SearchEngineOptimisation.com, only one way up

There has been a lot of concentration on content this year, led by Google. The changes the search engine has made to its algorithm have spooked many companies into building up their content. Boosting content is fine if you have a lot of resources to pour into your SEO marketing, but what if you are limited? What happens to the rest of your SEO plan?

*Links

Links are still a vital part of SEO. Without a decent link profile, sites have little hope of establishing a reputation with the search engines, and you can discuss this with us at SearchEngineOptimisation.co.uk. Very few sites can hope to attract enough attention from others on reputation alone, so link building should remain a priority.

*Content

On the other hand, link building for UK and internationally focussed companies goes a lot more smoothly when the site involved is packed full of quality content. Content needs to remain a priority, too.

There’s no getting around it: a good SEO plan needs to involve both link building and content building, on top of the technical work that must be done in the initial stages of optimisation.

If you’re running your SEO plan on a budget, it’s important to take the time to plan tactics that you can squeeze as much value out of as possible. For example, guest posting can get you high quality links and can get you some content in return. Investigate free avenues, such as user-generated content and free directories, and talk to your SEO agency about your options.

Even if you’re investing in link building services, it’s always good to have some organic linking strategies laid down within your site. Tactics employed within your site to attract links, such as link bait content, can keep the links coming in while you’re working on other things.

Content that attracts links has to be free and it has to be unusual. This might sound like a high aim for humble content, but there are three easy ways to give your content an extra edge. The best thing is, the packaging will be doing most of your work for you.

1. Video. Video is no longer the novelty it used to be on a website, but it’s still eye-catching. Grab a camera, set up a whiteboard, and get your best how-to face on. A series of videos is more likely to help your one way link building plan than a single video, as it establishes your site as a resource. Talk to us at www.SearchEngineOptimisation.co.uk about content-related link building strategies.

2. Software. Building software may seem like a big task, but featuring small widgets on your page, such as a handy calculator or other planning software, can make a big impact.

3. E-books. The e-book phenomenon means good things for business, as e-reader users tend to favour books that they can download for free. Offering a free e-book draws links when others start to use you as a resource. For this to happen, though, the book has to offer something of solid value.

The link-seeking email is one of the most delicate pieces of correspondence an SEO has to craft. A good email can result in valuable links. A terrible email can cut off link sources. The difficulty is, there isn’t much distance between the two.

One of the biggest mistakes made by businesses in any type of marketing is in failing to look at marketing material from the recipient’s point of view. When writing up an email soliciting links, keep the following things in mind:

*Unsolicited approaches are annoying. This is the first thing to acknowledge, and you need to deal with this in the subject line of your email. The best way to get around this problem is to be brief and straightforward, as well as indicating that you have something to offer in return.

*You are taking up their valuable time. Lengthy emails don’t get read. An SEO company will advise that you keep your page content brief to keep the reader’s attention. Keep this advice in mind when composing link-seeking emails. You can discuss content and email approaches with our experts at SearchEngineOptimisation.co.uk.

*They are waiting for you to interest them. Finally, you need to be able to capture the other site owner’s interest. Very few site owners will be happy to just give links away. Make your approach tempting with an offer that is tailored to the target site.

Even if you’re using link building services, it’s likely you’ll one day have to approach a site for a link. Pay attention to your link building company’s approach.

Let’s face it, most link bait attempts are a disappointment. There is so much good content out there and site owners are so aware of the value of their links, that link building strategies involving content aren’t the magic solution a search engine optimisation agency might wish they were. There are, however, ways to make things easier when producing link bait.

These three elements are all equally important if you want your content to draw links like flies to honey.
1. Timing. It may come as a surprise to know that one of the most important elements of a successful piece of link bait is simply time. Send it out at the wrong hour and you doom it to ignominy.
2. Interest. It should, on the other hand, come as no surprise that an interesting piece of content is vital as a piece of link bait. A good amount of research should ensure your piece fits the bill.
3. Novelty. Simply being interesting isn’t enough. You also need something fresh. Talk to us at SearchEngineOptimisation.co.uk about this.

Finally, there is a hidden element that is behind link bait success. It’s luck. Any successful link bait is linked to not just because of the hard work that created the piece, but because of the confluence of all other required elements. For this reason, it’s worthwhile continuing to try out link bait ideas. Those that don’t catch on will still provide your site with some solid and sometimes evergreen content.

Blogging has been part of the search engine optimisation repertoire for a few years now. Like any ageing optimisation tactic, blogs have come under some fire as time has gone by. Some SEO experts argue that using a blog as a website optimisation tactic is a waste of time. Others stand behind the strategy. Which side is right?

Once upon a time, an SEO blog was highly effective for organic search engine optimization. If the competition was too high for the blog’s pages to appear at the top of the SERPs, there was a good likelihood that the blog could still help the site’s SEO through link building. One way or another, a blog would get the job done.

Now, just about everyone’s got a blog. Content has to be top-quality to get any attention and it needs to be updated constantly. It’s much, much harder to get pages to rank, and pretty hard to attract links.

Does this mean the blog’s dead? Not really. Blogging has always been just one way to get content onto pages. Content is still important for SEO, and you can discuss this with us at searchengineoptimisation.co.uk. In fact, with Google’s efforts this year to improve content quality within search results, content is more important than ever. Social media users are also developing high expectations in terms of content. No matter what, if you’re trying to achieve some search engine or marketing aims, you need something like a blog on side.

Blogging isn’t dead, it’s just harder. Luckily, hard work can still pay off.

