http://www.articletrader.com/ Articles at ArticleTrader en-us http://www.articletrader.com/internet/site-promotion/managing-one-way-links-consistency-pays-off.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/site-promotion/managing-one-way-links-consistency-pays-off.html Tue, 04 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500
When you understand why links are important and you begin to implement a solid linking strategy, then you need to understand why linking is an ongoing process.

Search engines love new content. When you write an article about your website or your service or product, you're giving the search engines what they want; fresh, new content.

However, because everyone else is also feeding the search engines new content, news and information tends to get stale quickly.

You can compare your linking strategy to a person climbing stairs with a yo-yo. The stairs are equivalent to your long-term linking activities. The yo-yo represents the ebb and flow of traffic and links to your site. So, the general direction of your linking activities should be pointing up. That is, you have to continue "the climb".

You'll notice that, as you increase your activity, your traffic will increase as will your search engine rankings. This represents the yo-yo on its way up. Then, after the initial surge, traffic will tend to die down. That's the yo-yo at the bottom of its swing. When you take another step (i.e. submit more articles, submit to more link directories, and post to your blog) your traffic will increase. This represents the yo-yo coming back up from the swing.

On the other hand, if your linking process stalls or if you completely stop altogether, it's the equivalent of someone walking downstairs but this time there's less movement in the yo-yo. You'll see a steady decline in traffic as well as links because your once fresh content is old.

The great news is that most webmasters don't fully understand how linking gets them ranked and, more importantly, how on ongoing linking process is the key to achieving higher rankings in the search engines. Why is this great news? Because you can take advantage of it! Most webmasters only have a few dozen links.

Why do you think there are so many "push button" linking software packages on the market? We want all the reward with little to no effort.

Linking is very simple. You don't need super technical knowledge to understand how it works. You just have to put in the time required to get and maintain the links. When you truly understand this, then you'll put in the work required to do a good job.

So, whether you implement a linking strategy your self or outsource the job to someone else, it's critical that you maintain momentum. It takes time, but you will be rewarded for staying diligent.

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LinkAcquire is your one stop solution for article marketing information and services. Visit LinkAcquire today and download a free copy of "The Little Linking Instruction Book".

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/internet/site-promotion/making-effective-use-of-long-tail-keyword-terms.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/site-promotion/making-effective-use-of-long-tail-keyword-terms.html Mon, 03 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500
In Anderson's book, he explains how the Internet is circumventing every aspect of consumer choice. Before the Internet, consumers didn't have much choice. We simply took what the media and retailers offered and gave up on our own "custom" desires.

After I read the book, I thought about how the long tail applies to effective search engine rankings.

Below I describe how anyone with a website can make use of the long tail process.

Effective Use of Long Tail Terms

Let me describe what it means to use a long tail term. If you're selling shoes, an obvious keyword that you might want to target is "shoes". Now, if you're a small shoe seller, you probably won't have the time or money it would take to get in the top 10 search results for "shoes".

But, let's say that you sell a highly niched type of shoe. Maybe you sell shoes for people who have had leg or knee injuries. Or, maybe you make custom boots for cowboys. I know of several people who only buy custom boots so it's not unheard of.

Rather than trying to hit a highly competitive keyword like "shoes", you would want to go after a phrase like "custom cowboy boots" or "shoes for knee injuries".

You might think there's not enough traffic for these terms to bring you any substantial sales. However, that's exactly how the long tail process works. You don't want a lot of traffic from a single keyword phrase. You want a little traffic from a bunch of smaller, less searched keywords.

To continue my example, if you have a small shoe store, you could search your inventory and note the different types of shoes you have. Or, maybe you could start to diversify into these different types of shoes, especially if you have good wholesalers.

Let's say one of your keywords brings 100 website visitors per month. Let's also say that you have a great website, with great copy, and you're able to convert 5% of your visitors. So, five people will buy per 100 visitors. Of course, you can't stay in business with only 5 sales per month.

In fact, you may have to sell several hundred pairs of shoes just to break even or make a little profit. But the story doesn't end there. Now, let's say you have 10 of those long tail keywords. Each one of those keywords brings in 100 visitors per month. So, now you have 1,000 visitors per month reaching your website. If we leave the same conversion rate, 5%, then these 10 keywords will net you 50 sales per month.

The key to this process is 1) knowing how to niche your products and 2) knowing how to convert your visitors once they've made it to your site. It doesn't make any sense to bring 1,000 people to your website and not be able to convert them into buyers.

