“Hi Lynn, I have a quick question. In order to have a successful blog, do you have to target keywords? I’m blogging mainly to give information, but it would be nice to profit from it as well.

Do I need to target certain keywords in my posts in order to acquire traffic, or is posting frequently good enough? Do you target certain keywords in your blog posts to gain traffic? Say if I submit a post to my blog about extra curricular activities… do I have to target certain keywords about that specific post in order for traffic to start rolling in?

Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it.” – Scarlet

Hi Scarlet,

This is a great question. Most of the people reading along will expect a solid “yes” in my response. And while I will say that yes, you need to target specific keyword phrases when writing content, I want to give you a more detailed answer than that.

If you do not intentionally optimize your content (blog posts, articles, forum threads, etc) for a specific keyword phrase, and intentionally get backlinks to that content, you will still get traffic and readers.

This is true for two reasons:

First is “accidental SEO”. Whether you intentionally choose and optimize with a “keyword phrase”, your content may still come up in the major search engines for an obscure search term. This is how I first learned about SEO (search engine optimization) and the importance of keyword targeting.

I checked my stats one day (this was 8-10 years ago) and noticed certain archived pages of my site were getting substantial search engine traffic. There were certain phrases or a combination of words in the content, and the search engines deemed those pages relevant to those searches.

It was then that I started targeting my pages to specific searches, by optimizing the pages for specific keyword phrases. This gave me more control over the type of visitor I attracted, better rankings for better search terms, and a stronger “message to market match” between my targeting and my call-to-action.

If you would like to attract a specific type of reader, the type that is highly interested in your content, then you’ll want to target specific keyword phrases for the content you publish on the web. This will give you much more traffic, and more targeted traffic, and also result in higher profit potential.

The second reason is because there are other traffic sources, outside of the major search engines. You might attract readers through interviews, networking, personal recommendations from others, social media, offline exposure, etc.

You would be wise to accept the first, have a strategy for the second, and also intentionally optimize your content to attract highly targeted visitors to your pages. Ignoring the major (keyword-driven) search engines would be like an offline business (a plumber, for example) ignoring the Yellow Pages.

Best,

Also see: How to Increase Blog Traffic Fast

_

While I was catching up on my email this weekend, I had a nice conversation with Ann Smarty of MyBlogGuest.com.

I’ve mentioned before that Guest Blogging is a great way to increase blog traffic, and also get quality inbound links that will help your pages rank better in the major search engines. It’s the easiest way to get targeted traffic.

Ann has created an online community to bring together bloggers who are looking for guest posts, and people who are interested in writing guest posts. You can search by category, tag, topic and specific offers…

It’s free, it’s super fast to get signed up, and within minutes you’ll be able to browse opportunities for fresh blog content – or for guest blogging opportunities.

The link is: http://myblogguest.com

I just signed up myself as I am always looking for cool new people & topics to bring to you here at ClickNewz, and also use guest blogging to increase traffic and improve my search engine rankings. There are a lot of great opportunities posted. Here’s just a snippet of what you’ll find inside:

As you can see there are writing opps for a women’s fitness blog, for tech writers, small business topics, etc. And this is just a sample – there are a variety of topics and niches covered in the network.

Of course, the more people that join and submit their requests, the more opportunities there will be! Check it out, let me know what you think, and share any other guest blogging networks you’ve discovered in the comments below.

Best,

Also See: How to Increase Blog Traffic – Fast!

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Today we’ll look at just how much an affiliate link is really worth. You’ll get to see some of my affiliate income sources – and exactly how I earn those affiliate commissions. We’ll start with this one…

The image above is a screenshot showing about one year’s worth of affiliate commissions earned, from one affiliate link. The total is $339 in commissions. This is probably the worst example ever. It doesn’t convert very well because it’s not a strong message to market match, at all. We’ll talk about that more in a second…

Here is the blog post that contains that affiliate link, which promotes Netflix:

This blog post was published on August 27th, 2007. It ranks well in the major search engines for a variety of odd longtail keyword phrases, such as: free netflix account, netflix watch instantly free, netflix free movies online, watch netflix free movies, netflix watch movies online. You’ll see it here at #3:

I actually plucked these phrases (not out of thin air! lol) but right out of my site stats for visitors that clicked through from those searches.

