The E-Commerce Blog

As the online market place continues to warm up to the idea of SEO, link building has become center stage as it tends to be the most time consuming and crucial part of any internet marketing strategy. Link building services are the most commonly outsourced aspect of SEO. This process involves finding qualified and thematically relevant one-way linking partners who will link back to your website.

At first glance this sounds easy and there are hundreds of automated products out there that claim to add thousands of back links overnight. The truth is there are no short cuts in cultivating authoritative back links for a site. Link building companies spend many hours link building by hand in order to get the best results. Spammy automated products often never cultivate valuable links and tend to do more harm than good. Here are a couple quick suggestions to help you get started.

1. Know What Keywords You’re Targeting

Link building strategies are an extension of your current SEO practice. You’ll want to reference the list of keywords you have selected to optimize your site. Make sure that the anchor text of the link has the keyword you are targeting. For example, if you’re targeting the keyword “baby names” you’ll want to place that keyword in the anchor text of the link. I’ve seen many companies go after links by using their company name. Although this does increase link popularity it fails to pass popularity for a specific keyword and can be seen as a failed attempt.

2. Develop a Link Building Strategy

There are many strategies link building companies use to source qualified back links to their clients. The most tedious but often most rewarding method is manual linking requests also known as “cherry picking”. This method allows you to obtain exceptionally qualified links which can really help boost your position in the search engine results page (SERPS). A good place to start with manual link building is to look at your suppliers, vendors, clients, related organizations associations and more.

Besides manual link requests other well known tactics include:

1. directory submission (Dmoz, Yahoo Directory, Joe Ant)
2. article submission (ezinearticles.com, goarticles.com)
3. optimized press releases (PRWeb.com)
4. social media outlets (FaceBook, Linked In)
5. bookmarking sites (Digg, Reddit, Furl)
6. Blogs (niche blogs)
7. Forums (niche forums)
8. Classifieds (niche classifieds)

3. Identify Thematically Relevant and Authoritative Linking
Sources

Search engines see links as votes of confidence for your site. The more relevant and authoritative the site, the more consideration is given to the link and the subsequent keyword in the anchor text. It really pays off to focus on the quality of your links rather than the quantity. It is also important for your link building to look natural and not an attempt to deceive search engine spiders in search of links. Try looking for sites within your industry rather than general, unrelated sites to get links from.

A good example of this would be content creation and distribution. Try creating content on a relevant subject of which you can speak authoritatively. An example of this would be a SEO company writing a short article on 5 simple ways companies can start link building and placing it on an authoritative, industry relevant site like this one. Remember, before placing a link on a site (or making a request), ask yourself three questions:

1. Does a link to my website belong here (does it look
   natural)?
2. Is this site relevant and authoritative?
3. Is there any benefit to my potential customers?
4. Look for the onsite attributes of the linking site

4. Determine Where Your Link Will Reside

Once you’ve nailed down a potential linking partner that represents the overall quality and thematic authority that your site deserves you’ll need to see where your link will reside.

Here are a couple guidelines that I look for when placing links on a site. I try to get my links no more than a few clicks away from the homepage. The page must be thematically relevant and recently cached by Google’s search engine (this lets me know that the page has been indexed by Google). I also take a look at the number of external (outbound) links leaving that page. I try to keep the number of external links below 50 as it will dilute the effect of the page. Lastly, I look at the page the link will be placed on. For some sites this is harder to control, but if you have the option you should know where the most valuable locations are. I always try to get my links in line with thematically relevant content, like an article or blog post. I’ve found this produces some of the best results. Try to avoid placing your links on a “sponsored” or advertisers section that runs throughout the entire site. Also avoid footer links as rumor has it Google has devalued links buried in the footer of the site. Links placed at the top of the page or inserted into the site’s navigation also tend to do quite well. Bottom line is that your links need to look like they belong and provide value to the user and the site it is published on.

5. Be Aware of “No-Follow” Links

Within the last 5 years Google developed the concept of the “no-follow” link. The “no-follow” code is inserted into your link and instructs the Google spider to ignore it. The “no-follow” link can be seen used most commonly in blog comments and forum posts. This initiative was set forth to combat spam and automated linking mechanisms that would throw links automatically on blog comments and forum posts.

