Now that you have overcome the tedious of setting up your own website, the only way to start making some money by getting some visitors is by getting your website noticed by a prominent search engine like Google. But since search engine optimization is not a cakewalk anymore, you will need to outsource this lengthy time consuming task to a search engine optimization expert. However, finding an honest and legitimately earnest expert can pose a new challenge of its own.

Search engine optimization is service whose demand exceeds way more than its actual supply. To put it in plain words, the demand for SEO is apparently so vast that you will find thousands of experts, websites and blogs that claim to be the best search engine optimization experts in their field. But it doesn’t take a genius IQ to figure out that some of them are nothing but dubious scams that offer little to no valuable service. While there is no fail proof way of spotting them, here are some ways to find out whether your search engine optimization expert is giving you your money’s worth or not-

How to rate an “Search Engine Optimization Expert”

• Past record- These are one of the first things you should verify before your sign over a check to your SEO firm or expert. The best ways to check for past records is by asking and reading honest testimonials from their previous clients, which will mostly be presented on their website’s home page. Alternatively, using reading online reviews can also do wonders in their own right
• SEO methods- After you have done your due diligence on the firm and are satisfied enough, your next move will be to test the quality of their service. Usually, checking their website’s own page rank can be a smart way of doing this. If you still need more answers, ask them to explain their strategies in a meticulous detail and determine accordingly because for a start, a good SEO firm should always employ white hat SEO methods as opposed to a black one. So if you feel that the firm’s SEO proposal or plan shows any signs of the latter, consult someone else immediately.
• Customer service- Okay, now that you are convinced that your SEO firm offers the best search engine optimization proposal, never fail to neglect their quality of customer service. Since SEO is very broad and complex, there is a good chance that you will need to interact with them on a regular basis, in case you have any questions. In such situations, customers will only prefer a firm that treats their clients with upmost respect.
• Exceptionality- If you are happy with the type of services they offer, always make it a habit to look out for that one quality that sets them apart from their other competitors. Is it their reasonable pricing? Their cutting edge products or excellent customer service?.As good SEO firm may possess all or any one of the qualities, so as a customer, all you have to do is pick the trait that is the best for you.

However, even if you strike gold by picking the best SEO firm in the planet, do not expect yourself to do nothing. As a website owner, your primary job is getting more SEO optimized by offering high quality content and links.

Contact us to hire a highly qualified seo services provider to take care of your websites needs and to promote you to the top of your business field…

Most people think that there is no difference between search engine optimization and search engine marketing hence, they use the two terms interchangeably to mean one and the same thing. It is however quite important to note that neither of these words can be substituted with the other since they have different meanings. Search engine marketing is a general word that is used to refer to any activity that is carried out to make use of the expertise of search engine geared towards elevating a website and making more people visit the website as many times as possible.

Search engine optimization falls under search engine marketing so for a business to earn a lot of profit and get more coverage, both search engine optimization and search engine marketing have to work hand in hand since both of them are important.

Search engine marketing however is quite different from search engine optimization since there are areas which it deals with that are beyond the scope of search engine optimization. Such areas include a search engine being paid such that it will include a particular site in its database with immediate effect instead of starting a new site to enable the search spiders to get the particular site without any assistance.

The results of using search engine marketing are almost instantaneous as opposed to the use of search engine optimization .It is however important to note that a Sem promotion cannot be successful without the employment of Seo.This is because Seo is charged with the responsibility of improving the site for those who are going to visit it and also for the search engines. It is therefore clear that in case one wants to make his site famous in order to increase the traffic, one has to use Seo in doing so first before proceeding to the second step of implementing other Sem methods.

Search engine optimization companies will come in handy when one wants to come up with a proper seo plan. One should be careful in choosing the right seo company since there are many seo companies purporting to offer those services but they end up not delivering according to the customer’s expectations. One should therefore select a company that is familiar with the requirements of the delicate work required in organic optimization.

Since Search engine optimization is involved in assisting the search engines to get, group and position your content found in the website. It assists in saving on the total amount of money spent.

Search engine optimization packages are meant to assist in the enhancing the positioning of Seo.Each company website contains the company’s particular needs and it also has its specific people who are targeted to use it .Various seo packages which are reasonable priced are available and they are made in such a way that they will work for a particular business irrespective of its size.

