In your last lesson, I gave you the run-down on how to get your website listed with the major search engines (Google, Yahoo & Bing) in the shortest time possible. Following those instructions, your website should be indexed by now, usually a good few pages back in what is called the “supplementary index”.
Before Getting Started
Before we start with this lesson, you will need to check your current rankings for your chosen keywords. To do this:
- Log in to your SEOMoz dashboard
- Scroll down to the “Keyword Rankings” section
- Click the “See All Keyword Rankings” button
Above: Click The "See All Keyword Rankings" Button
You will then be presented with a listing of your current keyword rankings. It’s quite possible that you will not yet be in the top 100 results (first 10 pages), but don’t stress. You site will start ranking in due course…
Once That’s Done…
This week’s lesson is all about improving your initial position (as noted above), hopefully to the first page of the search results (even better, to positions 1 -3). Please note that everything that we will discuss in this lesson takes time to affect your search results. SEO efforts usually take between 3 – 6 months to bear fruit, with some taking up to a year (all dependent on the competition). SEO is a slow process, but well worth it nonetheless.
First off, I need to give you an over-simplified explanation of how the search engines work. Essentially, ranking well in the major search engines is a matter of “internet popularity”. The more links there are pointing to your website from other pages on the internet (other websites), the more popular (and trustworthy) your site is perceived to be (by Google and co), and therefore the better it will rank in the search engines.
These links are referred to as “backlinks”. In the early days of SEO (remember that I said SEO is ever-evolving), you could get backlinks from any old website and gain a good position. Nowadays, for backlinks to have any effect on your ranking they need to come from relevant websites – this means that a link to an office stationery website, coming from a plumbing supplies website, would hold very little weight in the eyes of Google.
However, if the same link came from an office furniture type website, this could be seen as relevant as they are both in the same market (yes, search engines are quite clever these days!) and thus would carry good weight. Also, the quality, popularity and trustworthiness of the website linking to yours plays a big role in how that link is valued. If the link comes from a brand new website with no credibility or trustworthiness, that link would not be as powerful as one that came from an “authority” site, which has built up a strong reputation over the years.
There are of course many other smaller contributing factors when it comes to off-site optimization, but to keep things simple, I am going to focus on the “backlink” aspect of it. If you have chosen your keywords well (i.e: non competitive keywords), normal backlinking should be more than enough in terms of off-site optimization. It is speculated that the number of relevant backlinks pointing to your site can account for up to 70% of its position in the search engine results.
So, if the recipe is more backlinks = higher ranking, how do we get more backlinks?
There are many ways to build backlinks to your website, but I am going to discuss only the ones I have found most effective and “do-able” from a time efficiency point of view.
Forums – Register on popular forums that are relevant to your websites topic (there are hundreds of forums on the internet – just search on Google for “your topic forum”. Edit your forum signature to reflect your website address and make a few posts on the forums every week. You don’t need to write essays on the forums – constructive comments will do. Never blatantly promote your website in a forum (i.e., write a post about it) as this will usually get you banned. Forums are moderated by humans who keep a keen eye out or abusers.
Above: A Typical Online Forum
PS – Due to the abuse of forums for SEO purposes, many forums only allow you to implement a signature after a certain number of days or posts (or both). Stick it out and wait your turn, as these sites generally have more “weight” in the eyes of the search engines due to their “rules”.
Blogs – Find and follow some blogs that are relevant to your business (once again, you can use Google for this) and post constructive comments on any posts. Be sure to include your link in all comments. Blogs are usually strictly moderated, so don’t try to outsmart the system and write “spammy” comments just to get a link. You will be banned quicker than you think and all your efforts will be wasted. Many optimizers use blog commenting as their only SEO tactic and enjoy good results – don’t underestimate the power of blogging!
Website Directories – Website directories contain links pointing to websites in many different categories (similar to a Yellow Pages of the web). You can submit your website into the relevant category and generally get a backlink for free. Although these are not the ultimate link building tools, they are worth the once-off effort of submitting to.
Article Marketing – This is by far the most popular method of generating long-term backlinks and establishing yourself as an expert in your field. How it works is as follows:
- You write an article on a topic relevant to your line of business (you don’t need to be an award-winning author – a simple “How-To” article of 400 words will do – you’ll be surprised how easy this is).
- You write a short biography promoting your website or business with two links to your website in it (your bio is usually just a few words). This is placed at the bottom of the article (similar to articles written in print publications such as Entrepreneur Magazine and other business magazines.
- You then submit the article to article directory sites, which will publish the article online. Your biography and two links go into the “resource box”. This creates two backlinks for every directory you submit to – can you see the potential?
