SEO Basics Revisited: Off-Page Optimization

This article comes as a follow up to our previous post ‘SEO Basics Revisited: On-Page Optimization‘. Now that you are familiar with the basics of on-page optimization, let’s move on to the next step – Off-Page Optimization. This too isn’t as complicated or as difficult as you would imagine. Off-page optimization is nothing but a number of strategies that you can implement off your web page to improve your search engine ranking and increase targeted traffic to your web site.

Here’s is a simple explanation for all the newbies: Let’s say you build a great product and invest all your time and effort into making it the best. However, you do not spread the word about this great product and no one knows about it! What’s the use? So, just as you need to let others know about your product and get recommendations from them, you need to do off-page optimization for your site as well.

Off-page factors should be carefully planned and implemented to achieve a higher search engine ranking. Many people think that off-page optimization is just link building and go about it in a random and unplanned manner. However, this is not going to bring much benefit to their site. They’re just going to waste a lot of time and efforts and not get any results. They need to consider several aspects before starting off-page optimization for their site. Given below is all the information you will need to know about off-page optimization.
I. Factors to Consider Before Building Links

It’s not enough to get just any websites to link to you, the quality of inbound links is also very important. You may get 100 links but may not see any difference in your results if you don’t consider the following points:

1. Inbound Links from Authority Sites
Authority sites are popular sites that people frequent, get linked to on the basis of their merit, or are referred by many when they need to check up on the subject. Getting links from known websites is priceless while doing off-page optimization for your website. It’s like a certificate from an authoritative figure who has acknowledged the quality of your page. For example, if your site is about current events or news, and CNN.com links to you, consider it as the best bonus ever!
Tip: Make your website as professional and informative as possible. If you give reliable and valuable information, it will instantly impress people. This will also increase the chances of getting linked by other such authority sites.

2. Anchor Text of Inbound Link
Anchor text is the actual word or phrase of your link. It is important to have anchor text targeting your keywords because the search engines will notice this as a relevant link for your site. As you start getting more and more links with your targeted anchor text, your rankings for those terms will start to improve.
For example, if your site was about selling or renting houses then you should use your keywords in the titles: such as ‘Houses for sale’, ‘Houses for rent’, ‘Homes for sale’, ‘Homes for rent’, ‘Buy a house’, ‘Rent a house’ etc.
The most common anchor text is ‘Click Here’. Sometimes, it is not possible to choose the anchor text for your links from other pages, but for those sites where you can, you need to get it right. Some places where you can enter your own anchor text are online web directories and social bookmarking sites. However, for those sites which do not, you could try sending a request asking if the anchor text can be modified to make it more relevant for your site. You’ll be surprised to see many of them would make the necessary changes.
Tip: Try to include your keywords in your anchor text. Decide what keywords you want to rank for and include them in your anchor text. However, be careful because your anchor text should not read like a string of keywords, it should make sense as well.

3. PageRank of Incoming Links
Google Page Rank is a tool developed by Google to determine the importance of a website or a webpage based on clearly defined set of algorithms. It is ranked on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest. Whenever you link out to another website, you pass on some of your page rank value. Similarly, if you get a link form a high PR page, your site will also benefit from a fraction of the PR value of that page.
PageRank is based on incoming links, but not just on the number of them – relevance and quality are also important (in terms of the PageRank of sites, which link to a given site). However, not all links weigh the same when it comes to PR. If you had a web page with a PR8 and had 1 link on it, the site linked to would get a fair amount of PR value. But, if you had 100 links on that page, each individual link would only get a fraction of the value.
Tip: While links from high PR sites may be beneficial to your PR, do not restrict your off-page link building activities just on the basis of PR.

4. Placement of Link in Web Page
The position of your link from another website says a lot about it to search engines. Links can be placed in the footer, header, sidebar or inside the content. With so many people selling links in their sidebar or footer, search engines might possibly give these links slightly lesser value. The ones placed as a part of the content (contextual links) could be considered more valuable than the sidebar or footer links. There is a growing amount of importance of placing links on a page in a natural manner.
Tip: Try to get links from a page which does not have too many other links. The page you are getting a link from should not be one which makes it obvious that they sell links.

