There
are two types of SEO system to improve your website rank in search
engine index search result on first page.First one is ON PAGE SEO and
next one is OFF PAGE SEO.Lets see how to make off-page seo.
Anchor Text
Simply
getting links from many other websites is not enough for your website
to rank well in the search engines. The quality of your anchor text will
play a huge factor in ranking your pages for specific keywords,
especially competitive ones.
What is Anchor Text?
Anchor
text refers to the words that make up a link; they are the words that
turn your mouse cursor into a finger-pointing hand. For example, in the
sentence, "I really like to go to this store," "this store" is anchor
text for the link.
Why is Anchor Text Important?
Search
engines gather data by traveling around the web via links, jumping from
page to page. Links are the lifeblood of a search engine and are used
as key indicators for identifying the topics of the pages they're about
to go to. If 100 sites link to a site with the link "Texas Architect" or
similar words, the search engine can be fairly confident that the site
is about an architect in Texas.
Targeted Keywords
If
you want a page to rank for a keyword that is particularly difficult, be
sure to focus on getting the keyword in your anchor text. Many newbies
will request links to the page they're trying to boost and forget about
the anchor text. While getting links to the page is most certainly going
to help, you should try to get at least part of your keyword into the
anchor text whenever you get the chance.
Varying Anchor Text Slightly
Imagine
this scenario: you know which keyword you want to target, and you're
starting to get links with the desired keyword. That's great, but you
should be careful about getting too many links that look exactly the
same. If you have 99% of the links that are pointing to your page with
"Rocky Mountain Oysters," that will send up a red flag at Google that
these links probably are not normal links. This is bad! You don't want
to make Google suspicious.
Instead, when you request other people to
link to your page, ask for variations of that keyword, such as: "Rocky
Mountain Oyster", "Alternative Oysters," "Rocky Mountain Festivals,"
"Rocky Mountain Foods," and so on. It is because people have exploited
anchor text in the past that you have to be careful about the way you do
it today.
Keywords and URL Alignment
When getting all
of these links with the desired anchor text, make sure that you're
linking to the correct page, as a very common mistake to simply link to
the homepage (www.example.com) instead of the page that should be
getting the link (www.example.com/rocky-mountains/oysters.php).
Researching Competitors
The
internet is a great place for someone to make their fortune, but the
secret is out. It is now unlikely that you will be able to get to the
top of the search engines without first clawing your way through a crowd
of competitors. The trick to making this journey easier to educate
yourself on your competitors and taking advantage of any opportunities
you uncover.
Known Competitors
If your website
isn't a unique idea, you probably already know of a couple other
companies that are doing what you're doing. For example, if you are
starting a web design company, you can do a quick Google search and see
that there are easily over a million sites, but that doesn't mean it's
impossible for you to rank well. If you refine the search down to the
city you live in, the number of sites is a great deal smaller and from
there you can begin to develop a strategy. Write down your top
competitors, and let's further research how you're going to beat them.
Who Ranks Well for Your Keywords?
Do
a Google search for your most desired keywords, and pay attention to
who is showing up in the top 10 results for each. Is there one company
that is dominating the search listings? Are there certain sites that
seem to rank well for one topic, but poorly for others? On your
competitor list, make a note next to the companies that are the
strongest. Just by attempting to compete with the big boys, you will
find you will get a great deal of search engine traffic that you never
had before.
What is the PageRank and Alexa Rank?
What
PageRanks do your competitors homepage have? If your site is a PageRank 1
and your competitors' are a PageRank 9, there's no way in hell you're
going to be ranking above them in the foreseeable future. However, if
you're a PageRank 4 and they're a PageRank 6, with a little dedication,
you'll be able to chip away at that gap and eventually pass them with a
long-term plan.
Alexa ranks are a completely different beast. A site
may rank 100,000, and yours may rank 800,000, but your site may very
well receive more traffic that the other does. This is because Alexa
gathers data from users who have decided to install the Alexa toolbar on
their browser. So, if a site has a group of Alexa users that happen to
frequent their site, their site will be artificially inflated. If the
Alexa rank is in the top 100,000 there is a fair amount of data gathered
and you can be more confident in Alexa's results.
