SEO Basics - Good Link, Bad Link

Your link profile is potentially the most powerful aspect of your SEO efforts, especially in the eyes of Google. Quality counts over quantity, but it is important to get a good list of well-balanced links pointing to your site. Diversification really is the key. Try not to concentrate all of your efforts on gaining links from one source, and similarly try not to gain them using a single method. A number of tactics should be avoided wherever possible because they either offer you no benefit whatsoever or your page may be penalized.

This article looks at the acquisition of links purely from an SEO standpoint and, aside from the really bad linking methods, if a link will provide good-quality, direct traffic then it is definitely still a good link and well worth considering. You will have to use your judgment on this, to a certain extent.

Good Links

Directory Links

Directories are viewed as being a very positive source of links by a number of search engines. Obviously, some directory listings carry much more weight than others and some directories are hardly worth the effort. Be careful to drip feed your site with directory links at first because it is possible that too many too quickly will see your site penalized until your link profile becomes more natural.

Start with the major Internet directories and consider getting links from free general topic directories as well as niche directories and also look at paying for inclusion in one or two of the seriously large directories like the Yahoo directory and business.com. As your link profile expands you can add more directories to gain extra weight.

Reciprocal Links

You may have read that reciprocal linking is dead. While it is true that Google and possibly other search engines now place much less weight on a profile that is crammed with nothing but reciprocal links they still have a place. Keep the number of reciprocal links you use down to a minimum and certainly don't base your entire link building efforts on this one tactic alone.

Again, balance is a big part of reciprocal linking but also of importance is relevance. Regardless of whether you offer a separate links or resources page, or you choose to include the links throughout your site you are still essentially endorsing the site. You will also gain much more credence from a link that is placed on a page containing information relevant to your own page.

Unique One-Way Inbound Links

These should pretty much be the staple diet of your link portfolio. An inbound link that is one way does not necessitate the inclusion of a link back to that page on your site. This can help to give your own pages the benefit instead of handing it out to your link partners. The more relevant and the more important that search engines deem the linking site to be the more weight they give that particular link.

Site Wide Links

Again, these should be used sparingly. Gaining a site wide link means that a link to your site or your pages is placed on a number of pages in a site. Search engines are known to give less weight to links that are procured on this basis but it does help to give your portfolio a more rounded appearance.

Press Release Links

Writing and submitting a digital press release can provide good links. Many press releases are used by other sites and industries related to your site and they may also be included on some major news websites. There are free press release distribution services available, but it is common to need t pay to make the link clickable and to use anchor text.

Article Links

Writing and submitting articles to article directories can provide a large number of links. Not only can you submit one article to numerous directories but each directory has the potential of generating a number of interested websites. These websites also publish your article (which includes an author bio section with your link). This can be a good way to get authoritative sites to link to you.

Community Links

Join forums and include your link in your signature. Post useful comments on other people's blogs and include your link as your username. You should, under no circumstances, spam blogs or forums and only include links on the sites that allow it.

Presell Advertising Pages

Some websites will allow you to include an entire page on their site. In most cases you will either need to pay to have the page written or you, or write the page yourself. Generally the website will also include other forms of advertising but as long as you choose sites carefully this can generate some excellent links.

Bad Links

FFA Sites

An FFA, or Free-For-All page, is one that allows anybody to post any link they like on the page. Typically they are not only useless to your cause, because the search engines ignore them, but they will not generate any natural traffic but may attract the spammers to your doors.

Link Farms

A link farm is a page that contains an excessively large number of links. Some say a page with 100 links directed out of that page is a link farm, but in all honesty it is unlikely that a page will yield much benefit for SEO or non-SEO with more than fifty or so links.

Off Topic

Off topic links are something of a bone of contention. They may offer very slight weight with some search engines because it is quite possible that natural links from certain websites would point to any number of pages on any topic. This appears in the bad link section because they offer very little positive benefit and your efforts would be best placed gaining on-topic links.

Unindexable

Purely from an SEO standpoint, links that cannot be indexed by search engines are completely useless. A search engine spider must be able to follow the link to find your page and provide you with any benefit for that link. Avoid any page that offers to display your link in a frame, or includes the noindex or nofollow robots.txt tags. However, bear in mind that a site that is currently not being indexed by search engines may be a new site. It could also grow up to be the next Google.com and take your link with it.

Conclusion

Your link profile should appear as natural as possible so vary the good links as much as possible and avoid the bad links. Collect links from as many sources using as many tactics as possible and use keyword variants in your anchor text. By following these guidelines you should be able to improve the appearance of your link profile and, therefore, improve your search engine rankings.

WebWiseWords is a web content writer and provides content writing and SEO copywriting for a wide variety of clients in various industries.