5. Get Links from Relevant/Related Sites
It doesn’t make much sense when an astrology site links to a website that deals with cars. The topics are niche and completely irrelevant to each other! The audience you are looking at can’t be any more different (unless you want to ask the psychic if the car’s registration number will bring you luck!) This type of linking is not only worthless but if you have exchanged links to get that link, you’re also putting your page at risk. The search engines will smell something fishy and suspect a link trade because the sites aren’t related in any way. So, always try to get links from websites that are related to your topic.
Tip: As mentioned above get the majority of links from sites that have similar topics. Even if you are getting it from general sites like online directories or social bookmarking sites, your link should be placed under the correct category.
II. Link Building Techniques – Direct and Indirect

There are many ways to get inbound links. A few links to your site from reputed, high quality, authority sites are much more valuable to a search engine than hundreds of low quality links. I’d advise you to not to participate in an automated link exchange program as you’ll be automatically exchanging links with all sorts of low quality and unrelated sites. Here are some tips for direct link building:

1. Directory Submission
Even those who are new to search engine optimization know that a directory submission is one of the easiest ways to build links. Directory submission involves submitting details of your website including titles and descriptions about your product/service to online directories. This helps to get links with relevant anchor texts placed under relevant categories. There are many free and paid directories available online. All you have to do is submit your link and add details about it. You will get links form relevant categories in these directories.
Tip: Try avoiding automated submissions or submission softwares as most directories have a ‘Captcha’ code which can be verified only by a human being.

2. Article Submission

Article submission involves writing articles related to the theme of your site and submitting to article directories. By doing this, you will get permanent one-way links from these directories. In addition to that, your article will be put under the most relevant category as well. Now only will you be getting a link, you will also be reaching out to more people. Visitors of that article site will get to know about your site and may even link to you if they think you are an authority figure and like your site.
Tip: Try to keep to original articles you write yourself, the search engines can find out if the article is copied from somewhere! You’ll want to stay away from software programs designed to produce articles one after the other with little difference.

3. Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking lets you store, organize and manage your sites of interest on a public bookmarking site, instead of on your computer. As long as you’re logged on to the Internet, you can access and share these bookmarks from anywhere in the world. Once you bookmark with social bookmarking sites and people find your content exciting, they will save it and share it with others. Your bookmark moves to the front pages of the category or site and you’ll soon see the increase in traffic.

While some social bookmarking sites may not give you search engine friendly links, the traffic and visibility you get from these sites could result in other sites linking to you.

Tip: Participate in your social bookmarking community’s activities by posting your comments and giving suggestions. This will increase your social bookmarking credibility and help make you visible in the social bookmarking community you participate in.

4. Forum Posting
Forum posting means visiting online forums that have topics related to your site and participating in the discussions. People usually visit forums to hold discussions with other like-minded people. Forums give you an opportunity to build relationships and build your credibility but if you start promoting your link too much and contribute little, you’ll be considered a spammer and you might be at risk of getting banned from the forum.
Tip: When you post a comment, include your link in your signature.

5. Guest Posting in Other Blogs
Guest posting in blogs is one of the best ways to build your brand and site popularity. You get a much wider audience and get links from really powerful sites. It is also a great way to build contacts in your industry. The traffic and exposure you receive is great compared to what you can usually generate from a new site. You can get backlinks, get new readers, get offers from other blogs and increase your traffic with this.
Tip: Study the blog you want to write an article for and see what kind of articles have been successful there. Write on topics similar to the ones that have been appreciated. If you do not do your research properly, you might end up writing on topics that are of no interest to their readers… you might just end up wasting your time.

6. Press Releases
Some people think submitting press releases is a boring old way of trying to optimize your site. However, if the release is written well, the search engine optimized press release can prove to be one of the most effective ways to deliver news of events taking place within your company or industry. Press Releases are also picked up by Google faster. Usually you’ll find press releases on top of the search engines faster than the usual articles.
Tip: Don’t use complicated jargons, but simple language that people can connect with and search engines will decipher easily.

7. Social Networking Sites
An active Social Networking campaign such as using platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin can serve you well in driving traffic. Sometimes, the links are ‘No follow’ but the exposure and interaction you gain with potential customers is extremely valuable. If they like what you are discussing and find your information or products interesting they can help spread your word for you. As of now, FIFA’s profile on Twitter has over 178,555 followers. Even the Facebook fan page for popular potato chip brand Pringles stands out mostly for its great use of video.
Tip: Social media marketing is all about subtlety. Try not to market yourself so much that it turns people off. Give lots of information and inject your product or service details into it.

