Showing posts with label seo strategy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label seo strategy. Show all posts

Saturday, May 5, 2012

2 Important Post on Google's Penguin Update by SEOmoz

5 Penguin-Friendly Link Building Tips


Since Google launched their Penguin update on April 24th, millions of websites have been falling down the rankings like losing soldiers in the battlefield! Google has been cracking down on "spammy" websites like never before.

Penguin
This update has indeed been very effective at knocking down spam sites, but many believe that some legit sites have also wrongfully been hit and have voiced their opinions on Google's forums and social media outlets. Google's Search Quality team listened and has set up a form that webmasters can use to notify Google that the Penguin has been unfair to them.
If you have used any unnatural SEO techniques in the past and your website is still proudly standing on the first page, it doesn't mean you're safe. In fact, Google said that the updates will be gradually deployed throughout the next few weeks. Expect a lot of movement in the SERPs!

If you are feeling bad while reading this because you do remember using some slightly shady link building techniques in the past, don't worry, it's never too late to repent.

Now is the time to "whiten your hat" and re-think your SEO strategy. Here are some valuable link building tips that will help you not only survive the Penguin update, but safely improve your rankings for the long term...

Tip #1 - Get More Social, Leverage Your Fanbase

In 2012, social signals are more important than ever. When you post fresh content on your site or blog, make sure you share it on ALL your social pages. In fact, this should be almost like a reflex. For the lazies out there, there are tons of plugins and tools that can help you automate this process. Twitterfeed is one of them.

I have seen too many companies posting new blog posts weekly, but not sharing them on their Google+, Facebook fan page, or on Twitter. What's the point of having all these fans, friends and followers if you're NOT showing them your content? When you share useful content, you will get likes, retweets, and +1's. This not only gives you bonus points in terms of SEO, but it also helps virally spread your content far beyond the confines of your fanbase. A win-win!

Tip #2 - Link Your Inner-Pages

When link building, a lot of SEO's are still making the rookie mistake of always linking to their homepage. I understand that your homepage is the most important page of your site, but you can be guaranteed that Google will raise a red flag if a large majority of your backlinks point to your homepage and very few of them are linking to your blog posts and inner pages. It simply doesn't make logical sense for Googlebot. After all, inner pages are where the real content is at! When you look at a website that acquires tons of links naturally like SEOMOZ, you'll notice that most of the natural links they get are to their inner content pages (blog posts, videos, SEO guides, etc...)

Also, remember that it's not just about external links. Internal links are also highly important. Take some time to improve your internal site's structure by making sure the right keywords are linking to the right pages internally. This will make it easy and intuitive for both Google and your visitors to crawl your site. If you're lazy and you happen to be using WordPress, consider using a plugin like SEO Smart Links that can automate the whole process.

Tip #3 - Diversify Your Anchor Texts

Another element that Google has been cracking down on this year is over-optimization (both on-site and off-site). There's nothing Google hates more than feeling like you're trying to force it to rank you for a specific keyword. For instance, if you are targeting the keyword "New York Condos For Sale" and you're asking all your link partners to link to you using that exact keyword, Google will think it's highly suspicious.
It simply doesn't make sense for Google that all these websites would naturally want to link to you using that exact keyphrase, which also happens to be in your website's title bar and all over your homepage. *ahem ahem*

Think about it, if people were to link to you naturally, wouldn't they all be using different keywords? You bet they would, so try to vary your anchor links in a natural way. This will show Google that you're not trying to force it to rank you for any specific keywords, rather you're just trying to point visitors in the right direction. :)

Remember that Google is now smart enough to figure out which keyword relates best to your content. I also highly recommend using editorial keywords as anchor texts, such as: "click here," "read more," "learn more," etc... as these look way more natural. Again, diversity is key here.

Tip #4 - Focus on Quality, not Quantity

This has been said over and over, but it is more important this year than ever before. The game has drastically changed, folks! Google will penalize your website if you have a large amount of backlinks from untrustworthy sites. (Authority Link Network anyone?)

If you are doing guest posting, I can guarantee you that one high quality blog post from a reputable site is better than 100 posts from low quality ones. I have seen clients in competitive niches enter the first page with less than 30 quality links, while most of their competitors had hundreds/thousands of them.

Also, do yourself a favor and forget about shady link building techniques like mass directory submissions or any automated type of link. If you know someone that has reached the first page using these "spammy" techniques, you should feel bad for them. Google will eventually hit them and hit them hard. If not today, maybe tomorrow, or next month. These guys are definitely on Penguin's hit list. You don't want to be in their shoes. Going to bed every night wondering if your website will still be in the SERPs tomorrow is not a good feeling.

Tip #5 - Make Your Content Link-Worthy

Last but not least, make sure you are producing link-worthy content. Outsourcing your article writing for $5 a piece won't get you very far. If your visitors don't like your content, they will leave your site. High bounce rates = bad user experience. Bad user experience = lower Google rankings. It's really that simple. If you provide content that has value, people will stay longer on your site and possibly hit the like or tweet buttons on one of your articles. This enhanced user experience will pay off SEO-wise.
Always remember that content is (and will always be) king. That is the rule of thumb in white hat SEO. Do you think websites like SEOMOZ or Search Engine Journal need to do any link building in order to rank high in search engines? Probably not, they simply focus on delivering high quality content that people constantly link to from their websites and their social profiles.
This is the safest, most natural, and most efficient form of SEO.
Written By: AnimeR Source: SEOmoz.org

Penguins, Pandas, and Panic at the Zoo

Google’s war on lovable critters escalated on April 24th with the release of the “Penguin” update (originally dubbed the “webspam update” by Google). While every major algorithm update causes some protest, post-Penguin panic seems to be at near record levels, worsened by weeks of speculation about an “over-optimization” penalty. Webmasters and SEOs are understandably worried, and many have legitimately lost traffic and revenue. Before you go out and burn your website to the ground for fear of a penguin in the pantry, I want to offer some advice on how to handle life after an algorithm update.

1. What We Know
First, let’s review what we know. I’m going to break the rules of blogging and recommend that you stop and read this level-headed Penguin post by Danny Sullivan. It covers some of the basics and is the most speculation-free post I’ve read on the subject so far. Glenn Gabe also had a good post on potential Penguin factors.  There’s still a lot of speculation, but likely culprits include:
  • Aggressive exact-match anchor text
  • Overuse of exact-match domains
  • Low-quality article marketing & blog spam
  • Keyword stuffing in internal/outbound links
Many people have suggested low-quality link profiles in general, but analysis of Panda has been complicated by Google’s recent attack on link networks, which seems to have been manual and has probably been going on for weeks. The overlap has made analysis difficult, so let’s take a quick look at the timeline.

What’s the Timeline?

