The Relevance of Link Building 2013

 Link building is a term that has gotten a bad reputation in the SEO world recently with Google's latest algorithm changes and updates. It is a term that takes many to a vision of spam, pop-ups, and all things harmful and annoying in the online world.

 But what exactly is the role of link building in modern SEO? Eric Enge of Stone Temple Consulting recently sat down for an interview with Matt Cutts, the head engineer, creator, and gatekeeper for Google's latest anti-webspam SEO campaign, in which, Cutts had this to say about the topic:

"not all link building is bad. The philosophy that we’ve always had is if you make something that’s compelling then it would be much easier to get people to write about it and to link to it. And so a lot of people approach it from a direction that’s backwards. They try to get the links first and then they want to be grandfathered in or think they will be a successful website as a result.

Their goal should really be to make a fantastic website that people love and tell their friends about and link to and want to experience. As a result, your website starts to become stronger and stronger in the rankings."

Not a bad sentiment, but it is a far cry for the automated ease of link farming and banner havoc that many old-school SEO specialists grew up utilizing. So, link building is still a very viable aspect of modern SEO and content marketing, but specialists need to make sure that they are achieving high-quality, reputable links. 

Online businesses must keep their campaigns focused, intriguing, and easy to discuss. It is only through this that businesses will achieve the results that Cutts alludes to. Many companies are now experimenting with video and photo/infographic based marketing schemes with much success.

 It is certainly a visual, short-attention span world out there, and marketers are starting to see that short compelling bursts of information can be far more effective than long drawn-out articles. It is all about capturing interest and generating momentum, and quality over quantity has certainly become the name of the game in this realm.

The Google Algorithm, SEO, and Content Marketing

The Google algorithm seems like it is changing so fast that no one is able to keep up with it. Google’s swiftly pushing for Content Marketing and away from SEO.

SEO use to be the best way to get yourself on high ranks with Google. SEO use to just be the process of gaining as many links as possible to your primary website. You were able to do this through spun articles, bought links, and all types of different techniques. These techniques are now big no-no’s when it comes to SEO. Honestly, SEO is becoming a thing of the past and Content Marketing is the way of the future.

Content Marketing is generating links to your website because you are posting content that people actually want to read. Its finding topics related to your primary site and making the public interested in them to the point where they will share your business with others.

Hopefully this short summary was helpful for you,

For a fuller description, please go here! 

Why Consistency is Important to SEO

You may have heard the saying “SEO is a marathon” before. That is true, and like any marathon, you have to keep a steady pace to reach the ultimate goal, first page rank.

Whether you are a SEO company, or you are doing your own private SEO you will have to remain consistent. SEO isn’t just a one-and-done type of thing, even if you achieve first page rank.

When you start out doing your SEO, you should be doing work for it daily, making sure you have good content on blogs, social media, and other places you would like to share your business. You will want to be making posting at the same time every day. The consistency will show Google that you are putting in good effort that you are trying to achieve a higher rank.

After the first few months of doing SEO, when you start seeing higher page rank, you can be less aggressive with your SEO postings. Limiting yourself to one or two postings a week, this will show Google that you still care about your SEO. You should continue to be consistent with your SEO work so you won’t lose page rank or authority. 

In the end, consistency is important for your SEO. 

Google Fashion Trends: White is the New Black (Hat)

New to SEO?  Looking to employ a digital marketing agency to manage your online campaigns and content marketing for you? It can be very confusing to find the right fit as there are so many snake oil merchants with empty promises that will hurt your site more than helping it. You must be very careful to avoid companies that use black hat SEO tactics, as these can have devastating effects on your website. We've listed the main tactics to steer clear of; if you see anyone offering these services then we advise you run away, and fast!

The first black hat tactic we're going to discuss is the placement of links on what's known as a "link farm". These types of sites are solely created for the purpose of creating unnatural links to increase page rankings. The danger is that your website link will find itself next to undesirable businesses, such as those related to gambling or health products. Google is constantly working on their algorithm precisely to battle links such as these. Just look up services such as Build My Rank to see how such strategies can pan out.

