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Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: SEO, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 25 of 25
1. Things to look for an SEO Services

Search engine marketing methods are extremely essential to ensure that your site to become observed and acquired by search engines. Your site needs to be rated high if you like your site to become outlined within the top page of the search results and you will find listings of elements that usually affect the web site position. Importance recognition of the search term, of the keyword, the way in which keywords are utilized in titles on pages, using terms or keywords in the torso text are a few of the facets that impact site ratings. SEO methods allows you to make sure that the above mentioned stated required modifications are created to the website and facets are thought and back links or back links are positioned on the internet to move traffic to your site.

When you have a company site, then your information that’s published in your website is essential and it has in order to share data that’s related and concerning the reason for your company for clients or your potential clients. Online Marketing also performs with an important part as your website in order to improve presence of one’s site as well as needs to be viewed by your prospects; you will need to choose for SEO methods. Finding the organization that is right among countless types that are incorrect is very difficult. Nevertheless, these five factors can help you discover the one which might help you as well as your company flourish in the long term. Having many, many and each one of these requirements it may be stated let me make it clear that inexpensive SEO may be the correct organization for you personally.

SEO is definitely an online marketing method that needs lots of planning and study and so it is a good idea to get the great Seattle SEO services for the business’ providers. Certainly a large amount are of advantages because they may have the knowledge and also the knowledge that’s necessary for creating a great SEO technique for your company that will assist your company in a variety of ways in choosing an SEO service supplier. It is extremely important to locate one which would be the greatest for the company as there are lots of SEO solutions businesses that run global. Offering SEO providers is not nearly putting links all around the web to create in traffic. There’s not much less to SEO and let’s take a look at several faculties that the great SEO Solutions organization must have.

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2. Social Media Traffic and the Power of Google+

I’ve decided to make Wednesdays TIPS days. The posts may not be too long, but they will be packed with actionable tidbits of content writing and content marketing tips. Today is about the power of GooglePlus. I do marketing research every day and a littler earlier today, I was looking for GetResponse’s blog page. Instead of going to the site, I thought it’d be quicker to do a Google search

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3. Accepting Guest Posts and Third-Party Links

I get lots of queries asking if I allow guest posts. Guest blogging is a powerful content marketing strategy. Accepting guest posts is a great way to make connections and increase visibility. But, when I get a query that asks if I accept guest posts, I automatically know the blogger didn’t do her research. I have a page specifically titled, “Guest Posts” in my menu bar. If the blogger was

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4. Google’s Panda Crawls Your Pages Looking for Ranking Factors (Good or Bad)

Josh Bachynski, over at the TheMoralConcept.net, wrote an amazing post on Google’s Panda. What I love is in his opening line, he admonishes Google Panda for being, lack of a better word, unethical, “Google sets the Panda SEO rules according to their subjective standards which they do not outright publish other than a list of vague, unhelpful, questions.” This is exactly how I feel and I’m

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5. Be SUPER Careful of the Content Marketing Strategies You Use – A Tip on Penguin 3.0

OH, BOY. I’ve been hit by Google’s Penguin 3.0. I haven’t received a formal notification, but my Global and U.S. Alexa rankings are rising. The lower these number the better. As an ethical writer and marketer, I work hard to maintain my online presence and build a strong and reliable platform – a platform that helps others through high quality information. Well, what worked yesterday,

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6. The Importance of Keywords in Your Marketing Toolbox by Donna McDine



I am the guest blogger today at A.R. Silverberry's blog. 

My topic… "The Importance of Keywords in Your Marketing Toolbox." 

Since Google defuncted (is that even a word? I like it though) their FREE keyword search I've included a new FREE resource in the article. Hope you have time to stop by, leave a comment and share with your social media network. 


Thanks a bunch! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Best wishes,
Donna M. McDine
Multi Award-winning Children's Author


Connect with

A Sandy Grave ~ January 2014 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc. ~ 2014 Purple Dragonfly 1st Place Picture Books 6+, Story Monster Approved, Beach Book Festival Honorable Mention 2014, Reader's Favorite Five Star Review

Powder Monkey ~ May 2013 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc. ~ Reader's Favorite Five Star Review

Hockey Agony ~ January 2013 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc. ~ Reader's Farvorite Five Star Review

The Golden Pathway ~ August 2010 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
~ Literary Classics Silver Award and Seal of Approval, Readers Favorite 2012 International Book Awards Honorable Mention and Dan Poynter's Global e-Book Awards Finalist












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7. Author Website Tech: Search Engine Optimization



This month-long series of blog posts will explain author websites and offer tips and writing strategies for an effective author website. It alternates between a day of technical information and a day of writing content. By the end of the month, you should have a basic author website up and functioning. The Table of Contents lists the topics, but individual posts will not go live until the date listed. The Author Website Resource Page offers links to tools, services, software and more.

If You Build It, They Will NOT Come Unless. . .

WWW under construction building website

. . . unless they can find you in a search engine. The number of people who find your site because they know you will be few. Those who intuitively type in darcypattison.com must have some knowledge of who I am. You need links from other sites and you need search engine traffic.

Search Engine Optimization or SEO. There’s no way in a simple blog that I can explain everything about how to get search engines to send people your way. There are books and professionals who can barely explain it. So let me do a quick explanation and then give you one big hint.

First, SEO is all about making it easy for search engines to index your site and figure out what you are talking about. If someone types into a search engine “best practices author website,” I want this series to come up. How does a search engine decide what to show for this question? The situation is hard, because search engines are constantly updating the algorithms or mathematical formulas used to decide this question; the answer is a moving target. (These updates from Google get colorful names such as the Panda update. For the most recent, as of the date of this writing, look for information on the Hummingbird update.) Still, there are a couple constants, keywords and titles.

Keywords just means what are you talking about, but it’s in terms of what people actually search for, not what you think it should be. For years, keyword research has been crucial because of the difference in searching for “childrens’s books” or “kid’s books.” With the increased sophistication of search engines, though, the two would now return the same blog posts. But it still makes a difference is you search for “best practices” or “great examples” of author websites. Now, search engines try to answer the underlying question and intent of the question. Do you want a list of tutorials on building a website, or do you want examples of great websites?

