You can also search the oldies but goodies like Google, Yahoo and MSN through Worio to further the learning experience. Now the links within the search results are dofollow, as well as popular links within the right sidebar but I’m not sure if you’ll see much link love. Currently the search engine only has a couple hundred pages indexed so I wouldn’t expect to see a lot of traffic or links just yet. As a SEO consultant I love seeing how other people are trying to come up with ways to bring my search results, and I hope Worio succeeds in the long run.
Tagged Link Building, search engine, sem, seo, worio
Building Readers With Earnersclub.net
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Earnersclub is a great hub for the SEO/SEM/Webmaster community and provides a new source for traffic to your blog. The links are not dofollow, but I’m after the traffic that’s involved here and I’ve been using the site more and more lately. Not only does this dive into the realm of what Sphinn covers, but it also goes into the money making niche deeply with a vast section of great links to information I don’t normally come across….and it’s all about making money. They also have a vast array of buttons for your website, browser plugins to easily submit content on the go and of course a handy WordPress plugin to let your readers vote up your stories. I’m kind of in a toss up to switch it over from Sphinn, but for now I’ll try and get this added to my socialize this plugin for WordPress. I highly recommend all your folks out there in these niches to join up and start voting and submitting your good content.