The official roll-out date for Penguin was April 24th, and it seems to have rolled out, for the most part, in a single day. Unfortunately, it came on the heels of other events. On April 19th, Panda 3.5 rolled out (most likely a data update). On April 16th, a data glitch caused a number of sites to be mistakenly tagged as parked domains. Throughout April (and weeks before Penguin), Google started sending out a large number of unnatural link notices via Google Webmaster Tools. Sadly, it seems that April really was the cruelest month.


How Bad Was It?

Google officially claimed that Penguin impacted about 3.1% of English queries, compared to Panda 1.0’s 12%. Since rankings change daily – even hourly – even with no updates, these numbers are nearly impossible to confirm, but it does appear that the impact of Penguin was immediate and substantial. This is an internal SEOmoz graph of Top 10 ranking changes around April 24th (please note that the Y-axis is scaled to accentuate changes):

Graph of Top 10 changes (Penguin vs. Panda 3.5)

Pardon the slightly cryptic nature of this graph – it’s for an upcoming project – but the core point is that the impact of Penguin dwarfed either Panda 3.5 or Google’s 4/16 glitch.

Is It Going Away?

In a word: no. Penguin wasn’t accidental, and Google is clearly serious about combatting spam tactics that have been lingering for too long. As you can see from the graph, it doesn’t appear that there were any major reversals in the few days since Penguin rolled out. Does that mean Google won’t make ANY adjustments? Of course not – it’s entirely likely that they’ll continue to tweak Penguin.
For comparison’s sake, remember that Panda 3.5 came 14 months after the initial launch of Panda 1.0. We’ve come a long way since the monthly “Google Dances” of 2003. Keep in mind, though, that Panda was somewhat unique – we believe that it feeds multiple variables into a single ranking factor that gets updated outside of the real-time index. There’s currently no compelling evidence to suggest that Penguin works in the same way. The Penguin update appears to be integrated directly into the main algorithm, like a more traditional Google update.

2. What to Do

Given the overlapping timelines, this advice applies to any Google update, and not just Penguin. The algorithm is changing constantly (Google reported 516 changes in 2010, and that rate seems to be accelerating), and I want to give you the tools to survive not just Penguin, but Zebra, Skunk, Orca, and any other black-and-white animals Google can ruin…

DO Take a Deep Breath

I’m not trying to be condescending or to minimize any losses you may have suffered. Over 17 years of working with clients, I’ve learned that panic almost never makes things better. No matter how hard Penguin hit you, you need to stop, take a breath, and assess the damage. Dig into your analytics and find out exactly where you sustained losses. Segment your data (by channel, engine, keyword, and page) as much as possible. It’s not enough to know that you lost traffic – you need to be an expert on exactly which traffic you lost.

DO Check the Timeline

Even though the overlapping timelines make analyzing the core Penguin factors difficult, the actual timeline when Penguin rolled out is clear. If you saw major traffic losses between Tuesday, April 24th and Wednesday, April 25th, odds are good that Penguin is at least part of the problem.

DO Double-check IT Issues

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been involved in a Q&A or consulting situation where a website owner was 100% sure they had been hit by an algorithm update, only to have their 17th message to me go something like this:
Oh, by the way, our site was down for 3 days a couple of weeks ago, right before our rankings dropped. I’m sure this wasn’t the problem, but I just thought I’d let you know.
Um, erp, what?! I’ve died a little inside so many times from messages like this that I’m not sure that I’m technically still human. Especially if your losses weren’t sudden or don’t match the algorithm timeline precisely, make absolutely sure that nothing happened to your site or changed that could impact Google’s crawlers. One of the worst things you can do in SEO is to spend a small fortune solving the wrong problem.

DO Quickly Audit Your SEO

Likewise, make sure that you know exactly what SEO efforts are underway, not just within your own team but across any 3rd-party contractors. I’ve had clients swear up and down that everything they did was completely white-hat only to find out weeks later that they hired an outside link-building firm and let them loose with no accountability. Make absolutely sure you know what every agent under your control did in the weeks leading up to the algorithm update.

3. What Not to Do

Panic leads to drastic action, and while I don’t think you should sit on your hands, bad choices made under uninformed hysteria can make a bad situation much, much worse. I’m not speaking hypothetically – I’ve seen businesses destroyed by overreacting to an algorithm change. Here are a few words of advice, once you’ve taken that deep breath (don’t forget to start breathing again)…

DON’T Take a Hatchet to Your Links

It’s unclear how Penguin may have penalized links, or if recent reports of link-related issues are tied to other April changes, but regardless of the cause, the worst thing you can do is to start simply hacking at your back-links. Even low-quality back-links can, in theory, help you, and if you start cutting links that aren’t causing you problems, you could see your rankings drop even farther.
I highly recommend this recent interview with Jim Boykin, because Jim has freely admitted to dabbling in the gray arts and he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to risky link-building. Tackling your problem links is incredibly tough, but start with the worst culprits:
  • Known, obvious paid links
  • Links in networks Google has recently delisted
  • Footer links with exact-match anchor text
  • Other site-wide links with exact-match anchors
Whenever possible, deal with low-authority links first. If a link is passing very little authority AND it’s suspicious, it’s a no-brainer. Cutting links is tough (see my tips on removing bad links) – if you don’t have control over a link, you may have to let it go and focus on positive link-building going forward.

DON’T “De-optimize” Without a Plan

One complaint I hear a lot in Q&A is that the “wrong” page is ranking for a term. So, to get the “right” page to rank, the well-meaning SEO starts de-optimizing the page that’s currently ranking. This usually means turning a decent TITLE tag into a mess and cutting out keywords to leave behind Swiss-cheese copy. Sometimes, the “right” page starts ranking again. Other times, they lose both pages and their traffic.
“Over-optimize” is a terrible phrase, and that alone has people in a panic. There’s nothing “optimal” about jamming a keyword 87 times into 500 words of copy and linking it to the same affiliate site. “Over-gaming” would be a better word. You think you figured out the rules of the game, so you pounded on them until there was nothing but a pile of dust on the board.
If you think you’ve played the game too aggressively, step back and look at the big picture. Does your content serve a purpose? Does your anchor text match the intent of the target? Do your pages exist because they need to or only to target one more long-tail variations of a term? Don’t de-optimize your on-page SEO – re-optimize it into something better.

