All About Content
Wednesday, August 31st, 2005Content is one of the biggest influences on the success of your search marketing program. There is a saying that
Archive for August, 2005
All About Links
Wednesday, August 24th, 2005Today we are going to take a look at links and how they relate to the success of your web site. Links are very important for natural, organic search engine optimization. Often the amount of sites linking to your site determines your placement within the search engine result pages – especially for competitive keywords.
Links are also a means to drive qualified visitors to your site from other sites. This is the type of traffic that will result in conversions for your site.
Think about links as you would any business connection. You network in business to make connections that will benefit your company. Links will benefit your web site and your business. You can ask questions or discuss links on the ‘Insights into Search for Business’ Blog.
Links – Some Definitions
There are many phrases and terms bandied about relating to links. This can be confusing so I thought I would give you some definitions to help you understand them.
A ‘link’ is a group of words, a picture or type of hotspot on a web page that when clicked takes you to another web page. Outbound links are used by search engines while crawling through sites. Inbound links are a reflection of your sites popularity and relevancy for search terms.
‘Anchor text’ are the words used within the link. Search engines use this text to determine the subject of your page and the targeted page.
A ‘reciprocal link’ is a two-way link involving a link to your site from an external source and a link from your site back to the external source.
A ‘one-way link’ or ‘non-reciprocal link’ is a link to your site from an external source with no link back to the source.
‘Link popularity’ is a technique used by search engines to determine the relevancy of site pages. It involves examining the network of connections between pages. This is used to rank sites as pages with many inbound links from authority pages get a boost in the rankings.
A ‘link building campaign’ is used to attract new links to your site by making requests to other sites.
A ‘link audit’ analyzes the links to your site pages. You can then identify pages with low levels of links and look at strategies to improve them.
A ‘link auction’ is the purchasing of high value links through a bidding process at auction sites.
A ‘link farm’ is a a spam method which involes setting up sites for the purpose of adding links to boost sites. Avoid involvement in link farms as search engines will penalize sites involved in this practice.
Links are necessary if you want your site to be ranked in the search engines. The highest value links are from sites that are related to the content of your site. Currently one-way links appear to offer the most benefits in terms of results. The best way to go about building links involves steady natural process as opposed to a sudden attempt to increase the number of links to your site.
Link Building for a New Web Site
Link building is such an important area of owning a business website. It’s a great way to promote your site and your business. And it is also critical for search engine rankings. Think of link building as networking for your site. The more people that know about your site and can find it the better.
Like networking, link building is fairly simple. It’s all about communication. The drawback – you have to invest a lot of time. Here is the basic process of link building. You need to find websites that you would like to link with. You have to make a request to get a link from theses sites. Then you have to wait for an answer to your request. You have to manage the links on your site. Finally you have to make sure that the link is actually in place. As you can see from this process it relies to a great deal on other people’s participation. This is where it gets tricky as there are no guarantees that people will work with you or help you.
The easiest way to build links for a new site is through a directory submission program. The best links for your site are one way non-reciprocated links; in other words a vote for your site from another site that you haven’t paid for through a reciprocated link. Directories are ideal for this as they are authority sites that will hand non-reciprocated links to websites. Not only this, but directories are still used extensively by searchers due to the way the data is presented.
Unscrupulous people have come up with ways to artificially build links without all this work. These link packages or link ‘farms’ can get you a lot of links quickly, but they can also get your site banned by the search engines. It is suspected that Google also have a link filter in operation as part of their current algorithm. It looks like this penalizes any sites that build links too quickly or if these links seems unnatural. This type of link building campaign is to be avoided.
As you have probably observed in life there are not many ‘get rich quick’ systems that really work. The same holds for link building. The truth of the matter is that you get out of it what you put into it. There is no getting around putting in hard work and time to link building. The good news is that this effort pays real dividends for your business as the links you build will be natural, long lasting and of value to you.
A Few Final Words about Links
- Quality content on your site will make quality sites owners want to link to you!
- Do not be afraid to ask other site owners for links
- What is written as anchor text is very important
- It’s your choice who you link to and you have some say in who links to you
- Do not try to cheat with links, it’s a dangerous game
Choosing a Newswire Service to Distribute Optimized Press Releases
Thursday, August 4th, 2005Press releases have traditionally been associated with public relations. Over the past ten years there have been major changes in the field brought about by the development of the web. This has led to the online distributions of releases and so the function is now being increasingly associated with the technical skills belonging to search engine marketers. For many people in the search marketing field who are not experienced in public relations and have been approached to optimize press releases the field can be confusing. The basics of press release optimization are similar to keyword optimization for web sites; however there are some areas that demand specialized knowledge.
Firstly an overview of the basics of press releases. Generally speaking the goal of a press release is to generate favorable media coverage that is aimed at your target audience. Therefore you need to know your target audience and where they go for their information. From this you can build a media list of journalists and publications you want to contact. Once you have your media list you need to determine your distribution method.
