How To Build Organic Backlinks

12. November 2009

Backlinks are the foundation of any SEO effort, and one of the most important parts of your online marketing efforts. Despite many online marketers deriding SEO as a marketing form, its benefits are very real, very measurable and very important. As such, assigning a great deal of marketing muscle and time to monitoring and building backlinks is an intelligent and important decision.

First things first - what is a backlink? A backlink is simply a link to your page from another external source. This could mean a link from a relatively popular blog, highlighting the services, applications or content on your website. It could be a link from an online journal or newspaper, explaining your website as part of a current event or as an external source. In addition to that, it could even be a review of your website from a top blogger or online authority. In all circumstances, backlinks are important for raising your online profile and boosting your search engine results.

So where do you start your backlink building efforts? For many marketers, building organic backlinks starts with fertilising some of their own. You can start with article marketing - a popular form of online marketing that involves writing articles, blog posts and related content about your website - and distributing it around the internet. Many marketers choose to start by hiring writers to create and distribute content for them, either through article directories or through posts on third party blogs.

Whatever way you go about it, you'll quickly find that building this initial content is key to building the organic content further down the line. Online marketing is often about "passive income" and it's quite simple to think of SEO in this sense. To build that passive SEO, you need to actively work towards building those links initially. Once you've created enough of a presence on your own, people will begin to take notice themselves, and eventually begin distributing and linking to your website for you.

It all comes down to building that initial awareness. Whether you are a blogger, an online service company or a developer, building that initial audience and awareness is what will propel you to great online heights. By creating that initial audience, you solidify yourself as an online authority, create search engine juice that will allow other bloggers and webmasters to find you, and effectively control your online brand in the early stages of your business.

So if you want to create an organic online presence, don't be afraid to start by planting the seeds yourself. You can't build your online presence and expect people to find it straight away, and by focusing on the initial wave of SEO and interest, you can easily push other people to link to you. Have an eye for interest-building content, get out there writing, and you'll eventually see your organic backlinks building. It's not instant, it requires a dedicated initial effort, but once it pays off it's all worth it. 

Search Engine Optimisation, Search Marketing , , ,

Search Engine Marketing Basics

30. September 2009

Statistics such as those reported by The Ultimate Guide to Search Engine Optimization (Entrepreneur Press, Madison, Wisconsin, 2008) show that 70 percent of adults use the Internet and that over 80 percent of online transactions start with a search using a search engine such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, or Ask.

Those listings that come out at the top of the results lists from those online searches are using search engine marketing (SEM). As such, SEM is responsible for the success of a slew of online retailers and web based businesses. The foundation of SEM is search engine optimisation (SEO).

SEM

What is SEM and how is it used? A few quick facts about SEM will help explain the basics:

  • SEM and SEO are used interchangeably. Both relate to marketing a website via search engines. SEM is basically improving the rank of a website in the search engines using a combination of search engine-related techniques to get a web site optimally ranked.
  • SEM also involves using links to other pages and other websites that are directly related to the company's website.
  • To achieve a high search engine rank, SEM strategies have to be implemented.
  • Both SEM/SEO techniques are just part of the toolset in a company's marketing toolbox and cannot be considered an end-all to marketing.
  • Anyone can learn to use SEM effectively.
  • Google, who is responsible for much of the technology that drives SEM, has webmaster guidelines available at its site. Take at look at those guidelines before getting started.

SEO

A few facts and guidelines about SEO include:

  • SEO involves finding and using targeted keyword phrases throughout the content of a website. Keywords are words or phrases that customers would enter into the search engine search box.
  • There are several ways to find keywords and phrases. Look through competitor's websites, read trade related magazines for catchphrases and words, or do test searches by typing in words and phrases in the various search engines and see who comes to the top of the list. A faster and often more reliable research method is to buy a subscription to an online commercial program. There are several effective and low cost keyword research programs available such as wordtracker.com and keyworddiscovery.com.
  • Keywords and phrases found through the research should be used in every aspect of the website including the domain name, page titles and subtitles, articles, advertising, press releases, fact sheets, internal and external links, and throughout every page of the site.

