Off-Page Optimization (Part 1)
Ok, I'm going to give you a crash course on SEO. (Search Engine Optimization). I basically learned everything I know through hours and hours of reading information on the web from many different sources.
First, let's start with the Search Engine Big 3: Google, Yahoo and MSN. As you probably know, Google is the most searched, followed by Yahoo and then MSN. Google holds around a 60% share with Yahoo holding around 30% and MSN at about 10%. Ask.com has recently launched a major advertising campaign, so I'm not sure how much of the market they've been able to grab, but the trends show Google continuing to gain, with Yahoo and MSN continuing to lose. So naturally, Google is the big dog which is why I will reference them often.
Search Engine Optimization consists of two areas:
On-Page optimization is the strategic coding of a website (HTML). And Off-Page optimization is the process of gaining well-placed and well-worded back-links.
A back-link is simply a link on another website that points to one of your site's pages. Search engines have figured out that a website's popularity can be determined by a site's back-links. For example, if Microsoft .com has 100,000 other websites linking to them, it's easy for search engines to figure out that Microsoft.com is popular. Essentially, a back-link acts as a "vote" for the site it points to. So Off-Page Optimization is all about getting as many votes as possible.
All back-links are not equal. There are a few factors that determine the power of a single back-link. One is: what site is the back-link coming from? If it's from a popular site, the back-link is weighted appropriately. For instance, a back-link from my site would not carry nearly the same weight as a back-link form Microsoft.com. And to put it into more perspective, 1,000 back-links from sites like mine (that are only popular locally) would still equal the same weight as ONE back-link from Microsoft.com. This means that total back-links, although important, are only part of the game. In order to develop real Search Engine Power, you must have back-links from powerful sites.
A second major factor when it comes to back-links is "Anchor Text." Anchor Text is SEO jargon for the actual words that are used to describe a link. I know it's been a while, but hopefully you're still familiar with this piece of code:
Although this link points to my website, the only thing you actually see on the web page are the words "Boston Website Design." In the eyes of the Search Engine's crawlers (the robots that crawl your site and record your information for their listings), the Anchor Text of a link acts as a link's description. So when Google sees that a link titled "Boston Website Design" that is pointed to my site, it associates my site with the keyword "Boston Website Design."
Google is very clever at determining whether back-links are manually generated or natural. A manual back-link would be something that your company bought. A natural back-link would be someone linking to your site on their own accord. In fact, Google has suggested to site's that sell advertisements to place a specific piece of code in the HTML of a link to let Google know that the back-link was purchased. More information on this topic can be found here in an article I wrote that has been published several times around the web:
http://www.selfseo.com/story-19015.php
The rel="nofollow" tag is the piece of code that Google has suggested, and it is used universally in most blogs now to combat spam. When Search Engines see a link with the tag rel="nofollow" attached, it doesn't count the back-link toward it's ranking system. This piece of information is particularly important because if your company chooses to purchase back-links, it needs to be sure that they are "Direct-Links," meaning they will not include the rel="nofollow" tag, or any of the other methods I've described in my article that can camouflage a link from the eyes of a Search Engine crawler.
Google in particular also monitors the pattern in which your site gains back-links. For instance, if your site purchases 10,000 back-links all at once, even if they're from powerful sites, the links will be watered down in terms of power. This is because chances are your site doesn't have a history of gaining 10,000 back-links a day. When purchasing back-links, it's important to be conservative at first in how many you purchase. Then, once you increase the rate at which you obtain back-links, you can gradually increase this rate over time. For instance, maybe you buy 100 the first month, then 150 the next, then 200 and so on as opposed to purchasing 500 all at once. This will make it appear as though the back-links are generated naturally, increasing the power of each link.