DON’T Submit a Reconsideration Request

While I don’t think reconsideration will doom you, Penguin is an algorithmic change, not a manual penalty, and reconsideration is not an appropriate avenue. If you think you were impacted by the recent crackdown on link networks, IF you have removed those links, and IF you aren’t engaged in other suspicious link-building, you might consider requesting reconsideration. Just make sure your house is in order first.
Google has created a form for sites unfairly hit by Penguin, but it’s unclear at this point whether that form will result in manual action, or if Google is just collecting broad quality data. If you sincerely believe that you’re an accidental victim, then feel free to fill the form out, but don’t base your entire recovery strategy on clicking [Submit].
Fix What You Can Fix
Recently, I had a long debate with a client about whether or not they had been hit by a specific algorithm update. In the end, it was a pointless debate (for both of us), because we had two clear facts: (1) organic traffic had fallen precipitously, and (2) there were clear, solvable problems with the site. From a diagnostic standpoint, it definitely helps to know whether you were hit by Penguin or another update, but after that, you have to fix what's in your power to fix. Don't spend weeks trying to prove to management that this was all Google's fault. Isolate the damage, find the problems you can fix, and get to work fixing them.
Written By: Dr. Pete Source: SEOmoz.org

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

30 Web Trends for 2012: How SEO, Search, Social Media, Blogging, Web Design & Analytics Will Change by Tad Chef

It’s this time of year again! In the previous years my web trends lists were very successful, both as predictions and by traffic or number of shares.


People working in the web industries want to know what’s ahead.
So for 2012 I want to tell you again what’s coming up. Basically I’m not predicting anything here; instead I just list trends you can already see and measure, but which will be obvious next year.

SEO
Good bye PageRank and links – links and PageRank matter less and less. In 2012 more ranking factors will probably be about other signals than conventional a href links. Google will use all kinds of other data including feedback human quality raters to overcome the big decade long link buying spree.
Freshnessthe latest Google update is perhaps more important than the high quality update dubbed Panda. Nobody cries about it because it wasn’t about penalties for sites but about improvements for searchers this time. This is good news for big news sites and bad news for brands with questionable business practices. The bad news will show up on top.
Quality – the Panda update wasn’t really about pandas, as I hope you know:  it was about ”high quality” sites. Thus focusing on quality metrics that entail usability, readability and overall usefulness is key in 2012. Underpaid quality raters are out there to get you, sometimes even without a look on your actual site.
SEO is just a part – SEO isn’t dead in 2012, but it’s more and more part of bigger ideas and concepts. This year it seems it’s not SEO 2.0 or findability anymore. The new en vogue terms are content marketing, inbound marketing, digital marketing or Internet/online marketing (again). SEO practitioners do just stuff meta tags, but their tasks now encompass much more.
SEO marries CRO – The two disciplines, SEO and CRO or conversion optimisation are just two sides of one coin. While SEO focused on getting traffic, CRO concentrates on making this traffic work for you. I’ve watched these two disciplines converge more and more. In 2012 you will rarely have one without the other. I know I predicted this for 2011, but many people still tried to divide the two sides of the same coin.

Search
Google does it again – Google has quickly reacted to competition from small contenders like Blekko, Ixquick and DuckDuckGo. It has appropriated all improvements and features by these faster competitors – be it the removal of content farms by Blekko or the introduction of SSL search by Ixquick or referral blocking by DuckDuckGo, Google offers it all now as well.
Even more confusion – last year I predicted more clutter in Google results and was nevertheless unprepared for the wide range of changes leading to portal-like search results. In particular, many changes on local searches lead to even more information stuffed in the SERPs. Furthermore, the manifold social enhancements such as who +1′ed, shared or authored a post make the SERPs look like a collection of gif clip art. I’m afraid this won’t be the end of this trend of more confusion.
Search without clicking – in 2011 several small moves by Google showed a tendency to show search results as content directly on Google, thus making a click to the actual page not necessary anymore. We will see more of it until people start suing Google for stealing their content.
Google does it already on Google News, Google Places and Google Images. It also owns YouTube, where most video searches end up. They want the same thing for text search as well. They don’t want people to leave Google properties at all. Google+ brand pages just add to it.
Google reads your mind – we already got used to the sometimes annoying instant search results that appear even before you type something meaningful. Google works on more ways to find out what you need and give it to you even before you ask. Just consider the multiple data sources Google now has about you:  Google toolbar, Chrome, Profiles, Plus, search history…
Speech recognition – Siri, the speech recognition ”assistant” on the latest iPhone, makes people talk with their phones and it’s extremely popular already. In 2012 we will see Apple’s competitors come up with similar tools so that we don’t need to talk to people or type in search queries anymore. Is this the end of SEO as some journalists assume (just like some suggest after every other major change in the search industry)?
No, it just means different kinds of queries, maybe more colloquial or clumsy ones. Maybe more dialogue with your search engine, for example ”I want something to eat”. I can’t imagine people just saying one, two or three word queries in public without looking silly. So they will talk as they do with other people.
Mobile grows – no surprise here. Mobile search will grow in 2012 again. How big it will become? Some pundits suggest that more than 1/5 of all searches will be conducted via mobile devices.

Social media
Google+ stays tiny – Google+ is being heralded and pushed by Google in search results because it’s still tiny – it hasn’t even reached a social networking market share of 0.5%, while Facebook owns approximately 65% of it.
Facebook losing ground – despite its almost monopolistic position, Facebook is already losing ground. In 2011 Facebook lost 6 million users in the US. The various privacy scandals and annoyances, along with alternatives like Diaspora, Google+ or Tumblr, will accelerate this process in 2012.
Oversaturation – it has been evident for a while already, but in 2011 most people noticed it: people can’t join more social media sites and spend even more time there without spending 24h on social networking and creating user generated content. We witnessed this when Quora appeared and demanded constant attention and production of high quality content.
Also, the emergence of Google+ has shown that most average people already have enough to do with Facebook and the likes. In 2012 it will finally become obvious that the social networking and UGC market is saturated and that creating another site that demands time and effort is not a valid business model anymore.
Social bookmarking vs social saving – last time I predicted the death of social bookmarking. In a way I was right, though luckily Delicious, the original social bookmarking site, has survived. Nonetheless it moved on to a different model of sharing links. Other social bookmarking sites or their competitors have created something that has no name but that I’d like to call social saving.
People are saving snippets or whole webpages using tools like Diigo, Evernote or bo.lt to collect, edit and share them. The future is bright for these type of tools in 2012 as webpages, articles or blog posts you want to bookmark vanish faster than you can look.
Curation – Curation is the collection of resources by an editor or a user who acts as an ad-hoc editor. Search engines like Blekko or Rollyo use curation but also third party services that create “Twitter newspapers”. With the relaunch of Delicious as a curation site for compiling small lists (aka stacks of links), the idea has been given another push. Adding +1 votes to search results is another kind of curation.
Social CRM goes prime time – customer relationship management (CRM) and social media converged for a few years now but there was no perfect solution to merge those two. In 2011 Nimble CRM appeared. This tool is so simple to use and flawlessly combines CRM, email and social media sites Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn in one place, so that you can save lots of time and effort when trying to generate leads right on there on social media sites.