Link building in the UK would be so much easier if you could just choose a link target, reel them in, and then wait for the link to come to you. But wait… it is that easy. Here are three ways to land some high quality links just by using content on your site.

1. Create a list. Naming bloggers in a ‘top blogs’ list is almost guaranteed to net you links. Talk to us at SearchEngineOptimisation.co.uk about this.

2. Promote. Another link booster for your organic search engine optimisation plan is to write a positive review of the target’s site or product. It will be irresistible.

3. Answer a question. This has always been a great way to create compelling content. Now, by using Twitter or the target’s blog as a starting point, you can draw in a link by answering the questions posed by specific link targets. Craft an article answering that question, and then contact the link target to let them know that you’ve got what they’re looking for.

Research before you leap

The important thing about all of these ideas, of course, is that you pick your target well. It’s well worth taking a little time to research the person behind the link, to see whether they will be open to linking to you. Targeting someone who is uninterested in publicity, or who never links to anyone else, will just be a waste of time. For the same reason, it’s a good idea to spend a bit of time planning how you’re going to approach them.

After you’ve investigated the obvious options for links, it might seem like time to start with the real work. There is, however, one link resource that is full of potential, but which very few site owners think to make use of. It’s simply asking around.

Who to ask

Your existing contacts can be a great resource for link building, and you can discuss this part of website optimisation with us at SearchEngineOptimisation. No matter who you are, your activities on the net generate lots of leads for links. The leads available include:
*your existing links
*competitor links
*links via PPC
These leads aren’t just valuable for themselves, however. They’re valuable for the ideas their owners can provide.

What to do

All it takes is a bit of conversation. Find a way to approach the site owner, whether it’s as part of an established relationship, or as a general survey. Ask them what blogs they follow, which news sites they subscribe to, and what online publications they like. Not everyone will give you answers, but enough people will be willing to chat to make it worth your while. What you end up with is a list of well-targeted links that have grabbed attention in your industry. You just need to talk to your link building company to do the rest.

Link building strategies work far more smoothly if you do your link research well. Investigating all of your options might take a little more time, but it provides you with a much better list in the end.

Whether you know it or not, you have hundreds of link leads at your disposal. It doesn’t matter whether you’re starting your search engine optimisation from scratch, or you’re in the middle of link building services. There is an invisible list of link possibilities that you should be exploring.

The invisible list

There are at least three sources of links that should be considered during SEO link building. The first, competitor link profiles, is an SEO basic, and your SEO agency should investigate this option. The second is a little less obvious, namely the links of your existing links. Simply visit the sites that drive decent traffic your way and note their profiles.

Finally, there are the sites your advertisements appear on during PPC. This last category is one that many site owners don’t think about. Pay per click campaigns can produce some valuable leads, so it’s worth noting which sites you receive the most clicks from.

How to use them

The first thing is to assemble a database of these leads. This database should include the usual link building data, including rankings and possible angles to use. You can discuss this with us at www.SearchEngineOptimisation.co.uk.

The next step is the same relationship building your search engine optimisation agency would recommend. For your PPC list, these sites which you already have a link with are a little easier. Email the webmaster, noting your existing connection, and compliment the site. For the others, approach the site owner, note your common interests, and offer them something valuable.

Link building in the modern sphere of search requires skill and patience. A diversity of search engine optimisation techniques can be put into practice. However, it is important that these are tailored to fit the precise features of the site in question. The nature of the firm concerned also must be kept in mind when planning and implementing tactics. It is also the case that adjustments sometimes need to be made in line with continuing evolution in the search world. The speed of change is often rapid because of innovation and changes in the popularity of search engines or social media networking sites.

At Searchengineoptimisation.co.uk we work hard to implement multifaceted campaigns that tick all the right boxes. These campaigns are never formulaic, but by adhering to the right principles we ensure that our diverse sites are managed properly. When it comes to attracting links, we never buy them. Furthermore, we prioritise quality over quantity.

Links that are neither relevant nor of a decent quality do not help a site’s performance. Attracting the right kind of inbound links often has to be done on an incremental basis. Link bait can be used sometimes, but it is frequently a good policy to focus on building up the quality of the site under scrutiny. If it is pleasing the search engines and gratifying its target audience then it is likely to get inbound links in time.

There are other techniques such as guest blogging and competition holding which can be very effective. Using Facebook and Twitter can also be very productive.

Getting links is fundamental to SEO. Nevertheless, it is not easy and there are consultancies that do not pursue links in the correct way. It is essential to do link building properly because the costs of getting it wrong can be substantial. If black hat techniques are used, the consequences can involve the imposition of a search engine penalty. This can mean that a site is suspended from the index for a few months.

At Searchengineoptimisation.co.uk we are conscious of the impact that a flawed approach to obtaining links can have. This awareness means that we only use white hat methods that are fully in line with the ethical guidelines devised and maintained by the likes of Google. It is worthy of note that Google and the other major search engines have got better at detecting malpractice in this area.

There was a time when the purchasing of links was judged to be acceptable. However, buying links has been classed as a black hat activity for some time. The truth is that paid links are not only risky but also unlikely to be of the necessary relevance or quality. A link should be from a relevant site. It is important to recognise that a high quality link is of much greater value than several low quality links.

There are diverse methods of getting links, but the emphasis should be on attraction by making the site into something which authoritative organisations and thriving businesses wish to be connected with. Patience may be needed, but gradualist SEO techniques improve the site for users as well as search engines and have an excellent chance of working, when given time to grow organically.