There are a lot of SEO professionals that will only place a link if it is a “do-follow” link, meaning it doesn’t have the “no-follow” attribute. I tend to disagree with this notion especially when the link in question is on a highly trafficked authority site. If it makes sense for the link to be there, then add your link. Even though Google won’t give you any credit for it, it will be seen by thousands of people who may visit your site and link to you themselves because your site is highly relevant. I call this concept indirect link building. You are influencing and promoting your site to potential linking partners.

Link Building is a very time consuming process and link building companies spend a lot of time researching, testing and improving their techniques. Link building services are available for companies that don’t have the time to invest in manual link building. The bottom line is that with a little help anyone can link build and move their site up the SERPS.

About the Author
Oliver Feakins is the owner of WebTalent, a full service SEO company offering internet marketing services nationwide. Oliver is a frequent speaker at industry conferences as well as regional colleges and universities. He also writes for MarketingProfs.com, WebProNews.com, Social Media Today, ITworld and more. For more information on WebTalent visit www.webtalentseo.com.

Creating a successful online business is not as easy as many people believe. There are all sorts of programs and promises that are on the Internet today and all claim to have the secret ingredient to online success. It is an ingredient for success, but it is not a magic button that you push or some special SEO tactics. Strategically planning your online business is essential if you are going to be successful.

Everyone is an expert in something. Do you know something that most people on the planet do not know much about? This knowledge makes you an expert and being an expert is the key to online success. If you have a product or service you are looking to sell online, chances are you know much more about the product you are selling than the majority of people who may end up as potential customers.

Many people who start online businesses look for information about Internet Marketing in a search engine. You might think that finding something on a search engine that appears most relevant results in the topic of interest. Well, maybe that used to be the case, but increasingly with the advent of social networks, this is no longer the case. Some smarty pants who actually knows nothing can end up getting the top position in Google for a couple of days and you as a person who is waiting for the search engines to display the most relevant search results buy something unsuspectfully that is doomed to failure before it ever began.

Running a successful online business is just like a conventional business. You have competition, actually a lot more competition on the Internet. The Internet is different, because the content is what drives traffic. This is not the case when you have a traditional store business front. Just as a store front business requires a professional presence, so does a successful online business. The difference is the way you deliver that attract professionals.

This is what you need to know before you even start planning a successful online business. If you have an Internet business and you’re failing miserably, forget everything you know because obviously this not working for you. The first fact is that running an online business can be much more effective than any traditional store business front. Instead of opening the doors in the morning for people living in your town or city, you can open the doors and keep them open 24 hours a day for everyone. The good thing about Internet is that once the content is there, it will always be there.

If there’s one piece of information you must remember from this article, it’s this: treat your business and your customers how you would like to be treated.

About the Author
Visit the Successful Online Business.com

Do you have an obligation to be good, and by good, I mean good at your job? Do you have a responsibility not just to be professional and do what you do on time and on budget but also to be creative, thought provoking, and stimulating in the way that you do it?

Myth-Making as a Branding Strategy

The reason I ask the question is I recently read a comment on a business blog posted by a self-proclaimed advertising expert that justified the notion that schlock advertising works. I don’t know about you, but I find the idea disturbing. Sometimes ads work and sometimes they don’t. There are lots of reasons why advertising fails and in many cases it has more to do with implementation rather than conception. And yes we all know that schlock advertising like negative political ad campaigns work in the short-term, but ultimately the tactic leads to audience disillusionment and frustration, which is why we talk to our clients about marketing not advertising.

Marketing is About Building A Legend

Marketing requires you to take the long-view; it’s an approach that requires a company to stake out a position and build a personality that customers can rely on to be consistent and ethical both in offering and in execution. Marketing is about building a legend, an iconic brand that explains who you are, what you do, and why anyone should care. Marketing is about psychological persuasion in order to improve your audience’s businesses or personal lives. Marketing is about transformation, it communicates a brand story that acts as a metaphor that defines your identity, which in turn helps customers define and express themselves.