Seo Quote

In order for one to make proper use of the services of a seo company, it is important to sit with a representative of the company that offers seo services and establish some middle ground on need and expectations through filling in the details which are presented in questionnaires. In most cases a company can get a few different seo quotes for free and then ultimately compare the level of services provided and the companies track record. The seo quote is meant to give an estimate of the amount of money that the person who is looking for seo services will need to pay the seo services company in order to have his website optimized. Such details that are required to fill in order to get a seo quote include the name of the person requesting for the seo quotes, the company name, the product or service provided, the demographics of the most frequent customer base (the targeted audience), the goals of the company, and the amount of money that is allocated to spend for these marketing and SEO services. It is also good practice to provide some of your avid competitors in other to mimic some of the things they are doing well and to outdo them on the rest to stay ahead. Once all those details are provided, the seo service provider is able to review and calculate the amount of work to be done, the expected ROI is also calculated through estimation of the number of people searching for that specific service or product and the proposed click through rates to be expected for any spot on the google first page, the seo company then presents their findings and seo quote for the seo services.

A reputable seo services company will make the website that it has optimized rank in the first page and bring more traffic to the website through various tried and tested methods. Since the website ranking will improve, the company will in turn reduce its spending on advertising and utilize the money saved in more profitable services.

Contact Us today to book an appointment and or to receive a free seo quote for your website, we know what we are doing, we can get you the much needed targeted traffic to push your business onto the next level.

Web search engine optimization entails enhancing the visibility of a website in any search engine .The site will be visible to the users since it becomes placed in the first page of the search engine site. It is therefore important to be cautious when one is launching a site since it can either be of help and as a result, many people will visit the site if it is well optimized for that search engine. If it is not well optimized, it can be dangerous since it will never bring traffic hence no business hence, it will be a disadvantage to the site and business.

One should tread with caution when hiring a seo since they will determine the direction of the business. They can make the site better which will translate to time saved for doing other constructive things or destroy the site and the business at the same time. Most of the seos will always offer important services to the owners of the web sites such as going through the content of one’s website, assistance on how to develop the website, how to use the right keywords, and also how to deal with online business.

One should not just go out and look for a seo without first getting to know how the search engines work.

One will then proceed to get a website optimizer .This involves  specialists who are involved in working on the optimization of the websites for their customers .These search engine optimizers do their work by offering different options which are available to their clients. The website optimizer may decide to offer seo service only or offer that service when combining it with other services in marketing. The website optimizer’s work is to find out the kind of content that can be used in a site in order to get good results as one is going to have the right feedback from those people who visit the site. When using a website optimizer, one is able to mix different content in order to try and get the one that will bring about a lot of conversions.

 Website Optimizer

Search engine optimization is of great help to any search engine  since the pages which are well designed will appear higher on the search engine hence improving the business. Search engine optimization comes in two categories which include the activities on the page and those that are outside the page. The higher placed a page is, the more the traffic it will generate. Another way of optimizing the site for search engine is by having several links to your site, an indication of how essential your page is. For one to optimize a website, one may need to check the existing content and edit it where necessary together with its HTML.A site may also need to have more back linking or inbound links to increase its chances of getting ranked higher.

Search engine positioning services are provided by professional internet marketing copywriters who will make a good marketing copy meant to make your site bring more traffic to your site and increase the business. If they are carried out properly, search engine positioning services will be beneficial to the business since it will attain success for a long period of time on the internet. This explains the importance of getting the services of qualified and experienced seo specialist who will go a long way in providing the right assistance in natural placements which will end up saving money in the long run. It is however important to note that no search engine optimization service can provide guarantee that your site will be ranked as the first or it will always be among the top ten .That is why one should first come up with keywords that are rarely used by people but are important in order to ensure that the unique content contained in the webpage to be optimized has a unique content that will drive traffic to the site.

The website should be optimized for different search engines that people are always using such as Google, MSN and Yahoo. If a website is optimized for the search engines, the same case applies to the people who always use the search engines. One can optimize the website for the search engines through sticking to the instructions which are outlined for the main search engines.

Contact us to get a free quote for your business and a personalized strategy.

So now that you have decided to make your bones in the e-commerce industry, you should know where to start from. While it is possible to cheaply create an online store from scratch these days, you should have a sound knowledge on programming or else have enough money to hire someone to do it for you. For those of you have neither, but do have a strong grasp over internet and search engine concepts, starting your own search engine optimization service may be the best option for you.