How Many Links do They Have?
Now
that you know which of your competitors are strongest, you need to find
out how they got so strong. Do a Google search for the website's name
(make sure you do the search in the form "domain.com" and not just
"domain," to eliminate a lot of false results). The results will show a
rough number of how many links your competitor has. If it's a huge
number, sit down, take a breath, and let's see how you're going to
compete.
You can also use the
link: command (search Google using the form "link: domain.com") and the
link popularity checker
to see how big a site is on the engines. None of these tools are exact,
but if you use a few sources, you'll have a pretty good idea of a
competitor's web presence.
Decide to Fight or Flight
Now
that you've seen some rough estimates of the strength of your key
competitors, it's time to take a real look at the work ahead of you. Do
you have a chance to compete with the big boys? Are there no big boys
and all you need are just a few links to overpower your rivals with?
Consider
the data and think about whether you're OK working long hours to slowly
work your way up to your competitors, or if you'd rather do SEO as an
afterthought and just continue to have fun making your website. You
might also decide that you've chosen the wrong industry and start
looking for a new industry to compete in!
If you want to run, then come back when you've got a new idea. However, if you're ready to fight, read on!
Targeting Sites
If
you want to rank well for a specific keyword, especially a competitive
keyword, you can go about it the old-fashioned way and try to get links
from anyone you can and slowly move up the rankings ladder. Or, you can
use these high-powered techniques to quickly gain authority in the eyes
of Google.
- Research your competitors, and get a link from the top 100 sites that link to them.
- Search Google for your keywords, and do your best to secure links from those sites in the top 100 for your keywords.
- Get links from your competitors!
Copy Your Competitors
When
you do a search for your rival's website, competitor.com, you'll find
out the most authoritative sites that mention your competitor. Visit
these sites and decide if it would be possible for you to get a link
from those site's. If it's a review site, it may be as easy as sending a
free product for review to the owner. If it's a forum or wiki, it may
be just as easy as adding your link.
Don't do this all at once! Make a
note of all the sites you would like to get a link from, and slowly
acquire links over an extended amount of time. There is no set time
period, but try to spread it over at least a 6 month period.
Searching for SEO
Often,
the best way of finding a solid place to get links from is as simple as
going over to Google and typing in your exact keyword. You may think
this is crazy and that there's no way you'd be able to get a link from
someone who is ranking well for your desired keyword, but you'd be
surprised just how many website owners care nothing for SEO and will be
more than happy to link to your site (as long as your site is valuable
to their visitors).
Obviously, the higher a site ranks for the
keyword, the better it is to get a link from them. And if you can
somehow pull it off, getting a link from their page, the one that's
ranking well on Google for that keyword, would be priceless.
Get a Link from Competitors
Get
a link from a competitor using your nicest greeting and biggest smile!
Many competitors will be up for a link exchange, but if you have some
unique pieces of content that your competitors don't, you may be able to
get one of those precious one-way links!
Diagnosing a Site's Health
While
any link is a good link, not all links are created equal. Here are a
few of the key factors that go into deciding how healthy a site is, and
in turn, how powerful a link from them will be for your SEO needs.
What is the PageRank?
What's
the PageRank of the page that is linking to you? What are the PageRanks
of some of its subpages that link to other sites? Install the
Google Toolbar
to find out. While some websites may have very high PageRanks for their
homepage, the other pages on their site may have a much lower PageRank.
Pay attention to the specific page that will be linking to you when
considering how good a site's PageRank actually is.
Cache Status
Does
the site have an up-to-date entry inside of Google's cache? You can
check by searching Google with the command "cache:example.com". A site
that doesn't have an up-to-date cache is often a red flag that there is
something wrong with a search engine's ability to crawl that site.
Link Popularity
How many entries does the site have? What is its link popularity? Use Marketleap's
Link Popularity Checker to get some quick and dirty facts about a site's web presence.