So, your goal as a long tail marketer is to snap up as much as the "little" traffic that you can get. You're not trying to compete with big-box retailers or websites. There's traffic that large websites don't get because they don't sell what people are looking for and, frankly, they don't care. That's now your job.

There are people who are looking for custom shoes, custom boots, or a customized experience. It's your job to look at what you have to offer and to think beyond the obvious keyword terms. There are hundreds, probably thousands, of keyword niches that have little to no competition.

As an example, someone mentioned that my daughter looked like a "kewpie doll". Keep in mind I had no idea what a kewpie doll even looked like. So, I did some research in Google. Come to find out, there are about 5,000 searches on the term kewpie doll per month. Guess what? The number one result for the term kewpie doll is a parked page someone is trying to sell. There is almost ZERO competition for this keyword term. It would be fairly easy to get ranked in the top 10 search results for this term. If I knew how to start a kewpie doll business, I would definitely go for the number one position. With a good website consistent effort, someone could probably convert 10% of those visitors.

As you can see, combining effective use of long tail keyword phrases with a solid converting website can help you tap into previously untouched markets, unfilled needs, and diversify into thousands of niche areas.

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Read more about link building topics and services at LinkAcquire.com. Our latest ebook, "The Little Linking Instruction Book", is currently available as a http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/internet/site-promotion/the-art-and-science-of-checking-for-backlinks.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/site-promotion/the-art-and-science-of-checking-for-backlinks.html Mon, 03 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500
An important aspect of a linking strategy is being able to check for back links and to know how well your site is performing in the search indexes.

Below, I've outlined how you can effectively search for back links using your article titles and keyword phrases.

Effectively Searching for Backlinks

The only software that I ever recommend using in your link building campaigns is SEO Elite and/or Keyword Elite. While they are a bit pricey, if you're going to engage in a long-term linking campaign, these tools are priceless. They allow you to search out effective keyword phrases, research competition, and help you define your linking strategies.

However, don't worry if you don't have these two pieces of software. I want to first note, that the "link:" command in Google doesn't work. Google has even said that it doesn't work correctly. Why? Because they don't want anyone to crack their search algo. So, you can certainly use the link: command, but it's not accurate and it changes constantly. You'll be frustrated if you rely on this only.

The easiest way to check for backlinks is to search on the titles of any articles you've submitted. If you've submitted your articles to high PageRank sites, your articles should get indexed fairly quickly. Once they're indexed, you will be able to search on the article title and see where you've been picked up. Believe it or not, there are many people who constantly grab new content that shows up in article directories.

Another technique for finding back links is to do a search on your website name. So, you would search "www.yourdomain.com" or whatever page you're linking to in your articles and links submissions.

The last technique you can use to search for back links is a combination of your keyword phrases and domain name. Keep in mind that if you want a keyword phrase to actually show up as the phrase, you'll have to put quotes ("keyword") around it. Otherwise, you get too many results and it will confuse or make you think you have more links and you really do.

One thing to keep in mind is that there's a difference between getting indexed and getting credit for a link in the search engines. You may find that after a few days your articles are starting to get indexed. This is a good thing but it also can be misleading.

It may take up to 30 days for your website to get credit for the link. A lot of people get excited when they see that they're starting to get some traffic from the articles they placed or links they submitted. Then they panic when the traffic drops off or ebbs from an influx of traffic. At this point, most website owners think these techniques simply don't work and quit.

However, if you understand that linking is an ongoing process, you'll understand that that a loss of traffic is part of the process. You'll understand that it's the cumulative effect of your efforts that will continue to drive your search results higher, thus increasing your traffic.

While I highly recommend using the "Elite" software products to find backlinks for your website, you can still use the techniques I've outlined above to search for your links and to ensure that your linking strategy is working like it should be.

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LinkAcquire is your one stop solution for article marketing information and services. Visit us today and download a free copy of our book new book "The Little Linking Instruction Book".

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/internet/site-promotion/link-placements-how-often-and-how-fast.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/site-promotion/link-placements-how-often-and-how-fast.html Mon, 03 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500
Below I've outlined a process to effectively and efficiently submit your articles and links and stay on good terms with article and directory site owners.

Before You Submit

Instead of trying to find submission sites on-the-fly, it's much more efficient to do your homework first. You need to gather your resources, determine where you want to submit, and compile your list.

How you do this? First, if you're submitting articles, my rule of thumb is to find article directories with a PageRank of at least four. It's okay to submit to lower pagerank directories, just make sure they're legitimate. Also, you might want to check out the Alexa rating for the sites you're submitting to. One way to detect a possible link farm is to look at the site's Alexa rating and compare it with its PageRank. If the Alexa rating is high (not as good) but the PageRank is high, then you know something is awry. If a site has a high PageRank it should also have a lower (better) Alexa rating.