The commission stats I showed you earlier are just for the last year – January ‘09 to January 2010. That’s what a copy & paste of one affiliate link in ONE blog post can be worth: $339 for a few minutes of work – once, a couple of years ago.

Again, the $339 is not total commissions earned, just in about a year’s time –and on a really bad example of an affiliate promotion, as I mentioned.

The Netflix affiliate program is pay-per-lead, paying you for every person that signs up for a free trial of Netflix. The program is through LinkShare

How would you like to earn $300+, just to copy and paste?

Or even $300+/year for ONE blog post that you write? Ask yourself this: how much do you currently earn per blog post, or on each web page that you create?

Next we’ll look at a ClickBank example. I don’t actually like to work with ClickBank that much because a lot of people will back out of the sale and use their own link to buy a product, bypassing your referral altogether.

This is because ClickBank is set up for the last referral to get the commission. Unfortunate really. I would love to see them change it to first referrer, or at least put a 10-day cookie in place for the last referrer. But I digress…

That’s over $10,000 in commission in a year plus a week or so. And like I said, ClickBank is not one of my favorite networks to work with, so I generally avoid them as an affiliate marketer if possible.

Let’s look at a specific product I promote through ClickBank…

Here you see a Google search result page for the search “think and grow rich audio”. That’s my web page that’s ranking #1 right there:

There are not that many searches for that particular keyword phrase, but it does show up in my site stats. Here is a quick look at the search volume for think and grow rich phrases. You see “think and grow rich mp3” gets about 14 searches a day:

Most online marketers wouldn’t bother with a keyword phrase that has such low search volume. My page ranks #3 for that phrase. I published that web page online several years ago, at least 4 years ago, and I haven’t touched it since. It consistently makes sales just about every single week.

This is one of my favorite methods – using SEO, and specifically longtail keyword phrases, to earn affiliate commissions passively. See SEO Content to learn more.

Here you can see my ClickBank stats for that product for a recent 90 day period, and you can see that it’s earning about $100/month all on it’s own. Passive Income. Sometimes it’s more, it’s rarely less – but it’s out there ranking, getting clicks, making sales, and sending me checks every single month…

These are obviously bad examples…

They’re bad examples because the Netflix promo is a poor match for it’s keywords, and the Think & Grow Rich keywords have very low search volume.

I’m showing you these bad examples for a reason.

I’m actually quite good at Affiliate Marketing

I want you to see how even affiliate linking done badly… can easily earn you money. And consistent passive income – which is the best kind in my book!

Keep in mind these are not affiliate sites. These are affiliate links. One page, one blog post, or one link. Multiply that by the number of affiliate links and blog posts and web pages you imagine I might have out there on the web after 13 years…

Now imagine how many links you can create like that yourself in a day.

And this year, even.

None, if you don’t know how, of course.

That’s the reason I published the 2-part series on The Anatomy of an Affiliate Link. Trust me, it’s NOT rocket science. And you don’t have to get it perfect. I think I proved that with these two really bad examples.

Best,

p.s. Next, I’ll show you more of the “big picture” of my life & income as a Super Affiliate. Subscribe below to get updates by email so you don’t miss a single post!

Are you ready to start making consistent Affiliate sales yourself? You want to do 2 things: study the Super Affiliate Handbook, and join my discussion forum. It’s a great community, and a good place to get help anytime you need it…

People are always asking me about a tool or software program to help them keep track of their search engine rankings.

I don’t actually use anything, so I never have a good answer. My standard response is:

“I check the top 10 results at the 3 major search engines, searching the keyword phrase I’m trying to rank for. If my page is not there- in the top 10 results – I close my browser and get back to work!”

