The Link Building Matrix (Reloaded)

The blue pill or the red pill? If given the choice which one would you take? If you take the blue pill you will return to your online website and everything will be the same as before (including your rankings), or take the red pill and let’s see how deep the rabbit hole goes…

So what is the Matrix? The Matrix is a simulated world where nothing is real, and yet we use it to communicate, share and do business on a daily business. When the Matrix began it was a simple experiment, but as the Matrix grew, it became more and more complex to find whatever it was you were searching for. Along came the search spiders moving one link at a time, scanning across the virtual world, and searching for information became easy.

But the Matrix has a fundamental flaw. The Matrix was available to only those who were linked-in to it.

What is the link building Matrix?

In my previous blog post, I mentioned it’s important to have a healthy mix of high page rank websites and communities (like web directories, vertical engines, article submissions, social bookmarking, PR sites, blog reviews etc) to link back to your website or blog.

The link building Matrix is the strategy to build the “right kind (Matrix) of quality links” for the purpose of creation of multiple doorways to your site from diverse sources, all leading to you (or your website). The more related credible websites and popular user communities pointing to your website, the better will be your link reputation. Building a strong link reputation will ensure higher search rankings.

So let’s explore the various sources for building quality links that can enhance your link building campaign and build link reputation.

Please note that the points below are not listed in any particular order or prominence or importance.

1. Directory submissions: Submitting your website to high page ranked and relevant web directories will get you links and access to the community of web users. Web directories are like the yellow pages, and who amongst us have not opened a yellow page to find a service, product or person.

2. Article Submissions: Submitting your articles to high page ranked and relevant article submissions sites will get you links, access to the reader’s community, and add to your credibility as an expert in your domain.

3. Social Bookmarking: Submitting your stories/ articles/ blog posts to high page ranked and relevant social bookmarking sites will get you links, access to the user communities, and add to your link reputation (once the vote’s start coming in). User generated content and user communities are gaining more importance with search engines by the day.

4. Blogger Reviews: Submitting your website to high page ranked and relevant blogs will get you high value links, access to the community of readers of those bloggers, and build link reputation. A recommendation or review from prominent bloggers with a good reader’s base is a very credible link, and readers generally trust the recommendations of the blogger so they may visit your website. If you finding it hard to get bloggers to do a review, start your own blog and build links from there to your own website.

5. Announce PR: Submitting your news releases to high page ranked PR release sites will get you the links, access to the PR community, and often journalists looking for a good story.

6. Social Networking: Creating your business profiles on various high page ranked and relevant social networking sites (Facebook, Linkedin) will get you links, access to the community, and often new friends.

7. Video Submissions: Submitting your videos (how to, interviews, tips and advice, promos etc) to relevant video sites will get you links, access to the community (YouTube), and increase your view ship base with users who loves to watch rather than read.

8. Vertical Engines: Submitting your website to relevant vertical search engines (catering to your industry/ type of service) will get you links (at times), access to their community of seekers, and targeted traffic.

9. Industry Portals: Requesting for link from your industry specific portal can be very helpful for getting a quality link, access to their community of users, and add to your credibility in the business.

10. Discussion Forums: Also participate in Industry specific discussion forums and add value by giving your inputs and comments. All comments are linked back to your website. Though these links (with comments) don’t hold much value with search engines, it can hurt to get them, and if your comments are interesting enough you may get a reader who clicks to your website.

11. Go Local: Get your address on Google Maps, Yahoo Local etc. Not only will it be a quality link, you will also get listed in the local listings on search results page. Local listings are always displayed before the global listings. E.g. A user from Mumbai searching for the services of a SEO expert in Mumbai would prefer to check the local listings first to find vendor in close vicinity.

12. Wikipedia: Getting a page/s on Wikipedia with a link to your website will add to your link reputation. Keep in mind though that you cannot promote a person, product or company on Wikipedia. All content on Wikipedia must be verifiable, written as if for an encyclopedia.

13. Blog Commenting: By leaving wise and meaningful comments on relevant blogger’s sites will get you a link but ensure that your comments are adding value to the bloggers community of users.

14. Answering Questions: There are many sites where users ask questions and other users answer those questions. Sites like Yahoo Answers are a great way to get links, access to the community of users, and be the helpful person that you are.

15. Make Friends: In the linking world, building a link is like making a friendship. So make friends with someone who has a lot of friends… you get me. But beware, like in between friends there can be misunderstandings, in building good links there can be misunderstandings. Make sure there is a win-win for all parties involved.

16. Building Content: At the end of the day if you have great content, other websites will want to link back to your content so that their user’s community benefits from your content. Many times they may do so directly (depending on the copyrights), or even request you if they can link to your website. This is by far the best link building strategy.

BEWARE: In the link Matrix there are many Agents who give out sweet promises of seemingly impossible feats of building thousands of quality links to your website overnight. I guess the truth is out. Some of us dumb SEO’s actually spend months and months working hard to implement a link building campaign. If there was some shortcuts believe me I would have been the first one to jump at it, but in the link building world there are no shortcuts just good ol’ passion, know how, contacts and persistence.

Reload your Link Matrix?

With a healthy mix of Directory Submissions, Vertical Engines, Discussion Forums, Article Submissions, Social Bookmarking, PR Announce, Deep Linking, Special Contacts, Blogger Reviews, Commenting on Blog, Social Networking, Video Submissions, Google Maps, Yahoo Local and more…

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Link Me Up Scotty!

I am guessing you must be an avid Star Trek fan to have clicked on this title. Now while this article is not about reaching out and exploring the far frontiers of space, reading it will enable you to build a link building strategy to leverage your content and website so it reaches the farthest corners of the Internet.

Statistics: comScore MediaMetrix (August 2008)

• Total internet audience 188.9 million
• Blogs: 77.7 million unique visitors in the US alone
• Facebook: 41.0 million
• MySpace 75.1 million

Now with numbers so high (and rising at alarming pace), can you honesty tell me that you can reach your target audiences by setting up a great website or starting a blog? In advertising we are taught to reach out to the audiences (via television, radio, print, outdoor hoardings, online banners etc), but on the Internet one forgets it’s as important to reach out through various sources and channels so that your target audiences can find you.