Your next step will be to create a business plan that can identify all your goals and shortcomings. As a word of advice, do not spend a lot of time creating the ‘perfect’ business plan, unless you plan to receive funding from a bank or an investor. As for the other legal formalities, we personally recommend that you start providing your search engine optimization service as a freelance consultant rather than a company, as it will help you escape a lot of legal and tax related burdens.

Okay so coming to the point, you have to decide what are you are exactly going to offer as a SEO expert. Some industry veterans recommend starting off dividing your prospective markets in two main categories, based on your clients-

• New website owners
• Established website owners

Search engine optimization service targets

Since newbie website owners will have no outbound links or indexed content, they will have a hard time in just getting the search engine to notice them, let alone getting a high page rank. So offering them a search engine submission service may be your best bet. In the not so distant past, you had to go through a long hand breaking process of indexing the particular website. But after eminent engines like Google and Yahoo have become much more sophisticated, all you have to do is get the website a few organic inbound and outbound links and your work is done. However, please avoid making use of any automated submission software, because not only it will make your service seem pointless(your clients could have done it themselves) but you may be accused of spamming, thus bringing the reputation of you and your client to a new low.

If you plan on targeting the bigger more established guys, we are sorry to say that you are going to face a heck lot of competition and when we mean lot we really mean in tens of thousands to possibly millions of people and firms offering similar services. If you don’t believe us, just type search engine optimization and submission on the Google toolbar and see how many results you are going to get!

So the best way to stand out from an average everyday search engine optimization services provider, is by carefully and diligently targeting a smaller niche market and them working your way up via money, contacts and loyal customers, although it is not an exact science and can take months to years in accomplishing this task. Secondly, since the search engine algorithms are constantly changing, you will need to get strong intimate knowledge on the subject.

So in a nutshell, only start your own seo optimization service if you have the time to work your way up or the energy to tolerate the frustration and anguish of working long hours while reaping a sour fruit. Yes, just like a regular business, if you are not ready for such a task contact us to take care of all your search engine ranking woes, we also provide white label seo services.

Search engine optimization is so complex and enigmatic that people have to develop a number of strategies to cut corners and just like any other business, these strategies can employ methods which can be considered questionable by some standards, while others may not see anything questionable about them. In the SEO world, this is where Black hat and White hat search engine optimization strategy come in.

White hat SEO is a search engine optimization strategy whereby a person will stick to the rules and use only used methods that are universally sanctioned by all the search engines. Websites employing this search engine optimizing method will always show signs of-

• High quality content- The content provided by these websites or blogs will not only be grammatically accurate, but they will be written well enough to entice the readers into becoming regular visitors to the site, thus improving its search engine rank organically
• Relevant links- In order for the search engine spiders to track down a website, it is imperative that they have a decent amount of inbound and outbound links, through which the spiders can find them. A website using the white hat search engine optimization strategy will always keep a well defined sitemap, which serves as a website navigational facility for the spiders and human visitors. As far as the inbound and outbound links are concerned, they will only link to sources relevant to the website
• Meta-tags- Meta tags or keywords also play a big role in helping crawlers find their way around and categorize the websites correctly. For example, a website writing about football will only create tags related to sports, so that   the search engine can rank him accordingly.

There are a lot of high quality and ethical search engine optimization tips that will get you the ranking you desire without risking your site getting blacklisted by Google or another major search engine, always remember that the best search engine optimization strategy is geared as much towards the visitors who will view the webpage as it is to the search engine too, many people optimize their websites for search engine crawlers and forget that the viewers must also be pleased in order to stay interested in what is being presented on the website.

Black Hat Search Engine Optimization Strategy

Black hat search engine optimization strategies are kind of different, if not polar opposite, to white hat SEO strategies. While this method is not really unethical or illegal, they can get you blacklisted by your search engine, thus hindering your overall page rank. Thus some website will go ahead and employ the following methods, cutting corners for a good search engine ranking optimization-

• Doorway pages- A doorway page is a type of landing page that acts as a middleman between the user and the main website. Such a page will typically contain a ‘click me’ or a click to enter’ sign in order to redirect the user to the main site. Such pages are absolutely worthless and do not contain any promising content besides the same keywords that are used in the actual website
• Keyword stuffing-This is one of the most common methods used in unintentional manipulation of search engine indexes. While it is important for your website to contain certain keywords, in order to get a high ranking, it is imperative that your keywords are relevant to the product you are trying to sell. For example, do not try writing any articles about sports, if you are selling jewelry.