To see the results of SEM and SEO, spend time doing serious search trials in the big four search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ask) and review the results list to see which sites come out at the top of the list.

Look to see how many of the results contain the word used in the search box. Or, try searching for book or music titles at Amazon or do a job search at Monster.com. Both of those online companies use SEO/SEM to its fullest.

Search Engine Marketing

Web success is an opportunity that any size or type of business can achieve by implementing a few practices such as SEO and SEM.

As with all things Internet or cyberspace related, experience is the best teacher. With just these few basics, a company can start considering using search engine marketing.

Search Engine Optimisation, Search Marketing , ,

3 Steps to SEO Success

23. August 2009

You have probably heard about different ways by which you could try Internet marketing. And it is most probable that you have heard about its most popular strategies, search engine optimisation. If you want to know more about this side of Internet marketing, better read along.

What is Search Engine Optimisation?

Popularly known as SEO, this type of Internet marketing strategy involves the control of search engine results. A lot of people use popular search engines if they want to find out things and information. Because of this, proponents of the SEO strategy found a way by which they could tie marketing to the vast web of the Internet.

How does SEO work?

SEO works in several ways. Business owners like you could opt for a number of procedures in implementing SEO strategies. Some of the most tried-and-tested SEO strategies are the following:

Keyword-dominated articles
Keyword-dominated articles seem to be one of the most successful SEO strategies that internet marketers use. The articles are powered by specific keywords that will act as leads to your business.

For example, if you are into the coffee business, you can create an article that will mention the phrase "best coffee in (your business location) several times. The articles are then posted in different popular article depots.  Although a single article would be enough for small businesses, having series after series of keyword-dominated article could do wonders for your business.  This is because search engines classify their results by the number of times that the search word or phrase  appears  in a web page. So if user type "best coffee in (your business location), there is a big chance that the article talking about your business will be placed in the top ten results.

Link building
If your business has a website or blog, why not maximise its use? Link your blog to several related blogs or websites. Doing so will create backlinks that will point to your business' web page or blog. You could also tie your business' web page title to the keyword you will use in your keyword-dominated articles.

Keyword-powered posts
Participate in your target market's online forums by creating an account under your business' name. Be friendly and ask for their web pages so you could link them in your business' web page. You can also make relevant and friendly comments on their messages. To maximise your post, create a key-word driven signature. This way, all your posts will be signed by the keyword-driven signature. This would mean that your keywords will be attached to every topic that you commented on. The strategy will give you the chance to widen your search engine reach.

Is SEO expensive?

No. As a matter of fact, all you will need to have is a trusty computer, a reliable internet connection and a web page. If you can't write keyword-dominated articles and posts, there is no need to worry. There are a lot of online writers willing to create this types of web content at very cheap rates.

Search Engine Optimisation, Search Marketing , , , , ,

Inbound links from web directories

1. March 2009

Being listed in the the top web directories is a must to generate traffic to your website. Open Directory is one of the biggest and is used by Google. Yahoo and Best of the Web offer a paid inclusion directory service. Paying to get listed on these popular is benefical as they are well respected websites. You don't always have to pay to get on well respected website directories.

There are many other web directories that you can be listed on too. A mix of global, local and business specific directories will help improve traffic to your website. Search for web directory or try these:

Search Engine Optimisation, Search Marketing , , , , ,

The difference between SEO and SEM

20. January 2009

We all want our website to have a high ranking. But it can be confusing how to do this. You have probably heard of the terms SEO and SEM but what is the difference?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the optimising of your website for natural (also called organic) listings in search engines. The ones that are not paid for. This optimisation is called on-site adjustments but the disadvantage is that it can take time to get a good listing.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a broad term for the use of both on-site as well as off-site adjustments. Off-site adjustments can be paid inclusion and paid placement as well as article marketing.

SEO is only a small part of SEM. SEM is considered more expensive because you have to pay for adverts or clicks but gives you immediacy. But depending on your goal a mix of both on-site and off-site adjustments can work well. Although SEO must be your first step in website promotion.

Search Engine Optimisation, SEO services, Search Marketing ,



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