The search engines play a great part in assisting your target audiences to reach your website, but they have laid certain guidelines to follow. The two most important criteria for search rankings is valuable and unique content and number of quality inbound links to your website or blog.

So you have seo optimized all your web pages, have been spending late nights over coffee writing fresh and useful content (focused around your keywords) that pleases the users as well as the search engines, and yet, your rankings are not going any higher.

Well if the above scenario sounds familiar, you my friend are not leveraging your content and letting others know that your content exists. If your content is good, and you let people know of its location, they may give a link back to your site/ page so that their community can benefit from your valuable content.

However, this article is not about creating content or optimizing your content, but about getting others to be so bloody impressed with you and your content that they are willing (and may even request you) to link to your website or blog.

Why do search engines value these links?

Search engines assume that if another website (especially ones that are popular), or a bunch of users (like in social bookmarking communities) deem a site or page to be important, it must be!

So the number of quality inbound links to your website will affect your rankings, but the word “quality” is of more importance that the “number” of links.

So how do search engines define quality links?

Search algorithms as constantly changing, so one can only guess all the parameters and prominence given by search engines while defining link quality. But a few logical parameters can be adhered to.

1. If the source giving you the link is a trusted one, with high page rank and is popular, that’s obviously counted as a quality link. But it does not help if you have a link from a site that has content and audiences that is not related remotely to the content you are providing. So it’s important to get links from sources that are related to your content as well.

2. Another point is the link text (and description) that points to your website. The search engines check to see if the text used to describe your website speaks well of it. If the link text contains the keyword that you have used on your website/ webpage as well, you will get better rankings.

3. Diversity is other important criteria the search engines may be adopting of recent. Getting links from 1000 directories or 1000 article sites may not hold (and this is just my assumption) as much value as getting 500 relevant links from a mix of techniques like article submissions on sites like Ezines and ISnare, blogger reviews, video submissions sites like YouTube, social bookmarking submissions like Digg and Delicious, PR sites, web directories, discussion forums, blog commenting etc.

4. Stay away from reciprocal linking, in which two websites exchange links. There are many legitimate cases where two websites would need to link to each other, but search engines are generally strict when it comes to reciprocal linking and may treat that link as not valid.

5. Stay away from link farms and link exchange programs. Search engines deem links that are exchanged for no other purpose that to exchange a link as SPAM.

6. It’s the content that will attract the links. So build the content, promote it well, and the links will soon follow.

Benefits of quality linking are many

1. Boost your website rankings
2. Increase the number of quality links pointing to your website or blog
3. Get increased targeted traffic from diverse websites and communities
4. Increase your online presence by reaching to various web and user communities
5. Its free advertising! So what are you waiting for?

In conclusion I will repeat an important point. Building quality links from a healthy mix of high page rank websites and communities (directories, vertical engines, article submissions, social bookmarking, PR sites, blog reviews etc) is as vital for search engine rankings, as is having a well optimized site with quality content that’s updated consistently.

So what is your link building strategy and link building matrix?

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Last Blogger Standing

It had finally happened! I am the last blogger alive and this is my story.

The year was 2012 when the final holocaust hit the world one fateful weekend morning, destroying every living thing on this planet except my notebook, my only other possession left, and me.

Why was I saved? Maybe to write my last blog post as the final witness to the destruction of the planet, a planet we call Earth. As I sat down to write my last blog, I wondered who would read my blog? There was no other life left on this planet. Did I hope that a future generation would resurrect from the ashes of the past or an intelligent new race would inhabit this planet? Did I hope to pass on a message to this future?

Or was there no hope, and no future…

I had witnessed pain, and suffering, death and destruction, wars and desolation. I had seen hungry eyes, tired souls, the young shivering and the old dying. I had seen family and friends wither away like leaves in the autumn.

I had seen “that day” when judgment was passed against mankind. My tears had all dried up. I was carrying the graves of a million on my sagging shoulders, of people once living, now just bones scattered on ancient grounds. All that was left…was a story to be told…my last blog entry before I would end my life.

Yes, today was the day I would see my last sunset, eat my last meal, and write my last blog. No more could I bear the loneliness or seek the truth. What had gone so wrong? I was not really sure. Had we not heard the footsteps of deaths angels as they crept upon us, in the silence of the nights, their fiery caress on our souls?

Were we so busy in out petty preoccupations that we ignored life’s imploring cry for its survival.When had man turned so hostile towards man? Oh why had we not shed tears when life was crying for our help, when fellow species were slaughtered for food and game, when man sold his soul for power and riches? I shed a tear for forgiveness for mankind’s final sin - his own destruction.

I sat down in silent prayer, my eyelids closed…visions of children playing, laughing, the sun shining in a clear blue sky, and my last breath escaped. No more pain, no more sorrow, my last wish – Hope for a new beginning.

And my dear friends, a new begining did come, a vision and an idea that is changing my life even as I write.

Ever hopefully yours,
Nevil Darukhanawala

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Why Blogging for Business is here to Stay!

You have a website that has a good presence online with lots of targeted traffic. So why would you want to spend time and resources on managing and promoting a business blog?

In these times of global recession many companies feel that starting a business blog would be too much trouble, and it will not be worth their time and effort. In fact this is partly true since starting, managing and promoting a blog can be a time consuming activity and you need to find a blogger who can write well on the subject, understands SEO and is consistent and dedicated.

And yet there are so many home businesses, small corporate to Fortune 500 companies that have been successfully using business blogs to create a loyal community of readers (customers and potential customers) by creating articles of interest, introducing new services and products, offering special discounts and promotions, running opinion polls, inviting customer testimonials and feedback, and lots more.

From a SEO’s perspective, blogs satisfy two main criteria set by the search engines i.e. fresh content and building links. Fresh content on blogs can include business updates and industry news, expert articles and interviews, or simply to introduce new team members, take a survey, or announce special discounts and offers.