Check the site's cache in Google. Has it been awhile since Google has been around? It's probably not a trusted site. Does the cache show a different site? Could be a PageRank redirect site. Avoid these at all costs.

Some common, high PageRank article directories include ezinearticles.com, goarticles.com, and isnare.com. I don't recommend signing up for article distribution services. You have no control over where your article goes if you submit to these sites. All it takes is one article on a spam site to ruin your reputation.

Your Submission "Speed"

I recommend that you submit one article at a time to at least 10 different directories. Don't submit all the articles you've written to one site at a single time. By the time you've finished submitting one article to 10 different sites, you can go back and submit your other articles, moving down the list as you complete each one.

Make certain you read and understand the terms of service and submission guidelines for each article or link directory that you submit to. Some article directories only allow a few submissions per day. You need to adhere to the submission guidelines. It's much better to be able to submit fewer articles per day than to do a massive submission and risk getting your articles deleted, or worse, losing your account.

After you've submitted to the first 10 directories, find 10 additional directories to submit to. Repeat the process I described above. Use should not submit a single article or link to more than 50 directories per day.

Maintain a Clean Submission Process

Your article and link submission process is a very important part of your linking strategy. You have to make sure that you understand what the directories want and that you follow their rules. You may think the rules are stiff, but it actually helps maintain a clean community.

Because of the proliferation of mass submission software, commonly used by those webmasters who are trying to make a quick buck, submission sites have come down hard on anyone who even hints of being a spammer. If you submit too fast to too many directories, I can guarantee that you will be labeled a spammer and your articles, or links, will be deleted.

So, do your research, compile your list of solid web and link directories, submit your articles and links like I've described above, and you'll not only increase your search engine rankings, you'll become a valuable part of the article and link directory community.

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Jerret Turner, CEO LinkAcquire.com, is an internet marketing services expert. Download a copy of Jerret's free book about expert linking strategies.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/internet/site-promotion/keyword-research-a-necessary-but-worthy-evil.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/site-promotion/keyword-research-a-necessary-but-worthy-evil.html Fri, 31 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0500
If you skip this stage, you could wind up doing a lot of work following dead ends. There are some markets that just are not worth pursuing. You don't want to end up chasing a market that isn't profitable.

You need to decide what the market is looking for and bring yourself to the market. Many small business owners do just the opposite. They come up with a product or service they think the market needs and then try to go after and convince the market of their product value. Once you find the market that you want to reach, then you will build your keyword or key phrase lists.

I will give you a high level overview on how to do proper keyword research. I'll start with the benefits of keyword research.

The Benefits of Keyword Research

What are the benefits of doing proper keyword research? Listed are four benefits of the power of keyword research:

1. It drives traffic to your site; just by simply using the words your target audience uses in their searches.

2. It helps you write more effective copy (sales copy) for your website; knowing what terms to incorporate into your copy helps your target audiences identify with your side immediately.

3. It helps with content development; it helps you create content that your target audience needs and avoids wasting your time on irrelevant topics.

4. It helps you understand your target audience better: you will know how and what your target audience is searching for.

5. It helps you measure the size of your market: just by determining the number of searches, you can target huge pools of untapped potential and avoid many pits.

6. The bottom line: the results of keyword research are that your website copy, business strategies, and online marketing will be successful a great majority of the time.

Keyword research is the foundation to proper linking. Why is this important? Sometimes we assume we know what our audience is searching for. This is a common mistake many professionals make. They assume that since they are an authority on a topic they should know what their audience is searching for.

95% of websites are caught in the trap of bad keyword selection. High correlations of the keywords you use on your website and the words your target audience uses in their searches actually moves the website toward the audience and attracts many more targeted visitors.

Keyword links + keyword content on your site + keyword searches = solid search engine traffic.

Building Your Keyword Lists

Step One. Understand Your Target Audience

To start an effective keyword list, consider your potential customers' motivations and intentions. What kind of questions will they ask? What are they trying to accomplish? What problems do they need solutions to?

Step Two. You Must Understand the Types of Buyers and Your Target Audience

Over 70% of all buyers are emotional buyers. These types of buyers are normally more spontaneous and concerned with the user experience and end results when considering a purchase. They asked the typical question, what's in it for me?

Step Three. Think Like Your Target Audience.

Remember, most of your buyers are emotional buyers. So, use the emotional slant to convince this type of buyer. Use emotional keyword anchors in your text. For example, if you had a website about running shoes, an emotional buyer is interested in the "best" running shoe or the "healthiest" running regime.