I personally recommend the following article directories as they are popular and quickly indexed by Google:
- http://www.ezinearticles.com (Google loves this one)
- http://www.goarticles.com (Quick and easy)
- http://www.articledashboard.com (Easy to use system)
- http://www.ideamarketers.com (Instantly published)
You will need to register on these directories in order to submit your article (don’t worry, it’s free!). Depending on the directory, submission can take 1-14 days, but once your article is published, it’s there forever. EzineArticles also awards “expert author” status as it sees fit, which will result in your articles getting approved within 24 – 48 hours.
The Ezine Articles Home Page
Article marketing is an incredibly effective long-term link building strategy and is easier than most people think. If you can commit to writing one article per month, you are ensuring at least 10 new backlinks every month. The more, the merrier of course! You can also outsource article writing to ghost writers from as little as $10 per article.
Something to note – Keep your article submitting activity consistent throughout the process. Submitting 40 articles once-off and then doing nothing for 6 months will raise a flag with the search engines. Rather commit to a lower figure and continue submitting articles on a regular basis.
The “Trick” to Article Marketing…
If you really want to maximize the number of backlinks that you receive per article (and I recommend you do), there are two excellent article syndication (distribution) services that I recommend. Both of these distribute your articles across the web, allowing you to maximize the number of backlinks you receive per article.
- SubmitYourArticle – If there is only one tool that I recommend for link building, SubmitYourArticle would be it. SYA automatically submits your article to all the major article directories (including EzineArticles, GoArticles, IdeaMarketers, etc) as well as a powerful blog network of publishers. For every directory that accepts your article, as well as every blog, you gain two powerful backlinks. For more information, click here.
- SEOLinkVine – SLV submits your article to a huge network of blogs (I mean HUGE!) and ensures that they are released in a natural fashion, so as to grow backlinks gradually over time. The system works incredibly well. For more information, click here.
Something to remember when creating backlinks there are two types of basics backlinks:
- Standard Backlink – http://www.backlink.com (i.e., just the normal www-type link)
- Anchor Text Backlink – Backlink (i.e., text that is hyperlinked to a website)
Although it is fine to simply write your link as http://www.yourdomain.com, this doesn’t tell the search engine very much about the backlink. Therefore the best way to write backlinks is by using your keywords (anchor text backlink). For example, if your website is http://www.stationery-new-york.com and your main keyword is “Stationery New York”, then your backlink using the keyword should be Stationery New York.
This way, when the search engines crawl your article and come across your backlinks, they know what the link is about and this ultimately increases your website’s ranking for that keyword.
Note – Not all article directories allow HTML code, so sometimes you will only be able to use your http://www.yourdomain.com type link. This is absolutely fine, as it creates backlink diversity (i.e. not all backlinks are 100% identical, which could raise a flag with Google).
How many backlinks do you need in order to rank well?
The number of backlinks that you will need to rank well for any given keyword depends completely on the competition for that keyword. An easy way to assess this is to go to Google and search for your keyword. Then write down the three top results’ addresses.
Next, log in to your SEOMoz account, and select the “Research Tools” tab, followed by the “Linkscape” button.
Above: The Linkscape Link Analysis Tool
One by one, enter he URL of your three main competitors to assess their backlinks. What you want to take note of is the “Links to the page” figure, and the “Root Domains linking to the page” figure. These two figures will give you a rough idea as to how many links you need to build in order to rank similarly to that page. Note that this is a very broad and inexact figure, as it does not account for link quality, relevance, or any on-page factors. It is however a good indicator of competitor strength.
Running an “Advanced Report” will also show you where they get their links from. Very often you will be able to replicate these links by approaching the linkers. You will also be given some ideas as to how to get links by assessing this data.
That’s all for this week… Your homework is as follows:
- Register on four forums that are relevant to your line of business and insert your backlink in your signature (if this is allowed off the bat). Make some (constructive) posts.
- Find four blogs that are relevant to your line of business and contribute some comments including your backlink.
- Write a basic 400–600 word article related to your website (try a “How-To” or “101” if possible)
- Register on the article sites and submit your article with a backlink or two (using the resource box) or
- Check your competitor’s link strength using SEOMoz and take note of link opportunities
Commit to doing the above-mentioned tasks on a regular basis (be it daily, weekly or monthly). Don’t do one big “blast” and then disappear. Remember that SEO is a long-term investment and results take time. On average, it will take 3-6 months for any effort you put in now to influence your search position. Don’t become disheartened by the process – simply stick to your commitment and it will pay off in time.
Most importantly, be consistent. Off-site optimization needs to be an ongoing process, even if it’s only for 2 hours a month. Search engines want to see consistency, as this reflects trustworthiness.
Feel free to post any questions or comments below…
To proceed to the next lesson, click here…