Contact us and talk to one of our representatives for good and ethical white hat search engine optimization that will deliver in ranking and optimized traffic…

Depending on my own everyday interactions with internet marketing agencies, I believe we have lastly come to a conclusion by convincing firms that they are required to be making use of social media to get traffic, and awareness of audience.

Right now it is all about of talking to them in such manners they will thoroughly understand (instead of inside terms the social media friends realize), to describe why any social media marketing strategy is definitely necessary.

A brand-new e-book introduced by Channel V Media (it s a HubSpot partner as well as the customer) lays out a great plan for companies and corporations attempting to create a social media marketing plan.

They’ve got spelled out twelve key considerations you need to take into account whenever creating a social media marketing program for your enterprise.

It’s a good manual for in-house internet marketers, and agencies, who’re trying to find out the way of how to change their piece-meal campaign-after-campaign method having a full-blown system of social media.

Here are the particular twelve Steps:

1. Audience awareness and identification: Once you learn who your market will be, you’re one stage ahead of that game. The next level is to determine where these people work together on the internet.

2. Platform Design & Development: Determining how to engage as well as communicate with different kinds of target audience.

3. Brand Marketing campaign Integration: It will be possible for any social media plan to be able to piggyback away from a good brand marketing campaign; however, it must be turned into a chillier younger brother.

4. Content Creation/Coordination: You have to develop a constant message.
5. Mapping of Goal: Here is a question of how will you calculate business? Could it be branded mentions? Email sign ups?  Traffic? Sales? Leads?

6. Brand Id: Every person who is participating through social media in your own staff must understand your goals as well as messaging.

7. Audience Focus/ Attraction: Brands in large size like to spread new word, glossy and fancy initiatives displayed at the outset, if your program of social media is good, your own audience will get them by themselves and then spread that phrase for you.

8. Social Press Listening: If you do not understand what individuals are discussing about your brands and your firm, their particular interests plus more, how’ can you make a plan to interact with these?

9. Social Responsibility & Community: Social responsibility is increasingly anticipated of everyone, and that involvement is the central part of your web identification.

10. Internal/External Local community Response & Engagement: You should be everywhere. Regularly, you may familiarize folks that you are engaging, listening, supporting, as well as offering options to them.

11. Brand Loyalty: Authenticity and visibility tend to be such huge facets of social media marketing; the social media marketing as well as its team has to be 100 percent on board.

12. Customer Support: Excellent customer support includes listening (within as well as outside social media marketing) and responds properly.

Corey Northcutt is a Chicago SEO specialist who writes from years of successful experience.

Web comics can be compared to self-published print with mere difference instead of being hardbound they are available on a website. They exist in different categories wherein many publish exclusively on web while at same time you come across those published in magazines, newspapers or other form as well. The biggest advantage of these comics are they are published independently and need not undergo content restriction and censorship of the hierarchy system and provides opportunities for anyone to showcase their talent and put across their thoughts without the fear of stretching the taste limitations.

It is a moderately newer concept introduced in the times of sequential art, though in a short period of time it has encompassed various factors turning into a powerful medium. Web comics have always been liberal in its approach and are being accepted by the net savvy readers. They have gradually managed to create a forum for new voices with futuristic and unique visions. Throughout the early days of web comics, the technological innovation created accessibility to read the content without the need to download it at free or minimal of cost. In recent times web comics have started to grab eyeballs like any other magazines or newspapers and are considered to be more real and recognized in its nature.

Web comic have become a trend in the youngsters to such a large extent that huge number of hits is tell-tale for these sites. But the most viable among them all is the effect and spike it brings on the Google sites simultaneously. The web comic subscribers consist of considerable number of voracious readers who are open-minded and curious to learn new things. It has been observed that when they come across a new term or phrase there is aberrant activity observed in Google Search gaining maximum traffic spikes and hits on the sites which are indexed for that term. These traffic spikes are sometimes bigger than those of regular newspaper & magazines.