How To Get Your Articles Published Online

Article marketing, using articles to boost your traffic and sales, is one of the most effective online marketing strategies you can use. Why you ask? Because articles are the perfect marketing tools for promoting any website or product.

However, it is not just simply a matter of throwing a few words together on a webpage and hoping for the best. To effectively use articles as marketing tools you must follow some simple procedures and practices in order to get your articles published online and in ezines more often.

Here are some article marketing tips you can try. These methods are proven and have worked for thousands of professional online marketers including the one writing this piece.

Why Articles Work

But before we start, you must understand why articles are so crucial to your marketing in the first place. You must truly understand why and how articles work so effectively as marketing vehicles in our newly wired world. It all boils down to one word... information.

The main reason articles work is information. The whole Internet is based on information. People use the web to access information and your well written article can help satisfy this need. You must place your article squarely into this whole information cycle.

Your article must be informative and provide some benefit to the reader. Tips, advice, how-to... your reader should gain something from spending a few minutes reading your article. The more beneficial your article, the more popular it will become and you will have a better chance of getting it published.

Title & Keywords

Your article title should contain two vital elements: Keywords and Benefits. Your title must contain your keywords or keyword phrases, these are the exact words someone types into the search engines to find what they are looking for on the web.

You must find the exact words people are using and include these in your title as well as in your article. Many professional marketers use keyword research software like Keyword Elite but you can also use free keyword suggestion tools like WordTracker or Overture: http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

I find short catchy titles are best for capturing the attention of the reader. With our split second surfing habits, the title may be your only chance you get to hook your readers and keep them on your page. Another tactic is to make all your articles easily scannable with your main points highlighted for quick absorption.

Length

Most experts suggest you keep your articles short, in the 500 - 700 word range. Many authors/marketers use even shorter formats in the 200 - 300 word range in order to fit neatly on webpages.

I personally have found my more meatier articles in the 900 - 1200 word range have worked the best for me and seems to get featured in important ezines like Addme, SiteProNews... more often than shorter articles. My best advice is to cut out any unnecessary fluff but write in your own natural style which is comfortable for you.

Submission

You must distribute your articles on the web. You can personally submit your articles to the many article directory sites on the web or you can purchase a service which does this for you. I do both.

I personally submit my articles to the major high PR6 or PR7 sites which display my articles. I have found articles placed on Ezinearticles.com, Buzzle.com, Goarticles.com, Articlealley.com, Promotionworld.com, Thumbshots.org, Site-reference.com, Ideamarketers.com, Selfgrowth.com... do extremely well.

I would suggest you use 9 or 10 of these highly popular sites to display your articles, not only for the traffic they deliver but for increasing your rankings in the search engines, especially Google.

I have also found using a paid online service like SubmitYourArticle is really helpful, especially when I am on vacation or away from my computer for any length of time. I also use this service to quickly write different versions of my articles for the best search engine optimization. I am also concerned with covering different article lengths because many webmasters will only publish short articles.

Resource Box/Anchor Text

Your resource box is at the end of each article and this is where you place URLs for those all important One-Way links back to your site. Many marketers are careful to place their targeted keywords and variations in the anchor text of their links. It is also a good idea to provide some benefit or free gift to enhance your 'call to action' and improve your chances of getting that all important click.

Be Consistent

I have found a steady supply of fresh articles on a regular basis works the best. These articles keep your site or products fresh in the search engines and in front of your potential customers and editors/webmasters who publish your content. Try for at least two articles per week.

Own List of Editors

Along the same lines, build your own opt-in list of editors and webmasters who have opted in to receive your latest articles. Send a copy of your article to these interested parties and you will increase your chances of getting your articles published.

I also make it a point of including my most popular articles in my own ezines and blogs. This helps to kickstart or launch my newest articles.

Autoresponders

Many marketers place their articles in autoresponders so anyone requesting your article can easily use email to retrieve it. Many marketers also use RSS feeds to distribute their articles. If doing your own feeds seems too complicated, then just use any of the major article directories like Ezinearticles which will supply you with a convenient RSS feed for your articles.

Spam Check Your Articles

I always make it a point of testing my articles for any words or phrases that will trigger the spam filters and block my articles. This is extremely important if you want your article to be featured in ezines and newsletters. I check my articles within my Aweber autoresponder service but you can use a free SpamCheck service offered by SiteSell: http://bizwaremagic.com/spamcheck.htm

Personality

Articles that show some originality and personality have worked the best for me. Showing and telling your own story and experiences in a light hearted way seems to work really well in the somewhat impersonal online world. Having a sense of humor also helps, try to make your articles entertaining as well as informative and your articles will be picked up more often.