I have already written in detail about link building techniques for your blog that you can apply e.g. cross linking, deep linking, submitting to article submission sites (syndicate your content and get links) and to social bookmarking sites. So Blogging is a very effective SEO tool to get higher rankings as well. You can also read My Love and Hate Relationship with Blogging post to understand how blogs influence search rankings for your corporate website.

So what is it about blogging that has these companies going that extra mile?

In the new marketplace it’s become crucial to build long and lasting relationships with your customers. And we all know that any relationship needs healthy communication and trust to succeed.

There are many ways a company or a brand can communicate with its customers like advertising on television, print, radio and outdoor hoardings, other than on websites, newsletters, banner ads etc but most of these mediums are impersonal and focus on selling something to the viewers and readers.

Now most customers don’t mind getting news and information about companies and brands they are associated with, but they don’t like having their privacy (and wallets) invaded by smart marketing gimmicks.

A business blog is a non-intrusive way for building a healthy two-way communication with your customers over a period of time. You do this by creating lots of useful and resourceful content (how to advise, expert views, interviews, trends, statistics, tips, tools and guides) that will keep the customers/ readers coming back for more.

Customers can go through the blog at their own time and convenience, can subscribe to the RSS of your blog, leave comments and invaluable feedback (that one never finds on websites) and becoming active participants in the growth of your company and brand.

Companies can use their business blogs to build a community of loyal readers who can then be targeted when introducing a new product or service (done in form of tasteful product/ service reviews, often non- intrusive and with some gratification for the readers). Many large corporations have realized that having a business blog gives them a human face, and gives their customers a comfort factor while interacting with the brand.

A business blog can help build one-to-one relationships with your customers, something not possible by other mediums of brand communication. A business blog is more about giving and being helpful, rather than selling, and customers find this fact comforting.

At the end of the day your business blog has to generate buzz and spread awareness about your core business, and yet at the same time being interactive, informative, educational and helpful.

Can you name another medium that can offer such benefits to your business and customers?

If not, what are you waiting for, start your business blog today.

Also Read:

Get your Blog Noticed (Part 1)
Get your Blog Noticed (Part 2)

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Is Content the King?

From a SEO’s perceptive I would like to start by saying that content is not the King. Its original and compelling content that’s worthy of an in-bound link that’s King. For those who are not getting the difference, one has just to look at all the badly written, unreadable, rehashed and duplicate content that’s available online.

In the quest to create lots of content and related keywords to rank, online marketers somewhere forgot that content writing is an art to excite, educate, entertain and enable the readers, and not a marketing function.

Even search engines say that eventually search rankings will be mostly about the quality of the original content on your websites and blogs.

We all know that having well written content on your website or blog is a must if you are to attract and induce the user to read further, to try out a new service, or buy a product. If the users do not find the content engaging they will not return to your website or blog. So why is there so much bad content being created online?

Some companies and individuals assume that they will create multiple pages of similar, rehashed or quickly written content to get top ranking for multiple keywords and then somehow convert that traffic into business by giving marketing links, banners, affiliates etc.

In short their objective is to deceive the search engines and the users into believing that they have valuable content for those keywords and get the clicks.

Creating content solely for the purposes of making multiple entry pages for keyword ranking may seemingly serve its purpose in the short run (much to my irritation), but search engines are getting better at understanding content and its perceived value, so those pages offering no value other that for the purpose of linking and advertising will be debarred.

Eventually we will live in a world where instead of finding ways of fooling users and search engines, companies and individuals will be focus on creating real value and content for their users, where each click will lead to informative, well written and resourceful content, but till that day comes (ever hopeful) we will have to make do with some of the crappy pages of content online.

Is well written content the same as optimized content or seo content?

No, SEO content or optimized content is written and focused around a specific keyword that you want to rank. You follow all the rules you would normally follow while writing interesting and engaging content for your users, and in addition you also ensure that your keyword (maintaining ideal keyword weight) is evenly spaced across the content, nicely blending into your writing.

One word of advice, before hiring the services of a writer who claims to have an understanding of SEO, or the services of a SEO content services company, evaluate whether the people who you will be working with are original content creators or online marketers.

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Keyword Placement Strategy

For those who have not read Success with Keywords Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5, I suggest you do so now. It will assist you in creating a list of winning keywords for your website focused around your business, products/services, target audiences, and competition.

For those who have read and implemented the strategies mentioned in the Seo Expert Keyword Series would have created a list of winning keywords by now.

All your hard work has paid off and your list of winning keywords is finally ready. This post covers all the possible places (on-page optimization) where you will need to place the keywords on the page you want to optimize.

There are many conflicting views on this one but logically I have always felt that you should focus ONE KEYWORD PER PAGE only.

Imagine a highly focused page where the keyword is strategically placed in a well written and captivating title , in the beginning of the description tag, in the keyword tag, and other meta tags like H1, H2, link text, and in the body content keyword weight, every 100 words place keyword appropriately into the content) of that page.

Now is that not better than confusing the search engines with a page that contains six to seven keywords with some keywords placed in the Meta tags and body content. No there are sites with multiple keywords on the homepage that are ranked high, but keep in mind off-page factors like link building that influence rankings as well.

As a SEO expert, I have learnt that there are always exceptions to the rule (eventually the search engines will become better at removing pages that are not up to mark or using spam), but we are not discussing exceptions cases here but rather those who are serious about their online business.

It’s a healthy combination of on-page and off-page factors that will eventually determine your search rankings so it’s best to maintain best practices with long term view.

Let’s get started to find relevant places to place your keyword to boost your rankings.

1. Use the keyword in the domain name if possible. Now that may not be possible for many who have existing domains that don’t contain the keyword. You can also set up sub-domains with the keywords. Eg. my website www.seo-optimization-experts.com does not contain the keyword Mumbai (which is location), so if I wanted to boost my ranking for the keyword seo expert mumbai, I could set up a sub domain like http://mumbai.seo-optimization-experts.com

2. Use keyword in the page name. Eg if your page is About us, rather than having a page seo-optimization-experts.com/aboutus.html, name the page http://www.seo-optimization-experts.com/seo-company-in-india.html (where seo company in India is the keyword for that page). Use hyphens (-) rather than underscores (_) while naming your pages.