I was talking to Saku of SEO Rank Monitor last week, and he offered to let me take his online tool for a test drive and check it out. While there are several programs and tools that let you check your rankings, this one is different because it can interact directly with your Google Analytics account…

From a review on Yoast:

…uses the Google Analytics API to combine rankings data with visitor data, showing you what the difference really is between position 1 and position 2. It’s also the fastest rankings tracker I’ve ever seen, ranking a few dozen keywords for me in a few minutes, and then on a daily basis after that, giving some awesome ranking charts…

They offer a full feature tour of the SEO Rank Monitor dashboard, and a 30-day free trial to let you check it out before you decide to sign up for one of their two packages. The best value is the Pro Package which allows you to track up to 10 domains and 2500 keywords.

All of the tracking & ranking data is stored remotely on their server. That allows you to access it all over the world by logging in from any web browser.

What makes SEO Rank Monitor different – and better – than other SEO tools out there is the option to connect it to your Google Analytics account. You can then retrieve data about your visitors for all your tracked keywords…

In addition to tracking your own keywords and campaigns, the dashboard also includes a Competitor Monitor which allows you to keep up with the success of your competition. Or easily find keywords with little or no competition.

All of the stats and data are laid out nicely in visual, easy-to-read charts & graphs with the option to export into other formats.

I took Saku up on the offer to give it a test drive, and logged in to one of his accounts. At a glance I could see where keyword phrases were ranking across Google, Yahoo and Bing. I could also tell which keyword phrases were moving in the SERPs. Specifically which terms were moving up in the results, and which phrases were moving down.

The charts load quite fast, and it’s very easy to navigate.

Inside the Analytics Monitor, it gives you a Keyword Value. You can look over this chart and see where you rank for various keyword phrases – and the Keyword Value tells you the number of click through’s you can expect with a number one ranking for each of those keywords.

Definitely cool, and a tool I’ll be checking out more. Give it a test drive with their 30-day trial and let me know what you think!

-> http://www.seorankmonitor.com

Best,

Disclosure: this post was sponsored by SEO Rank Monitor

Every month thousands of people are searching online to ask: How Can I Promote My Website For Free?

More often than not these people have an ecommerce type website, or a company replicated website they were given by an online business they signed up with.

Some are advised to buy expensive online advertising spots such as banner ads or pop-up ads, place free online classified ads, or pay big bucks to a search engine marketing company. None of these options are going to get you anywhere fast…

(That’s actually very 90’s advice!)

Earlier this week I received a similar question in my Inbox:

Hi Lynn,

I just joined an online business and wanted your advice on what would be my best choices for advertising it. It is an online store that has all brand name groceries and products that saves us all money, time and gas, 30% to over 50% on all of these products over Wal-mart prices. The website is http://www.myharvestamerica.com/arizona

Thanks,
Jim Rusk

My response to Jim:
“The best thing to do is create a blog or website that appeals to your target market, and then use your store link as the call-to-action within the content. That will allow you to get search engine rankings and traffic free, instead of paying for ads.”

When you have a company replicated website like this it is usually through a “business opportunity”, or a network marketing (MLM) company. Each website is identical, and is actually very similar to an affiliate link.

These types of links do not get indexed in the major search engines.

Example:
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=+site%3Amyharvestamerica.com+arizona

How Can I Promote My Website For Free?

The absolute best way to promote your website for free online is to get good rankings in the major search engines. Since that is not possible with this type of website (or link), you’ll need to consider other options.

As I mentioned in my reply to Jim, you can set up your own blog or website and bypass that issue. Your first objective is to consider your target market (your ideal visitor) and brainstorm what kind of content would appeal to that market.

On that blog or website you create, you’ll write what is called SEO Content. This will make it easy for your buyers to find you online through the major search engines (like Google), and then you’ll have the opportunity to tell them about your website and whatever deals you offer there.

Jim’s website sells retail products at discounted prices, including brand name groceries, with free shipping directly to your front door. So Jim’s first step would be keyword research, to determine how is target market is searching for this type of service online.

I use http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com

A quick search shows that nobody is really searching for individual products, like say – windex. The closest you can get is “windex coupons” which gets around 31 searches a day – but Jim doesn’t offer product coupons.

