Social Media and Links

How can we use Social Media to build links? The video lays out a very scalable way to build links for just about any business.

The video reals useful social media tools to use, and explains how to use them.

Also tips on how to use Twitter and Google +. So fix yourself a cup of coffee and enjoy the tips about Social Media.

Silo Categories

You may already have heard of silos in relation to website design and realise that you are better off focusing on this new design and format when you’re chasing those all-important search rankings. A site that is constructed in silo style has a very rigid architecture. Every silo symbolises a category and articles which are positioned within each category must be relevant to the overall category keyword.

There is one way of thinking within search engine optimisation London experts however all too eager to clarify, which says that internal linking in a website is highly important. Significant it may be, but if you link unnecessarily it is possible to lose points in the bigger scheme of things. The truth is, the search engine robots are merely able to perform what they are designed to do, algorithmically. They cannot say to themselves, as it were, “ah, that’s what she or he was meaning to do here.” Therefore, if you link from one article to another spot on your site which is by all intents and purposes an irrational association, then the robots will essentially arrive at a dead end.

For you to get as many search engine ranking points as you possibly can depending on your on-page SEO work, your site needs to be constructed appropriately and rationally. If you have developed your silos with your connected articles underneath each silo/category head, then the articles in each silo should only link to other articles within that exact same silo. You should not, as an example, link from a deeper article in one silo across to some deeper article in another.

Linking inside a silo structure ought to be essentially up-and-down within the silo and cross-linking from silo to silo should only be performed from a category head. Keep in mind virtual assistance now!

There is a lot to think about when setting up a site from a pure SEO perspective. For those who are not really sure about how a proper silo structure ought to be applied here, when shopping for assistance with search engine optimisation London professional companies are available for you.

Links and Silos

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• SEO Video: How to Properly Silo Your Website! (seodesignsolutions.com)
• Video Demo: Website Silo Architecture Made Dangerously Simple (theme-zoom.com)

OK  – you know you need links. Yes, I know I need quality links from authority sites in my theme. Not so easy is it? So perhaps I will try some black hat techniques. Whoa don’t go down that route if you want to avoid the wrath of big G.

Where then do I get quality links? Who better to ask than Matt Cutts? Matt explains all in the video below:

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Simple answer no! Applies to both outgoing links and incoming links.

Outgoing Links

Linking out to bad neighborhoods is BAD – you are effectively recommending a BAD site in Google’s eyes – so watch out, and protect yourself by checking all sites you link to! Google, however, approves of you recommending good resources, and you can expect some browny points!

Incoming Links

Incoming links are more complex. Links coming from bad neighborhoods is less of an issue. Afterall a competitor could use this tactic to try and get you banned – so Google is more tolerant.

Backlinks Checklist

But use this checklist and re-evaluate your link campaigns

1) Are your links diverse? 500 links from 10 sites is probably not as good as 500 links from 500 different sites. Are they all from bookmarking sites? Google knows you can manipulate your rankings by spamming bookmarking sites. So a mixture of natural links, bookmark sites, directory sites, articles to blogs, forum signatures, blog comments, etc. are typical of many sites so you will not be flagging up your site.

2) Anchor text is diverse? Let say your keyword is “blue widget” (why is it always widgets?), then if all incoming links used “blue widget” as anchor text on the partner site – it NOT be natural. So make sure anchor text is variable and uses stemming and other variations. Don’t just link to you home page – link deep into your site. Ideally the anchor text (on the partner site) should be on a page about your theme.

3) Link Juice – don’t just get links from pages with high PR (again this would not be natural); you need a wide spread of links with different PR – even PR 0 and n/a (check the neighborhood though). Mix nofollow and dofollow links – remember nofollow links can still bring you traffic!

4) Trust / Authority – do try to get some sites that have authority (such as newspaper/media sites, leading sites in your niche, top blogs in your niche, etc)

Do examine your incoming links – use Yahoo Site Explorer (tends to give you a better picture than Google); you will probably find that you are lacking in one of these 4 factors.