3. Make sure your keyword phrase appears in the beginning of the title and description tag. There are times where placing the keyword somewhere in the middle of the description tag is better, or even placing keyword twice, so don’t hesitate and try some combinations. Make sure the title and description reads well and is captivating enough.

4. Use keywords in Meta tags like keyword, H1, H2 (heading tags) etc.

5. Use keyword in the Link text (internal and external links that describe the link to your website).

6. Use keywords in the body content. The first 25 words of your content should be keyword rich and then use the keyword phrase across the remaining content maintaining ideal keyword weight (I generally use the keyword once every 100 words).

7. Check to see where your competition is placing those keywords, in which Meta tags, at what position etc.

The key to success with rankings is to FOCUS and FINE TUNE your pages so that the content of the page revolves around the keyword.

Note: Be careful not to overstuff your page with keywords as the search engines will label pages that have keyword stuffing as spam. Be moderate!

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Google 2001 Index Offers Search Insights to the Future

In honor of Google’s 10th birthday, they have brought back their oldest available index. Let’s take a look back at Google in January 2001 on http://www.google.com/search2001.html.

This index offers great insights into the world of search, its growth and possibly a look into the future of search, and your online business.

Here are some interesting personal observations:

Figure 1
Google 2001 index
Keyword - seo expert mumbai



Figure 2
Google 2008 Index
Keyword - seo expert mumbai



1. The number of results

The first thing that came to my immediate notice was the number of results displayed. While searching for seo expert mumbai (which is a regional search) the number of results displayed is a mere 47 results that took 0.10 sec. (See Figure 1)

Now compare that with search results for the same keyword in the Google 2008 index displayed 121000 results that took 0.10 seconds. (See Figure 2).

What this means: There is a vast difference of 120953 results, but the time taken to display the results was still 0.10 seconds. That’s good! Google success philosophy to keep things simple and fast is demonstrated in the example above.

The rise in the number of results is also a positive sign. It means more websites are optimizing their pages with region in mind, and that Google has gotten much better at what they do.

2. Relevancy of Search results

The next thing that’s more significant than the results is the quality of search results.

If you look at the results for the search seo expert mumbai in Google 2001 index, it shows up a guestbook entry in the position #1. I visited the site and there was no mention of seo expert on the page. On opening the source code I found this:

--
TITLE CodeGuru

META Name="description" Content="Codeguru is where developers can come to share ideas, articles, questions, answers, tips, tricks, comments, downloads, and so much more related to programming in areas including C++, Visual C++, C#, Visual Basic, ASP, ASP.NET, Java, and more.

META Name="keywords" Content="Visual C++, MFC, string programming,ATL programming, WTL programming,activeX programming,COM+,shell programming,Listbox,.NET, C#, ASP, ASP.NET, ASP.NET AJAX,VC++, VB.NET, VB, Visual Basic Code, Programming, Developers, Architects, Studio CSharp, Microsoft, Coding, download, downloads, community source code, software development, Windows developers"
--

If you notice, the keyword does not appear in the title, description or the keyword tags that have become so important in the 2008 algorithm. In the remaining search results in the 2001 index shows a job listing which has nothing to do with seo, a table of content and then results that have nothing to do with the keyword seo expert mumbai.

In the 2001 Google results the following points are noted:

1. Lots of irrelevant search results

2. Badly written titles and descriptions

3. No regional search

4. The keyword is not present in page name, title, description meta tags or in the body content

5. Lack of SEO companies in Mumbai

In the 2008 Google results the following points are noted:

1. Prominence is given to local searches (geography has become very important)

2. The titles and descriptions contain the keyword being searched

3. The body content has the keywords

4. Relevant Blogs, Videos, Social Networking and Bookmarking sites are fast gaining top positions

5. The quality of sites listed are much better

6. The search is much tighter and the results lead to sites with relevant content most of the time

7. The number of SEO companies in Mumbai has increased drastically

3. Additional Search Tools

In the 2001 Google index, you can view the older version of the site in the internet archives. The date of the last index was not mentioned so the user did not know when was the last time the site was indexed was.

In the 2008 Google index one can check for cache pages (about 6 days ago) as well as similar pages.

This was just one example I used for my experiment.

You can go ahead and go crazy, try using your keywords in both the 2001 and 2008 indexes and see the differences in the search results and quality of sites that got top listing.

And maybe… just maybe it will show you an insight into the future.

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Leverage by Commenting on Relevant Blogs (Part 2)

You have an opinion, like participating in discussions, and debating seems a way of life for you then you can use the power of leveraging by commenting on various relevant blogs.

These powerful words will get your website or blog noticed in a crowded blogosphere, get you noticed as an active participant (nobody likes a dull boy), add to your credibility as an expert in your domain, and get you additional links that will point back to your domain.

For those who have not read Part 1 of this series please do so NOW! This blog post is a continuation to the Leverage by Commenting series.

We have already covered in Part 1:

1. Choose relevant blogs
2. Choose relevant bloggers
3. Choose prominent blogs

For those of you who have read Part 1, let’s continue our journey to find out which blogs to track, which ones to leave comments on, and which ones will form part of your overall SEO strategy.
4. Check for Comments

Another thing you could check is the number of comments which are being left on the blog. Are the comments useful and informative, or are the comments useless like “great work”, “thanks for the info” or worse “check my link so and so for more info”.

Useless comments that don’t add any value to the article or blog post but just for the purpose of creating a link won’t work. Most bloggers are intelligent enough to figure out link building ploys like this and will delete your link and comments.

Bloggers like it when their readers leave comments that are meaningful, praise their hard work, and even when they leave a negative comment but with justification. If you are pointing out a correction make sure you give credible reasons and references to your comment.

Good bloggers don’t mind being wrong, or being corrected, in fact they may appreciate being corrected and will carry a correction blog highlighting the mistake they made and the person who pointed it out.