Once you decide on the topic of a post, make sure to use the words somewhere in the post. Two years ago, experts might have suggested you seed the post with the keywords, but now, most agree that a couple times is enough, as long as you are answering a key question. This means: before you write a post, think about what questions your reader might have on the topic and try to answer those questions.

Does Your Website Stand out in Today's Crowded Internet?

In today’s crowded Internet, how will you make your website stand out to search engines?



Titles. As writers, this is a snap. You must write good titles that explain what is in the post. Nothing cutesy, but direct, succinct and catchy.

Let’s say you want to know what to include on your ABOUT page.Which of these post titles would you click on?

The last, of course, is the title of the post I wrote on ABOUT pages. In writing titles, think about a long list of titles and what will make yours stand out.

Specific. Be specific. I reference two authors named Kate and that intrigues.
Numbers. Titles with numbers often get better results.
Adjectives. “creative, intriguing” will pull in more readers.
How To. Promising to explain something is important to readers, especially is you pull off the explanation well.

You know that comment you always get from editors on the rejection letters? “. . this manuscript just didn’t stand out in today’s crowded market. . .” Think of search engines as that crowded marketplace and your title as a log line or the briefest elevator pitch (you only get 100 characters or so). Make the title snappy.

And–after you’ve got everything set up and you want a couple more tasks to do, study SEO. The year I did that, I doubled my website’s traffic. It’s that important. But you’ve got time to get everything set up right before you have to stress out over this. Just know that SEO is in your future.

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8. Author Website Blues - Simple Fixes Huge Benefits





I mentioned before that as I come across writer or author websites that need help, I'd briefly critique the site to give my readers some website pointers. But, I don't reveal the name or url of the site I'm critiquing.


These critiques are geared to help authors setup websites that are visitor and search engine appealing.

Here is a critique of a website I recently recently.

The first and most notable impression this website offers is its header:

Header image: Several book images taking up about half the header – from left to center

Title: NONE
Subtitle: Welcome to my blog (under books image in small text)

Three Pages:
Home page: Welcome to “Site owner’s” XXXX  XXX  XXX Blog
About “Author”
Published Works

Can you quickly notice what’s wrong with the top portion of the website?

No?

Okay, Let’s go over each element:

1. Header Image

The header doesn’t tell the visitor anything. There are several small images of book covers, but the visitor won’t know what they’re for. Are they the authors, is it an author’s site, are they cover design examples?

The header raises a number of questions. This is never a good thing from a marketing aspect. You have about 4 seconds to grab a visitor – that’s not a lot of time.

Along with this, the header image only covers half the header, and it’s not centered. This makes it look uneven and somewhat unappealing.

Fix: Go to fiverr.com and hire someone to create an appealing header.

2. Website Title 


There is none. Search engines (SEs) will have a difficult time finding, indexing, and categorizing this website because there isn’t any information in the title, let alone keyword information. There isn’t any search engine optimization for SE spiders to latch onto.

The same goes for the visitor - he'll be scratching his head, wondering what the site is about.

Fix: Create a site relevant keyword title. This is a must for any website.

3. Website Subtitle

“Welcome to my Blog” does offer the visitor or SE spiders any information. The site could be a real estate site, a sports site . . . it could be anything.

Fix: Create a site relevant keyword subtitle – one that supports the title, one that offers more information letting the visitor and SEs know what the site is about. You want relevant, but different keywords – don’t use the same ones as in the title.

4. The Pages

A. The Home page

This page title doesn’t offer any keyword information, although it does give the title of the site (I’m assuming). Also, it’s not a good idea to waste words on a page title. Make it simple and to the point.

Fix: The author could simply use the title of the site and omit “Welcome to “site owner’s.” Or, the author could simply keep it at “blog” if the title has no keyword value.

B. About “Author name”

This is okay to use. It quickly lets the visitor know what to expect on that page and lets the visitor know who owns the site.

Fix: None needed

C. Published Works

This page title should have keywords in it. Does the author write fantasy, nonfiction, history, children’s books?

You need to quickly let the visitor know what your site is about.

Fix: Change the page title to include the genre s/he works in.

These are simple fixes that will make a huge difference in this site’s ‘curb appeal,’ visitor engagement, and SEO.

~~~~~

RECOMMENDED TOOL: Website Services (that gets your website working for you)

If you don't have a website set up yet, or you need help getting an existing one visitor and search engine optimized, check out my service http://www.karencioffi.com/website-services/

I offer website setups, website tuneups, and website critiques.


~~~~~
MORE WEBSITE AND ONLINE MARKETING TIPS

Book Marketing – Website in Trouble
Commenting on Blogs Still Works
The Author Website – Keep it Simple and to the Point

~~~~~

To keep up with writing and marketing information, along with Free webinars, join us in The Writing World (top right top sidebar).


Karen Cioffi
Award-Winning Author, Freelance/Ghostwriter
Author Online Presence Instructor

Create and Build Your Author Online Presence
http://www.karencioffi.com/author-online-presence-ecourse/

Karen Cioffi Professional Writing Services
http://karencioffifreelancewriter.com/karen-cioffi-writing-services/

~~~~~














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9. Article Marketing - Blog Posting Optimization

Last Friday I presented a screen-sharing webinar for Writers on the Move. It was on posting an optimized post on Blogger and is part of effective SEO. Much of the information was relevant to posting to WordPress and other hosting sites.

When presenting webinars without the help of a moderator, you can sometimes miss questions – it’s tough to present and keep track of the chat box at the same time.

Reviewing the replay, I noticed I missed two questions, so I’ll answer them today. I’ll also include a couple of questions that I did answer during the webinar.

1. Where do you get the links to use for anchor text and deep linking in your posts?

You create your own lists of article titles and their links either in a Word or Excel document. I have a number of different lists: one contains posts from this site; one has posts from Writers on the Move, another is made up of articles from other sites.

I also have separate lists within those categories for writing and marketing.

This makes finding and using relevant article links easier.

2. Do you need permission to link to someone else’s site?

No, you don’t. Linking to other sites is recommended for a couple of reasons:

a. It offers your reader a broader reading experience.
b. It brings traffic to the site you’re linking to.
c. You get more search engine juice from the article when you link to quality sites that are relevant to your content.