What makes up a successful press release?
There are many ingredients to a good press release. It has to be well written, preferably by a subject expert, it has to be a good read, and it has to be newsworthy so that journalists and your target audience will be interested in your news. A good press release always has well written content offering unique information presented in a story type of format.
When you have prepared your press release how do you deliver it to your media contacts? You have a few options. You can correspond directly with individual media contacts. You can distribute it via a media database service which enables you to pay for and build a media list from their database of editors, reporters, producers, etc. Your other option is to deliver your release via a newswire service.
A newswire service distributes news and information. It may also offer additional services related to targeting, evaluation and measurement of results. Your distribution may be targeted towards a more specialized distribution list or on a more broad, national or international level.
There are many newswire services to choose from and for someone new it may be confusing. If you do a search for ‘newswire service’ you will come across many services including PRNewswire, BusinessWire, PR Web, MarketWire, PR Leap, US Newswire, and many others.
Choosing a newswire service depends on your approach. Press releases can be approached from a public relations viewpoint or a search marketing viewpoint or some combination of both. Before the growth of the web it was primarily used as a public relations tool to get news published. With the growth of the web it developed into a way to target prospects, not just the media. It also developed into a way to get additional search engine traffic through almost immediate indexing and placement, incoming links, brand development, and keyword targeting. Press releases can also be used to control and dominate a search engine space by focusing on a particular brand name.
Traditional Newswire Slow to Adapt
I have observed that some of the older, more traditional, newswire services such as PRNewswire (est. 1954) and BusinessWire (est. 1961) were slow to adapt to the needs of the digital environment. However they have rapidly caught up. Unfortunately their services are relatively expensive ($500-$700 per 400 word release and can include an annual membership fee of $100+). These are the newswire services that tend to be used by traditional PR agencies for their corporate clients.
Some of the newer newswire agencies such as PR-Web (est. 1997) and PR Leap (est. 2003) were at forefront of adapting to the digital age. They promote their services by stating that they offer free press release distribution but do accept contributions for an increasingly expanded range of services. These contributions for expanded services range from $20 to $200+. These newswire services are generally used by small to medium sized online businesses, search engine marketing and new media agencies.
Favorite Newswire Is…
From my experience, and trial and error with the various services I tend to favor PR-Web for optimized press releases. PR Web is on the leading edge of online news releases and is geared towards optimized press releases. Not only do they release instantaneously to online media sources and journalists but they also offer a database of older press releases for media research. Then there is the cost advantage. I find that the $80 contribution works well and gets you listed in Google News and Yahoo News on the day of release. I also use the $200 contribution which enables you to include hotlinks in the text and also attach images. (In my experience the free service does not offer the range of services that you will need to maximize exposure for your release.) These news listings also filter through the web search engine results pages (SERPs) within a few days where they can stay active for around a month. When they are picked up by other media sources and added to their site’s content they can say in the SERPs for an indefinite time.
If you are involved in a online reputation management campaign or if you are trying to control a particular search engine space you may want to use more than one newswire service and use multiple releases for the keyword. I have found that this is a useful way to increase your total presence within the SERPs for a brand or corporate name. This enables you to have your unique content located on different sites to show up for your keyword.
More and more search engine marketers are making use of the possibilities that press release optimization offers for their clients. And more and more public relations professionals are coming to these marketers to optimize their press releases. To take full advantage of these possibilities my advice is to experiment with different newswire services to find out what service works best for you and your clients. Also be aware that the field is very dynamic so try to stay on top of new developments and stay on the lookout for any new newswire services that enter the marketplace.
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Local Search for your Business
Wednesday, August 3rd, 2005If your target market is on a local level your can use local search techniques to help develop your online business. Local search or geographically-based search revolves around keywords which include the desired neighborhood, towns, cities or other types of region.
SEO campaigns aimed at local markets generally are geared to develop and optimize individual site pages which are written to target the individual neighborhoods or regions.
For example if you owned a pizzeria in San Diego and you were trying to increase your business with a website there would be little to be gained by targeting a keyword such as ‘pizza.’ People from New York doing a search for ‘pizza’ and coming across your listing are not likely to travel to your restaurant or order a take out pizza from you. However if you were targeting the phrase ‘San Diego pizza’ you are more likely to gain potential business. People in San Diego may be willing to travel to your neighborhood for a good pizza. But say you want to increase your business in your neighborhood. You should then target a more localized keyword ‘Mission Beach Pizza.’ If your business includes delivery you could target a phrase ‘Mission Beach pizza delivery.’
The goal of local search is to capture local consumers to increase your local businesses. You should aim to have an individual page developed with unique text written for each geographic location that you are targeting with localized keywords. For optimum SEO purposes aim to have around 400-500 words of text on each page.
The great advantage of focusing on a localized search compaign is that it enables you to target consumers who are in your area and actively looking to buy your product. This is a great way to grow your online business.