Number of Outbound Links
Does
their links page already have a ton of links on it? The more links they
have, the less link love your site will receive. Also, are there a lot
of sponsored links to unrelated sites like sites about gambling,
pharmacies, or adult content? These can also devalue a site's ability to
pass on link value.
Age of Site
How long has a site
been registered for? Usually, it's best to get links from sites that
have been around for more than two years, as search engines tend to be a
little less trusting of brand new domains. You can check how long a
website has been around by going to the
WaybackMachine and seeing when the earliest entry for the domain was.
Link Building
The
most important part of any SEO campaign is getting more links to point
to your site. Links really are the measure of power on the internet, as a
site with bad content but a lot of links will outrank a beautiful,
relevant, site with great content but no links...everytime.
So, you know you want links, but what's the best way to go about getting them?
- Get links from sites in your industry
- Have links point to deep URLs on your site
- Don't do it all at once; do it over time
- Consider paid links and organic links
Get Links from Related Sites
When
building your site's authority on the web, you should always be
striving to get links from sites that are in the same industry as you.
Google tends to give more weight to links that are in the same industry,
especially when the link is from a site that Google views as an
authority (a Pagerank over 6).
Don't worry about only getting links
from sites that are in your vertical, but if you have a choice between a
link from a general blog and a blog that specializes in your industry,
always go with the industry related site first!
Get Deep Links
When
acquiring links from other sites, don't just have the link point to
your homepage (http://www.example.com). Instead have them point to the
content pages that you would like to have rank better in the search
engines. By getting a link that points directly to a content page, you
are showing the engines:
- This site contains useful content
- This exact content page is seen as important by someone else on the internet
The
more links you get pointing to a specific content page, the more the
search engines are going to believe that the content page is something
special and should be ranked at the top of the results.
Pace Yourself!
Although
any link is a good link, getting 10,000 links in a week is not as
beneficial as getting 10,000 links over the span of 6 months. When a
site suddenly gets a ton of links, this throws up a red flag at the
search engines that the site may be trying to cheat its way to the top.
There are exceptions, but it is best to take a long-term approach when
acquiring links for your site, especially if your site is less than two
years old (another red flag).
Have a plan of how many links you want
to get and then work on that plan a few hours a week for several months.
This way you can show the search engines that your site is gradually
growing in popularity and is regularly receiving new backlinks (the best
indicator of a good site!).
Consider Paid Links
Getting
someone to link to you for free can sometimes be hard, especially if
you're in a competitive industry where people have so many other choices
of sites to link to. If this is the case, you may consider buying a
certain amount of links every month. To read more on this, check out our
paid links lesson to see the latest ways to go about this.
SEO - Paid Links
Debating
about whether purchasing links, reviews, considerations, etc. is
ethical or not is something we'll leave up the individual. Search
engines would prefer that all links are natural, but the fact of the
matter is that a substantial number of the links on the internet have
been paid for in one way or another. Be sure to check out
Google's official policy on paid links.
That
aside, let's talk about the different kinds of paid links you have
access to and some strategies for getting the best bang for your buck.
Permanent Vs. Temporary Links
The
most temporary a link can be is a paid placement on a search engine.
When you sign up with Microsoft, Yahoo, or Google to pay for an
advertisement spot for a given keyword, you are not buying a link; you
are buying a paid listing in the search results that is not guaranteed
to even show up. Search engines do not index these links, and they are
completely ignored when they are determining how much of an authority
your site is. This is a common misconception among newbies, and you
should be glad that you won't be wasting any money on your SEO efforts
purchasing paid placements on the big search engines.
Moving away
from search engines, however, most websites allow you to purchase a
monthly text link or banner placement in a designated "sponsor" section.
While this type of temporary link might give you some good click
through traffic, the benefit in terms of SEO is limited. Search engines
can take months before they credit your site with the new link, so if
you only purchase a one month placement, you'll probably not see a
change in your rankings. For SEO purposes, try to keep a link for at
least three months before deciding if it's worth keeping.
On the flip
side, a permanent link might be a placement in a website's link
section, a review on a blog, or even a new topic posted on a forum.