3. What’s the etiquette on responding to comments on your post?

It’s important to respond to every comment your post gets, if at all possible. This is the effective marketing thing to do. The visitor/commenter should feel that you took the time to read his comment and that you value his visit enough to respond.

It would be as if you had a guest to your home - you certainly wouldn’t ignore him.

In some cases this isn’t always possible, such as in the case of sites that get a tremendous amount of comments.

Comments, along with your responses, is part of blogging optimization. This activity is picked up by the search engines.

4. How many anchor text and deep links should you use?

If you’re hyperlinking text within your content, two should be sufficient. If you’re adding a “Read More” section at the end of the article, three to five links is a good amount.

Most sites use the ‘read more’ or ‘you might be interested in this also’ sections, rather than using anchor text within the content of the article. This format makes the post cleaner and easier for the reader to find and use the hyperlinks to additional information.

~~~~~



RECOMMEND TOOL:

To get more information on optimizing your blog posts and using article marketing in your online marketing toolbelt, check out:


Article Marketing - Increase Website Traffic




~~~~~
MORE ON ONLINE MARKETING

The Author Website – Keep it Simple and to the Point
Do You Have an Online Marketing Focus?
John Kremer on Book Marketing

~~~~~
To keep up with writing and marketing information, along with Free webinars, join us in The Writing World (top right top sidebar).

Karen Cioffi
Award-Winning Author, Freelance/Ghostwriter
Author Online Presence Instructor

Create and Build Your Author/Small Business Online Presence
http://www.karencioffi.com/author-online-presence-ecourse/

Karen Cioffi Professional Writing Services
http://karencioffifreelancewriter.com/karen-cioffi-writing-services/

~~~~~

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10. FREE Article Marketing Webinar – Publishing and Optimizing a Blog Post Using Blogger

The Writers on the Move February 2013 FREE webinar is in place and here are the basic details:

Title: Article Marketing – Publishing and Optimizing a Blog Post Using Blogger
Day: Friday February 15, 2103
Time: 4PM EST

DESCRIPTION

Blogging is an essential part of creating and increasing your visibility. It helps put you on the internet’s radar. And, part of blogging is to create engaging, informative, and optimized content in the form of blog posts.

But, simply throwing up a blog post doesn’t ensure the search engine spiders will find and categorize your content. There’s more that has to be done to create search engine optimized content.

That’s what this free screen-sharing webinar is all about.

During the webinar I’ll post an article to the Writers on the Move’s blogsite and tweak it for search engine optimization – all in real time!

And, I’ll show how to find and implement SHARE buttons on Blogger.

While this webinar is focused on Blogger posts, much of the optimization is applicable to WordPress and other services.

So, if you want to make your blog posts more effective and get more ‘bang’ for your online marketing efforts, register today!

To register just click on the link below and fill out the form.
http://www.anymeeting.com/PIID=E952D681884C39

For the full details visit Writers on the Move

~~~~~
You absolutely, positively need an author website and online presence . . . I can help you create it:

Create and Build Your Author Online Presence 
Website Creation to Beyond Book Sales
http://www.karencioffi.com/author-online-presence-ecourse/

~~~~~
To keep up with writing and marketing information, along with Free webinars, join us in The Writing World (top right top sidebar).
Karen Cioffi
Award-Winning Author, Freelance/Ghostwriter
Author Online Presence Instructor

Create and Build Your Author Online Presence
http://www.karencioffi.com/author-online-presence-ecourse/

Karen Cioffi Professional Writing Services
http://karencioffifreelancewriter.com/karen-cioffi-writing-services/


~~~~~

0 Comments on FREE Article Marketing Webinar – Publishing and Optimizing a Blog Post Using Blogger as of 2/6/2013 8:04:00 AM
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11. Demystifying Google Penguin and SEO Strategies Part 2

Part 1 of Demystifying Google Penguin and SEO Strategies went over the new Google update, along with questions it raises and their answers. Now it's on to Part 2.

Demystifying Google Penguin and SEO Strategies Part 2


How Do You Rank with Google?

This was actually answered in question number five. Writing content that is valuable and informative, that’s shareable and brings in links from similar niches (that are considered quality or trustworthy) is what will help you rank with Google.

It’s all about offering information that readers will value and share.

But, how does this all relate to your website?

A Look at Content Marketing, Keeping Google Penguin and SEO in Mind

To demonstrate the simple application of the strategies discussed in this article, I’ll use my site as an example.

First, I’ll mention the site domain name: Karen Cioffi Writing and Marketing. Right off the bat, you’ll notice my keywords are in the domain name.

Since I write about writing and marketing and offer quality content on those subjects, it’s in line with my site name. So far, so good. Everything’s on the up-and-up.

I use anchor text, but primarily through links to other related posts on my site. I add this section at the end of the post and do it for just about every post I write. I’ll also hyperlink to a relevant site I’m mentioning within the content, if warranted.

Keywords are another marketing strategy I use, but I don’t focus on the keyword. First I write my article. Then based on the topic, I search for valid keywords. After I find a keyword I want, I’ll change the title accordingly and add the keywords seamlessly into the content. I use the keywords sparingly within the content – the first and last paragraphs and once or twice between, at most.

It’s important for your content to be smooth, coherent, and easy to read. If a keyword doesn’t fit smoothly, don’t use it.

I also use ‘categories’ and ‘tags.’. And, after the post is published, I share it to sites like StumbleUpon, Facebook, Llinkedin, Twitter, and GooglePlus.

These are the basic SEO strategies I use for content marketing. Again, it’s all about offering content your readers can actually use and that will motivate them to share.

Hopefully, Parts 1 and 2 of this article should give you some insight into the new online marketing strategies. If you missed Part 1, you can read it at:

~~~~~
For an in depth look at article marketing and content optimization, you can check out:
Article Marketing - Increase Website Traffic Using Properly Formatted and Search Engine Optimized Content
http://karencioffifreelancewriter.com/books-on-marketing/article-marketing-with-formatted-and-optimized-content/
~~~~~
More on Marketing

~~~~~
To keep up with writing and marketing information, along with Free webinars - signup for The Writing World newsletter on the right top sidebar!