So that’s that! These are just some of the basics under off-page optimization and link building. If you have something to add or would like to disagree with some of the points, leave your comments in the form below!

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Matt Cutts’ 8 Super-Effective Tips On Link Building

Posted on July 23, 2010
Filed Under General, Link Building, Off-Page Optimization, Search Engine Optimization | 5 Comments
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Let’s admit, organic link building can get frustrating and time consuming. We’ve all been through that phase where we try to build inbound links, turning impatient while we wait for the results. Well… we continue because we know it’ll pay off, and how! Organic links are often the result of having good, relevant and accurate content. Matt Cutts You get an organic link when your information is considered useful and relevant, not when you have paid for it or participated in a link exchange.

Google’s most visible anti-spam engineer, Matt Cutts, has been releasing a series of short Webmaster Help videos in which he answers queries about search engine optimization and shares information that helps enhance traffic to your site. In this video, he offers a peek into some of the most effective ways of building organic links. If you want, you may choose to skip the video as the points have been summarized below:

1. Controversy

It’s a fact – “When you complain, people listen”. Matt admits it’s not his favorite technique, but creating controversy does cook up a storm. This is one of the easiest link baits as it grabs eyeballs. Matt adds that many people choose a company or known person and find faults or pick on them and exaggerate the situation.

For example, E! Online is known for celebrity bashing and gossip which can make or break careers. The controversy2site has handled controversial issues like Lindsay Lohan’s hearing and Britney Spears’ fashion disasters. However, you might want to be careful about overdoing it and offer some other useful information as well from time to time. In Matt Cutts’ opinion people could get tired of just reading about controversies after a point. Remember that you want to encourage traffic, not kill it.

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Top 10 SEO Myths of All Time

Posted on June 25, 2010
Filed Under General, Search Engine Optimization | Leave a Comment
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Every time a new product or service is born, along with it are born hundreds of myths, which no matter what, just refuse to disappear, despite several attempts at demystifying them. The search engine optimization industry is no different! Each one of us has come across NT5288558at least a hundred myths or Do Not Do’s & even more of these ‘Top 10 SEO tips’ aimed at clarifying these myths, which we’ve followed religiously. Right from updating our site, to building links the “preferred way”, to practically each point in these guides, but yet, our site’s name doesn’t seem to find the glory of bracing the top positions in the search results. What’s worse is that we’ve spent several thousands in doing all of this! Some of these tips may have once worked well, but now belong to the past.

Here, I have listed out a few of these myths that, shockingly, people still seem to believe:

1. SEO is a One-Time Activity

Yeah… I wish it were that simple too! Staying on top in the search engines is a constant struggle. Search engine optimization is not a one-time fix, but an ongoing process and it involves a lot of work which needs to be followed up on. Google and other search engines consider hundreds of factors before indexing your site, and the formula they use, or ‘Algorithm’ as it’s called, is constantly updated. So, you need to work on on-page and off-page strategies regularly to get ranked well. Many people think that building links one time will get them to the top of the search engine results. This may boost your site ranking initially, but if you leave it at that, do not bother to further optimize your site and continue building links, it will definitely start descending in the search engine rankings.

2. SEO is All About Building Links

Big mistake! There’s a lot more to SEO than link building. While link building is an essential part of SEO, you should not forget about other activities involved: optimizing current and new pages, continually adding content, optimizing internal link structures, engaging in indirect link building techniques like link bait, etc.

3. Higher PageRank = Better Search Engine Ranking
Google PRDoesn’t work that way! The PageRank value is just one of the factors Google considers when ranking sites, it’s not the only factor! Another point to note is that the PR value shown on your toolbars is not the real-time value used by Google, those values are not revealed. Please don’t confuse PageRank with search engine rankings, they are two entirely different aspects of judging a site and shouldn’t be confused with one another.

4. You Should Submit Your URLs to Search Engines
There are many who will assure you that submitting your URL to search engines is one of the first steps to getting ranked. This will do you no good. Your site will get indexed anyway if it has incoming links. You need to build more incoming links to work your way up in your rankings. Submitting your URL doesn’t do anything for ranking pages. There are some who advise resubmitting links often as well, which is again a futile exercise. Instead, you can put that same effort in to other SEO activities which will prove much more productive.