These links are typically forever, unless a site is taken offline
(happens more than you'll like) or the site is sold and redone. These
nearly-permanent links are the best for SEO and are key to building up
your site's authority with the search engines in the long-term.
Where to Buy Links
There
are several places to buy links. Some types of purchasable links have
been around for years, and others are quite new. Expect to see this list
change in the future, as it's one of the more volatile parts of SEO
there is.
- Directories
- Forum Signatures
- Text Link Ads
- Blog Reviews
- Directly Contacting a Webmaster
Directories
There
are literally millions of directories that you can submit your website
to. Not only that, but there are services out there that will
automatically submit your site to hundreds of directories, for a fee.
These directories and services are, for the most part, worthless. The
search engines caught on long ago to the people mass-submitting to
directories, and now, only a select few directories pass on the link
love they used to.
It should be noted that directories which are easy
to get into are most likely going to contain a great deal of
poor-quality sites. When the search engines figure out that a directory
is not filtering submissions, the value of the link will be worth next
to nothing. This is why we recommend that you focus on the three
directories listed below (or niche directories for your industry). Avoid
low quality general directories!
DMOZ
Viewed as the
golden child of Google, the dmoz directory has often been the source of
much anger and frustration from webmasters trying to get their site
listed in this king of directories. Although the value of a link has
decreased over the years, a link from
dmoz.org
can still significantly affect your search rankings. To be listed on
dmoz all, you need to do is navigate to a category related to your site
and submit a free submission.
However, don't expect an immediate
response. dmoz is notorious for being slow to add links (and sometimes
never) for a variety of reasons they probably won't tell you. Also, if
you resubmit your site to a category you are often placed at the end of
the queue, so don't submit more than once a year and hope for the best!
Best of the Web
One of the oldest sites on the net, Best of the Web
has been around since 1994 and is pretty strict about who they let into
their directory. To be considered for a listing you must pay a fee.
They also have two different types of payment plans: annual or lifetime.
If you're serious about your site being successful on the search
engines, pay the lifetime fee, as it will pay for itself soon enough.
Yahoo
Yahoo's
directory is similar to Best of the Web, but the quality is a little
less. However, all search engines still consider this a valuable
directory and a listing here will definitely boost your rankings.
Forum Signatures
Forums
are a great source of traffic and link love for sites that are just
starting out. First you need to find a forum that supports links in the
signature, then you simply have to post on the forums to get links.
Another option is to sponsor a member of that forum in exchange for them
including a link to your website. However, it should be noted that some
forums do not allow this, and you should research this issue before
investing any money.
Important note: Some forums have a system where
links are automatically marked with the attribute "nofollow", which
means that they are marking the links as untrusted. Read up on our no
follow lesson to see how this will affect the link love you receive from
that site.
Text Link Ads
Although this isn't exactly a
permanent form of advertising, these types of links tend to be a bit
more below the radar than a typical site sponsorship deal. There are
several text link ad brokers that have a network of sites that are
willing to put text links on their website in return for a monthly fee.
At some of these sites you can even get placed on a single page on the
site, rather than on every page (this is good because then your link
doesn't look like a normal sponsored link!).
Blog Reviews
With
the rise of blogging popularity, it was obvious that something was
going to come along to allow the massive amount of bloggers to make an
extra buck. Well, there is a new option for bloggers to make money using
ReviewMe, SponsoredReview, PayPerPost, and V7NContextual. All of these
sites have a network of bloggers that are waiting to make a post for
your company if you're willing to pay a fee. These posts can range from a
full review of your product to a simple mention of your website in a
post that's about the industry you work in.
These links are forever,
but make sure you don't purchase links from blogs that have too many
paid posts. The search engines are getting better at sniffing these
sites out and will often penalize these blogs, preventing them from
giving out link love if all they do is post sponsored reviews.
Directly Contacting a Webmaster
Often,
the best way to get a nice link on a website is to talk to the owner of
the website directly. By doing this, you can select sites that do not
have a great deal of paid links already, and you can get a whole bunch
of value at a reasonable price. The downside to this approach is that it
takes more time and effort than it does going through another company
that has streamlined the process for you.
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