Until next time,
Karen Cioffi
Multi-award Winning Author, Freelance/Ghostwriter, Editor, Marketer
Writer’s Digest Website of the Week, June 25, 2012

You can also check out Karen Cioffi Freelance Writer


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12. Demystifying Google Penguin and SEO Strategies Part 1

Demystifying Google Penguin and SEO Strategies Part 1


In light of Google Penquin, the latest update, I’ve been reading a lot about the new marketing strategies that should be used for effective search engine and content optimization, or as Scott Frangos of WebDirexion.com puts it, “social environment optimization.”

I think Frangos hit the nail on the head – the new marketing strategies to be used, to appease the marketing gods (search engines), is all about social networking, connections. SEO was always kind of a popularity contest, but now even more so, but on a somewhat fairer playing field.

Before, search engines simply connected searched keywords to related websites. Simply put, the more links back to your site, the higher your status. Quality links were always better.

Now, while keywords offer a ‘pointing finger,’ it’s the content itself and its shareability that matters. The more quality ‘like-minded’ sites and visitors you get the more Google will like you. The quality and relevancy of the links matter.

The new update is a good thing for writers who provide useful information for their readers. The content itself is ‘worthy’ and packs the ‘ranking punch.’ It doesn’t need lots of special optimization tricks. 

But, Google’s new update does raise some questions:

•    Do effective titles and content still matter?
•    Are keywords still needed?
•    What about ‘tags?
•    What about anchor text?
•    What does Google penalize for?
•    How do you rank with Google?

Let’s go over each one:

1. Do effective titles and content still matter?

Yes they do. It’s the title that will attract a reader’s attention and help turn attention to interest. Having a relevant keyword in the title helps the search engines categorize it and lets the reader know if it’s what he is looking for.

It’s the content that will keep the visitor on your site and motivate her to SHARE. This is the social connection.

2. Are keywords still needed?

Again, yes. Keywords help search engines categorize your content and help searchers find it, as mentioned in number one.

But, the keywords should be content relevant and not used primarily for money-making optimization. Sites that heavily use ‘money keywords’( keywords specifically used to make money through strategies like PPC), will most likely be penalized.

3. What about tags?

Yes, to this also. Tags, like keywords, help search engines categorize your content.

4. What about anchor text?

According to MicrositesMasters.com, “Google has issued a link over-optimization penalty (or at the very least over-optimization link devaluation).”

This pertains to anchor text linked primarily to ‘money keywords’ and that brings incoming links specifically to make money. These sites usually lack valuable content.

Using anchor text to give your reader more bang-for-the-buck, a broader reading experience is a good thing. Along with helping your reader, if you’re linking to other valuable

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13. Find the Best Guest Blogging Spots with Better Outreach Emails

Find the Best Guest Blogging Spots with Better Outreach Emails


by James Harper

Guest blogging is nothing new, but it is enjoying a sudden surge in popularity at the moment.  Since Google's Penguin and Panda updates, simplistic SEO methods such as buying links or using blanket article directory submission just don't cut it for SEO.  This means that more and more marketers are turning to guest blogging to boost the popularity of their sites.

Guest blogging can work well, but finding quality sites to post on, and then getting a positive response from those sites, can be a challenge.  Of course, this makes sense - the best sites to share posts with are the ones that are authority sites with high quality standards.  If you want those sites to take your content, then you, or your SEO agency, will have to put forward a compelling case.

First Impressions Matter

As a website owner yourself, you know how much hard work goes in to building a good blog, and you know how much email prominent bloggers get.  If a blogger sees a boilerplate mail from an SEO agency, there's a good chance that they'll just delete it before they even get past the first paragraph. Most bloggers are, understandably, rather jaded when it comes to people offering them "free content" (read, spam posts) for their blog.

If you want a good response rate, you'll need to put some effort into the emails you send.  In an ideal world you'd send carefully written emails to every recipient, but that's not practical if you want to reach out to hundreds of bloggers.  It's still a good idea to tailor your emails though. A good SEO agency will put together a list of high quality, relevant blogs, and will send emails to each of those bloggers, mentioning their name, and the name of their blog in the mail.  Since these mails only go out to relevant bloggers, those people will feel that the agency has done some research before contacting them, that that will increase the chances of getting a response.

Build a Connection

Even if a webmaster responds to your initial email, there's no guarantee that they'll accept a guest post from a complete stranger.  Authority bloggers are protective of their blogs, and understandably so since they have a reputation to maintain.  If you want someone to allow you to speak under their name - which is essentially what guest blogging is, then you need to build up a positive relationship with them.

A good SEO agency should have long-standing relationships with bloggers under a range of niches.  Those bloggers know that the agency will only contact them about relevant and interesting websites, and will provide them with high quality articles when they're looking to place guest blogs.  If you want to handle your guest-blogging in house, you'll have to cultivate the same relationships.  You can do this by building up a list of quality blogs in your RSS reader, commenting on those blogs, leaving trackbacks, and generally being a part of the community.  Bloggers think of regular readers and commentators as friends, and are more likely to want to work with them than they are to work with strangers.

This post was written by James Harper on behalf of Boom Online Marketing. To find out more about this SEO Agency, please follow this link.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Other Marketing Articles

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14. Freelance Writing and Marketing - Do You Have a Good Client Horror Story?

Do You Have a Good Client Horror Story?

By Featured Writer Matt Ramage


Recently, an anonymous story was posted on Search Engine Journal about a nut-job client. It’s one of those stories that is so hilarious because it’s just plain ridiculous. However, when this scenario happens to you, it’s not so funny…

But let’s face it, this will happen to all of us at some point. And if it hasn’t here are some things to look for:

Misunderstanding SEO

Understanding SEO can be difficult if you’re hearing about it for the first time. For example, take this conversation via Clients From Hell. A potential client asks if it’s possible to get their child dance troupe to rank #1 for “Lady Gaga”. What?! Or how about this one who believes that it’s acceptable to have 1600 keywords in meta tags for your home page!

These may not be the craziest things you’ve heard, but there are plenty of others out there.