Instead, he should start with the base keyword “shopping” and target keywords like: online shopping, walmart online shopping, online grocery shopping, online discount shopping, online outlet shopping, buy groceries online, etc.

The goal is to create an extensive keyword list of all the things people are searching for you in your market, and then write content that specifically appeals to them. Optimize your pages or blog posts to rank well in the major search engines, and end your piece by showing them your website as the solution.

This is the absolute best way to promote a website or link for free online. Some people think that “SEO” (search engine optimization or search engine marketing) is difficult – but it’s not. It’s a simple matter of researching keywords, writing content that is optimized for those keywords, and getting links to that content. That’s it.

It’s a lot more effective than any type of free online advertising, such as classified ads, or even expensive banner ads or other online advertising options. And it’s free.

The short answer: Jim should create a blog all about online shopping. The benefits, the resources, reviews and comparisons, etc. This will allow him to reach his target market, engage in discussions with them through the comments, and become an authority in the niche.

The same would be true for a Tupperware or Avon rep, or any other merchant representative with a company website. The Avon rep might focus on anti-aging articles and solutions, the Tupperware rep on simple cooking tips or potluck parties.

The goal is to figure out what your target market is most interested in, and deliver exactly that – along with the solutions or resources they’ll need.

Best,

p.s. If you’re worried about the cost of creating your own blog or website, don’t be! You can set one up for less than $10. You’ll need a domain name and a hosting account. I use HostGator for web hosting, and if you use the coupon code “wordpress” you’ll get the first month for only a penny.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them below

One way link building is an important part of your overall SEO strategy. The major search engines view these as high quality inbound links – when done right.

In this post I’ll give you 7 simple one way link building strategies that give your Link Reputation a nice little boost, and also bring in highly targeted traffic all on their own.

One Way Links are valuable because they are viewed as truer votes towards your web page. The exception is sponsored links, or one way links that are obviously purchased. There are a number of ways that Google can tell this, which is one of the reasons that a permanent inbound link tends to gain more weight over time.

Easy One Way Link Building Strategies

The goal is to get permanent one way links pointing to your web pages, whether that be the main page of your site or internal pages or blog posts on your domain. You need a good number of quality deep links to those internal pages to boost your overall Link Reputation. Following are 7 very easy ways to achieve that…

1. Interviews

Interviews come in all shapes and sizes, and you can really get creative with this one. A traditional audio interview on a webinar, podcast or online radio show will usually get you a link on the host’s site and also a mention to their mailing list (even better if those newsletters are archived online).

I prefer text interviews on relevant blogs, as they give you a high quality contextual link from a relevant content page. This can be done by answering a series of questions via email that are then published on the blog.

Another option is Q&A style, which is fun and easy.

Examples:
Advantage & Disadvantage of Outsourcing Q&A Style
Lynn Terry of ClickNewz an interview Text Interview
Life Change: Interview with Lynn Terry Text Interview
On Becoming a Market Leader Audio Interview
Lynn Terry Affiliate Marketing Success BlogTalkRadio Interview

2. Guest Blogging

Interviews are great, but guest blogging is even better for one way link building. Why? Because as the author of the content on the page that is linking to your page, you have full control over that link.

You can choose the keyword phrase to optimize the blog post, choose the page you want to link to that is relevant to that topic, and use your preferred anchor text in that backlink. And if that wasn’t reason enough to start guest blogging, you’re also putting yourself in front of an established readership in your niche!

Examples:
My Guest Post on Problogger
Guest Post on ClickNewz by Danny Cutts

3. Private Paid Link

One thing you really want to stay away from is programs or schemes designed to create your one way links, or text link brokers that sell you one way links.

These programs and brokers are really frowned upon by the major search engines and could hurt your Link Reputation rather than improving it.

This being the case, I still purchase text links from time to time – I just do it smarter. And I never purchase a temporary link, but rather a permanent contextual inbound link on a relevant content page or blog post.

How do I manage to do that? Simple: I offer bloggers a one-time payment to blog about a specific link on my site. Most of the “pay per post” brokers pay their bloggers $5-$15 for blog posts, so that price range is suitable – particularly for B-list or C-list bloggers. I usually use Job Boards on forums to make the offer.