Blogging
Quantity vs quality – in 2011 people blogged less often, but when they blogged they wrote long articles. With the new freshness algorithm Google just introduced, the process might get reversed, as now the latest articles are more likely to show up on top in the top 10.
Tumblr – miniblogging is still growing, at least the market leader Tumblr. Why is Tumblr such a success? It’s a bit like Facebook, a bit like blogging and a bit like Twitter, but it combines the best of all of them. You can like or “heart” postings, you can reblog them and you can use a pseudonym like on Twitter. In 2011 many high level bloggers even moved their blogs from WordPress to Tumblr for the sake of simplicity and ease of use. Also, never underestimate the huge Tumblr audience.
Corporate blogging failsbusinesses dump blogging in order to invest in Facebook marketing some statistics suggest. This is like giving up your office and doing business from Starbucks. Despite logic, this seems to be an appealing business model both in real life and online. Why host your own website and practice SEO, networking and advertising to get people to visit it when you can rent a “table” at Facebook. This is quite a short-sighted and risky move but business people tend to follow this trend.
Line breaks – for the sake of readability bloggers use more text-decoration, lists and breaks. Some overdo it though it seems. Not every line needs a break after it, not every post has to be a list and every second word has to be bold.

Web development
No more Flashthere will be no Flash on Android and RIM tablets and smartphones anymore. Thus the original Flash will die finally. Adobe is already working on a HTML5 implementation instead. So Flash will be probably resurrected based on Web Standards.
UX surpasses usability – if you believe Google Insights for search is a reliable statistic, you can see that in 2011 the interest in UX or user experience design has outgrown the dwindling popularity of the keyword usability. Fewer and fewer people are satisfied with usability because it’s too limited. The overall user experience, which includes emotional states of the user in its ideas, is the more important discipline of both.
@​font-face usage - I remember it as if it was yesterday, when I first heard about the @font-face CSS method to embedding web-safe fonts to websites around 2004; I couldn’t wait until web browsers started supporting them. It took almost a decade and half a dozen font replacement techniques to make this CSS3 method work in most modern browsers. Now most browsers support it and we already see an abundance of websites using beautiful and readable typography. In 2012 we will probably see this going mainstream.
HTML5 innovation – when HTML5 came up, the hype was huge but I rarely ever noticed some HTML5 that wowed me. Most websites still seemed to look boring. Yes they were readable, usable, maybe even findable but what about the 21st century design I’d expect in 2011? Well, now the sites that really use HTML5 to create a design beyond a few boxes start appearing in larger numbers.

Analytics
Referral keywords - Google proprietary SSL search kills the Google keyword referrer. You can’t even see it on an SSL site, as Google removes the keyword using a script. Thus people will finally look at conversions not keywords.
Klout – no other metric has been so obsessed about both in a positive and a negative way recently. People love and hate Klout as if it was a nation or a religion. Whether you like Klout or not, it’s the elephant in the room. The social media influence measurement may be flawed at the moment, but it’s still the best there is. Also, Google has similar metrics for authors or might acquire Klout in the near future, maybe even in 2012. What’s safe to say is that in 2012 you won’t just measure websites but also people.
Rankings, traffic – simple SEO metrics such as rankings and traffic die a slow death. The search referrer blocking by Google may be only the last nail in the coffin of simplistic SEO metrics. When you can’t even see what keywords people use and thus can’t segment your search traffic properly, this metrics becomes useless.​
Real time analytics – Google finally caught up with the competition this year, adding real time features to Google Analytics. At least a dozen of other vendors have been offering real time data for a while, and even better than Google Analytics if you ask me.
ROIbusiness people finally seem to overcome the ROI frenzy. ROI is important for both SEO and social media campaigns, but you can’t quantify everything by chasing after Return On Investment. It seems that in 2011 this simple truth has dawned on marketers and analysts all over the place so that we can sit back and watch other metrics in the coming year.

Feel free to add more trends you want to get noticed in the comment section or on social media.
Written By: Tad Chef Source: SEOptimise.com

Monday, March 26, 2012

3 Key Questions & Answers - Small Business Blogging should have Values

small business blogging

Earlier this week Frank J. Kenny did a Skype interview with me about small business blogging and why or why not it makes sense. Frank’s audience is the network of Chambers of Commerce across the U.S..  I think it’s a timely question considering the ongoing “blogging is dead“, “no it’s not“ debate that’s been going on for the past 5 years or so.

As a small business owner myself, I’ve been blogging here at Online Marketing Blog for over 8 years and can testify as to the pros and cons like few others can. In our case, we’ve had great success with our blog as a way to achieve industry awareness and credibility, attract new business, employees, media coverage, speaking opportunities and many other benefits.
In the interview with Frank, he asked 3 key questions about blogging and social media that I wanted to share here since it’s had such a huge impact for both our clients large and small, as well as on our own small business.


Why should small businesses blog?

Blogging is a method of creating and publishing conversational content. Blogs are an easy to use content management system. The value is in the content and ability for companies to leverage the inherent promotion and engagement capabilities of the blog publishing platform. Blogging offers a few key advantages:
  1. Easy to use platform to create sharable, linkable content that addresses specific prospect and customer interests
  2. Serves as a hub to a hub and spoke model of content marketing and promotion
  3. Creates a promotable SEO and Social Media asset – every post is a potential destination for a link and an entry point through search engines.
Through multiple channels of discovery, blog content can reach:
  • Prospects
  • Existing customers
  • Potential employees
  • Marketing partners, investors
  • The media: journalists, bloggers


What is the impact of Google+ on search and how does it affect business blog marketing?

Google+ personalization and it’s impact on search is the hot topic and any company that wants an advantage in Google search results needs to consider Google+ and other social media participation. The behaviors of content creation, sharing and engagement are incredibly rich signals that search engines can use to improve search results quality and search user experience.

The more people that have included your Google+ profile or page in their circles, the more likely content that you’ve created, shared and engaged with will appear in their Google search results while they’re logged in. Google+ optimization should be an essential part of any business blog effort.

At the same time, social media content, whether it’s text, images or video is content that can be crawled and ranked in search results. Social media optimization can improve search visibility of that social content for people that are actively looking for solutions.

When we make optimization recommendations, we go beyond search keywords and have our clients consider social topics as well. Understanding what keywords consumers are searching on as well as the topics they’re discussing on blogs, twitter, and other social networks can inform an editorial plan that does a much better job of attracting new customers because it’s focused on their language and the things they care about. Incidentally, I go deep, deep into this within Optimize.


How much emphasis should small business bloggers place on SEO vs social media?

The consumer journey through the sales funnel is increasingly weaving through a social and search experience. Our model of optimization focuses on how consumers Discover, Consume and Share content so the notion that people will come across a small business solution because of a social connection to a friend that then leads to a search on Google or Bing to get more information is entirely likely and common.