Put It in Writing

One of the most common complaints I’ve heard from web marketing firms is that clients will often keep asking for more changes and different projects that weren’t what was agreed to in the initial contract. Then, when the work isn’t completed, the client will become angry because they haven’t gotten what they asked for. It’s important to bring this up and highlight exactly what they signed up for. You might need to adjust accordingly for completion of this work but it can be hard to not let a client take advantage of you, especially if you’re just starting out as a freelancer. It also helps to have some breathing room and flexibility to deal with more demanding or high profile clients.

Weighing in on the Good and Bad

Technical aspects aside, there are just some clients that you won’t get along with. As always in disagreements, the best route is to keep your cool and take a breather when you really feel like going berserk. You can try to get to know the client on a personal level and cater to what you think will make them happy or at least, prevent a blowout.

In the end, experts recommending doing a pro/cons or cost/benefits list to consider if it’s better for your business to keep or not renew (aka fire) the client.

Of course dealing and thinking about our own past clients from hell may not bring back good or even helpful memories. That’s why it’s beneficial to hear from others to look at things in a different perspective to see what you would do and any lessons you can learn. Let us know if you have any stories you’d like to share!

Matt Ramage is Creative Director at Emarketed.com and you can find more of his writing on his blog at Emarketed.net.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
More on Freelance Writing:

Freelance Writing Work: The Possibilities
Tips for Content Subcontracting in Your New Freelance Business
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15. Five SEO Blog Tips to Increase Traffic to Your Site

Five SEO Blog Tips to Increase Traffic to Your Site

If you’re new to the writing game, you may not be aware of some of the essential steps needed to actually get in the game - steps that will make your name and brand visible. And, visibility is a ‘biggie’ if you want to increase traffic to your site and move forward in your writing career.

One very interesting fact about having content online is you never know who will end up finding it. It could be an agent, a publisher, someone who wants to hire you for your writing style. You get the idea.

Why is it important to become familiar with SEO blog tips?

Simply put, the answer is to generate visibility.

Writing is no longer a solitary career. Now, if you want to create and build visibility, along with readers to your site (traffic), you need to build a platform and promote it.

So, what are some tips to help you get started in the right direction?

Well, the very first and most obvious tip is to have a website or blogsite. Once you have one set up, it’s your job to post content to it on a regular basis, no less than once a week, two or three times a week is better though.

It’s that content that will establish you as an expert in your genre or area. This will help you down the road, after you’ve traditionally published or self-published one, five, ten, or more books and/or e-books, and you want to expand your writing career.

But, before we go over five of the basic SEO blog tips for new writers, let’s first go over what SEO actually stands for: Search Engine Optimization. This marketing strategy allows the search engines, such as Google, to find your site and content.

Being aware of SEO blog tips is essential to having the search engines not only find your site, but to also index your content, and make it available to online searchers.

Five SEO Blog Tips:

1. Use a keyword in your article title. Try one of the free keyword search tools to find an effective keyword. I use http://googlekeywordtool.com/

A keyword, according to Compendium.com, is “any word or phrase a searcher might use to describe or identify a desired resource on the Internet.”

2. Use that keyword in your article’s subheadings, and be sure to bold or italicize your subheadings.

3. Use that keyword within the content – just don’t overdo it. You don’t want to stuff your article with as many ‘visibility generating’ keywords you can fit in, search engines frown upon this practice. Your article needs to be an informative, engaging, and understandable read.

You primary focus should be to write for your reader.

4. When searching for effective keywords, look for long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are words that will move you away from highly competitive keywords.

As an example, if you write business articles, a generic and highly competitive keyword might be ‘incentives.’ I did a Google keyword search and the keyword ‘incentives’ came in at: 1,500,000 global monthly searches, and 823,000 local monthly searches. Obviously, you wouldn’t want to use a keyword with that much competition.

That’s where the long-tail keyword comes in.

If you used the keyword ‘business incentive,’ you’d reduce your competition to 22,200 global monthly searches and 14,800 local monthly searches. That’s quite a difference, and it narro

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16. Blog Posting, Keywords, Anchor Text, Tags, and Website Statistics Part2

Last Monday Part1 on this topic was posted here. It talked about website traffic statistics in regard to two of my sites. Today, we go into the rest of the 'blog posting' promotional elements: anchor text, tags, and promotion.

Blog Posting, Keywords, Anchor Text, Tags, and Website Statistics Part2

Anchor Text

Another interesting fact in regard to the statistics’ referring sites is that the KCWM site itself is listed as a source. This is accomplished by creating anchor text within the post content and/or at the bottom of the post as “Additional articles to read.” The anchor text leads the reader to another page/post within your site.

According to Wikipedia, “anchor text is weighted (ranked) highly in the search engine algorithms, because the linked text is usually relevant to the landing page.”

Is there a difference between an anchor text leading to another post and simply putting the url itself? YES.

Anchor text allows search engines to easily find and index your content and they value this strategy, the url address doesn’t have the same ‘word power.’ Wikipedia says, “The objective of search engines is to provide highly relevant search results; this is where anchor text helps.” This is part of SEO.

Blog Tags

Next on my ‘to do’ list when posting an article on my site is to put relevant tags.

In the article “Using Categories and Tags Effectively on Your Blog” on
ProBlogger.net, it explains that tags should be thought of “as the colorful little page markers you might use to flick back to your favorite pages in a book. The tags don’t describe the book as a whole, instead they describe individual sections of the book.”

Two important 'tags' factors to consider:

•    Tags complement categories. If you use Wordpress you’ll be able to and should use categories. Blogger does not offer this feature, so it’s even more important to use tags.

•    Tags should be focused and use the same ones for each specific topic. This means if you are writing about book marketing, use one specific tag: book marketing. Don’t switch it up with ‘book promotion’ or ‘marketing.’ Be consistent because it is this consistency that search engines will use to index your site and establish you as an authority on that keyword. This means a higher ranking in the search engines.

Going into this a bit further, when writing on the topic of writing, whether it’s on characterization, setting, or plot, you should always include the keyword ‘writing’ or ‘writing advice,’ or other relevant writing keyword you use consistently. You can also include the more specific keywords, like ‘setting’, ‘writing goals,’ or whatever the content warrants to give more indexing information, but it’s important to use your main ‘writing’ tag for all your posts on writing.