An important note here! Check to see if the blogger is replying back to all the comments in a positive and fair way. Stay away from highly opinionated bloggers who think they know it all will probably not let you leave you valuable inputs anyways.

Does the blogger leave external links in the comments field? If so that’s good. Follow those links to see how the commenter has added value to the topic. Understanding the mind of the blogger is important and so are the rules he sets. After all he is the master of his blog.

5. Ask other bloggers

The good ol’ word of mouth works best. Check to see how many other prominent bloggers have linked to the blog. You can do this by checking the blog’s authority on Technorati.

Blog authority tells you how many other blogs have linked to the blog you are researching. So if you see a blog authority of 5, that’s means, 5 other blogs have linked to this blog. It would be a good thing if at this time you check to see why the other bloggers have linked to this blog.

Check to see if the blogger is promoting his blog. Read Get your Blog Noticed Part 1 and Part 2 to know more about ways in which blogs are promoted.

6. Make Friends (Most Important)

The profile page will also list the bloggers other interests and passions so check if there is some synergy there with your interests. Having similar interests is the best way to grow a friendship. Please don’t fake your interests for the sole reason of pursuing your SEO objectives, it’s a waste of everyone’s time.

Does the blogger have a good sense of humor? Everyone likes someone who can add dash of humor and fun to their writing while being informative. Even though it may not be an important point to consider, personally I like anyone who can bring a smile to my face.

Make friends and grow your network. A blogger offers you his community of readers built after much hard work. Treat the blogger and his community of readers with respect, and they will give you a vault of information, ideas, assistance and traffic. Join in and have fun with your new online friends.

7. Make a Commitment

Once you have chosen the blogs you plan to read, track and to leave comments on, the next step for you is to be regular and committed. Read all the blog posts from your chosen blogs and leave comments when you have something valuable and positive to say.

An easy way to catch up on your favorite blogs is to subscribe to their RSS feeds. You can set up an iGoogle account to scan through your blogs for new stories, or use other feed services like FeedBurner.

I repeat don’t leave useless comments like “good work”, or “thank you for the post”. The blogger is working with certain objectives in mind and loves to blog; he does not need your thanks to continue.

Also don’t leave useless comments purely for the purpose of link building. Having hundreds of useless comments on various blog sites won’t add real value to your SEO link campaign and you will piss of bloggers and their readers in no time (Bloggers will delete your comments eventually making it waste of your time at the end of the day).

The key to leveraging on comments is to make each one count. Add further value to what’s being written, or to the discussion, that should be your mantra.

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Leverage by Commenting on Relevant Blogs (Part 1)

You have an opinion, like participating in discussions, and debating seems a way of life for you then you can use the power of leveraging by commenting on various relevant blogs.

These powerful words will get your website or blog noticed in a crowded blogosphere, get you noticed as an active participant (nobody likes a dull boy), add to your credibility as an expert in your domain, and get you additional links that will point back to your domain.

But we wary, leveraging by leaving comments is hard work, time consuming and frustrating at times. So homework is your best option (this is coming from someone who hates the word homework).

Let’s have a look at the numbers:

Statistics on Blogging - comScore MediaMetrix (August 2008)

• Total internet audience 188.9 million
• Blogs: 77.7 million unique visitors in the US alone
• Facebook: 41.0 million

With these big numbers, it’s very important to know which blogs to select and track, which ones to leave comments on, and which ones will form part of your SEO strategy.

1. Choose relevant blogs

You can start by choosing relevant blogs. Don’t leave comments on a blog where you don’t know anything about the subject, and have no interest in the topics being posted. Instead choose blogs that are relevant to your knowledge, experience and where you can offer a meaningful link back in case any other readers want to know more about you, or your work.

Ask yourself honest questions. Will the readers of this blog be interested in what I have to say (and no, everyone does not think you are an expert)? Will my comments add value to the topics being discussed?

Choosing relevant blogs and intelligently commenting on the topic being discussed will add to your credibility as someone who is passionate and interested in that domain.

2. Choose relevant bloggers

Who are relevant bloggers? You can start by checking the date when the blogger started the blog. You can do this by checking the bloggers profile page. Blogging is hard work and only the committed can survive, so if the person been blogging for more than a year he is serious.

Check for the frequency of the posts. Has the blogger been consistent in his posts? The best bloggers are committed to writing a blog atleast 4 to 5 times a week. Readers look forward to knowing that if they go to the blog today they will get some new information. Bloggers that stick to their deadline commitments are often those who have a good reader base.

Also take time and read the posts. Is the blogger passionate about the topics he speaks about? Is the blogger knowledgeable in his domain? Does the blogger write well? The best way to find that out is to read 5 to 10 recent posts and dig in to read 5 to 10 older posts. In this way you will have some idea on how the blogger writes and the growth in writing style and knowledge over time.

3. Choose prominent blogs

How does one decide whether a blog is prominent or not? You can check the page rank of the blog on Google toolbar, or check their ranking on blog search engines like Technorati. Sites like Technorati also give the blog rank and authority as well, so since you are going to spend your valuable time commenting on blogs, ensure its ranked well.

It’s ok to be picky here, you won’t have the time to read, track and make interesting comments on 50 blogs and more. Pick 5 to 10 blogs that interest you, and are ranked well.

To make this article more reader friendly I am breaking up this post into two parts. In Part 2 we will be exploring others points to consider like checking comments, asking other bloggers, and making new friends.

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Obsessive Ranking Disorder (My Wakeup Call)

I got a rather unusual wakeup call this morning.

It started like any normal day; I checked the rankings for my keywords eager to see how they were faring after getting some prominent bloggers to review my blog. Like a little boy in anticipation of opening his presents on Christmas morning, I typed in the keyword seo expert mumbai I have been targeting for the past few weeks.

Before I reveal the search results and my ranking, allow me to share a small story.

A while ago when I was doing my advanced SEO expert course with Search Engine Workshops , my instructor and guide Robin Nobles told me that many SEO’s over obsess about their rankings. At that time her comment seemed strange to me. How could someone obsess over rankings?