Conclusion

Writing unique informative articles is one of the most effective ways to market on the web. Remember to keep your articles informative, personable, keyword rich, short and to the point. Take a pro-active approach to promoting your articles: submit them to the major online article directories, send them to editors and webmasters who request content from you and place your articles on your site, in your blogs and RSS feeds.

Used properly, articles can be effective marketing tools for boosting both your traffic and sales. Perhaps the best part of all, article marketing is completely free. What more can you ask for?

The author is a full-time online marketer. Give your marketing a real boost, take this free e-Course explaining all the tools and resources you really need to succeed online: Internet Marketing Guide For the most effective web marketing software try: Internet Marketing Software Copyright 2007 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

Bum Marketing Method - What's The Difference With Article Marketing?

What is the bum marketing method? It is simply article marketing and affiliate marketing combined. Travis Sago, the inventor of this name made a lot of noise last year, and many people are confused.

I will answer to several questions to help beginners trying to earn a few bucks online. But first, you need to understand that the bum marketing method is a short term strategy.

First, you need to write and submit articles to the top article directories. These are ezinearticles, goarticles and searchwarp.

I don't have a lot of success with searchwarp, and in fact I stopped submitting articles there.

But there is a little problem with this method. To earn money, you need to practice direct linking. This means that you link directly to the merchant's website.

While you can make anywhere between a few hundreds and a few thousands dollars per month with this method, I don't recommend that you send visitors directly to the merchant. Send them to your own landing page instead because in this case, you are in control of your traffic.

I do not say that direct linking doesn't work, but a landing page is the best way to do it.

Another mistake made by bum marketers is that they try to sprinkle their associate links inside the article. This is really annoying for article owners, and most of them won't even bother publishing your articles.

Another benefit of linking to your own webpage is that search engines will notice the surge in inbound links and your website will have higher rankings in the search engines.

What should you have on your landing page?

It is good to have an opt-in form to capture your visitors email addresses. Then, you will redirect them to the affiliate page with your autoresponder series. It's a proven fact that most of the buyers won't do it at the first visit and you need to expose the offer to your reader several times for maximum conversion.

To learn more, download my Free Guide: "How To Earn $100K Per Year With Article Marketing".

Franck Silvestre makes thousands of dollars a year from affiliate and article marketing. Wonder what the secret to his success is? Discover how he does it at: http://www.mynetmarketingland.com/article-marketing/

Article Marketing

I've written tens of thousands of words for articles and many of my articles are on the Internet through article directories. Although I have only been doing article marketing for a short while, I have found it to assist me in building my list of subscribers.

People who search the internet for information are a targeted audience but are by no means a guarantee to building a list fast unless you write hundreds of articles in a short amount of time. You have to be satisfied to use the strategy of writing articles as a long term effective method of list building and creating credibility.

The downside is if you put too many articles on your website [not Internet through directories] too fast you could end up being blacklisted by the search engines as a suspected spammer. I haven't found this to be the case as yet, but you need be aware of it because see this as a risk.

The way articles work for building your business through directories is sound. When you write an article and submit it to directories you place links back to your website in a resource box [or bio as it is commonly referred to]. Website owners and e-zines writers use these articles as free content for their website or newsletter and their readers have access to your site through the resource box if they wish to read more about the subject you have written about.

This works because article directories require that the resource box is left in place when the article is published. You now have a one way link back to your site on your article in directories and also on other websites and in e-zines. Free advertising is good when it is highly targeted.

If you have a small budget this is an excellent way to go. Membership to article directories is usually free. All you have to do is be prepared to spend time to help yourself in the marketing game.

Is article marketing as good as they all seem to say? I don't believe so unless you have no other options available to you. Sure, you have to be involved in article marketing but it should only be used as one of many strategies to market. It is good to get inbound links to create leads and credibility. However, a word of warning. Don't rely on it to build your business fast without other strategies to support it.

About the author

Dan Cavalli is an entrepreneur and expert on success in small businesses. He teaches essential marketing tactics and sales techniques. Get your copy of Dan's free subscription for Business and Personal Development Tips at http://www.commandobusiness.com/ or for your free 5 day mini-course on "How to Get More Sales in 5 Days or Less" go to http://www.leadbuildingsystems.com

Article Writers - Computer Generated Systems, Key Wording Bandit and Fake Poser (BS'ers)

Today in online article marketing we find that there are many things that writers will do to churn out lots of material. Some online article marketers will use computer-generated software to help them write their articles faster. This also helps them with the proper buzzwords which assist in keyword marketing on the search engines. Unfortunately a "key wording bandit" is doing a disservice to the Internet by putting debris across the subject matter or domain of worthless information.