Promote your Blog Posts

If you want to enhance your visibility, you need to SHARE each article/post. Wordpress and Blogger both have plugins or gadgets to provide easy ‘sharing’  to Facebook, GooglePlus, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Linkedin. Make use of the ‘sharing’ feature.

Then of course there are your other social networks, your groups. Don’t forget to post a message in your groups letting them know you have a new post up.

Use these three blog posting elements for each of your posts and your traffic/views are sure to increase.
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17. Article Content Properly Formatted and Search Engine Optimized Part2


Last week, in Part 1 of this article, we discussed the importance of article marketing and of having your articles properly formatted and search engine optimized. Today we're on to Part 2 (steps 2 through 6).

Article Content Properly Formatted and Search Engines Optimized Part 2

2. Include Keywords in the Body of Your Article

Unless you don’t care if the search engines pick up your article, or if it gets more distribution in the article directories, you need to include keywords throughout your article. But, don’t overdo it. It’s important for your keyword to be in your topic headings (if applicable), the first and last paragraphs, and in a couple of other paragraphs.

3. Spacing Your Article Content

Every paragraph in your article should have an extra line between it and the next one. If the formatting calls for it, the beginning of each paragraph should be indented.

You should also keep your paragraphs relatively short. Readers like plenty of ‘white space.” This ‘white space’ allows for easier and quicker reading.

Notice my formatting in this article.

In addition, it’s necessary to use proper grammar and punctuation. (517 without lead-in)

4. Include Your Bio

You’d think every writer would make sure they receive credit for their article content, but if you read some blogs, even those with multiple contributing authors, there are some with no byline. Even if it’s your own blog, at least end the post with your name.

For article directories, each service has its own resource box instructions. For guest blogging you don’t want your byline to be too long – make it short and effective. You can include your name with a couple of sentences letting the reader know why he should click on your link.

5. Article Content Marketing Tags

Including keywords or tags where allowed is essential to article marketing and its SEO effectiveness. Most hosting services and article directories provide specific areas at the bottom of the article for keywords or tags. Take advantage of this SEO tool.

These tags should be relevant to the content and will allow the search engines to categorize and index your content. This in turn will allow your article to be found by people searching for your topic.

There you have it, five article content formatting and SEO ready tips to get your articles doing what they should be doing: getting read, going viral, and bringing traffic to your site.

6. Link to More Article Content

This step is simple. In any article you publish on your own blog or submit for a guest post link to other articles or a landing page on your site. You can do this within your article content, just hyperlink a relevant word or phrase to a relevant article on your site.

You can also include a “Related Articles” section at the end of your article and list a couple of titles with hyperlinks to the actual articles on your site. Or, after a bit of information within the article add, “For more information on this check out” and add the link.

This allows you to get even more ‘juice’ out of your articles. You may not be able to do this with article directories, but for your blog posts, it will keep visitors on your own site longer and draw them further into your pages, and will bring visitors to your guest posts back to your site. Search engines like th

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18. Article Content Properly Formatted and Search Engine Optimzed Part 1

As the founder and manager of a marketing group that utilizes article marketing, I've noticed that some writers don't know the proper formatting of an article. Along with this, there are even more who don't know how to use keywords and tags for search engine optimization.

It's important for any writer writing articles to increase visibility, expert status, and readership to know how to use their content effectively. That's where this article comes in.

Article Content Properly Formatted and Search Engines Optimized

Creating article content is an essential marketing strategy. It establishes you as an authority in your niche or on a particular topic, increases your visibility and readership, and brings traffic to your site. It also broadens your marketing reach, which helps bring more traffic to your site.

Bringing traffic to your site to sign up for your mailing list is the real goal to any marketing strategy, even more so than selling a product. The reason for this is that a person on your mailing list gives you the opportunity to build a relationship and promote various products and services – it provides the basis for multiple sales. A non-subscriber, a one-time visitor/buyer is just that: a one-time deal.

In fact, Jeff Herring (Article Marketing Guy) says, “Article Marketing, when done correctly, is one of the most powerful forces online.”

If you notice, Herring says, “when done correctly.”  Part of doing it ‘correctly’ is to have your article content properly formatted.

If you’re taking the time to use article marketing, whether posting to your blog, guest blogging, or submitting to article directories, you should create quality content and have it formatted properly. Any content you publish or share is a reflection of your writing skills – make those skills shine

Six Steps to Properly Format Your Article Content and Have it Search Engine Optimized

1. Article Titles and Subtitles

According to EzineArticles.com, “Better Titles = Additional Article Views = More Resource Box Clicks = Higher Website Traffic.”

Your title should be reflective of the article content and the first letter of each word should be capitalized.

Not Effective or Correct: Article marketing: formatting your content

Effective and Correct: Article Marketing With Properly Formatted Content

The normal rule for words such as “a,” “an,” “to,” and “the” is it’s not necessary to capitalize them. And, if at all possible leave out punctuation that can break-up the article’s url. Notice above that the ‘effective title’ eliminated the ‘colon.’

Titles should also be keyword effective. Try to include the keyword at the beginning of the title, not at the end. EzineArticles also notes that “longer titles maximize your ability to attract readers with a specific promise that is highly relevant to your niche.”

The same rules hold true for your subtitle.

Stop by next Monday, February 20th, for Part two (steps 2 through 6) of "Article Content Properly Formatted and Search Engines Optimized."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Related Articles

7 Steps to Writing for Article Directories

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19. What is SEO and SEO Marketing?

If you’re like the majority of people, you may be wondering what SEO is. Well, it’s simply an acronym that stands for ‘search engine optimization.’

According to TechTerm.com, “Just about every Webmaster wants his or her site to appear in the top listings of all the major search engines.” SEO is the means to accomplish this.

SEO marketing is the strategies or techniques used to create visibility and website ranking within the search engines, such as Google and Bing.

Every online marketing strategy includes promotion, and SEO marketing is a promotional tool under the marketing umbrella. The marketing umbrella covers the creation or manufacturing of a product or service, research and development (R&D), distribution, and any other elements needed to get a product from creation to the consumer. Promotion creates visibility, which in turn leads website traffic and customers.