Beware Junk Research

A reliance on market research that tells you what people said as opposed to what they think is of little or no value. Even research that tells you what people did, doesn’t tell you what they will do when presented with an unknown option. Even opinion polls on soon to be released products are of little use: without some commitment of value those opinions won’t tell you how people will respond when they have to reach into their wallets to make a decision. Sure there’s good research, mostly available to big corporations produced by the social scientists, psychologists and university professors who study human behavior. Most of the rest of it is hindsight justification for whatever happens to be trendy or in-vogue at the time.

Market Leaders Are Proactive

Research that asks people what they want is useless, how can they know if they want something if it hasn’t been put on the market yet. Marketing is about defining your audience’s need not reacting to what your competitor has already established. By definition that kind of approach will leave you as an also-ran, not ever a market leader.

Market leaders are proactive not reactive. Asking everybody’s opinion on what and how to sell is weak and ineffectual and is not only reactive, it’s downright regressive. Your customers can’t tell you what they don’t know, that’s why they rely on you.

Brand Stories

Brand Stories are how companies use psychological persuasion to transform viewers into loyal customers (brand evangelists) by changing attitudes, preferences, and preconceptions. Brand stories allow the audience to vicariously transform themselves by providing a look at what could be.

Business is obsessed with technological solutions to psychological problems, one very significant reason why so many tech-based advertising tactics fail. Whether it’s Ad Placement Auctions, Search Engine Optimization techniques, or QR codes, if the final destination is a piece of junk, you lose!

Mainstream media promotes techie-solutions mostly because it’s easy and can be presented in a twenty-second sound bite rather than providing the underlying significance of why something really works, a process that is more complicated and takes more time. Take the Old Spice commercials that were hyped based on the technical wizardry of the creators, when the real genius of these ads was the message. Businesses run out and emulate the technique without a clear understanding of why it worked and more often than not miss the target altogether.

What’s Your Big Idea?

So if technique is merely the how, what’s the why, the why anyone should care? Ask yourself, and be honest, what’s your big idea? Steve Jobs famously asked John Sculley, the head of PepsiCo, whether he wanted to sell sugar water for the rest of his life or change the world? What self-respecting senior executive could resist the challenge and opportuníty? Are you selling today’s sugar water laced with Facebook, Twitter, and whatever the next big thing is, while allowing your main online presentation channel, your website, to fall behind?

Sure there’s a place for these IPO-based gimmick sites, but are you following the crowd because that’s what the carpetbaggers are promoting right now, or are you a true entrepreneur with a real idea, an honest point-of-view, a fascinating story to tell, and a real product or service that will set-off the endorphins in your audience’s heads when they hear about it?

What’s Your Emotional Value Proposition?

The key to successful marketing is finding your Emotional Value Proposition. It’s how you humanize the outdated notion of a sales-value proposition that no self-respecting marketing expert gives a hoot about. If you look at what Jobs offered Sculley, it breaks down to an opportunity to achieve ‘self-actualization’ the highest rung on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Jobs understood that in order to attract a high-powered, success-oriented executive he had to give him something big, and from a psychological perspective there is nothing bigger than being all you can be.

In the case of Old Spice the message was more primal, it’s about sex, a basic level ingredient on Maslow’s Hierarchy. The message is clear: purchase the product and you attract and satisfy women, what could be more fundamental? Everybody knows sex sells but do you understand why? Sex sells because it’s essential to our survival as a species; we either propagate or we disappear like the Neanderthals. It doesn’t get any more Maslowian than that.

How To Find Your Big Idea So if you’re selling the most features, lower prices, better service, and best staff in the business, you’re communicating the wrong message. Your audience isn’t stupid; no one promotes the idea that they have no service and sell cheap crap that doesn’t work. No one really cares that you Tweet, Facebook, Google, or text message your day away. What people want to know is what are you going to do to move them up the Maslowian ladder. Every successful brand, product, or company is based on a big idea. What’s yours?

About The Author
Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design and marketing firm that specializes in Web-video Marketing Campaigns and Video Websites. Visit www.mrpwebmedia.com, www.136words.com, and www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.