Step Four. Think Broad and Wide for Your Target Audience

Start with a broad list of keywords around your topic. Make sure they are specific enough to fit your target audience. Include terms that match closely with your visitors' intent in relation to what you sell.

Step Five. Prioritize Your Keywords Based on Conversion

If you don't have conversion data, you'll have to make your best guess as to which search terms you think will convert the best.

Consider these points:

1. Make your product or services' intention clear. Don't hide what you're trying to sell.

2. If your keyword phrase is "blue high top basketball shoes", make sure a visitor can buy "blue high top basketball shoes" on your site. Better yet, make sure you link to a page about those shoes.

3. Consider your ability to present value. How does your product present value?

4. Consider the amount of traffic you will generate using your keywords. If you're using a cheap hosting provider, you may want to switch to something that can handle higher traffic counts.

5. Consider the probability of conversion. If you are highly niched and know precisely what keywords or keyword phrases your target audience searches for, then use your highly niched keywords.

Keyword Research is Vital

The most important step you can take in marketing your website is keyword research. You not only need to know the keywords you want to get ranked for but also which keywords are converting the best for your website.

It makes no sense to drive a large amount of traffic to your site and not be able to stay in business because the conversions just aren't there. So, focus on quality NOT quantity. Start with your best keyword/phrase and begin your linking campaigns. Move down your keyword list, each time promoting and linking with the next keyword phrase.

In time, your site will not only move up in search rankings but move up based on the keywords that YOU chose. Don't fall for the myth that more traffic you get the better. Take control of your traffic and get ranked well for the keywords and phrases that are most profitable your business.

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LinkAcquire is your one stop solution for article marketing information and services.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/internet/seo/blogging-for-links.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/seo/blogging-for-links.html Mon, 27 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0500
If the content you write in your blog is relevant, informative, and helpful, your chance of getting back links rises considerably.

Four Important Blogging Rules

1. Write your blog posts just like you would any other article. The temptation is to stuff your keywords in your posts and overdo it. Google is looking for quality sites maintained by real people. Blogs have been abused so much in the past that it's a very important you post your own content that you've created. I don't recommend using free content that's so widely available or even private label content.

2. You need to offer something of value to anyone who visits your site. Remember that you're the expert on your topic. Not everyone knows what you know about shoes, landscaping, or whatever else you're writing about. A good technique is to review other products or websites and offer something of value that can help someone in a pre-purchase decision. I also don't recommend putting RSS feeds in your posts since this is a common technique that blog spammers have used in the past.

3. You need to make your blog unique. Give somebody visiting for the first time a reason to come back. Make sure you have a way for readers to subscribe to your content. This is usually done with an RSS reader button somewhere on your page. This is also a great place to put an opt in newsletter box where people can sign up and get free articles or free e-books.

4. Whatever you do, don't neglect your blog. If you keep your blog updated and offer new posts on a semi regular basis, you will increase your back links and visitors to your site. The worst thing you can do is start strong and simply let your blog die out. We've all seen the blogs with 4 or 5 consecutive posts on successive days only to have ZERO posts the last few months, or years! This can actually hurt you in the long run. If visitors see that you can't maintain your own blog, they might assume that you can't provide a good product or service. So make sure once you start your blog that you continue to maintain it.

Getting Links


Getting back links from a blog is a natural process. You can put links from your blog to your own website. Make sure you don't put links that only point to your website. Add resources, information, and other directories and sites where people can go to if they come to your website.

The natural progression is that somebody will visit your blog read your article and hopefully click a link to go your website. Or even better, someone will like your post and link to your post or link directly to your website. The benefit to blogs is that your posts will be syndicated to other sites and directories almost immediately. While syndication is a benefit, it also means your content will become stale faster.

Be very careful about what types of information you're writing about on your blog. If you're doing a review, don't use an affiliate link to another site. Using affiliate links is the fastest way to discredit your blog. If you do any linking at all, link directly to the site you're reviewing or referencing. Don't lose credibility for the sake of a few extra bucks.

It's also okay to put a resource box at the end of each post. Just make sure you're not trying to sell anything or offer "special deals". People want to know they're getting high quality information with no strings attached. Let your information speak for itself and if someone is still interested they will naturally follow your link.

Blogging is a simple and highly effective way to get back links

Blogging can get you the back links that you desire if done correctly. It's easy, doesn't take a lot of time, and will help you in your ongoing linking strategies.

If you are at all interested in using this technique, you can sign up with blogger.com today. You don't have to have your own domain name or even your own web host. That's why it's so important to add blogging to your linking toolkit. It's just too easy.