Another important factor when manually generating back-links, is to alternate your Anchor Text. Even if you spread out your purchases over a period of time, the back-links can't all be titled the same. Because the goal is to make the back-links appear natural, chances are, if 1,000 different people are linking to your site, they're not all going to use the same Anchor Text. So it's important to come up with a large list of keywords that you will alternate with each purchased back-link. For instance, in addition to "Boston Website Design," I'll also use "Website Design Boston," "Web Development Boston," "Boston Website Designer," and so on. This will not only make your back-links appear natural, but will help you rank well for each of the varied keywords. There are many tools on the web that can help you develop a list. Google has one here:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
This doesn't mean that you can't repeat Anchor Text. Just that when you purchase a block of keywords, vary their Anchor Text, and then the next month vary it again only repeating a few (If Google sees the same 10 titles every month they're going to catch on to the fact that the back-links aren't natural).
In addition, it's important to throw in your URL every now and then as your Anchor Text. This is because if you were to gain 1,000 back-links naturally, chances are that some of them are going to contain your URL as the title. Here's an example:
However, I would not use this Anchor Text on a powerful site, since it doesn't carry any Keyword Association.
It's important to note that hyperlinked images do not count as back-links. The back-link must be text, and also use the standard
coding. Obviously, links in Flash animations are not read as well, and therefore carry no weight.
Also, when obtaining back-links, it's important to get "deep-links." That is, links that are not pointed to your homepage, but pages that exist within your site. Like every SEO strategy, making your back-links appear natural is the key. And chances are, if 100 people are linking to your site, not all of them will link to your homepage. This also makes your site appear "authoritative" in the eyes of Google. That is, your site will appear as if it has a lot to offer, which is exactly what Google is looking for in it's top ranked sites.
Stay away from "bad neighborhoods" when obtaining back-links. Primarily, these consist of Link Farms. It's possible that you could actually be penalized for showing up on these sites, so stay as far away from them as possible.
At one point in time, reciprocal linking was a good strategy (I link to you, you link to me). But because people began to abuse this technique, Google has since decided to severely water-down reciprocal links. This is why I wouldn't even bother exploring this avenue. One-way links are 100 times more effective (unless you are trading with a very high-powered site which would lessen the ratio).
Also, the only directories you should even care about are Yahoo's and Google's (DMOZ). Both of these directories carry substantial link-love. Google's is free (although there's an application process) and Yahoo costs a few hundred a year. Other than Yahoo, I would never pay to be listed in a directory unless you thought the listing would generate traffic, because directory listings other than the Big 2 carry very little back-link weight.
There are many ways or generating quality back-links manually, without purchasing straight up advertisements. There are many services out there that will "blog" about your site for a fee. You present what you'd like them to evaluate, and then they'll blog about it. Many popular bloggers will do this do make some cash, but because they don't want to b.s. their readers, they'll write an honest review.
Another way to generate a quality back-link manually is to write a killer article about your business and then get it published on high quality information based sites. Most of the time this will cost a fee, but if the article is good enough most websites that talk about your industry would be glad to publish it for free. Make sure you don't offer the article for free-print, however. Just get it published on a few good sites, and then write another and repeat the process. There are reasons why you should not offer your article for free-print, but I won't get into them here.
A third way of generating a quality back-link is to write regular Press Releases. For the right price, you can get your press-releases published on some of the top newspaper and news-based sites on the web.
With using these three methods, the most important factor is to require that your link be included. And make sure the link is a "Direct Back-Link," or else it defeats the purpose.
There are a few ways you can monitor your back-link status. First let me explain why Google doesn't list all your back-links. Because Google wants their listings to be as accurate as possible, they aren't very keen on helping Search Engine Optimization professionals. They sort of see them as the enemy, and therefore don't go out of there way to provide information that would primarily only be relevant for SEO purposes. MSN has also followed suit, and doesn't offer ANY back-link information anymore. Yahoo, however, still lists all your back-link information. And chances are if Yahoo says you have 11,000 back-links, Google has the same information even though they choose not to make it public. However, Google does display a small portion of your back-link data, but a small portion doesn't really do you a whole lot when you're analyzing the big picture.