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SEO Basics Revisited: On-page Optimization

Posted on May 20, 2010
Filed Under Content, General, On-page Optimization, Search Engine Optimization | 1 Comment
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It takes more than just good content to get your website ranked well by search engines. Your site has probably not ranked well enough till now only because your site was not very “understandable” to the search engines. Let’s say there has been a communication gap in between the two. However, it is not an irreversible state… this is a very common problem and can easily be corrected with some ‘On-page Optimization’.

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How To Revive a Dead Site

Posted on April 12, 2010
Filed Under Directory Submission, General, Link Building, Search Engine Optimization, Social Bookmarking, Social Media Marketing | Leave a Comment
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Dead sites, dying sites or sites languishing in various stages of inactivity can give even the most seasoned webmasters nightmares. Quite honestly, inactivity (or any other signs of morbidity) is a term I hope to never utter in conjunction with my site. However, I realize if I am not careful, I can get complacent and let it creep upon me, or my site to be precise. Thankfully, there are ways to prevent such unwelcome and ill-fated eventualities, and help a site live a full and healthy (read, active) life.

Because I know that there are many out there, living in constant fear of their site dying on them, in dire need of some site-revival intervention, I shall list 9 ways that will surely help breathe new life into a site.

1. Don’t Take A Break From Building Content: Imagine that you are a restaurateur… will you ever consider serving your customers stale leftovers? Of course, you won’t! Setting up a website is just another way of serving your customers, by providing them the freshest and most relevant information. If you fail to do that, you won’t ever have any repeat customers (or visitors). This customer satisfaction angle aside, not updating your site can negatively affect your search engine rankings too. So, if you wish to see your site thriving with a steady stream of traffic, and stay high up on the SERPs, it is important that you regularly create content and update your site.

2. Build Links: Most people make the mistake of disregarding the substantive importance of links and building links. Build Links In addition to the obvious SEO benefits link building offers, it will also help you be connected to other relevant sites. The whole web works on the principle of interconnectedness, so a site that chooses to isolate itself and refrains from connecting with other sites cannot be anything but a failure.

3. Give Your Site A Makeover: If the current design of your site seems old and tired, don’t hesitate, initiate that redesign that you’ve been thinking about. Take inspiration from some of the most popular sites on the web; surfing the web, more than anything, is a very visual experience, keep that in mind while you decide on the design.

4. Update On Popular Demand: Popular If updating the whole site on a regular basis is beyond you, try, at least, to update the pages that are visited the most. This way, even if you don’t succeed in attracting new visitors, you won’t lose out on the old. Writing on current events, or the latest developments in your field, while choosing a nonconformist, if slightly controversial, slant is a great way to hook people.

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Perfecting Your Video SEO Strategy

Posted on March 20, 2010
Filed Under General, Link Building, Search Engine Optimization | 3 Comments
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With universal search, Google reinvented themselves as an equal opportunity search engine – allowing search queries vidto return images, news, videos, blogs, local results, shopping sites etc. along with the boring traditional text results. The other search engines soon followed suit, and over the years SEOs have come to realize that optimizing video content gives them a better shot at ranking high for their relevant terms. There are two reasons for this:
a) Videos are given relatively higher rankings to ensure the search results are consistently ‘blended’.
b) The competition is relatively lower.
So, if you don’t make use of this opportunity and try optimizing your videos, it won’t be a crime, but it certainly will be a shame.

Having said that, video SEO, if not done the right way can backfire spectacularly. So, on my agenda today is to persuade you to optimize your video content (get you to create new, even) and to show you how to do it. Here are some pointers to help your site become super successful through your videos:

1. Don’t Forget The Keywords: Just as with regular SEO, keywords are essential to optimize videos too. keywordsIn fact, they may be even more essential than you previously thought. Many of us fail to realize that searchbots can’t ‘read’ videos like they can text, and hence are in no position to decipher the content of a video and make semantic sense of it. Unless you trick it out with appropriate titles and tags, it will go undiscovered and unindexed. To optimize your video content, it is important that you use your targeted keywords in the file name, title, tags, URL, and anchor text. It would also help if you could provide an optimized description of the video, or even part of the transcript on the same page.