You will also want to avoid any service that uses black hat software to blast out low-quality links. Remember, the quality of links is much more important than the quantity. Cheaper services will often try to tempt you by advertising an impressive number of links that they can point at your website. 1000 links from web 2.0s, bookmarking sites, article directories and social media for only a few dollars sounds like quite a good deal at first glance. However, what these providers leave out is the fact that Google does not like low quality links or an unnaturally high amount of them. Rather than help your site, these links will result in your business disappearing from the search engines.

Duplicate or spun content is another major issue when using black hat services. Google is a huge fan of unique and useful content.  As usual, you get what you pay for.  This type of content is more expensive and far more time consuming and black hat service providers will therefore use existing web content for use on their SEO projects. They will use what is known as a "spinner", which is a program that uses synonyms to attempt to spit out unique and readable content. Unfortunately, there is not a single program on the market that can do this easily or without heavy manual work and so you will often be left with low-quality drivel that Google will most definitely not look kindly upon.

If you have a legitimate business and want to remain that way, then we highly recommend staying away from cheap services that offer low-quality black hat backlinks. While it's possible that you may enjoy a boost in your rankings, it is almost guaranteed that it will only be temporary. In the worst case, your site will be penalized and blacklisted by Google and will require a lot more work to reestablish yourself at the top of the search results. For this reason we always recommend opting for an ethical and transparent digital marketing agency that only uses white hat SEO methods and quality content marketing. It may take longer and cost you a little bit more money, but your business will be safe from Google penalties and thus be more profitable and less costly in the long-run.

The 10 Commandments of SEO and Content Marketing

  1.       Thou shalt not have any search engines before Google.

There are literally dozens of search engines out there, but which one does everyone know of? Google.  Don’t focus on trying to rank on other search engines. If you rank on Google, you’ll rank everywhere else too.

        2.       Thou shalt not take the name of Google in vain.

This is to say, don’t slander Google or begrudging dismiss Google as too difficult to rank on and therefore you give up.  As long as you’re actually writing and distributing quality content then Google will reward you eventually!  They just have to filter through all the spam first.

        3.       Remember to keep religiously Blog posting day.

One of the keys to effective content marketing through blog posting is being consistent with your posting.  Have a set time either once or twice a week that you post a piece of content every time.  Not only does Google recognize the consistency, but users will appreciate it as well when they can expect and look forward to your next post.

        4.       Honor Google and online users.

Don’t post cheap or spammy content!  Don’t add to the garbage that black hat SEO companies spill all over the internet.  This makes more work for Google and users as they must sift through page after page of useless gibberish to find the quality content they are looking for.

        5.       Thou shalt not use Negative SEO against a URL.

Using the negative SEO tactic against another site is very inefficient and could backfire.  For example, if you target a competing website to overtake them in the ranks, you may succeed in dragging them down, but you and all of your other competitors will all move up to fill the gap.  You could have used that time to promote your own authority and overtake all of your competitors.

        6.       Thou shalt not backlink to other websites.

Of course there are times where linking to another website is required and the ethical thing to do.  Try to create as much original content as you can so that you have other sites linking to you instead.  Also, linking to a bunch of other sites does in theory lower your authority since you’re giving authority to others by linking to them.

        7.       Thou shalt not steal/plagiarize content.

Yes, if you quote someone else or copy their content without your own perspective changing the content, then you are stealing and plagiarizing their work.  Treat others well and most of the time they will return the favor.

        8.       Thou shalt not bear false content.

If you don’t know about something you’re writing about, there is this great tool that is quite amazing that is essentially a free database of the sum of human knowledge called “the internet.”  Educate yourself on what you’re writing about instead of making low quality content that is for the most part wrong and any fact checker could call you out on.

        9.       Thou shalt not covet they neighbor’s website.

A colorful and shiny website, maybe made using flash, does look great, but it is a very poor platform for SEO purposes.  Having a great looking and optimized SEO website is possible with the right digital marketing agency.  Find a good company that can give you the best of both worlds!

        10.   Thou shalt not covet they neighbor’s backlinks.

With the current state of the Google algorithm, backlinks have become not as important as they were in the past.  Focus on creating good content that you can be proud to have your name attached and that will carry more weight with Google then a bunch of random and spammy backlinks.