Utilizing online promotion means you will be using the internet and search engines. SEO marketing is the process of getting the search engines to find and rank your website and your content. You obviously want a high ranking so when a searcher (potential customer) types in a search term (keyword), your site may be one of those on that first search engine results page (SERP), or at least within the first few pages.

Another explanation of SEO marketing:

It is basically the steps you take to have Google, Bing, and other search engines find, index, and put your website on one of their first SERPs whenever people use ‘your keyword’ to search for something.

In essence, SEO marketing is kind of a popularity contest.

When you use effective keywords within your website (title and meta tags) and in informative posting content, Google and the other search engines will find, index, and rank you. This allows you to be picked up and shown on the search engines’ results pages for specific search terms. When a ‘searcher’ finds your link on the SERP and clicks on it, you get a link to your site. The more inbound links to your site – relevant to your keywords or not - the more Google and other search engines ‘like you’ and consider you an authority.

Going a bit further with this, getting links from other sites with the same keywords in their links that you have in yours, is much better. This is considered as a higher ‘ranking vote’ by Google and establishes your site as having more authority. The more ‘link votes’ you get, the more Google will perceive your site as valuable and give you a higher authoritative ranking.

To be found and ranked by Google and other search engines, you need to add effective and relevant keywords to your site and content. To do this, you can go to http://googlekeywordtool.com/

Click on the Google Keyword box and it will take you to the Google Adwords search tool.

Using relevant and effective keywords is essential in SEO marketing

For an in depth look at attracting customers through SEO marketing, you can check out:
Attracting Customers With Informational Marketing

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Related Articles:


SEO and Marketing: Basic Tips and Definitions
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20. I've been dating my website.


I've got a secret for you, I've been dating my website lately. We've had a couple of really hot dates! I revamped my website completely in February. A total redesign to showcase my work and make my life easier. No more week long struggles to add or delete images. Who has time for that? Not me. I opted for a WordPress website using Headway. I lost my beloved disjointed rollovers, but you just can't beat only having to spend 15 minutes switching images in and out is a dream come true! 

Of course, I was so convinced of my genius and mad design skills, that I figured the money would then start rolling in. (Insert crickets here.) I added such brilliant SEO keywords, how could the masses not flock to my site? (More crickets.) In desperation, I turned to my Twitter buddy, Sarah J. Bray, for help. She's a genius, for sure. You should definitely go check out her website! She recently launched a new program where she walks you through hot dates with your website. I signed up immediately! I've been doing it for two weeks now and I'm loving it! She's got me thinking in new ways. I'll keep you posted on how it goes, but I have great hopes! I love her writing style and her insight. I've wanted to work with her for awhile and this is the time.

This is an affiliate link. I'm really using her program and wanted to share how excited I am!


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21. Writing and Marketing Tips and Links 082710

Today is writing and marketing tips and links Friday, and I have a couple of interesting and useful tidbits of information and news. So, off we go.

Links to Useful Information

1. If you use the WordPress plugin Greet Box, or WWSGD, you’ll want to read this post by Rosalind Gardner. She explains what the problem is and how to remedy it: http://netprofitstoday.com/blog/plugin-messes-up-google-listings/

2. “100 Excellent Writing Exercises for the Classroom”
(http://www.onlineclasses.org/2010/06/13/100-excellent-writing-exercises-for-the-classroom/)

3. Bookkeeping Basics

Do you have a system to track your business expenses, or are you bringing your accountant a shoe box filled with receipts? Need some help organizing your records so you can easily manage your cash flow and gain the best possible business tax deductions?

Join accounting expert and business author Brigitte A. Thompson to learn how to create a bookkeeping system with the necessary financial information to build and strengthen your business.
http://www.freelancersunion.org/events/2010/events%202010/sept-bookkeeping-basics.html

4. Write On! Track LA

Stretch, Tone, and Exercise Your Writing Muscles
http://www.WriteOnTrackLA.com

Writing is exercise! Writing coach Debra Eckerling trains authors, experts, and entrepreneurs, so they can organize, articulate, and complete their writing projects.

Specializing in motivation. project-management.and troubleshooting, Debra helps individuals prioritize their writing goals, come up with a plan, and put words on that blank computer screen … so they can reach the finish line! Complete those half-finished writing-projects – or finally get started – whether it’s for a book, a script, a blog, an article, or anything else!

For information on Debra's Personal Training for Writers, Cross Training (Blogging, Social Media, and Live Networking), and/or Group Writing Workouts, go to http://writeontrackla.com/personal-training/, email [email protected], or call 310.908.8980.

Debra Eckerling is the creator of Write On! Online (http://www.WriteOnOnline.com), a community for writers.

*****************************

Some Marketing Definitions

1. SEO – search engine optimization: “the process of creating and adjusting website content with the goal of improving search engine rankings.” (according to Compendium.com)
2. SERP – search engine results page – the page results from a search query.
3. Keyword – “any word or phrase a searcher might use to describe or identify a desired resource on the Internet.” When using keyword in your title, it’s important to use the keyword in the beginning of the title. Rather than use “A How-to-Guide for SEO,” opt for “SEO: A How-to-Guide.” (according to Compendium.com)

For more on SEO and marketing check out my next post on Monday, August 30th.

****************************

Useful Tools

http://www.free-press-release.com/tools-tips/submit-customized-example.html

Free Press Release now supports embed video (such as YouTube) in customized press releases. This service is not free.

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22. PR Starts with Websites: Keywords

PR Notes: Start with Optimized Websites

The first thing you should do for book publicity promotion is a website. I know. Most of you have one.

But let’s do a check to see if it’s the most effective it could be.

1) Put your name into a search engine. Great. Your website came up first (I hope!).
2) Describe your latest book in 4-5 words. For my forthcoming picture book next year, Prairie Storms (August, 2011, Sylvan Dell), I might list these words: prairie weather animals kids book.
Put those words into a search engine. Does your site come up on the first page of the results?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chazzlayne/3932257538/

Can Anyone Find Your Site?