Blogging, along with article and directory submissions, is a powerful combination that will help you get ranked well for your search terms in all the major search engines. Use liberally.


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Jerret Turner, LinkAcquire.com CEO, can help you build one way links -the key to better search engine results.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/internet/seo/linking-with-integrity-tips-to-avoid-being-labeled-a-link-spammer.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/seo/linking-with-integrity-tips-to-avoid-being-labeled-a-link-spammer.html Mon, 27 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0500 Link Farms

What is a link farm? A link farm is any website designed and set up for the sole purpose of getting search engine spiders to crawl and index web pages. These websites provide absolutely no end user utility or benefit.

So how do you recognize a link farm? First, you need to ask yourself, is this site heavy laden with links? Most link farms will have a "farm" of links with little to no content. As for an explanation of the site's existence, it's usually missing too.

The next question you need to ask is, what does the URL of the site itself look like? Most of the time, link farms will have long, hyphenated URLs (i.e. our-great-linking-directory.com). This is a generalization so not all link farms will have these types of URLs. Many of these link farms are generated using software. The software will go out and find a domain name that contains specific keywords even if it settles on something with several hyphens and numbers. You may still consider a long, hyphenated site for linking purposes but make certain you conduct more research before you submit a link.

Next, look at the domain name extension and note if it's .info or .biz. In order to sell these extensions, many domain name registrars offer a one-time, deep discount. I know of several registrars that sell .info domains for 89 cents per year. These cheap domain names allow spammers to generate thousands of sites at a huge discount.

The next criteria I use to help identify a link farm is what I call the "cheese factor". Although some link farms will look professionally designed, most are either 1) generated with software or 2) are designed with the same cookie-cutter, non-altered templates that fill search engine results. This is especially true with blogs. Spammers and Internet newbies will not take the time to brand their websites or blogs. These are commonly referred to as "pump and dump" websites.

Another question you should ask is, does it look human? That is, does it look like someone hangs around and takes care of things? You should also be able to contact the webmaster either via web form or e-mail. If there's no contact information available anywhere on the website, be very afraid.

If it's a directory site, check out the links in a few of the main directory headings. Are the URLs hyphenated just like the main URL? If you visit one of these sites, does it look the same as the site you just came from? Are there more URLs crammed onto one page than anyone could possibly visit in a lifetime?

Last but not least, if you have your suspicions that a site might be a link farm, for any reason, stay away. It's better to miss a great linking opportunity than to post your link and get downgraded in your search engine placements.

Non-relevant Links

When you're placing your links, you want to make sure that the site you're linking to has something to do with your own site and, vice versa.

A non-relevant link is defined as a hypertext link placed on a website, or in a directory, that has little to no relevance to the linking site or directory. These links are placed for the sole purpose of 1) increasing page rank or 2) getting a website crawled and indexed or a combination of the two.

The most obvious way to combat not-relevant links, over which you have complete control, is the placement of links on your own site. Avoid placing links on your own site to another that has no relevance to your content; even if it's a legitimate. Why? The link doesn't do anything for you or the person whose link you placed. On the other hand, don't ask someone to place a link on their site which doesn't relate to yours.

Google, Yahoo, and MSN all look closely at whom you're linking to and who's linking to you. In fact, Google's PageRank definition specifically states that link relevance (quality) is looked at more than just the link itself.

So what's the solution? As in researching a potential link farm, you need to check out the sites that are you're linking to. If you're submitting your site to directories or article directories, make sure that you're submitting your content and links to the most relevant topics and sections.

Don't worry about getting an exact match in terms of relevance between your site and the linking site; just make sure that each site complements the other.

Know the Linking Pitfalls

In summary, you can be accused of being a link spammer even if you think you haven't done anything wrong. To keep your linking strategy clean, I've outlined two specific techniques that will keep your site safe with the search engines.

First, watch out for unscrupulous link directories and sites (i.e. link farms). Use the techniques and ask yourself the questions I've outlined to recognize and avoid these harmful sites.

Second, make sure you're posting to relevant sites/directories/articles/blogs or wherever you choose to submit your content and links.

Most importantly, if you think you might get accused of being a spammer, by attempting to use a linking technique you just read about or software you just bought, trust your gut and don't do it. Linking software creators claim that you can get thousands of back links with the press of a button or for only "$49". The only way to get good quality back links is to do the research yourself and hand-submit every single link.

If you avoid these two traps, you'll be well on your way to getting the links you need to get your website placed higher in search results and, as a result, generate more sales.

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SEO Solutions and one way links provided by LinkAcquire.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]>