When analyzing your back-links in Yahoo, enter this format into the search field.
link:www.pinbottle.com
This will deliver a total list of sites that are linking to you. This is also a great tool in determining which sites you'd like to purchase back-links from. Although "total back-links" don't tell the whole picture, you can get a pretty good idea at how powerful a site is based on their total. For instance, compare my site to www.finerdesign.com, and it's easy to figure out who would provide a higher quality back-link.
Also, there are programs that can analyze your back-link Anchor Text. One I know of off hand is Axandra (If you choose to use SEO Software, use it strictly for data analysis. Do NOT under any circumstances use it for On-Page Optimization advice, as there is no TRUE formula for things such as keyword density, a subject that we'll cover in my next blog). You can also hire a company to analyze your back-link Anchor Text. Check out this free tool:
http://www.webuildpages.com/neat-o/
The tool only gives you 100 listings, but it's a good example at how easily the information can be extracted. If you click on their homepage and hire them, you can get the full list.
Another tool that you can use is the AllInAnchor search, or in Yahoo's case, the InAnchor search.
Go to Google and type in allinanchor:boston website design and you'll be shown the websites that have the most back-links with this anchor text in order. My site comes up 11, which means that of all the back-links that exist in the world, I have the 11th most that contain the phrase "Boston Website Design." For Yahoo, just type in inanchor:boston website design.
Along with the many tools I've listed, one of the best uses for them is to analyze your competition. For instance, let's say I want to rank well for "Boston Web Developer." All I need to do is use these tools to determine how many back-links my competitors have, and where they're coming from. This is particularly important because some keywords are just too competitive. For example, if you run a search for "computers," and then analyze back-link status for the top listings, you may find that it would take too much time and too much money to ever truly compete with certain websites for certain keywords. This will be important information to analyze when you're coming up with your list of Alternate Anchor Text (keywords) that you plan to deploy. Target keywords that are within your reach. The last data I read with regards to search habits, was that 40% of all users clicked on the first listing, and only 10% of users ever viewed the second page of listings, so obviously getting the top listing is the goal, but if you can't get on the first page, don't even bother working toward that keyword.
First, let's start with the Search Engine Big 3: Google, Yahoo and MSN. As you probably know, Google is the most searched, followed by Yahoo and then MSN. Google holds around a 60% share with Yahoo holding around 30% and MSN at about 10%. Ask.com has recently launched a major advertising campaign, so I'm not sure how much of the market they've been able to grab, but the trends show Google continuing to gain, with Yahoo and MSN continuing to lose. So naturally, Google is the big dog which is why I will reference them often.
Search Engine Optimization consists of two areas:
- On-Page Optimization (15% of the game)
- Off-Page Optimization (85% of the game)
On-Page optimization is the strategic coding of a website (HTML). And Off-Page optimization is the process of gaining well-placed and well-worded back-links.
Off-Page Optimization
A back-link is simply a link on another website that points to one of your site's pages. Search engines have figured out that a website's popularity can be determined by a site's back-links. For example, if Microsoft .com has 100,000 other websites linking to them, it's easy for search engines to figure out that Microsoft.com is popular. Essentially, a back-link acts as a "vote" for the site it points to. So Off-Page Optimization is all about getting as many votes as possible.
All back-links are not equal. There are a few factors that determine the power of a single back-link. One is: what site is the back-link coming from? If it's from a popular site, the back-link is weighted appropriately. For instance, a back-link from my site would not carry nearly the same weight as a back-link form Microsoft.com. And to put it into more perspective, 1,000 back-links from sites like mine (that are only popular locally) would still equal the same weight as ONE back-link from Microsoft.com. This means that total back-links, although important, are only part of the game. In order to develop real Search Engine Power, you must have back-links from powerful sites.
A second major factor when it comes to back-links is "Anchor Text." Anchor Text is SEO jargon for the actual words that are used to describe a link. I know it's been a while, but hopefully you're still familiar with this piece of code:
Although this link points to my website, the only thing you actually see on the web page are the words "Boston Website Design." In the eyes of the Search Engine's crawlers (the robots that crawl your site and record your information for their listings), the Anchor Text of a link acts as a link's description. So when Google sees that a link titled "Boston Website Design" that is pointed to my site, it associates my site with the keyword "Boston Website Design."