It’s no use having a website, if no one finds it! Tweaking your website to make sure search engines find you is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Last year, I did lots of tweaking and it doubled the traffic to my site. Yes, doubled it within six months.

I’m not going to do a whole tutorial on SEO here, you can find those online, as well as books devoted to the subject at your bookstore. Here, I just want to talk about keywords.

Keywords for your book

When I listed those words for Prairie Storms, I just pulled some out of the air, but I won’t do that when I create the website this year. I’ll look at statistics, because the online world is all about statistics.

First, you’ll want to use a tool like Google Adwords Keyword tool to help you find the right keywords. For this tool, you put in words that you think someone will use to find your book. For example for Prairie Storms, a teacher might use these keywords: weather unit lesson plans.

Try this with me. Go to the Keyword Tool and put in those words, one on each line.

I like to click at the top of the Local Monthly Searches column, so it will sort the results in descending order from the most searches on down.

Here are the top 3 keywords:
Weather – 68,000,000 searches / month
Plan – 20,400,000 searches / month
Lesson – 9,140,000 searches / month

Wow, lots of people are looking for weather related stuff! But if there are 68 million searches/month for “weather,” how many could I reasonable expect to come to my site? None. If you don’t show up in the top 30 results for a search term, very few people will click on your site. Page ranking is the term used to refer to how well a page on a website ranks on search engines. If you’re in position 10 for the keyword, “weather”, that would be fantastic.

What I need to do then, if find phrases where I might could get a high rank. In the Keyword tool, you can do this by putting phrases in brackets; also on the left-hand column, click on the Match Phrase; on the Contains column, I only want to see results for “weather lesson plans”. Searching for [weather lesson plans] there are 8,100 local searches/month. The competition is low enough that I could probably rank high on it.
Keywords
Before I create the website for this book, I�

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23. why I don’t accept guest posts from spammers, or link to them

I get an email maybe once a week from someone with a human-sounding name saying they read my blog and think they have something my readers might be interested in. Or they offer to do a guest post on my blog. The link is usually some sort of vaguely useful list of something library-related but the URL of the website is not library-related. In fact the URL of the website is usually something like onlinenursepractitionerschools.com, searchenginecollege.com or collegedegree.com (which if you’ll notice is the top hit on google for a search for college degree). I sometimes see other libloggers linking to sites like these and I have a word of advice: don’t. When we link to low-content sites from our high-content sites, we are telling Google and everyone that we think that the site we are linking to is in some way authoritative, even if we’re saying they’re dirty scammers. We’re helping their page rank and we’re slowly, infinitesimally almost, decreasing the value of Google and polluting the Internet pool in which we frequently swim. Don’t link to spammers.

This is a linkless post, for obvious reasons.

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24. Search Engine Optimization 101/Friday Five

Day 5: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 101

So you have a web site now. That's great as long as people can find it and come to it.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is when you improve the volume and quality of traffic through various search engines.

So how do you do that?

1) Pick a good domain and design it simple - try not to use too much flash. Any words in flash do not come up in searches.

2) Register your site with search engines/directories. For example, the 3 main ones are:


3) Use good Key Words - make a short list of 1 or 2 key word phrases for each page of the site you want to optimize. Here is an article that explains this in more detail. Try not to be too generic - like don't pick writer or author. Try to make it easy for those looking for you to find you by selecting keyword phrases they will most likely think of and most probably use when searching for whatever you offer.


4) Meta-tags - Every web site has html - even the godaddy ones. You can view them easily. There are several "tags" that go into the HTML code for a page of a website. These tags are placed between the and . The most important tags are: The title tag and the "description" meta tag. The "keyword" meta tag used to be important but is basically useless now.


5) Use Keywords in your text.


6) Get others to Link to you!


Other articles to Help:



Friday Five - 5 Reasons I love V-Day


1) Feeling Good- I am finally feeling better after 4 months of Vertigo. I still am only about 90% but I don't feel dizzy anymore. I may even try to go back to yoga this weekend. I have not been to Bikram in 4 months and my ass shows it! Did you knwo you can burn between 600-900 calories in 1.5 hrs of Bikram. You should try it!


2) La Familia - I love an excuse to show the love to those I love most. I got my hubby a climbing card and my kids little gifts for the morning. Without them, theer would be a hole in my heart.


3) Treats - This morning I treated myself to a sour cream blueberry cake donut from krisy Kreme. YUMMY! I got 5 more for Vday breakfast tomorrow. Only 4 in my family - who do you think will get the extra one?? Hmmmmm.


4) Learn something new - Do you even know why we celebrate Vday - besides Hallraks consipracy of course. Here is a site by the History Channel that tells you. Its fun! Who knew? I just thought it was about chocolate and kisses ;) Thanks St Valentine for a LOVEly day.


5) I love Quizzes - For those who knowI love quizzes, I found a fun Vday one called Dating through the Ages. You can take a quiz in different decades to see if you would have been a great date in that historic time. (BTW - I think I was a bit permiscous in the 1890s Yikes!)


For those who love my blog, I love you - here's a shout out to you!


For those in the world who have nothing else better to do than gripe, hate, bitch, gossip, put down, complain, or be negative - keep in mind what you focus on just gets bigger. So I ask you - Where is the Love?


Don't forget - we have Robin from Shrinking Violets joing us on Monday as a Marvelous Marketer!


Have a LOVEly Day!

9 Comments on Search Engine Optimization 101/Friday Five, last added: 3/7/2009
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25. Meta-blog question

Question for the floor:
Is it better to trash the links to your blog that have nothing to do with your post?
Or better to accept incoming link traffic, even if it's basically a bot--because it drives up your SEO?

For example, for the post below, on Rural and Native libraries, the Sports Guru blog linked to us. Well, I'm flattered but there is nothing sporty or guru-ish about the post. Not to mention it is quite apparent that Sports Guru is a machine-created auto-blog. No editorial brainpower there. So I just deleted their link to us.

Thoughts? My gut would say delete them because the links aren't relevant. And relevancy, usefulness to the user/reader is going to trump pure link love. If it doesn't now, it will soon enough for search engine algorithms. Black box/black hatters notwithstanding.

What do other people think?

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