When people use specific words in a search they are segmenting or qualifying themselves to a certain degree because the words they use indicate intent to a particular purpose or outcome. Creating, optimizing and socializing blog content according to those purposes or pain points can be very powerful for any sized business that wants to be found or talked about where relevant customers are looking.
There’s so much more I can say about this (and I will – see my upcoming speaking schedule)

Here’s the video version of the interview:


Despite the success we’ve had with our own business blogging efforts at TopRank Online Marketing, we’re probably only realizing a fraction of the potential benefits from business blogging. If that’s the case, why do so many other companies with significantly greater resources fail at blogging for their business? They quit, lack vision, underestimate resources and timeframe, and fail to understand where blogging can be integrated with achieving multiple business goals.

Hopefully you’ll find the advice above useful to help your business blogging effort. If you have specific biz blogging questions, please ask them in the comments.
Written By: Lee Odden  Source: TopRankBlog.com

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Quality Link Building Needed - Its Necessary to Check for Low Quality Links

junk links

I’m tired of this conversation:

“We’ve been working with an SEO agency for about 6 months now. We ranked quite well for a few weeks, and then the rankings dropped. We don’t know what they do, exactly, but they send us 4 directory links and 2 article submssions a month. Oh, and they do a PR release for us, once a month”
It’s a starting point in a sales discussion I experience all too often. It’s often a precursor to the part of the conversation where we discover the business is being bled dry by a more-than-substandard SEO product that is completely ineffective and alarmingly expensive. No rankings, gone. No traffic. And, still paying! In some cases being told to pay more!

Crapola. Of the weapons grade kind.

Wil got frustrated with Google, specifically how they make liars out of the good guys. We’ve all done our tests, and, in the past, experienced SEO’s would tell you exactly what types of linkbuilding and SEO practices would (and still might) work. That’s fine – if you’re looking to generate a fast buck on a throwaway domain then I have no issues with that – it can be lucrative, fun and a challenging learning curve. Eventually Google will catch you, and you’ll move on. Noone loses.
If you’re that SEO agency, I don’t know how you can feel good about what you do. If you’re an ordinary, everyday on-line business, and that discussion feels weirdly familiar, fire that SEO company.
Stuff like this does not wash:

Neither does this:

Wait, what?!

It seems that Google are beginning a new wave of attacks on spammy linkbuilding practices, and I’m personally pleased to see it. There, I said it.

Detecting bad link-building practices – it’s extremely easy

Tom Anthony wrote a long post on detecting bad link activity with SEOmoz’s metrics. That’s a reasonable methodology to profile back links according to SEOmoz metrics, but if you really need to weed out the bad stuff, I recommend getting back to the old school and adding Domain PageRank to the mix. Niel’s SEO Tools have a =GooglePageRank function, which works really nicely for backlink weeding:

Which can lead to this with a simple pivot table:

Here’s what I did to make that table (excuse the voice over, I have a *slight* cold):

Please, think about where your links are coming from

Anyway – rant over, I suppose. Bad link building makes our whole industry look bad. Don’t help perpetuate it by casually brushing your due diligence aside. You’ll end up paying to reverse the damage being caused in the long run.
Written By: Richard Baxter Source: SEOGadget.co.uk

How Google Panda has Turned Our SEO Strategies

Google Panda has made life hard for a large number of SEO specialists and websites and so they are now looking forward to solutions in order to fight against the Google Panda algorithm. Actually, the main idea is about countering the strategies of Google Panda. In all, the primary focus of Google is to push the websites which the average user enjoys visiting higher in rankings. At the same time, it wants to push the unnecessary and boring websites to the low rankings.


What should you do?
The main objective of the search engine giant is to offer the users better quality and top page results. Indeed, Google quoted once that its objective is to low rank sites that are of bad quality and so ensure that the good sites get the change to be at top of the search engine results.
Earlier the webmasters needed to focus on getting the sites indexed in any way. This in turn meant that higher is the number of pages which are being indexed, more keywords will thus remain in the Google Index for the particular site. And so, this would then facilitate traffic which the site earned to it. But, now there has been considerable change in the manner the search engine indexes different pages and has thus put pressure on webmasters because they need to work hard and make the sites get observed in top search engine results. Link Wheel Service is one of the Seo Strategy which still works like charm so you can use it for boost in your SERPs.

Times have changed now
It can thus be said that Google Panda has changed the strategies that we earlier used for SEO. Now, you need to optimize the site in a way that it takes less loading time. Never give the chance to users to go away from your site even for a second. Ensure that you put sufficient efforts as well as time to structure your site, optimize the images, videos that take much time to get uploaded. Google indeed prefers the sites that are efficient and fast.

Points to keep in mind
Also, now, you need to focus on good quality content if you really wish to fight against the Google Panda algorithm. Ensure that your content is both original and useful and is written by the ones who actually know the topic and have interest in it.
After the Google Panda, now you even have to measure your site carefully and thus modify it for the better. Surely, you will have to modify the site if you wish to fight against Panda. It is crucial that you measure overall performance of the site first and analyze it in perfect way. Ensure that you even make changes in site accordingly and make it come in line with requirements and guidelines of Google Panda.

Give preference to users
While you optimize the site, ensure that you do it for the users first and then for search engines. So, let the users come first and focus later on the search engine as this is where you will be able to match the thinking of Google. The design needs to be compelling and impactful. Even the navigational structure needs to be user friendly and easy to use.
When you keep these points in mind, you will see that you site will enjoy amazing results even after the Google Panda effect.

Summary:
Google Panda has changed a lot of SEO strategies that were used earlier for one’s benefit. Now you need to keep in mind some important points to beat the Panda and have your site at top.
Written By: Ankit Pandey Source: Skotgat.com

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Top 10 SEO Key Points for Small Business Owners


Small business owners who have just begun their SEO campaign will find that there is no end to the depth and complexity inherent in search engine optimization. Many companies try to take a do-it-yourself mentality to SEO implementation that ends with them sloppily stringing together popular search terms or stuffing keywords on contextually irrelevant web pages. Some businesses implement SEO so poorly that, in some instances, Google may disregard their website as a spam site. The result is a significantly low ranking that will make the business show up in only the most specific term searches.

Starting or running a start up company presents many challenges for entrepreneurs no matter what the service or product.  The last thing CEO’s may consider is their Internet marketing strategies or Brand management.  In addition, most likely that is not their area of expertise nor do they have the time to implement the tasks required to gain the valuable exposure required.

Improperly-handled SEO campaigns are increasingly common these days, but it is not a fate that need befall all small businesses. It is always recommended that a company turns to a top SEO agency when approaching any search engine optimization project. Once a marketing firm has been selected, then the business will be able to run a successful SEO campaign. However, it’s important to bear in mind that there are several key points that should always be kept in mind when approaching SEO.