I do not specify anchor text, give them more than one page or blog post to choose from, and just request that they blog about the topic and link back to the page/post. I do this because I want link variation, and because I’m buying “advertising” or “buzz” – rather than specifically buying text links.

Never use a broker. Do it yourself, or hire a virtual assistant to manage it. Period.

4. Article Marketing

Submitting articles to article directories is similar to guest blogging in that you have complete control over the content and the link. This is a great method that people have been using successfully for years.

In addition to getting indirect rankings when your submitted article ranks well, and then funnels traffic into your site, your article can also get republished all over the web – resulting in numerous quality one way links.

Sidenote: A lot of us – newbies and experienced marketers alike – are taking Jeff Herrings new article marketing e-course. It’s cheap and it’s awesome – super great investment to really nail this strategy.

Examples:
My latest article on EzineArticles.com
Quick Start To Setting Up Your First Blog Article at EzineArticles
Republished here, here and here (to name a few).

5. Testimonials

Most merchants won’t publish a live outbound link to your site from their sales page, but if you get creative you might just be able to get a link from their blog or an internal page on their website pointing to your review or case study of their product.

I’m actually seeing an example of this in the SERPs now with a page I’m trying to beat out for their #3 listing. By analyzing their backlinks, I discovered the merchant was linking to their review.

Look for merchants that link out to reviews, give live links in testimonials, or that have blogs. If they have a blog you can offer a detailed case study or success story as a guest post, which includes the link to your review of their product.

6. DMOZ Directory

Meh. Good luck. But if you can manage to get a one way link by submitting and getting an approved listing in the DMOZ directory – go you!

Here’s the link: http://www.dmoz.org/help/submit.html

7. Social Bookmarking

Ideally you should include social bookmarking buttons on your blog posts or web pages to encourage your readers to bookmark your content. This is the best and most natural way to get one way links from this source.

You can also set up your own social bookmarking accounts, but my advice is that for every link of your own that you bookmark… you should bookmark 5 or 10 other links on domains or properties you do not own. This keeps it natural, and resourceful.

See: Top DoFollow Social Bookmarking Sites by PageRank & Alexa Rank

Also download and read Social Media Daily by Michelle MacPhearson

8. Bonus One Way Link Building Tip!

This bonus tip is actually one of my favorite one way link building strategies. It’s so slick you’ll be shocked at how simple and effective it is. And it’s easy too – you don’t even have to request a single backlink for this one…

Write content so great that you get unsolicited one-way links to your page from all over the web. That’s it. This post serves as a good example.

Best,

Also See: How Many Backlinks Do I Need?

Over the weekend I discovered a site called LinkWheel that got my attention. They offer a service that creates “link wheels” for you, which is basically the “hub & spoke method” you may have heard about before.

The concept is that you have a money site, and everything else you create is for the purpose of linking to and boosting the ranking of this money site. The money site being where you promote and sell something, the spokes or other sites being relevant content that funnels visitors into that site…

This model can be a lot of work in regards to creating and maintaining all of the content and properties, and getting the link structure right – to and from each property. Done wrong it can ultimately penalize your money site in the major search engines, but done right I’ve seen some marketers have great success with it.

Howie Schwartz came to mind as I was first browsing through the site, and interestingly he was mentioned right there on the main page.

LinkWheel uses more than 60 different Web 2.0 Properties across unique IPs in addition to article directories, pinging, RSS directories, unique YouTube videos, images, etc. They say that all of their work is done manually, not outsourced overseas, and that they are the only link wheel service using 100% unique content.

You own all of the properties they create for you, with full log-in access.

I’ve read through every page of the site, including the 6-page PDF they offer via opt-in, and everything looks to be in good order. They have one-time plans as low as $65, and monthly development & management plans starting at $165.

This post is an advertisement for LinkWheel, and I would like to take this opportunity to open the discussion on their service and on the concept of the hub & spoke model… I’d love to hear your thoughts & questons.

