Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Category Archive
DIY SEO: Blog Commenting
Author: Wade Sonenberg 04 16th, 2008
Another simple way to increase to increase your website or blog’s inbound links is by commenting on blogs related to your industry. It takes just a few minutes to gain high quality, one-way, relevant inbound links - and you might just learn something you can use while you do it! It’s important to stick to blogs about your particular industry, since Google and other search engines give higher priority for links coming from pages with similar topics.
Where to find relevant blogs?
- Simply Google the industry + “blog” For example, the term “fishing charter blog”
- BlogCatalog directory (there are many other directories). Browse or search
- Technorati Search your targeted keywords, and check out the top results
Add to the Conversation
Nobody likes the guy who posts “I’m the best Fishing Guide in FL, check me out.” Blatant advertisement is likely to be deleted quickly, and very few people will follow the link to your site this way. Rule of thumb is to either add something complimentary, or something thoughtful is even better - it doesn’t have to be esoteric however.
How to Comment for Maximum SEO Effect
On most blogging platforms, there will be three boxes that you’ll need to fill out. Here’s a couple tricks to get the most out of the comment you’re about to enter:
- Name
The name attribute is what’s going to make up the written text of the link. It helps (greatly) in SEO to have keywords in this text because it tells search engines what the link target (your website) is all about. Now some bloggers won’t take kindly to the name “best Florida fishing guide.” That said, if you’re business name includes some of your target keywords, then it should be OK to use that name. To simplify, entering the name “Bob” doesn’t help much unless your trying to rank well for “Bob” in Google. - URL/website/address
Called by various names, but in all cases it is the target of the aforementioned link. Usually you want to include your home page, but it’s good practice to vary them a little bit, especially when you have a page that is relevant to the blog post at hand. Also, if you have other content rich pages that you’d like to rank well for a given term, include it here. An example of this is if you operate a guide service off of a particular island or offer an “overnight” charter option.
DIY SEO: Link Baiting
Author: Wade Sonenberg 04 4th, 2008The second pillar of DIY SEO is generating inbound links, or links that point from other websites toward yours. Link baiting is an effective strategy for generating one way, high quality inbound links for your website or blog, and especially so for genres of popular interest such as fishing, sports, or news.
Wikipedia defines Link bait as “any content or feature within a website that somehow baits viewers to place links to it from other websites. Matt Cutts defines link bait as anything “interesting enough to catch people’s attention.”[3] Link bait can be an extremely powerful form of marketing as it is viral in nature.”
Link baiting is all about creatin the buzz, and can take many forms, but in all cases involves content that is working talking about, and therefore worth referencing via hyperlink. There are four general types of link bait, but they can contain elements of any or all.
- Linkworthy content
A tutorial that is so concise, and so well written that it becomes the de facto manual on a given subject. It could be winter bass fishing in Lake Lanier or qualifications for a great P.R. firm. Example: Spousel Conversion Kit: Video to get your wife on board for buying that new boat. - Controversy
An information peice that is so over the top, sometimes lacking all reason, that stirs up an online community or the blogoshpere at large. Something titled “President Bush Hates Puppies” is sure to draw a debate, and therefore generate links from people who agree and disagree. Example: Polar Bear Future - Political or Scientific? Global warming, conservation, politics, and those cute, rip your arms off, white bears wrapped up in six words - who doesn’t want to read that? - Killer Apps
A tool or application that is so useful, bloggers and webmasters will link to it to spread the word. It could be a tool for checking inbound links, or a lure color selector based upon weather and water conditions. Example: Georgia DoT Traffic Counts on Google Maps An easy way for retail/commercial realtors to look up traffic counts for a proposed shopping center. - Humor
Everybody wants to share a joke, especially good ones. A collection of jokes, or one especially humorous one pertaining to your niche or industry is a sure way to draw links from related sites. Example: Fishing Jokes Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day?
The Search Engines are Hungry- Feed Them
Author: Wade Sonenberg 02 20th, 2008One of the three pillars of SEO strategy is of content, specifically relevant text that is search engine readable. We’re going to take a look at what is search engine friendly content, what is not, and how to find out what your site or blog looks like to search engines.
Search Engine Readable - What is it?
Search engines index your web page and everybody else’s by scanning the HTML code contained within it. They scan looking to determine the content and context of the page, and also consider relevant HTML tags (H1, H2, H3, em, strong, etc.).
Search Engine Readable - What’s left out?
Search engines do not, however, load images, CSS styles, and animation (including Flash). Text that is written in images, including navigation menus, are invible without using the “alt” tag, which by the way is a poor substitute. This means anything written in these images or animations will not be indexed, and won’t influence your search engine rankings accordingly.
Examples: Good & Bad
Here’s an example of a full Flash site, loaded in a frame set. Notice how there are no written words to give search engines a clue as to what this page is about?
On the other hand, the following page offers lots of written text, links, and HTML tags:
See what the Search Engines see
To view what content the search engines can index, simply enter your web address in the following page address in the tool below.
http://www.willmaster.com/library/tools/What_Search_Engine_Spiders_See.php?dlperry
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