1) Identify your Intended Audience

The first step in any SEO campaign should always be determining who the intended audience of your good or service is. While it’s easy to simply focus on your business as the driving force behind your SEO operations, it always helps to be a more specific in your approach. By selecting a certain product as the core keyword of your campaign, you will be able to attract more traffic than otherwise.

2) Expand your Keyword Focus

Although your focused keyword may not have a hundred and one uses, you should always try to be as forward thinking as possible when considering other optional keywords. Sometimes the search term that Google looks for may not be the same one that you would have typed when looking for it yourself. You should always do research to find other ways that web surfers may try to look up your product or service.

3) Refine your Website’s Page-to-Page Connectivity

A well-designed website is one that funnels users from page to page effortlessly. By interlinking your site so that relevant pages connect to one another, you’ll find that even the less visited branches of your website will see more traffic. As a result, you can expect your website to have better domain authority and, as a result, a higher place among the search engine rankings.

4) Keep your Keywords Dynamic

Even if a particular keyword has generated a lot of traffic during the course of your SEO campaign, don’t let that prevent you from cycling your keyword focus. Search trends change as much as social ones do, so there’s never a guarantee that one term will consistently prove fruitful. Always be on the lookout for other applicable keywords that may bring traffic to your website.

5) Establish your Business on Social Media

Social media work has become an increasingly popular way to generate long term website traffic. These days, many SEO agencies focus a lot of their attention on establishing a follower base for their clients. As the number of people following your company continues to increase, so too will the potential customers that may frequent your business’ site. No matter how big or small your organization may be, you can never have enough Facebook or Google+ followers.

6) Go Where the Competition Isn’t

While it is important that your company builds a significant social presence on the more popular networks, it’s always a smart move to look for alternative sites on which to make your business known. As anyone in the SEO community can tell you, there are several up-and-coming social networks that have yet to be capitalized on. In addition to establishing yourself on Facebook or Twitter, consider also extending your social media campaign to sites like Pinterest as they become available.

7) Constantly Create Original Content

Increasing your company’s web traffic and domain authority is only the first step in your SEO campaign. While some SEO agencies may focus entirely on getting potential customers to your site, giving users a reason to stay on your website is going to be vitally important. Original content, such as a weekly blog or community activities, can go a long way towards capturing an audience and convincing them to continue interacting with your site until a sale is made.

8) Consider Pay-Per-Click as a Way to Create Site Traffic

While the service that PPC companies provide may not be as attractive as the long term solutions of most SEO practices, that doesn’t mean they aren’t useful. PPC advertisements have been a decent way to drive site traffic volume for over a decade. Should you feel your monthly analytics aren’t showing the numbers you want to see, consider supplementing them with PPC work.

9) Patience is Key

Even when employing the most methodical and well-run SEO or social media campaign, one has to keep expectations manageable. Yes, search engine optimization and other SEO practices can lead to dramatically improved site traffic and search engine rankings, but they do take time. After having built up momentum and established your company as a significant online presence, your website’s analytics will rise sharply. However, getting there may sometimes take a month or two. One should always keep this in mind throughout the duration of the campaign.

10) Always Stay in Contact with your SEO Firm

By keeping a close working relationship with your SEO agency, you and your business will be able to reap a number of benefits. Aside from having a greater degree of control over the details of your campaign, you will also be briefed on any setbacks or major developments as they occur. As a result, your optimization and social media work will go without a hitch, and you’ll be able to fine tune the particulars  of the campaign as you see fit.
Written By: Todd Bailey SourceSearchEngineJournal.com

Monday, March 19, 2012

Best SEO Link Building Practices You Really Want

Link building is the practice of having other websites direct traffic to your site. Good quality links help you get the right type of traffic and help you get good rankings on search engines. Link building is not something you do short-term. It takes quite a bit of time not only to research how and where to get good quality links but also takes constant attention and something that needs to be done consistently.

So where do you start and get good quality links from?

Business Contacts and Customers
Just finished a project for a client? Ask them to link their website to yours with their recommendation. This will get traffic to your site that are most likely to be a potential customer too.

Guest Posts and Content
Offer to write content on other people’s blogs that are related in the same industry you’re in. This is a great way to get great links and network at the same time.

High Quality Resource Links
These would be things like having a link in Better Business Bureau directory sites. Or even get some visibility in Wikipedia.

News Media & Blogs
Get on with the press. Have someone write an article about you on their blog and introduce your business.

Relevant Social Industry & App Account Links
If you contribute to someone in your related social sphere, have them link your website to their site.

Social Media Link Acquisition and Content Marketing
One of my favorites. Engaging and building relationships in social media is a sure way to get people to like you and your content. If they like you, they’ll visit your site. If you’re content is compelling, they’ll comment on it.

Hope you found some of these link building suggestions helpful. Good luck
By: Jocelyn Wilhelm Source: JWSocialMedia.com

Content Strategy for SEO and Social Media: Tips to Ensure Success

An effective SEO strategy involves much more than content strategy. However, the content strategy takes the center place of the overall SEO strategy and makes up the major factor of SEO success. In this article, you will find important tips to maximize the effectiveness of your content and to ensure the SEO success in return.

Realizing the Importance of Benchmarking

Before building your content strategy, you should be aware of what is happening in your niche especially on your competitors’ websites. You should not only follow their rankings but also know where they position themselves in the market. The benchmarking strategy is important to be relevant to your customers’ needs and expectations. Also, it allows you to assess the results of your marketing strategies including the content strategy.

Understanding the 5 W’s of the Content Strategy

Creating unique and fresh content based on a keyword strategy is a must have aspect of a successful content strategy. But before going that far, you should base your gatherings from benchmarking studies on the 5 W’s strategy. The 5 W’s strategy involves the questions of “why”, “who”, “what”, “when and how” and “where”. More clearly, you should find the best answers of why do you want to create content, who is your content for, what are you trying to achieve with your content, when and how are you going to create the content and where will your content be posted. The answers to these questions are extremely important to refine and build a successful content strategy.

Following Search Trends

A successful content strategy for SEO purposes requires you to follow the search trends to find current search terms relevant to your content. You can achieve this by using Google alerts, Google AdWords Keyword Tool or some social media monitoring tools. By using this strategy, you can create new content with current search terms and also update your existing content according to current search trends. Your efforts of updating your content will surely be rewarded by Google and other search engines and will help increase your search rankings.