We are taught that search rankings don’t magically change by themselves. You have to be consistent in creating quality content and building quality links. With each strategy you apply, you have to wait and see the results to find out what’s working and what’s not. Of course unlike before, the search engine spiders are more frequent in their updates and the search engines reflect changes much quicker.

I used to tease friends whose highs and lows fluctuated with the rise and fall in the stock market prices and indexes, but today is the day I will find out that somehow I had become one of them.

“Hi my name is Nevil and I have obsessive ranking disorder” – as said at the Obsessive Ranking Anonymous (ORA) Meeting.

Now back to my wakeup call...

My well trained eyes had just started the ranking scan. My site www.seo-optimization-experts.com was listed in No #1 position for the keyword seo expert mumbai. I felt a Kundalini rush up my seven Chakras, as just yesterday my keyword was ranked at No #12 position in Google search results.

I was not sure how this could have happened (maybe the Gods are finally looking kindly on me), but against my intuition, knowledge and experience working on SEO for many websites, I somehow kept faith that this was indeed possible, after all miracles have known to happen.

To confirm the faith I called up my partner in crime Rajesh who checked for the keyword. Incidentally I am to blame for pushing him into my obsessive habit to search rankings for my keywords every few hours even though I know I have not done anything from my side to affect the same.

A few minutes later he told me it was still in the same position No #12, much to my dismay. I double checked my results again, it still stood proudly at No #1 position.

How could this be possible, I know that Google does not give different search listings across different computers?

I backtracked like a detective solving a big crime (the loss of my ranking). I logged off my iGoogle page, and then searched again.

This time it showed me No # 12 on Google.com: Results 11 - 20 of about 121,000 for seo expert mumbai. (0.17 seconds)



And No # 11 on Google.co.in (Local) Results 11 - 20 of about 120,000 for seo expert mumbai. (0.04 seconds)



Then I logged into my iGoogle account again

Again I was in the No #1 Spot on Google.co.in Results 1 - 10 of about 121,000 for seo expert mumbai. (0.06 seconds)



So can anyone answer this?

iGoogle is a personalized page but are the search results supposed to be different when handled by the same engine and algorithm? Or is it the perfect kind of personalization where Google has managed to deliver the No #1 listing which was exactly what I was looking for…. my website?

But then I thought who cares, for at the end of the day the search results were giving me exactly what I, as a user wanted to see, and that’s a good thing isn’t it.

As I slowly reached understanding and still recovering from the morning incident, a much deep rooted behavior of mine came to surface. Somewhere in my journey the passion to see my keywords high up in search rankings had become obsessive behavior.

“Hi my name is Nevil and I am successfully recovering from obsessive ranking disorder” – as said at the Obsessive Ranking Anonymous Meeting.

What’s amazing is that now I have so much free time to do more productive things like write this blog post.

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Is your competition beating you with SEO?

You have optimized your website for winning keywords, are mid-way with your link building campaign, and have been going absolutely crazy creating fresh SEO friendly content that pleases the users and search engines.

You are obviously very serious about your online business, and yet you cannot seem to cross the Rank # 12, Page 2 barrier of Google search listing for your primary keyword/s.

A series are questions arise from the imaginary situation above:

1. Why is my ranking for the particular keyword not going up?
2. Am I missing out on any SEO strategies?
3. Maybe I am not building enough links? How much will be enough?
4. Do I have to improve my content quality?
5. The search engine has changed their algorithm (…again)
6. Others are using illegal SEO techniques

Now while one could go over the questions in your head, read up on latest search engine algorithms, contact a SEO expert, or blindly start buying links out of desperation, there is an easier way to find your answers.

Simply ask why are the other 10 websites ranking before your website?

Now that does not mean that the above questions 1 to 6 are not relevant, but simply put, one of the easiest way to boost your search rankings is to study the top 5 to ten websites for your keyword and then apply what working for them into your own strategies.

Now I am not asking you to copy the competition or have a strategy that just involves beating the competition at the ranking game. It never works. What is needed is a better balance between your company’s SEO strategies and of those of your competitors.

Like in any business strategy, you have to know your competitors, study what strategies they are using, and then apply the best of those strategies to your own game plan.

In the same way, in defining the SEO path ahead for your website you must analyze your competition. What are they doing to rank in the top 10 that you are not doing? After all those websites are listed on the top for a reason, and they are applying SEO strategies that the search engine in particular seems to like.

Now while finding the answers to those questions in the real business world may be difficult, in the online world all you have to do is to right-click and view the source of the page.

The above simple step will open up a world of information to you.

1. Does the domain name contain the keyword? If the link is a sub domain then does the sub domain contain the keyword?

2. In what Meta tags, title, etc has the competition placed their keywords?

3. Does the link name contain the keyword? eg. www.seo-optimization-experts.com/mumbai-seo-expert.html

4. How many keywords are listed in the keyword tag i.e. is the page focused around one or two keywords, or is it a jumble of keywords listed out.

5. Is the title and description captivating enough? How has the keyword/s been placed in the title and description and at what position?

6. Is the page graphic intensive? Is the site using a lot flash or active server pages? Search engines cannot understand graphics, only the text it can read on the page. Make sure there is a good balance between the graphics and content.

7. How long is the body text? Writing 400 to 600 words is normally fine.

8. Has the keyword (keyword weight) been used appropriately in the body content? Ideally the first 25 words of content should be keyword rich, and the keyword should appear after every 100 words in remaining content.

9. Is the content interesting to you as the reader? Does the content follow a theme? Is the content relevant to what keyword the page has been optimized for?

10. What is the page rank of the page (You can check page rank of any website by downloading the Google Toolbar at http://toolbar.google.com.

11. Which is the first place in the source code the keyword appears?

12. Has the keyword been used appropriately in headline tags and link text?

13. Does the site use java script, tables, frames, dynamic content, CMS etc?

14. Is the page focused around a theme?

15. How many inbound links are there to the page? You can check the link popularity of the page on www.marketleap.com? Visit the sites that have given the link? What is their page rank? What is the link text that describes the link to the website? Has the keyword been used in the link text?