By doing this some writers are clouding the Internet and yes it makes it more difficult for readers to find exactly what they're looking. Instead they are diverted to a web site where someone is trying to sell them something and make money rather than to a place where they can find the information they're looking for as a type in their search on the Internet.

But even worse than this scenario is an article writer who is a faker or a poser and creates content very rapidly which is nonfactual, misleading and completely inaccurate. I call these people BS'ers or posers and they do a severe amount of damage to the credibility of the Internet. Those who use the Internet expect to be able to find what they're looking for when they do a search.

When the search engines bring back nothing but junk we can immediately see the problem. Article writers and online article marketers should be more careful with the information they distributed to prevent themselves from being delisted in the major search engines. When a few people take it upon themselves to manipulate or game the search engines everyone loses.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington

Meta Tag Optimization And Other Quick Tips

While meta tag optimization is not quite so important these days in terms of helping you achieve or help in your search engine rankings I still do believe that you should keep optimizing you pages on your web site in the same manner that we have learned in the past.

There certainly aren't any indicators in the way that Google views your websites which would penalize you for still utilizing and this optimization method. The meta description tag still carries quite a lot of merit and of course as always we have to keep doing in depth keyword research to give us the competing edge when it comes to attracting targeted website traffic and finding out which market you can compete in without masses of competition.

With that being said, we cannot forget about the importance these days of LSI and SILO structure websites. This is most important in my mind. But, I'm just going to give some quick tips in meta tag optimization and some quick tips for the purpose of this article.

1. Always use your main targeted keyword or keyword phrase for the title of your page.

This alone is one very important and crucial step when trying to place high in the

engines for a particular page and keyword phrase.

2. Use your main targeted keyword or phrase in the title of the text on your page.

this is different from the statement above, even though it may sound like I'm saying

the same thing. In this part we are not actually calling the page the targeted keyword

or phrase rather I am just talking about the title of your pages first article.

Place this title inside H1 tags on your page.

3. Use your secondary targeted keyword or phrase in the subtitle of your pages article or

text. Place this subtitle in H2 tags on your web page.

4. Inside the description meta tag of your webpage use a keyword rich sentence or two

containing your main targeted keyword or phrase in this description. Try to make

this a good interesting description because this will show up in search results and

you want to entice the reader to click through to your web page or website.

5. Even though the keyword tag doesn't have as much importance these days I suggest to

continue to use it. Of course within this tag include your main targeted and secondarily

target keywords and phrases will be placed.

6. Use your main keywords or keyword phrase in the opening paragraphs of your web

page, somewhere throughout the body of your webpage, and always try to have it

included somewhere in the closing of the article of you web page. This will help to

keep the theme of your web page in check.

This was just a quick short rundown of a few tips in meta tag optimization. There is much more involved with good SEO and tips in how to improve search engine ranking.

For much more in depth search engine tactics please visit my website.

Davin Ogden has various websites on the internet. Davinatorbiz.com provides you with all the tools and proper learning information on LSI, serious seo strategies, and improving your search engine ranking to give you the results your after in the search engines.

Meta tag optimization and other quick tips. If you would like to download a FREE rebrandable ebook to help with your SEO needs please visit Davinatorbiz.com

Productive Article Marketing - Discover 4 Amazing Secrets to Breakthrough with Article Marketing

The process of writing and publishing articles online is currently the most profitable way to make money over the World Wide Web. This effective promotional tool, which is commonly referred to as article marketing, is proven to easily augment website's traffic and help marketers earn the trust of their potential customers as they can showcase their expertise through their article content.

Here are the 4 amazing secrets to breakthrough with article marketing:

1. Use effective titles. Your titles can either make or break your article marketing campaign. If they are well-written and attention-grabbing, your articles will surely get the exposure they need as they will be more likely to be opened, read, and widely republished.

2. Your articles must be informative. Make your readers happy by filling up your articles with valuable information that are targeted to their needs and demands. Never leave any stone unturned and strive to dig deeper so you can give your potential clients more in-depth side of your stories.

3. Lay down your objectives. When you know your goals in writing and distributing your articles online, adjusting your marketing efforts and techniques will become a lot easier. For instance, if you would like to drive more traffic to your website you must be willing to multiply the number of your articles to increase your inbound links.

4. Make your resource box compelling. I can't still believe that there are marketers who are not taking their time in creating their resource box. Some of them are just leaving their websites' URL. If you aim to improve your conversation rate, this is not the way to go. You must make your resource box enticing and interesting to compel more people to check on your website.

To learn more, download my free guide, "How to Generate $15,000 Per Month Online" here: "How to Generate $15,000 Per Month Online"

Sean Mize is an internet marketing mentor who teaches people to generate over $15,000 per month online via automated systems and product funnels.