Google is very clever at determining whether back-links are manually generated or natural. A manual back-link would be something that your company bought. A natural back-link would be someone linking to your site on their own accord. In fact, Google has suggested to site's that sell advertisements to place a specific piece of code in the HTML of a link to let Google know that the back-link was purchased. More information on this topic can be found here in an article I wrote that has been published several times around the web:
http://www.selfseo.com/story-19015.php
The rel="nofollow" tag is the piece of code that Google has suggested, and it is used universally in most blogs now to combat spam. When Search Engines see a link with the tag rel="nofollow" attached, it doesn't count the back-link toward it's ranking system. This piece of information is particularly important because if your company chooses to purchase back-links, it needs to be sure that they are "Direct-Links," meaning they will not include the rel="nofollow" tag, or any of the other methods I've described in my article that can camouflage a link from the eyes of a Search Engine crawler.
Google in particular also monitors the pattern in which your site gains back-links. For instance, if your site purchases 10,000 back-links all at once, even if they're from powerful sites, the links will be watered down in terms of power. This is because chances are your site doesn't have a history of gaining 10,000 back-links a day. When purchasing back-links, it's important to be conservative at first in how many you purchase. Then, once you increase the rate at which you obtain back-links, you can gradually increase this rate over time. For instance, maybe you buy 100 the first month, then 150 the next, then 200 and so on as opposed to purchasing 500 all at once. This will make it appear as though the back-links are generated naturally, increasing the power of each link.
Another important factor when manually generating back-links, is to alternate your Anchor Text. Even if you spread out your purchases over a period of time, the back-links can't all be titled the same. Because the goal is to make the back-links appear natural, chances are, if 1,000 different people are linking to your site, they're not all going to use the same Anchor Text. So it's important to come up with a large list of keywords that you will alternate with each purchased back-link. For instance, in addition to "Boston Website Design," I'll also use "Website Design Boston," "Web Development Boston," "Boston Website Designer," and so on. This will not only make your back-links appear natural, but will help you rank well for each of the varied keywords. There are many tools on the web that can help you develop a list. Google has one here:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
This doesn't mean that you can't repeat Anchor Text. Just that when you purchase a block of keywords, vary their Anchor Text, and then the next month vary it again only repeating a few (If Google sees the same 10 titles every month they're going to catch on to the fact that the back-links aren't natural).
In addition, it's important to throw in your URL every now and then as your Anchor Text. This is because if you were to gain 1,000 back-links naturally, chances are that some of them are going to contain your URL as the title. Here's an example:
However, I would not use this Anchor Text on a powerful site, since it doesn't carry any Keyword Association.
It's important to note that hyperlinked images do not count as back-links. The back-link must be text, and also use the standard
coding. Obviously, links in Flash animations are not read as well, and therefore carry no weight.Also, when obtaining back-links, it's important to get "deep-links." That is, links that are not pointed to your homepage, but pages that exist within your site. Like every SEO strategy, making your back-links appear natural is the key. And chances are, if 100 people are linking to your site, not all of them will link to your homepage. This also makes your site appear "authoritative" in the eyes of Google. That is, your site will appear as if it has a lot to offer, which is exactly what Google is looking for in it's top ranked sites.
Stay away from "bad neighborhoods" when obtaining back-links. Primarily, these consist of Link Farms. It's possible that you could actually be penalized for showing up on these sites, so stay as far away from them as possible.
At one point in time, reciprocal linking was a good strategy (I link to you, you link to me). But because people began to abuse this technique, Google has since decided to severely water-down reciprocal links. This is why I wouldn't even bother exploring this avenue. One-way links are 100 times more effective (unless you are trading with a very high-powered site which would lessen the ratio).