Published on 12.05.2010

Effect observed on Google Trend

Published on 28.03.2011

Effect observed on Google Trend

The web comic effect on Google can be stated as similar to various others we are aware about. A traffic spike can happen due to major site changes or having something that is out of place or having relatively unknown words or content or changing logos even.  Slashdot effect which is also known as slashdotting occurs when a popular website links to a smaller site leading to massive increase in traffic to such an extent that it overloads the smaller site causing it to slow down or even temporarily close due to large amount of unexpected hit. Likewise, digg effect was popular with the contemporaries where the stories in its first page creating huge traffic. In general terms whenever there is huge traffic spikes that noted it is known as slash dot or digg effect. Google doodle also presents a similar concept wherein with the default clicking lands you on sites related to the doodle term thereby creating a huge spike for that specific page during that particular day or occasion.

Published on 02.03.2011

Effect observed on Google Trend

Published on 20.12.2010

Effect observed on Google Trend

Published on 04.02.2011

Effect observed on Google Trend

There is no denying the fact that web comic is powerful enough having huge impact on the searching behaviour of people with so many instances clearly evident to our naked eye. It is high time Google should take into consideration the different web comics that have gained immense popularity and develop and start a special feature indexing words within images. This will benefit both the web comics in gaining the due they deserved while at the same time bringing in a profit to the Google as well with the traffic spikes that mediates through their own site.

Jeet has been in love with the web since 1999 when he started his career at dot-com boom time. He loves web comics and currently runs a small link building firm from Mumbai.

Day 2 of PubCon Las Vegas 2011 was full of great information!

Here are some of the highlights from Wednesday’s sessions:

Take advantage of user-generated content for your site.

If social is the future (and the present) of search, let’s incorporate more social media tactics into our SEO efforts.

There are so many tools available to help you with keyword research!  We shouldn’t just stick with one particular method of gathering keyword data.

We’ve all heard the stories surrounding the Panda algorithm update from Google.  If you’ve been penalized, there are a few things you can do.

This is one of the hottest topics in marketing right now.  This is the process of studying consumers’ responses to marketing efforts.

View the original article here

Recently we had the pleasure of interviewing one of my favorite link building experts, Melanie Nathan. Melanie has been involved in online marketing since 2003 and is a wonderful writer on all things link building in addition to being a well-respected link builder by her peers.

Melanie runs CanadianSEO, an internet marketing company based in Canada. You can check out some of her posts from the web here, follow her on Twitter here, and follow her on Google Plus here.

We hope you enjoy the interview!

So I see you started your career by running a successful e-commerce store, which you then sold off to a US company and then you moved into the client side of things. When did this all start and how did you decide to get into online, e-commerce stuff?

The e-commerce stuff started in 2003. My husband and I were operating a successful brick and mortar auto repair/aftermarket accessory store in Edmonton, where my husband’s dad (a skilled mechanic) would fix the vehicles and we would bling them up with cool accessories like euro tail lights and hid lighting kits. When we found out that our main manufacturer would be willing to drop ship their products directly to our North American customers, starting an online store seemed like no-brainer.

I fell in love with SEO shortly after that, mostly through experimentation with various e-commerce shopping carts and my frustration at not being able to find a decent one (at the time).

Some SEO’s love the idea of running their own sites rather than working on client sites based on the difference between the ratio of profits to labor on your own sites versus client sites (relatively speaking). Some SEO’s like doing both to help diversify their income streams, and some like pure client work. What lead you to decide to get into the client side of things?

I’m happy working for clients because I have a genuine interest in helping people and it’s extremely gratifying being able to impact someone’s life in such a way. On top of that, the work is constantly changing and I can pick and choose my projects therefore it never gets boring.

If there’s a downside, it’s that I don’t get many opportunities to experiment with different techniques or work on personal projects. This is why I’ve been slowly making time for the leap into the ‘other’ side of SEO (tool creation, affiliate marketing and yes, even some BHT) with some domains I own.

I figure, if I’m offering professional services, it’s best to be as experienced as possible in order to best serve my clients. If this leads to me eventually moving away from the client side of SEO though, then I might be open to the possibility.

If you’re interested in co-developing a link building tool or an affiliate site, ping me and we’ll talk

You’re well-known as a link building expert and you’ve written extensively on the subject. Can you walk us through how you approach/plan out a new client’s plan (generally speaking) and talk about which tools you use and why?

Site owners mainly hire me in order to see measurable movement in the SERPs for their top keyphrases. This means, to help my clients stand out (where Google is concerned), I first need to see what they’re up against. I therefore always start with competitive research.