Best,

We’ve discussed web page optimization, link building, and an effective link building strategy… so you know that you need backlinks to your pages in order for them to rank well in the major search engines.

But how many backlinks do you need?

The answer is: the number it takes to out-rank a competing page. If both pages are equally optimized for the same keyword phrase, and in most cases even if they’re not, it’s the number of backlinks that will determine who ranks highest for that search query. But not just the number of backlinks…

Why Some Sites Rank Higher Than Others… With Fewer Backlinks

Often, when analyzing backlinks, you’ll notice that a page with fewer links outranks a page that has more. The reason for this is in the quality of those links. Link Popularity is the number of inbound links, Link Reputation is the quality of those links. Quality is determined by a number of factors:

The type of link – article directory, social bookmark, etc. The variation in link types. The location of the link (content area vs footer, for example). The relevancy of the page linking to it, the anchor text used in the link, etc.

Another factor is the total number of unique domains linking to that page. Three links from one domain will not carry as much weight as three links from three different domains.

A little digging in the competing page’s list of backlinks can usually tell you exactly what it would take to outrank that page with your own. All you need is more total links, or higher quality links than theirs.

How To Analyze Backlinks

This method works well whether you want to analyze your own backlinks, or those of a web page you are competing with for placement in the search results.

Since inbound links (off-page optimization) carry so much weight in Google rankings, this is the one area you’ll do most of your competition analysis.

Here’s the quick & easy process I use to analyze backlinks:

• Search your chosen keyword phrase at Google.com.
• Click through the top results, and view the web page.
• Copy the URL of that page from the address bar.
• Go to Yahoo.com and use the search bar…
• Type in “link:” and then paste in the URL of the page.

example- link:http://www.clicknewz.com/1993/how-to-write-a-blog-post/

That will take you to Yahoo Site Explorer and will show you the total number of inbound links to that specific web page (URL). Once you’re there, you can use the drop-down box to select “except from this domain” to exclude all of that site’s internal links and see only the inbound links from other domains.

It’s easier than it sounds once I type it all out – give it a try and you’ll see it actually only takes a minute tops. A lot of people use fancy software programs, browser plugins or various other methods. I like to keep it simple.

Let’s walk through this together so you can see exactly how it’s done:

Tip: use the buttons in the lower right hand corner of the video to view it in HQ (high quality), or to view it in full screen mode.

What you’re looking for is the total number of backlinks to that page, and the total number of external backlinks (not including the site’s own internal linking). I tend to go for less competitive keyword phrases, and rule out competing with large numbers of backlinks and/or obvious authority sites.

That said, sometimes the number of backlinks alone can be deceiving so you may want to dig a little deeper. If they have a lot of backlinks and you really want to compete for their spot, then you can analyze the quality of those backlinks.

When analyzing a list of backlinks, count the actual number of unique domains linking to that page. If there are 5 links from one domain, count that as just one. You can also click through each link in the list, and look for the backlink.

See where it is placed on the page, as links within the content area carry more weight than links in static areas of the site: sidebar, footer, navigation, etc.

How relevant is the content to the page it’s linking to? Is it a pet site linking to a dog page (relevant), or a gardening blog leading to a dog page (not relevant)?

Also see if they are using your keyword phrase as the anchor text for that link.

The most important part of that research is to count the number of instances they use your keyword phrase in the anchor text. The total number of those links… will tell you how many links you need with that exact anchor text to out-rank the page.

While you’re analyzing the backlinks of competing web pages, you’ll often find great sources for inbound links for your own page. Look at who is linking to their page, and how, and make notes of places you can get your own link on that page – or on similar pages. Your competitors backlinks are a goldmine of link sources!

Watch the video, try it out, and see for yourself how simple this is

Best,

p.s. Next we’ll look at ways to get high quality inbound links, and exactly what types of links you’ll need for your pages to rank well in the major search engines.

Be sure to subscribe below for updates by email so you don’t miss a single tutorial in this in-depth Link Building series:

An effective link building campaign requires one major ingredient: variation.

If you are getting backlinks for the purpose of higher rankings in the major search engines, then you need a variety of links from a variety of source types.