16. How many pages does the site have?

17. Does the site have a good site map that lists all the content pages, videos on the site that search engine spiders can crawly easily?

18. Are there any 404 errors on the website?

19. What is the domain name extension e.g. .com,. net, .edu, .co.in

20. How long has that domain name been in existence? Search engines rank those sites better that have been around for a while, or those that plan to be around for a while?

21. How many directories has that page/ website been submitted to?

22. Has the site used any spamming or illegal SEO techniques like keyword stuffing, cloaking, hidden text, duplicate content and other such Spam’s? If yes you can inform the search engine of the same but do so with caution. For Google: http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html

Please note that sometimes you will find no reasons why the competitors’ website is ranked above yours. And that’s ok. I have experienced many cases of certain sites which go against the search engines guidelines (set by search engines themselves), and yet they rank above meticulously optimized pages.

Search engines are constantly trying to remove badly optimized or spam pages which offer little or no value to the users. Our intent here is not to focus on the missing pieces/loopholes of search engines algorithms or isolated instances of sites that don’t deserve it and yet are ranking high, but to work within the framework and guidelines for the long haul.

By mapping out the answers to the above questions (preferable on a spread sheet), you will find the overall patterns of what is working for those sites and why, and then figure out ways to modify your SEO strategies to improve your rankings.

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My Blog Reviews October 2008

I was recently reviewed by few prominent bloggers.

A BIG THANKS to all of them for taking the time to do a review.

http://www.wikitrash.org/?p=574
http://www.newslink.in/2008/10/13/companies-implementing-seo-concepts/
http://www.wordreport.com/?p=874
http://www.matls.ws/2008/10/13/mumbai-based-search-engine-optimization-technique/
http://www.network-sense.com/?p=357

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Get your website reviewed by prominent Bloggers

A large part of off-page SEO strategies revolve around link building, directory submissions, article submissions, social bookmarking, vertical engines submissions and blogger reviews.

While blogger reviews may not have made it into mainline internet marketing strategies for companies in India as of yet, it is slowly becoming an important marketing strategy that SEO experts are adopting to achieve higher rankings in search engine results for their clients.

The main reason is that getting links from established, well promoted and high profile bloggers to your website, and to certain important pages of your website (i.e. deep linking) gives you permanent one-way links to the inner pages of your content.

Link building within relevant content (to the inner pages of your website) is great for search engine rankings and building quality links. Any SEO expert will vouch how difficult it is to achieve that with only directory submissions and other forms of link building.

Well established bloggers have built a reputation and readership over the years, and their readers trust their reviews and opinions. Getting an honest review of your products and services from such bloggers will give your website instant credibility amongst their readers in addition to build permanent one way links to your website.

What’s important to note is the word “honest review”. Don’t expect the blogger to write some fantastical review about a product or service that’s not up to the mark. Most bloggers value their credibility built over years, and will not damage it for one review.

When a blogger endorses or reviews a product or service, they are in fact telling their readers that they have tried the product, or used the service and give their honest opinion about it.

This stamp of approval (and sometimes even a critical comment) from an established blogger will get the traffic to your product, service or website.

If you do get a critical comment from a blogger who is reviewing your product or service, ensure that you answer that comment immediately. This lets the bloggers readers know that you are interested in enhancing your product and service and value suggestions to improve the same.

Later on you can let that blogger and his readers know that you have implemented that suggestion. Can you see how this could go a long way in building your credibility and business online?

All marketers will agree that there is no better marketing strategy than the good ol’ word-of-mouth, and in the online business it no different.

While selecting a blogger to review your product or services:

1. Ensure that the blogger is well established (blogging for atleast a year)

2. Check the Page Rank for the Blog (atleast 2 or above is good.

3. Ask to check the hits report or Google Analytics report for the blog

4. What is the profile of people who visit the blog? Would this TG (Target Audience) be interested in knowing more about your products and services?

5. Read through the blogger last few posts, the quality of his writing, and the time gap between the posts. Check for consistency, good style of writing and passion.

6. Check to see if readers are leaving behind intelligent comments, and if the blogger is replying satisfactorily to those immediately.

At the end of the day, Bloggers are consumers themselves and like reviewing and giving their opinions about brands, products and services they like or dislike. Bloggers are humans and feel and think like you, so build a relationship that’s not based on link building.

And lastly, always do a follow up with the bloggers within a month and ask them how you can be of help to them and their readers. Many bloggers may just tell you what they are looking for, and be willing to give credit to the source of information.

Also read:

Get you blog noticed Part 1 and Part 2
My love and Hate Relationship with Blogging
Why Search Engines loves blogs! And so should you
The Bloggers Survival Guide

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Create New Gateways to Targeted Traffic

You have done well with the top 2 to 3 keywords of your website and they are listed in top 3 in search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN, but you are just not getting anywhere with those other elusive keywords that could be driving traffic to your website.

If the above scenario sounds familiar, then you are part of thousands of other website owners who feel they are not being able to target and rank for those additional keywords they found after much hard work and analysis.

Now we all know that finding the right keywords is not an easy job. Even a SEO expert will agree to that. It takes a considerable amount of investment in time and skill to identify winning keywords using various keyword analysis tools, and in analyzing user preferences and the competition.

I can imagine the frustration when all that hard work sees no payoff.

The main reason this problem occurs is that search engines prefer that the pages are optimized around just one or two keywords, and those keywords appear in your title, description, other relevant META tags including the body content.

So if your website has 10 pages, then ideally only 10 to 12 keywords should be targeted. Then what happens to the other 20 keywords you found that have the potential to drive that extra traffic to your website.

The solution to the above problem can be found in creating Gateway Pages or Information Pages.

A gateway page is a highly focused page created around a specific keyword you want to target for search engine listings. So the additional keyword that found no space in your existing website’s structure (and in the search engines indexes) can now be targeted using gateway pages.