Among the tools I use are; SEOmoz Open Site Explorer & Competitive Link Research Tool. I’ve also been using SEOProfiler Competitive Backlink Intelligence tool lately. I also use Yahoo Site Explorer (I’ll sure miss this when it’s gone!) and, of course, Google itself.

I look for such things as; rankings of the site, number of root domains linking, quality of backlinks, backlink velocity and social media mentions. Once I chart out what each competitor’s link profile looks like, what I need to do in order to differentiate my client, becomes pretty apparent.

After that, it’s all about looking for prospects and then developing realistic ways to acquire links from them.

I read, and actually have Evernoted (is that the new word for bookmarking?) your Search Engine Journal post on “6 Super Tips For Creating a Natural Link Profile” and some of things you talk about there (back in 2010) might have helped sites weather parts of this latest Panda parade of updates.

Those tips are logical, solid, but require a good amount of work. Do you find that link building failures are a result of trying to look for shortcuts too often or just not being willing to really put a lot of natural effort into link building?

Thank you for Evernoting (love this) and mentioning that post.

In my experience, the majority of link building failures happen simply because the linkee was too busy thinking about THEIR needs rather than the needs of the linker. They also take shortcuts that often decrease their own chances, such as; sending bad email pitches and/or using generic email subject lines and/or using poor grammar etc.

Link building offers awesome rewards, but it can be an incredible amount of effort. If you’re unwilling or unable to put in that effort, I guarantee you’ll be disappointed with the results.

Of course, in some areas these kinds of natural links can be harder (sometimes much harder) between different sites. Do you think link building opportunities are existent enough in each market irrespective of the competition (big brands, strong sites, etc)?

Or, is it more of a budget issue on the client side when it comes to being unable to complete for really competitive stuff?

I’m always up for a challenge and I have yet to encounter a niche or market where links weren’t readily obtainable. Unfortunately, sometimes the techniques required to attract those links, just don’t fit within the client’s budget. In these cases, I recommend starting out small and, as the client sees more and more ROI, they’re happy to increase their budget. After all, some link building is better than no link building.

As far as eventually competing on a large scale, I’ll just say that most people grossly underestimate the power that high-quality links can have.

What are the key points you look for when identifying link opportunities? Do you consider pure link value to rankings and/or consider links that might be no-follow if they have the potential to bring targeted traffic to the site?

The main thing I focus on when selecting link prospects is; relevance. The link absolutely has to make sense or I won’t waste my client’s time on it.

After that, I look at the overall quality (How many links on the page? Is there any PR? Does it rank for anything?) and, to save a bit of time, I like to run it through the Raven Quality Analyzer (which tells me how many backlinks, indexed pages, age of domain etc). I do all of this in order to determine how much Google trusts the site and the likelihood of a link from the site directly affecting my client’s rankings.

As for nofollow links, let’s face it, clients don’t pay me to get them links that aren’t heavy hitting so I generally don’t pursue them (unless there’s a specific reason for doing so such as trying to help a paid link profile appear more natural). I don’t build links in humongous quantities though, so it all evens out.

If you’re building links for your own site though, I would never recommend turning down a link that makes sense…. even if it was nofollow.

As a provider of services, I see that you also offer a full suite of services. Has that evolved over the years from being mostly a link building company to now being a full service company?

Do you find this differentiates you from other providers and is that well-rounded approach one you’d recommend for someone starting a link building company today?

CanadianSEO has always offered a full line of SEO services, however over the years I’ve learned from experience that it’s the LINKS that get you where you need to be in Google hence why I’ve made link building my main focus. I now look at web design/site optimization and content creation as necessary steps in making sure your link efforts will have the desired effect.

Not sure if this sets me apart, but my clients are happy therefore I would probably recommend this approach to anyone running a SEO company. You absolutely have to be capable of attracting/acquiring/sourcing valuable links though, and this is something that apparently not every SEO is willing (or able) to do.

So let’s say you are advising me on how to become a better link builder or a better manager of link building teams. What would your top 3 points be and what are maybe the top 3 myths or over-hyped points I should avoid?

Become a better link builder/manager by a) developing a system for tracking progress b) learning how to be persuasive to get what you want and c) never sacrificing quality in order to meet a deadline or fill a quota.