Creating Keyword Focused Pages

It is imperative to focus on one keyword for each main page to get the best SEO results. For the best practices of keyword focused pages, you should divide up your content on the main product or service pages to cover a specific topic. For example, if you are selling discount kitchen cabinets online, you can divide your content up into custom kitchen cabinets, contemporary kitchen cabinets, wood kitchen cabinets, wall kitchen cabinets, base kitchen cabinets, etc. You should be as specific as you can in order to focus on more keywords which will increase the chance that your customers find what they are looking for.
Another important strategy is to use the keywords properly and in the right places. In fact, you should use the main keyword in your title, first 50 words of your article, last sentences and H1 tag. These are the most essential places, but you can surely use your keyword in other places too as long as you do it naturally and without overdoing it.

Using LSI (Latent Semantic Index) Keywords

While it is extremely important to focus on your main keyword during your content creation, using LSI keywords in your content shouldn’t be skipped either. This is a powerful strategy and can boost your page rank right away.
LSI keywords help search engines associate your main keyword with the actual topic your content is about. For example, if your keyword is “dinner plates”, you wouldn’t want search engines to relate your content to unrelated terms such as “license plates” or “collector plates”. With the LSI technology, search engines look at your content and try to find other terms to associate your main keyword with the appropriate topic of your content. Therefore, if you have food related terms in your content such as knives, steaks, recipes, etc., then the search engines will index your content for the term “dinner plates".

The important tip in this matter is to use your main keyword 1 to 4% of the time while using LSI keywords 1 to 2% of the time. Another tip is to use Google Keyword Tool to find LSI keywords. You should search for terms that are relevant to your main keyword. When you have a list of terms, sort them by their relevancy to your main keyword and choose the most relevant ones as your LSI keywords.

Creating Engaging and Likable Content

The readability of your content may not be assessed by the search engines but this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pay attention to it for SEO purposes. Search engines measure visitors’ behaviors during their visits to websites. If you have unique, relevant and smooth flowing content, your visitors will spend more time on your pages and may possibly want to visit other pages linked to the page they have enjoyed reading. Even if your content is a technical or fact based topic, you should make your content engaging and likable to your readers.

Adding and Updating Content Continuously

There are great benefits to adding new and updating existing content. Top search engines including Google, Yahoo and Bing like fresh content. By adding new and updating existing content, you show search engines that you care about your readers. To achieve favorable SEO results, you should update at least a few times a week. Some of the effective ways of updating your content includes adding fresh blog posts and using Twitter syndication and Facebook integration. You can also update the existing content manually with current information.
Speaking of adding new and updating existing content continuously, you can use an editorial calendar for your updates or new content. More clearly, you can target new keywords related to specific events or certain times relevant to your product or service. For example, an outdoor gear seller can benefit from adding new or updating existing content just before winter regarding snowshoe models and prices.

Creating Successful Calls to Action

Many people would agree that having successful calls to action in your content is extremely important to achieve business objectives. However, some of those people overlook its importance for SEO purposes. Successful calls to action improve positive user experience and increase your customer base. All these help you reach your SEO objectives in return.
For successful calls to action, tell your visitors what action to take and direct them to the link they should click. Also, your calls to action should be simple, offer benefits and have a positive approach.
Building Internal and External Linking Structures
For the best SEO results, you should build internal and external linking structures as part of your content strategy. Your pages should have quality links from relevant sources to your homepage and also deep links to the other relevant pages. These links help search engines determine the relevance of your content and the rankings of your pages. On the other hand, internal linking emphasizes the important pages and help search engines determine what your website is about.
The important tip here is to use proper anchor texts for your links. In your anchor texts, you should use relevant keywords to the page you are linking to and avoid using invaluable terms like “click here” or “read more”.
To sum up, to ensure SEO success, you should have a carefully planned and well applied content strategy. Your strategy should include using benchmarking, answering 5 W’s, updating your content with current search terms, creating keyword focused pages, using LSI keywords, creating engaging and likable content, adding new and updating existing content continuously, creating successful calls to action and building internal and external.
ByAnthony Saladino Source: NoobPreneur.com


Friday, March 9, 2012

50 Social Media Marketing Tips You Must Follow


Social media marketing has at  its core the foundation of valuable, shareable content in all the various forms of rich media whether that be text, video or images.


social media networks

People watch YouTube videos because they are entertaining, educational or just plain funny. Viewers turn up to your Slideshare account and take the time to view a presentation because the content is compelling. LinkedIn works well for personal branding because you are providing answers to your peers to questions in the Q&A section and providing updates that answers problems, informs and educates.
Twitter teases you to click on links that are engaging blog posts or news that is topical and timely. The knowledge economy is all about the content. Facebook is where your audience is online so content needs to be posted and updated to the social giants ecosystem.
So here are 50 synergistic social media marketing tips and tactics to market your content and ideas and help them to spread to a global audience. Apply some of these tips and you maybe surprised in the journey that unfolds as you and your company are discovered and shared and your goods and services are purchased
because you were ‘found’.

The secret sauce behind these tips is to allow you to create a ‘social media synergy’ that totals a sum far greater than the individual parts. This approach is to guide you to go beyond being just ‘Facebook Centric’ and provide substance, endurance and longevity to your on-line presence and digital assets. These tips are also about assisting you in optimizing and integrating the multiple social media platforms listed below
Some of these tips are basic for some but this is a checklist that may assist you in synergizing your online presence and bring traffic and viewers to your global digital properties.

50 Social Media Marketing Tips and Tactics

Blog

  1. Produce inspiring, educational and awesome content that is so compelling that people want to share it, this is the foundation of your marketing. All media is about good content and social media is no different
  2. Write regularly and consistently, people will then come and visit regularly and keep coming back because they know it will be new and topical (that is why magazines have regular publishing time frames)
  3. Learn to write a headlines that make people want to read the rest of your article
  4. Use ‘list’ posts (eg 50 Fascinating Facebook Facts and Figures) regularly. They may be a bit passe for some, but they work and tend to get passed around online
  5. Place a Retweet button on your blog at the top of the posts (WordPress plugins make this really easy to do)
  6. Place a Facebook share  button at the top of all posts
  7. Include a Facebook ‘like box’ near the top right side of the blog so people can ‘like’ your Facebook page even while they are on your blog
  8. Place a LinkedIn share button on your blog (LinkedIn has over 100 million users and they are typically high earners and influential)
  9. Comment regularly on other bloggers in your niche
  10. As you grow your traffic and followers, highlight this on your blog and demonstrate some ‘social proof’. This could even include the number of Twitter followers you have or awards you have won or your website grade or even your Twitter grade
  11. Make it easy for people to subscribe via email (email marketing may be perceived as old school but it works big time!)
  12. Offer to guest post on a another influential bloggers blogs and provide a link back to your blog as part of the agreement
  13. Provide subscribe buttons so people can follow you on your other web properties (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc)
  14. Provide a subscription button via RSS so people can have your posts pushed to them in their  ’Google Reader’ account after they are published
More reading