The goal is to get organic, natural backlinks. The kind that both visitors and search engines love most. The kind that happen naturally on their own, but that you must also push along a bit for proper content marketing…

A common mistake that bloggers and webmasters make when promoting their content is to stick to one type of link-building only. Some do mainly article marketing, others prefer social bookmarking, some blog commenting, etc.

But ideally you’ll want a variety of links, coming from a variety of source types – with variation in the anchor text of the links as well.

It’s unnatural, and therefore appears spammy, to get 100 new backlinks all from social bookmarking sites only, and all with the exact same anchor text. This is likely to send up a red flag, and do more harm than good to your seo strategy.

This is not effective link building. It’s similar to running for a political office, and visiting all of the voting booths yourself… to cast votes for yourself.

An effective link building campaign is one that appears more like a natural buzz. Google counts links to your site as ‘votes’ for your content, and they are most interested in what other sites/people have to say about it than what you say.

In order to create that natural appearance for your inbound links, you use variation. You’ll want to get links from blog posts, blog comments, social bookmarking sites, social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, web pages, press releases (if appropriate), article directories, niche directories, discussion forums, etc.

You’ll want a variety of anchor text in those links as well. This is best achieved by using longtail keyword phrases, or by using more than one keyword phrase that is relevant to the content on that page.

The advantage to using variation in your anchor text is that not only do your links appear more natural, which means they’ll carry more weight with the major search engines, but you can achieve top rankings for more than one search phrase.

For example, I have one web page that ranks in the Top 3 for three different keyword phrases. I make sales from that page every single week (and some weeks, every day). This is due to using the three different phrases as the anchor text, and switching it up each time I get a new link to that page.

You can create an effective link building campaign by kick-starting the buzz, and with great content you’ll end up with many more natural backlinks in addition to those you create yourself.

This is not something you want to do for every single web page or blog post, but it’s well worth it for those pillar articles – or those pages/post you most want to rank well in the major search engines.

An effective link building strategy might include:

• Create internal links from related pages on your blog/site
• Tweet the link and ask for feedback
• Publish the link on your Facebook profile or page
• If a blog post, create pingbacks to related blog posts
• Comment on related blog posts, using your specific link in the URL field
• Published a related YouTube video, include the hyperlink in the description field
• Add the link to your niche discussion forum profiles
• Include the link in your forum signature on niche forums
• Submit relevant articles to article directories with the link in the byline
• Submit a press release (if appropriate for your content piece)
• Write guest blog posts on niche blogs, with the link in your signature
• Engage in Cross Blog Conversations with other bloggers on the topic
• Include the link with 5-10 other related links on a social bookmarking list
• If the link is to the main page, add it to niche directories
• If the link is to the main page of a blog, also add it to blog/RSS directories

If you have a really good piece of content, these strategies will kick-start a natural buzz and new unsolicited links from a variety of sources. People may find and like your content and then stumble, tweet, bookmark, or blog about your link. And that’s exactly what you want.

Sure, this is work – particularly in the beginning. But once you identify your best sources you’ll find that it becomes faster and easier with time. You’ll have a list of blogs in your RSS Reader, a list of niche forums you’re engaged with, etc. And you can also outsource the tasks once you get a working strategy in place.

The variation in anchor text and sources is incredibly important for effective link building. Never dismiss a linking opportunity due to PageRank, Nofollow attribute, lack of option to include anchor text, etc. You need these to offset your highly optimized links… to avoid the dreaded “over-optimization” (ie: search engine manipulation, spam).

Best,

Previous Posts in the Link Building Series:
Web Page Optimization
Link Building 101

To begin this Link Building series we’ll look at the structure of inbound links, and the elements of backlinks that affect your search engine rankings…

What is a backlink?
Backlinks are incoming links to a website or web page. In the search engine optimization (SEO) world, the number of backlinks is one indication of the popularity or importance of that website or page.

In basic link terminology, a backlink is any link received by a web node (web page, directory, website, or top level domain) from another web node.