As far as myths, it may surprise many people to learn that both paid and reciprocal links are still effective as part of an overall link building strategy. I’m always trying to emphasize that Google doesn’t know as much about your links as you think it does. Especially when it comes to how your links are obtained. Yes, they do watch for certain obvious things (rate of links acquired, unnatural use of anchor text etc) but it’s totally ok to be creative. In fact it’s best. As long as you’re being logical, you’ll get the results you’re looking for.

Other than that, I still roll my eyes at people who say PageRank doesn’t matter when it comes to links. Hi, um, have you heard that Google still uses PR as a metric of quality? I’d like to offer those same peeps a link from a relevant PR0 or a link from a relevant PR7 and see which one they jump at.

Not that PR should be the ONLY metric you use when determining the value of a link prospect, but if you’re interested in making any impact on your rankings, it should definitely be taken into consideration.

For tracking link building efforts and for tracking the links you secure, do you use tools for that (like Raven or Buzzstream) or do you do that internally?

I still do it all internally/manually via custom Excel reports. Guess I’m still old-school in that regard.

A typical link report includes such data as; link URL, link anchor text, Google cache date, Raven Quality Score, relevancy info, link type, PR and link status. It has everything my clients need in order to see the progress of their link campaigns and its also great for keeping me organized as I’m often building links for many sites at once.

Please tell us what you think are going to be the most important aspects of link building going forward in this age of rapid algorithm changes and social signals?

Many people assume that link development is decreasing in importance, but this is far from the case. Links are still the simplest way for search engine spiders to judge the reliability of a webpage. However, the way that search engines view links is changing.

I’ve definitely seen (what I consider to be) evidence that Google is using social media mentions as a measure of quality. In an age where Facebook ‘likes’, Tweets and Google +1’s can be readily bought and sold though, one has to wonder about the longevity of such a system.

I almost feel sorry for Google in that no matter what they try to use as a measure of quality, there will always be ways to game it. I think this is precisely why they’re trying to move away from organic SERPs by diversifying them so much. It’s an imperfect system and I seriously don’t envy the position they’ve put themselves in.

As always, those that can keep up and adapt, will ultimately have the most success.

—-

Thanks for your time Melanie! You can stay up to date with Melanie over at Twitter and Google Plus.

Melanie runs the show over at CanadianSEO.Com; a web marketing firm that offers web design, SEO, link building, and content creation services.

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Getting a speaking job or speaking engagement may not sound like your idea of fun. However, ultimately, if you do so, you’ll find that traditional media pays more attention to, others start to link back to your company website and you are ultimately able to make money and build your business that much further. However, you may also be wondering how one goes about getting speaking engagements to begin with. Here’s what you need to know:

If you don’t know how to speak before an audience, I suggest that you consider taking some courses in public speaking to learn how it’s done. Hint: if you think that you can write your speech and stand in front of the audience reading it at high speed without ever looking up, you desperately need a speaking class.

The first step when deciding to do this is to pick your niche. I’ll assume that your goal is to promote your business and so your niche should be one which lends itself to your business. Of course, not everyone will be able to do this. I mean I don’t know many plumbers for example who get speaking engagements. However, if your business lends itself to this, then you should definitely look into it.

Community centers, Rotary clubs and other similar organizations are always looking for people to address their people and they often have very little money to spend. This means that you are much more likely to land a speaking engagement with a place like this than with a place that will pay you do it. The nice thing about this however is that it first of all increases your primary business and secondly leads to your getting hired by a place which does pay you (people in the audience may contact you to hire you for a paid gig).

Go to various events and talk to people. Offer to speak if you can and you may well get a paid job out of the deal. And even if you don’t, the nextworking will be likely to help you to find a speaking job elsewhere since people will remember who you are.

There are several directories for public speakers and if you want to find a speaking job, you can put yourself down on the list. Two such places are speakerservices.com and speakerzone.com.

Make phone calls and check on Google for places where you can get speaking jobs. Sure you’ll get turned down a lot, but that’s part of building yourself up as a public speaker.

Finally, when you do get speaking jobs, be sure to tell your audience that you are available for additional speaking jobs if they know of an organization that’s interested in having you speak. This doesn’t have to sound desperate. Make it clear how passionate you are about your subject and mention that if anyone is interested in having you speak at their organization, they should speak to you later, after the speech or simply be in touch.

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