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How does Google treat links from social media sites like Twitter and Facebook? Matt Cutts discusses this in the video below. This caught my ear: about how. edu and. gov links do not pass any more juice than some. com. So many folk are under the illusion that additional link weight is given by those domain extensions.

What individuals, that are just getting into the world of link building, must appreciate that it’s the domain’s overall stance that gives out a specific power of link juice. So why do people obsess about getting. edu and. gov links? That’s mainly because of the hype, nevertheless for the most part those. edu / gov pages have been indexed and around for years and years.

So you know about the importance of external links into your site! You probably appreciate that links should be coming in from a diverse set of domains.

However, this video illustrates how links from a small number of authority sites is OK – IF they are linking to a variety of pages on your site. A small number of sites linking to just the home page would set alarm bells ringing at big G.  As always the key is “natural” linking.

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday – Link Diversity from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.

Need to revise your linking strategy?

Wouldn’t you like to know How Many One Way Links Needed to Get Google Page 1.

This video explains why it is NOT possible to guess – but does illustrate how to see your backlinks.

Off-page factors are the KEY – one major influence is the number of backlinks and there is a free way to get links.

Remember – that the page supplying the link must be on theme, and the anchor text should reflect the content of the landing page.

* Do not use the same anchor text (this is a flag for Google)
* Do add some “mum” links (ie the anchor text could be your url, click here, cool site – why? this is what is natural!!)
* Do mix in some nofollow links (natural – and the link page may pass some trust; do you not think Wikipedia pages pass some trust – they do use editors!)

In this excellent video about Link Building. Chris Cemper reveals case histories about Link Building.

His startling relevation that

• Page Rank does not matter
• how important it is to vary anchor text
• tripping the Google filter

View this video for a thorough explanation about link building for a real estate client.

Link Farms

A tactic, Link Farrms, that has often been used in the past is EASILY detected by Google – so beware! As always webmasters can elect to employ poor strategies to develop links quickly in the hope of getting top rankings. Getting a lot of links quickly will raise a flag with Google too. So as we constantly say all your strategies should be natural and consistent. Don’t go for blackhat techniques – you have been warned.

More about link farming …..

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday – Link Farming from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.

Read more safe linking tactics

A question we often get asked is “How do you know if xxx.com is a good site for linking purposes?”. The question refers to both incoming and outgoing links. As with many SEO matters, the advice cannot never be concrete but is littered with maybes and ambiguities.

In general, you want to attract good quality inbound links by offering excellent content on your site. Similarly you want to be a good samaritan and include “recommendation” links for external sites which offer additional complementary information.

It is inevitable a good site will be approached by other webmasters / seo engineers requesting an exchange of links. Our advice is NOT to exchange links for the sake of exchanging links. In most cases, they often offer a link on a resource page / link / partner page. Typically, there will be a long page of links to a variety of sites with no apparent theme. Do YOU see any value in such a page? So how do you think Google views such a page?

So check potential link partners and proposed link pages thoroughly. Do they offer any value to a user browsing such a page? Is the content good? Is the content related to the theme of your website? If yes, then maybe consider a link exchange …. but first check THEIR linking policy.

Bad Neighborhoods

Google do not like you linking to sites that are considered “bad neighborhoods”. One expects that an incoming link from a bad neighborhood site will not be counted against you by Google, as your competitors could have a linking strategy to find bad neighborhoods and set links to YOUR site and ruin your reputation! However, your recommendation of a bad neighborhood site will reflect badly on your site. So how can you check whether a site is considered a bad neighborhood?

Fortunately, there is an online tool available to evaluate whether a site is a “bad neighborhood”. Of course, the tool comes with disclaimers but in general is a very useful tool for evaluating potential partners. The tool is located here:

http://www.bad-neighborhood.com/text-link-tool.htm