Play the Popularity Game Linking to Build Your Business

It’s no secret that link building is one way to increase the visibility – and credibility – of your ecommerce site. So powerful, in fact, is this practice that it has the ability to catapult your site to higher levels of success. However, on the flip side of that is that improper linking from outside sources can be deemed useless and earn your site negative attention from the search engines. That’s right! Throw basically useless links to your site and you can find yourself in no man’s land of search engine world.

 

So, while it’s easy to see the validity of using link building as an SEO strategy; it’s equally easy to understand why not every internet business is eager to delve into building links to their sites. Taking the time to learn the ropes of “link popularity” is well worth it when you are serious about seeing your internet business through to ultimate success. With a few tips, you should have plenty of fire power to get started.

 

Let’s start here: there are two benefits of requesting links from other sites; search engines like links from reputable sites (key word: reputable), and when you receive links from other reputable sites, visitors to that site may click that link and you therefore receive some extra visibility and traffic. Keeping this in mind as you seek to request links from other sites will keep you focused on the real goals of link building.

 

Relevancy is key when setting out to choose the sites you want to request links from. For instance, if you are selling an e-book about weight loss, it would not be relevant for you to request a link from a site that sells patio furniture. The two are completely unrelated and hence will result in a negative response from search engines. An e-book on weight loss could receive relevant links from health clubs, nutritionists and other health and exercise related sites.

 

Additionally, building links with other sites is not a business building activity that is done one time. No, this is an ongoing task that requires time and energy. Many companies that are serious about this task assign an employee to handle it diligently. The other option could be to outsource your link building activities to a company that specializes in SEO strategies. Because outsourcing is so popular, there are multiple options for those looking to engage in this practice for linking.

 

When it comes to building links, there are several tools available to assist with analysis. Some are free and some are not. Finding free tools can be done by searching through areas such as Google’s webmaster tool or Yahoo Site Explorer. Firefox also has a tool, SEO for Firefox. Again, time will be invested into finding the sites that will be deemed most relevant and then requesting and receiving the links you want from them. Keep at it, because from the buzz going around this is a business building activity that is definitely worth the time you will invest.

Increase Web Traffic with Articles

As many business owners are quickly learning, writing articles is a new trend in advertising.  Ecommerce companies, especially, can benefit from this new marketing trend, as they really have no face for the general public to relate to, and hence need to do all they can to increase web traffic on their sites.  And when it comes to making purchases online, there is still a fair amount of skepticism that needs to be tackled.  Take a minute and think about the store you frequent the most, like the local grocery store.  You go there because you know what to expect – sometimes right down to which clerk will check you out!

Ecommerce companies must create a voice and a face in order to increase web traffic, and they can do so by submitting quality articles to online directories.   Well written articles do a lot for a website.

• Informative articles help you develop a reputation as an expert in your field.  If your site doesn’t sell a product but offers a service, then the articles submitted to online directories will be written about the benefits of the service you offer, or the problem that your service solves.  Not only do you now have a voice, but that voice is well spoken and enchants the reader to click on that link!
• Every article that is placed into an online directory should contain links back to your website.  What this will do is create traffic, which in turn will create revenue.  You know where that leads to.
• Publishing articles online through Ezines is essentially free advertising.  Who doesn’t like that idea?   A little time and thought into a well researched, well written article goes a long, long way.

Now, if you were a writer, you would most likely have made your millions publishing a book of some sort.  But you’re not a writer, you are a business owner.  This is why outsourcing to a company like Start Ranking Now to handle internet marketing has enormous value.  Article submissions can be a tedious task, not to mention the actual writing and research required to compose great articles for ezine marketing.   Working with Start Ranking Now, what a business owner gets to do is hand over a time consuming task to a group of professional writers and get back to the business of, well, business!

There are so many online article directories to consider for article submissions that finding out which are the best for your online article can be a shot in the dark.  Professional service providers know which article directory sites are high quality and reputable. This does make a difference, so why waste time trying them all out when you can get right to the best the first time out?

We’ve all heard it said that word of mouth is the best form of advertising.  That has been the truth since the beginning of history, and will not change anytime soon. Article submissions to ezines on a regular basis are a great way to create word of mouth internet marketing. You’re giving your site a voice that is friendly and informative;  You’re generating traffic back to your site through links; and with the help of great writers like the team at Start Ranking Now, you’re gaining optimized articles that will be read over and over again.

The Best Advertising is Press

A common concern amongst busy entrepreneurs is how to effectively market their business.  Let’s face it; if you’re not seen, you can’t make money.  Advertising can get expensive and there are no guarantees that any paid advertising will increase web traffic to your site anyway.  And yet most professionals overlook the power of a good press release!  This is understandable, as the preconceived notion may be that press releases come from news.  And if your company is not making news, then it doesn’t deserve press.

Not so.  When you have spent as much time as you have in finding a product or service to offer, priority must be given to marketing.  Since we live in a technologically advanced society, Social Media Marketing is where it’s at.  Advertising your business through press releases on the web through sites such as Google News can create a huge buzz that can lead you down the path of success.

An effective press release is good for building backlinks, credibility, and visibility in Google News for keywords.  Press releases also often receive good placement in search results for long tail keywords.  However, writing a press release yourself can be a daunting task that quickly begins to eat up the valuable time in your day.  Time is a CEOs most valuable asset, and should be spent wisely.  This is why outsourcing to a press release distribution service like Start Ranking Now is worth the small investment you would make.

For one, an effective press release can significantly improve your overall search engine rankings.  Key word being “effective”.   Every day, thousands of press releases are being distributed.  How to make sure yours is not overlooked amid the sea of news?  Know how to write!  If you don’t, that’s ok.  The professional team at Start Ranking Now know exactly what to do and how to do it.  Writing a press release is like breathing for these people!

