The Maine SEO Blog

I want to discuss some of the links a little further that Eric Ward brought up in the MarketingProfs Link Building Webinar I attended a few weeks ago.  He said something very important: there are a select group of links that you should pursue that, while they have no PageRank or SEO value, are overwhelmingly valuable simply by the conversions you recieve.

1. Email links - Would you consider sending out an email newsletter without a link to your site?  I hope not.  For while you get no SEO value for that link, you will most certainly get the clicks…and conversions.
2. Temporary Buzz links - from sites like Digg and Sphinn.  While these links do get “followed”, the temporary buzz created will get you a boost in traffic while they’re up.
3. Social media links - Links from Twitter and Facebook are nofollowed, but can create buzz and traffic just the same. (Linkedin links are followed.)
4. Blog comment links - Generally, when you leave a comment on a blog or article, your website is nofollowed.  But that doesn’t mean people can’t click on it.  Leaving an insightful comment just might get more traffic to your site.
5. Collateral/Marketing materials - Technically not a link, but still necessary.  These include every physical marketing flyer, handout, newspaper/magazine print your company puts out to radio and tv advertisements.  Give people a call-to-action: go to our website.

So while these links may not yield in more search engine traffic or (in most cases) backlinks, they will certainly give you more direct traffic and conversions.

Nicki Hicks
Linking for Traffic’s Sake

About a week and a half ago, I attended a MarketingProfs webinar with SEO and link building gurus Stephan Spencer and Eric Ward.  The presentation itself was called “Link Building for Online Publicity, Buzz & SEO - What’s New & What’s Tried and True”.

Here is a sampling of my notes, basically the major things I pulled from the presentation (most of which I either did not know or Stephan and Eric simply solidified).

• It’s not all about the SEO and PageRank. It’s about driving qualified traffic; there are other quality links (many that have no SEO value at all) that you should go after:
  - Directory links (DMOZ, Yahoo! Directory)
  - Temporary buzz links (Digg)
  - Paid-for links (Eric gave the example of Adbrite)
  - Vertical links
  - Email-based links
  - Links from blogs
  - Editorial links
  - Organic links
• Finding vertical/topical links:
  - searchengineguide.com/searchengines.html
  - searchenginecolossus.com
  - Google (search for “seo search engine”)
• 301 redirects pass link juice; 302’s do not.
• Tips for requesting links:
  - Subject line is the most important, letting the webmaster or blogger know that you are not a spammer.  Make it personal and use the title of their site.
  - Make the email short and sweet, again letting the webmaster/blogger know you’re not a spammer.  Link to a specific page (preferably NOT the homepage) and why/how it would interest their audience.
  - Include a brief overview of what the site is all about - don’t make your potential linker do all the work!
• Tips for link reclamation (in other words, what to do if your URLs change):
  - Identify these useless links in your Google Webmaster Tools
  - Contact linking sites
  - 301 redirect
• Tips for updating link text (in other words, getting backlinks to change anchor text from “click here” to something a little more relevant and keyword rich):
  - Review existing backlinks with a backlink analyzer (something like Linkscape from SEOmoz)
  - If the keywords you’re targeting are NOT in the anchor text, consider contacting the webmaster/blogger (using the same sort of technique as requesting links).
• Check how PageRank is flowing and if you have an error codes with a Server Header Checker (search for Google and use one of the top 10).
• Track link building efforts with tools:
  - trackengine.com
  - changenotes.com
  - google.com/alerts
  - urlywarning.net
  - changedetect.com

Nicki Hicks
Maine SEO

We’ve begun, of late, to suggest our clients not only optimize their sites, but their blogs too.  Here are some easy ways to start:

1. Keyword-rich titles. Since your blog titles become your page titles, make them keyword-rich and, at the same time, enticing to your readers.  Using negative titles can often be a good hook (like “5 Ways to Lose Money this Holiday Season”).
2. Optimize your categories. Category names have an obsene about of SEO benefits: they are links, usually apart of the URL, and can also help readers make decisions (for example, when looking into your archives - which categories interest them).  So, category titles should be keyword-rich and descriptive.
   There’s a discrepancy as to whether or not it’s better to assign a blogpost to a single category or more than one.  Typically, your blog will choose which category it is designated to, and Google will index it under that category.  Duplicate content is the issue here, so watch out!
3. Link Building. Ping back your own blogposts as often as you can - as long as they provide a good resource for what you’re talking about.  Link to other sites as you would on your website - to quality sites and blogs.
4. Post often. Blogs tend to get crawled and indexed more because of how often new content is added.  For a new blog, posting 2-3 times a week should be a priority.  After your blog has collected a certain amount of trust and readership, posting at least once a week (depending on how much you have to write about) is important.
5. Bonus out-of-the-box idea: Set your blog to follow comment links. This way, your readers will more likely leave intelligent comments, knowing they get a link out of it - and therefore starting a more interesting coversation.  Of course, you’ll need to monitor your comments that much more heavily.

So if you have a blog or are thinking about starting one, remember…SEO is just as important there as for your website!!!

Nicki Hicks
Maine Blogging

You may have noticed this tiny green bar on your Google toolbar that changes with every site you visit.  In its simplest terms, PageRank is one of Google’s ways to assign weight and rank to websites.

Google bases this particular algorithm off of millions of variables; the major factor being the number of (quality) incoming links.  While no one knows their true PR, the toolbar will at least give you an idea of where you’re at: with a number from 1-10, 1 being low PR and 10 high PR.  (Similarly, you will never know exactly how many incoming links your site has, but Yahoo’s Site Explorer will give you a fairly close number).  Google updates toolbar PageRank approximately every 3 months.

Being somewhat inquisitive, I decided to investigate a little further.  I took a look at 10 sites - with toolbar PR of 1-10.

I also included age because I’ve seen PageRank increase over time, simply from gaining trust from traffic rather than backlinks.  I wanted to test whether or not it had much impact on PR.  However, from this small sample, it seems too difficult to infer that age has anything to do with PR.  Perhaps with a larger sample, I could decide differently.

However, it is easy to see the direct relation between PR and backlinks.  Due to the drastic change in the number of backlinks, I had to split the charts: PR 10-6, then PR 5-1 following in order to see the similarities.

What I learned and confirmed

1. Don’t rely on your toolbar PR; use it instead as a relative guide.
2. Get as many quality, incoming links as you can.
3. Since blogs generally acquire more backlinks than regular sites, a young blog can have a better PageRank than an older site.
4. The only other website with a PR 10 (as far as anyone can tell) than Google, USA.gov, has just over 11 million backlinks - millions less than any examples I provided above a PR 7  - proving the power of a .gov (.edu’s are powerful too!).

Nicki Hicks
Watch your back(links)

My boss has recently been interested in the benefits of using LinkedIn - his most recent blogpost being about the advantages for small business people and entrepreneurs using LinkedIn.  In addition, I recieved an email from LinkedIn this morning about their newest addition: LinkedIn Applications.  So, I figured it’s high time I do a little investigatory work myself…

The first thing I noticed - while Facebook profiles will, more often than not, outrank it; searches for people with LinkedIn profiles will rank incredibly high (usually the first page).  My profile, for instance, is the fourth result in a search for my name, the fifth being a SERP for my name in LinkedIn:

So…what does that mean?  In all honesty, not all the much.  I mean how many people search for my name other than me?  The catch: searching for your friends, colleagues, classmates, or even businesses.  Say I was searching for the Via Group - an advertising firm right here in Portland.  (Admittedly, they just connected with me on LinkedIn.  But let’s say for the sake of argument I was searching for them.)  Their LinkedIn profile is ranked eighth in a search for “via group”.

Pretty powerful.  Another cool thing about LinkedIn?  They follow THREE of your links! (Most social media sites will usually give you an area to add links for your business, blog, what have you; but will nofollow them.)  For example, my Facebook links are nofollowed (SeoQuake will strikethrough nofollowed links):

Conversely, my LinkedIn profile not only follows my links, but also allows me to choose my own anchor text - even more powerful:

Moral of the story: If you don’t already have a LinkedIn profile (whether personal or business), get one!  And while you’re at it, follow me -

Nicki Hicks
Find me on LinkedIn