Also, the only directories you should even care about are Yahoo's and Google's (DMOZ). Both of these directories carry substantial link-love. Google's is free (although there's an application process) and Yahoo costs a few hundred a year. Other than Yahoo, I would never pay to be listed in a directory unless you thought the listing would generate traffic, because directory listings other than the Big 2 carry very little back-link weight.
There are many ways or generating quality back-links manually, without purchasing straight up advertisements. There are many services out there that will "blog" about your site for a fee. You present what you'd like them to evaluate, and then they'll blog about it. Many popular bloggers will do this do make some cash, but because they don't want to b.s. their readers, they'll write an honest review.
Another way to generate a quality back-link manually is to write a killer article about your business and then get it published on high quality information based sites. Most of the time this will cost a fee, but if the article is good enough most websites that talk about your industry would be glad to publish it for free. Make sure you don't offer the article for free-print, however. Just get it published on a few good sites, and then write another and repeat the process. There are reasons why you should not offer your article for free-print, but I won't get into them here.
A third way of generating a quality back-link is to write regular Press Releases. For the right price, you can get your press-releases published on some of the top newspaper and news-based sites on the web.
With using these three methods, the most important factor is to require that your link be included. And make sure the link is a "Direct Back-Link," or else it defeats the purpose.
There are a few ways you can monitor your back-link status. First let me explain why Google doesn't list all your back-links. Because Google wants their listings to be as accurate as possible, they aren't very keen on helping Search Engine Optimization professionals. They sort of see them as the enemy, and therefore don't go out of there way to provide information that would primarily only be relevant for SEO purposes. MSN has also followed suit, and doesn't offer ANY back-link information anymore. Yahoo, however, still lists all your back-link information. And chances are if Yahoo says you have 11,000 back-links, Google has the same information even though they choose not to make it public. However, Google does display a small portion of your back-link data, but a small portion doesn't really do you a whole lot when you're analyzing the big picture.
When analyzing your back-links in Yahoo, enter this format into the search field.
link:www.pinbottle.com
This will deliver a total list of sites that are linking to you. This is also a great tool in determining which sites you'd like to purchase back-links from. Although "total back-links" don't tell the whole picture, you can get a pretty good idea at how powerful a site is based on their total. For instance, compare my site to www.finerdesign.com, and it's easy to figure out who would provide a higher quality back-link.
Also, there are programs that can analyze your back-link Anchor Text. One I know of off hand is Axandra (If you choose to use SEO Software, use it strictly for data analysis. Do NOT under any circumstances use it for On-Page Optimization advice, as there is no TRUE formula for things such as keyword density, a subject that we'll cover in my next blog). You can also hire a company to analyze your back-link Anchor Text. Check out this free tool:
http://www.webuildpages.com/neat-o/
The tool only gives you 100 listings, but it's a good example at how easily the information can be extracted. If you click on their homepage and hire them, you can get the full list.
Another tool that you can use is the AllInAnchor search, or in Yahoo's case, the InAnchor search.
Go to Google and type in allinanchor:boston website design and you'll be shown the websites that have the most back-links with this anchor text in order. My site comes up 11, which means that of all the back-links that exist in the world, I have the 11th most that contain the phrase "Boston Website Design." For Yahoo, just type in inanchor:boston website design.
Along with the many tools I've listed, one of the best uses for them is to analyze your competition. For instance, let's say I want to rank well for "Boston Web Developer." All I need to do is use these tools to determine how many back-links my competitors have, and where they're coming from. This is particularly important because some keywords are just too competitive. For example, if you run a search for "computers," and then analyze back-link status for the top listings, you may find that it would take too much time and too much money to ever truly compete with certain websites for certain keywords. This will be important information to analyze when you're coming up with your list of Alternate Anchor Text (keywords) that you plan to deploy. Target keywords that are within your reach. The last data I read with regards to search habits, was that 40% of all users clicked on the first listing, and only 10% of users ever viewed the second page of listings, so obviously getting the top listing is the goal, but if you can't get on the first page, don't even bother working toward that keyword.
posted by Jason McElwaine at
11:58 PM