These highly focused pages act like additional entry points to your website. Each page represents a keyword or a keyword phrase you want to target, and each keyword targeted, means additional traffic to your website.

The best part is you can create as many number of gateway pages without redesigning your website.

Gateway pages are content rich pages and are useful for the users, as well as search engines. The user love information rich pages that solve their problem/need, and search engines love nicely optimized focused pages that can satisfy the users query for that keyword.

So is there anything magical about gateway pages? No, they are the same like any other normal page you would optimize for your website.

You would follow the same SEO principles one applies while working with normal pages which includes:

1. Focus the page around 1 keyword or keyword phrase only.

2. Focus the page around a topic/theme.

3. Ensure that the page name, title, Meta tags, and body content are written around that keyword.

4. Gateway pages can be scaled down versions of your existing design interface (the focus is on the content) so they load faster and can rank far better than heavily designed pages).

5. Write content that appeals to the user and not the search engines.

6. Write around 400 to 600 words of body content around that topic.

7. Use headings and sub headings to layout your content, and use the keyword in the heading tags like H1, H2.

8. Use the keyword (check keyword weight) in the body content.

9. The first 25 words of your body content should be keyword rich, and then evenly distribute the keyword in the remaining body content. Make sure it reads well.

10. Build links from your gateway pages to your website and from your site to gateway pages.

11. Link to other pages in your website that are related in content.

12. Link to other popular sites with similar content that could add value to your readers.

13. Get links from popular and related sites to your gateway pages.

14. Include gateway pages in your sitemap.

15. Gateway pages can be linked to sections like articles, resources & tips, how-to etc.

16. Your gateway pages can also be submitted to article submission sites without your article being treated like duplicate content by search engines.

17. Add one new page of content to your website each week i.e. One new keyword targeted each week.

Your gateway pages are an ideal way to target new keywords, and at the same time giving fresh and useful content to your users and search engines.

At the end of the day what is it that people want to know? Are your potential customers looking for how-to articles, reference material, comparison charts, interviews, financial or technical advice, contact numbers, FAQ’s, tips and tricks, location maps etc?

Some cautions while creating gateway pages

1. Don’t create information pages with the same or just rehashed content as on your website or worse from a website off the internet.

2. Don’t create copies of your index page and use them as information pages.

So you now have the secret to targetting additional keywords - by creating content rich pages and optimizing your Meta tags around that keyword.

SEO Expert Mumbai
www.seo-optimization-experts.com

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The Blogger’s Guide to Survival

What will it take for a blogger to survive the uncertain future ahead?

Any avid blogger will tell you that blogging is very hard work, and there have been cases where bloggers have admitted to letting blogging disrupt their family life, friendships in the real world, finances and time.

I am not a fan of extreme behavior. But I do admire some of the reasons they give – one of my favorites is that blogging is not just about writing or sharing, but the enormous satisfaction one gets being an active participant in exploring human experiences, knowledge, emotions and passions.

Let’s take a trip into time, back to the early hay days of the Internet. You had to pay for everything; set up of the website, hosting, server managed services, email accounts, and promoting your website. Other than that one needed the services of costly website developers to change a line of text, or a simple graphic.

It was little wonder that only companies could afford these exorbitant rates, leaving individuals and many professionals as passive participants, who could view, compare, give feedback, or buy.

Today the individual has the power to be active participants on the Internet with blogs, social bookmarking and social networking becoming commonly used terminology by college students, innovative brands and even large organizations.

Blogging gave the individual the power to create attractive pages of content with pictures, videos, and share it with the world on click of a button.

The present seems secure enough, and thousands of new blogs are being created each day, the numbers of users reading blog are on the rise, bloggers have started making a modest sum for their hard work, and popular blogs are ranking well in search engine results.

But what’s sad is that 90 percent of them will witness a sad demise because of simple things they did not know (not did not do) when they started blogging. Around 8percent of blogs will never be read, and 1 percent will give up after a year of hard struggle. Well that leaves 1 percent of blogs that will have any hope for survival, let alone success.

Now I am not trying to discourage anyone from blogging, its most fulfilling, but rather asking you to look within to see the reason why you want to blog and about what? Answering those questions could mean the difference between success or the demise of your blog.

In the animal kingdom, it’s the survival of the fittest.

In blogging it’s the most persistent, innovative and passionate bloggers that will survive. It will not be just what you do, but what you feel, and how you perceive the world you so write about that will make the difference.

Great Tips for blogger survival:

1. Write about something you know, and are passionate about. After all you will not want to write 3-5 times a week on a subject that you are unfamiliar with, or are not passionate about.

2. Add your complete profile with a nice photograph. Readers like to know a little about you.

3. Be persistent, your readers expect something new each time they visit.

4. It’s not about quantity, but quality. Write clean good copy,and use humor and examples with nice visuals.

5. Innovate, don’t give the same content rehashed, do things differently.

6. Make your blog customized, attractive and easy to navigate.

7. Add a search to your blog.

8. Allows your readers to interact with your blog (polls, comments, social bookmarking).

9.Your readers are your customer’s; get to know their likes and dislikes, pay attention to their comments.

10. Create links within your blog posts to your other blog posts.

11. Create links from your blog post to your website (if you have one)and from your website to your blog.

12. Build links from other blogs and popular websites to your blog.

13. Register your blog on blog search engines and blog directories.

14. Announce your blog to the world on press release sites.

15. Submit your blog posts to popular article submission sites. Don’t overdo it.

16. Register your blog feed (Atom/ RSS) with content feed syndicates.

17. Track the visitors on your blog using services like Google Analytics.

18. Monitize your blog with adwords and select affiliates that adds value for your readers.

19. Track and read other blogs in competition with you. What are they doing different?

20. Track the most popular blogs, see what they are doing (how often are they posting, the titles, the quality of content, do they use graphics and videos, do they allow users to leave comments and rank posts etc).

21. Leave interesting comments for other bloggers

21. Read Get you blog noticed.

22. Read My love and Hate Relationship with Blogging.

23. Read Why Search Engines loves blogs! And so should you.

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