Facebook

  1. Update your Facebook ‘Page’ with your blog posts straight after publishing
  2. Provide content and links on your Facebook page that will make them want to share and like your updates
  3. Include Twitter in your menu (This is available as a standard setting on your Facebook fan page)
  4. Run polls using the standard Facebook ‘Question’ feature (above the ‘Write something’ box) to engage your audience and involve them
  5. Link to your Facebook page in your email newsletter
  6. Run a competition on Facebook
  7. Use a reveal tab that is set up as your landing page that provides access to unique content, this could be a video a content or even a voucher
  8. Respond to all comments on your Facebook page in a timely fashion
More reading

Twitter

  1. Acquire  Twitter followers – quantity is important
  2. Engage and develop Twitter followers within your niche using Tweepi (Tweepi.com makes it easy to follow followers of influential bloggers on Twitter) or Twellow.com (Twellow provides a tool that enables you to find powerful Twitter follower lists in your niche) – this is the quality part of the Twitter equation
  3. Share the content of  influential Twitter people and let them know by including their Twitter name eg @Jeffbullas
  4. Automate the tweeting of other bloggers content that you trust and add value to your followers with other peoples articles and content
  5. Tweet regularly and consistently the posts of other influential bloggers in your topic category
  6. Automate the retweeting of your great content so it is not forgotten and buried in the archives (SocialOomph professional can be setup to do this)
  7. When tweeting your posts include # tags that deliver the Tweet to # groups/lists eg #SocialMedia
More reading

YouTube

  1. Interview influential people in your topic category on video and post them to YouTube
  2. Include your website/blog link in your profile
  3. Automate sharing after posting (available under ‘Account settings” then ‘Activity Sharing’ , then choose the social accounts and as a minimum select Facebook and Twitter (Reader, Orkut and MySpace are also able to be enabled)
  4. Write a headline that is ‘keyword’ rich for your industry and niche
  5. Write a tempting and teasing headline that makes the potential viewer want to ‘hit’ the play button
  6. Place a link to your blog at the beginning of each description for each video and make sure you write a description that includes keywords and inviting description
  7. Include keyword tags for each video
More reading

LinkedIn

  1. Use all three website or links that LinkedIn allows in your profile (these can point to your website, blog and Facebook)
  2. Make your LinkedIn profile ‘Public’ in your settings
  3. Pose questions in the Q&A section of LinkedIn with links to your possible answer as a post link
  4. Setup a LinkedIn profile for your blog (not just your personal profile)
  5. Integrate your Slideshare into your LinkedIn account using the ‘Add an Application’ button at the bottom right of your home page
  6. Integrate your Blog post feed into your LinkedIn account using the ‘Add an Application’ button at the bottom right of your home page
  7. Add your Twitter feed into your LinkedIn account using the ‘Add an Application’

Slideshare

  1. Turn your posts into PowerPoint presentations and post them to Slideshare
  2. Write a good headline both on the presentation itself and the Title area
  3. Include keyword tags that would be used to find the presentation
  4. Promote your presentations on Twitter
  5. Allow viewers to download your presentation to assist in making it easy for people to share
  6. Post them to your Facebook page
  7. In choose a license make it  CC (Creative Commons) License so people can use your content and then attribute and link to your blog
What other social media marketing tips and tactics have I left out.
By: Source: JeffBullas.com

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Forum Posting is Still Effective

When i started my blogging career i spend a lot of time in forums, just to build a few links for my blogs. In forums i read different threads about forum posting, every one was saying that forum posting is not helpful for link building. I was still busy in building links through forum posting. Now i am happy that thanks god i did not stopped forum posting, because i got benefits.
I notice 3 three things in my blogs success just because of forum posting.

1. Traffic

As a blogger you will always need traffic for your blog. Traffic is blood for a blog and every webmaster works day and night just to drive traffic to there blogs and websites. The positive thing about forum posting is, that the more threads you post, the more comments you post, the more traffic you get from your contribution. That is what i did and got daily regular visitors from forums.

2. Click Through Rate

As every blogger want to earn money from there blogs using different Pay Per Click programs. One of the popular among all PPC programs is Google Adsense. Being a active member of some popular forums i notice increase in Click ThroughRate for my Adsense Ads.

3. Ranking

For one of my blog, for which i was trying to get high ranking on search engine. I achieved  my aim, by just posting valuable information in forums. Where i got links in signatures for my blog. So if some one is saying you that forum posting has no value, then he is 80% wrong.
Why 80%
Because if one is going to spam a blog, and just need backlinks from forums then forums are not going to help. The only way to get benefits from forums is to add quality in the existing discussions, Starting your own threads to share useful information and Respecting senior members of the forum.
Forum posting can help you in getting high rank position for average keywords. If you are a newbie then it is recommended that join popular forums and post valuable information along with links in signature. Dofollow Forums
For me forum posting is very effective, if you are thinking that forum posting is just a waste of time. Then share your thoughts here through comments, so that our readers can know that why forum posting is not effective.

3 Tips For Effective Forum Posting Are:


Forum Posting is a very useful technique to get free backlinks and relevant traffic. Especially if you are in affiliate business, then forum posting is very important for you. Every hit on your affiliate link has the chance to convert into sale. Forums has huge amount of visitors, thus if you will provide some quality then you will get a lot of free traffic to your blog or website.
1. Signature Links
Don’t put too much links in your signature, add only two links in order to get more hits on the links. Whether it is affiliate link or your blog link, allow your readers to easily chose and click on the links. If there will be more then 5 links in your signature, then there will be confusion for the visitor. So try to add only Two Links and Provide all the details about the link, so that visiter can easily understand the nature of the blog, affiliate or website link.
2. Informative Threads
The second tip to get hits on your blog or website link is to write a quality thread in your field. The more quality you provides the more hits you will get for links in your signature. No one will click on the link in your signature, if you just write a simple sentence, e.g Hello I want to know about off page optimization?
Instead of the above sentence if you will write “Off Page optimization is one of the most important factor in Search Engine Optimization. You must get links for your blog if you want to……..etc….”
Now more people will respect you and more people will click on the links in your signature. They will want to learn more knowledge from you, so provide unique and useful information in your threads.
3. Response to Threads
This is another useful technique to get hits on your signature links. For example if some one has wrote a thread about “Search Engine Optimization” and he missed some information, then its is chance for your to provide more detail information about SEO. In this way your comment will get more attention among the other response.
Follow these steps and start posting in forums for getting quality traffic and backlinks. Previously i wrote some useful posts about getting backlinks, don’t forget to reade these posts.
There is no need to search on the web for the list of high page rank forums. I have collected 700 dofollow forums for you guys. Just create a free account in all these forums and start posting, but keep in mind the above 3 tips. In this way yourforum posting will be effective and will give you a lot of benefits.
Source: TechMaish.com