2. Submit Your Sitemap: Another important step in video content optimization is submitting the video sitemap to search engines. This increases the chances of all your videos being indexed considerably. To put it very simple, by submitting the sitemap, you essentially tell the search engines this: “Hey, I have lot of videos on my site, come take a look at them”. …Read more

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The Importance Of Long-tail Keywords

Posted on March 4, 2010
Filed Under General, Link Building, Search Engine Optimization | 3 Comments
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lonKeywords are essential to SEO. You simply cannot rank (high) without them. But then, you already know that. I am pretty sure you also know that ranking high for a particular keyword is often more difficult than logic suggests it should be. Those of you who have tried in vain for years to rank high for your head keyword of choice know what I am talking about. To those of you who are newly introduced to this wondrous world of SEO, I’ll say this: roll up your sleeves and prepare to wait. Or you can do the smart thing and just target long-tail keywords. You won’t have to deal with all that fierce competition for popular head keywords, and you will be a few steps closer to getting your site rank high.

It comes with one warning: the traffic volumes will be considerably lower than that from a head keyword. But then, the probability of your ranking high for a head keyword is less than unlikely, so the traffic from that keyword will amount to exactly nothing.
Now you do the math and figure out which type of keywords will be more beneficial for your small business.

That’s right, the long-tailed ones. Like my great-great-great-grandma once said, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. …Read more

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How Long Before Your Directory Submission Efforts Bear Fruit

Posted on February 27, 2010
Filed Under Directories, Directory Submission, General, Link Building | 8 Comments
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Over the years, we’ve received mails from frantic customers worried that all the energy they expended on directory submissions had and would come to naught. All because, they couldn’t find any change in the number of backlinks to their sites or any improvement in the sites’ rankings after submissions. Today, with this post, I’d like to allay the fears of anyone who has been similarly disposed or will likely be in the future. Directory Submission is not some quick-fix trick that you can slap on like a Band-Aid and hope to make your SEO better. What Directory Submission offers instead is a long-lasting, albeit slower, SEO-goodness that is virtually impossible to duplicate. And what’s a little wait when the benefits are so bounteous, really? It wasn’t the quick-legged hare, but the slow and steady tortoise that won the race! What I mean to say is slow isn’t always bad, especially when it comes to SEO.

The ‘slow’ benefits from Directory Submission include permanent backlinks to your site, with the anchor text of your choice (I am sure your are well aware of the fact that link building is the most important component of SEO, but building links with the right anchor text is even more important), and an improvement in rankings for the targeted terms. But, yes, it doesn’t happen overnight. …Read more

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Goldenter – Premium Website Directory

Posted on February 23, 2010
Filed Under Directories, Directory Submission, Paid Directory Corner, Search Engine Optimization | Leave a Comment
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In this edition of the ongoing Paid Directory showcase, we bring you – Goldenter.com, a premium web directory.

goldenter
Goldenter is a human edited, SEO-friendly paid directory that is a PR6 site as well. Functional since 1998, Goldenter’s age amply contributes to the authority it enjoys. Older sites have more authority and are favored by searchbots, which means links submitted to such directories will be favored as well, and hence indexed faster. Having your site submitted to this quality directory can help optimize your site and at the same time give it adequate exposure.

The image below will give you an insight into how frequently the directory is indexed by search engines like Google:
GE-index
Below, you will observe that not just the homepage, but even the inner pages of the directory are regularly indexed:

innerpage
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MedRanks SEO-Friendly Web Directory

Posted on February 6, 2010
Filed Under Directories, Directory Submission, General, Link Building, Paid Directory Corner, Search Engine Optimization | Leave a Comment
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MedRanks.com – SEO-friendly Web Directory is the next paid directory to feature in our ongoing Paid Directory showcase.

med homepage
MedRanks is a PR6 Paid Directory that has been online since 2004. A human edited business directory, it is a veritable repository of business resources. As mentioned on their site, their primary aim is to preserve a well-organized category structure for the listings and improve user experience. The Medranks personnel also ensure that the directory remains SEO-friendly at all points in time so that it is regularly indexed by search engines. As is known, submitting links to directories that are regularly indexed can get them indexed as well, and faster too.

The image below will give you an insight into how frequently the directory is indexed by search engines like Google:

MED …Read more

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