Backlinks are also known as incoming links, inbound links, inlinks, and inward links. -source

As you can see a backlink is the same as an inbound link, or incoming link, and is basically a hyperlink pointing from one page to another. That includes links within your site (internal links) or links to and from other domains (external links).

Link Building 101: Understanding the Terminology

Your link building strategy is a big part of web page optimization, and getting individual web pages (or blog posts) to rank well in the major search engines – particularly Google. For effective link building, it’s important to understand these 4 elements – and how they are used to determine your rankings.

Link Popularity

Link Popularity refers to the number of links that point to your site, from other sites. This is considered in the ranking criteria because popular sites, or well-written content, should naturally attract inbound links.

Each inbound link is counted as a vote. The more votes you have, the more search engines consider your site a quality source in their ranking algorithm.

Link Reputation

Not all inbound links are created equal. The quantity and quality of your inbound links will determine how well your site ranks. Link Reputation defines the quality of your links, and is based on relevance.

Relevance is determined by both the Anchor Text linked to your URL (see next section), and the relevance between the pages that are linked.

In a natural setting a pet site may link to a cat site or a dog site. This is considered a relevant link. An unnatural connection would be that same pet site linking to a casino site, which is obviously not relevant.

Just as society judges you by the company that you keep, major search engines judge your web pages by the company that they keep… or the pages that they link to and get links from.

Anchor Text

Anchor Text is the word or phrase linked to your URL, or web page. This text defines the page that it links to, both for human eyes and for search engines. Ideally you will use the phrase you most want that web page to rank well for in the major search engines, and also a phrase that compels real people to click through and read the page.

As an example, this is Anchor Text: how to write a blog. That phrase tells Google that the page is all about how to write a blog. Using this phrase as the Anchor Text makes this page more likely to rank for that phrase.

Here is how you create a hyperlink with Anchor Text:

Google PageRank

This is an algorithm by which Google measures the relative importance of individual web pages. What most people know as PageRank is the little green guage in the Google Toolbar.

This PageRank feature in the toolbar shows a ranking from 0 to 10, zero being the lowest measure and 10 being the highest. This is not actual PageRank, and so is often referred to as Toolbar PageRank (TBPR). The toolbar does not necessarily display current or accurate data. See: Google PageRank: Tool or Marketing Gimmick?

My advice: Ignore TBPR when link building, and obtain any quality link from a relevant source that has the potential to send targeted traffic to your page.

Actual PageRank is the algorithm that Google uses to rank web pages. It is a complex algorithm, but we know it combines both Link Popularity and Link Reputation to determine how well any give page ranks, and for which search terms.

Google Describes PageRank: PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B.

But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important”. -source

Nofollow Attribute

The name of this link attribute is somewhat misleading as it doesn’t instruct the search engines not to follow the hyperlink, but rather not to influence (or pass PageRank) to the linked page.

This attribute was designed by Google’s Matt Cutts and Jason Shellen (of Blogger.com) in 2005, and was designed specifically to deter comment spam on blogs. It basically gives no weight or influence to outgoing links.

While this is Google’s invention, Yahoo and Bing also respect this attribute – though each search engine seems to interpret it differently. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nofollow for more in-depth information, including how to include the attribute in a link and charts on interpretation.

Since your objective in Link Building is to increase your ranking score, you would naturally avoid inbound links with the NoFollow Attribute. That said, numerous case studies have been done by professional SEO’s and many of them report this attribute as “suspicious”. Links with the NoFollow attribute showing up as backlinks in Yahoo Site Explorer, or in Google Webmaster Tools for example.

My advice: Ignore the NoFollow Attribute when link building, and obtain any quality link from a relevant source that has the potential to send targeted (human) traffic to your page.

Search Engine Friendly, Effective Link Building

Not all links are the same. But instead of worrying yourself over things like NoFollow and ToolBar PageRank, for effective link building you only need to ask yourself one question:

If Google did not exist, would this link make sense in my marketing strategy? How and where (and with what Anchor Text) can I best place a link to get highly targeted traffic to my page?

Keep those questions in mind as you consider your link building strategy…

Best,

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