The benefits of writing a press release are worth it.  The thing about this sort of advertising over others is that there is more credibility in it.  Press releases are give the perception of a third-party endorsement.  And since word of mouth marketing is the best way in increase web traffic to your site, a press release can act as the “mouth” that spreads the word!

No matter what the size of your budget, social media marketing is a tool that you can begin using today to grow your business. For a miniscule investment, you can have your very own press release, with added backlinks, distributed across the internet. Working with a professional team like Start Ranking Now eases your burden of trying to accomplish all the marketing yourself and leaves you with the time you need to effectively run your booming business.  There is so much to gain by taking advantage of a well written press release.  Credibility.  A reputation.  Visibility.  These things add up to an increase in web traffic, which equals more success for your site, which equals dreams coming true.

Article Marketing Tips

Our seo services website, www.startrankingnow.com offers the service of writing and submitting original articles to article directories.  As we provide this service, I have seen some of the same errors repeated over and over by our clients.  When we open a new project with a client, we ask them for a list of the keywords and the landing page (url) they would like us to build links to.  Here are some of the common errors we see over and over again:

1. Using multiple keywords for one url.  A common error is to try to build links to one page with multiple keywords.  While it is good to use keyword variations, it is not recommeded to use completely separate keywords when building links to one page.

The correct way to build links is to match the anchor text of the links with the headline and topic of the page you are building links to.  For example, if you had a page on your site that had a headline of “baby swings” then you would want to build links to that page using the anchor text “baby swings”.  You could vary the anchor text so that there were variations of the anchor text such as “cool baby swings” “battery operated baby swings” “baby swings for newborns” and so on.  Note that the anchor text always has the words “baby swings” included but can also include other words.  You would NOT want to build links to the “baby swings” page with the anchor text of “swings for babies” or “baby toys”.  For the keywords “swings for babies” it is not recommended to make another product page on the site with all of the same prouducts as listed on the page of “baby swings”.  The correct way to do this would be to create an article on the site that has the headline of “swings for babies” and is keyword optimized for “swings for babies”.  The exception would be IF the keyword phrase “swings for babies’ was also included somewere in the text of the page “baby swings” and the search volume for “swings for babies” did not justify creating a new article page just for that phrase alone.

2. Building links to duplicate urls.

Most webmasters or site owners do not realize that the urls http://mysite.com and http://www.mysite.com are actually conidered to be TWO domains by google.  The same goes for the page http://www.mydomain.com and http://www.mydomain.com/index.html .  You should choose ONE version of your site… either the one WITH or the one WITHOUT the www and also choose ONE version of the home page… the one with the index.html or the one without the index.html to build links to.  The key is to be consistent in link building.

3. Not including the keyword in the title of the article.

The title of the article is the most important part of the article.  The article title will determine if your article will be read or skipped over.  Getting your article read by customers and more importantly, other webmasters, is the first step to getting your article picked up by other webmasters for placement on their sites.  Of course to be able to include the keyword in the title, the article must be relevant to the keyword.  This is not always possible, especially if you are writing about indirectly related topics.  Whenever possible, it is best to include the keyword in the article title.

4. Not using two links in the author resource box.

If you are going to go to all the trouble of writing an article and submitting it to article directories, why wouldn’t you get the most bang for your buck and have as many links in the author resource box as the article directory allows you to?  You should always read the terms of service by the article directories and put in as many links as possible.

5. Not having one url in the author resource box as a link.

Since most article directories allow for two links, it is best to have one link as an anchor text and the second link as an url.  The second link should be an url because some webmasters will “steal” your articles from the article directories using automated software and post your article to their website without the links.  The software automatically strips out the html deleting the links if you only have anchor text links.  The less sophisticated software however, will sometimes leave the url as a hyperlink.  Even if the software strips out the hyperlink, a potential customer can still see your url and copy and paste it to visit your site if they really liked your article.

6. Using your real name as the author.

Please, please, please, use a pen name.  If you use your real name and later sell your site… which should be the goal for all site owners, then you will one day have your name associated with a site you no longer own or control.  Also, if you own multiple sites you are leaving a footprint to your competitors of all the sites you own.  Another reason to use a pen name is if you are having your articles ghost written and you are not reading them to check the content.  Please don’t put your name next to anything unless you actually wrote it.  Most article directories allow you to have multiple pen names.  It is best to have a different pen name for each web site.

7. Linking to the same site twice in the author resource box.

If you only have one site, it is fine to do this in the beginning.  Once you have multiple sites or multiple web properties, it is always better to spread your link building as much as possible.  You can submit one article to an article directory and link out to two separate web properties.  A good way to do this is to have a blog on a separate domain… or at least on a subdomain of your money site.  You can also build a network of mini sites that are thematically related to a section on your money site.  The article you submit for distribution can then link once to your money site and once to your blog.  You can vary the links so that one article links to the money site with an anchor text link and the next article links to the money site with an url link.

SUPER SECRET TIP

One excellent strategy we have recently started to implement is to have all articles written in sets of three.  A keyword is assigned to the writer and the writer writes three topically related articles of 500 words each.  One article is placed on the main money site.  This article utilizes internal linking strategies to send links to the inner pages of the same site.  A second article is placed on a blog.  The blog article links out to the article placed on the main money site as well as to other topically related web properties. (Think Web 2.0) The third article is submitted to multiple article directories with two links: one to the blog article and one to the article on the main money site.  This strategy is further developed using web 2.0 properties and social bookmarking sites to send traffic to the articles.