The Road of Links

Every business should have a website, free blog, Google+ page, something that is searchable on the World Wide Web. If you have a local business and you do not have one of these, I wish you luck with your success but, I can guarantee you are missing out on customers. So, go do that and then come back to reading this article. Actually, if you are not anywhere on the internet, I doubt you are reading this article anyway. This leads me to my point. Your business website is out there in this digital universe we call the internet. You can have the greatest website with all the best marketing on it as possible but, people need to come to it for all of it to work. No one will read this article if no one can find it or get to it on the internet. Interesting enough, you must drive traffic to your website for it to be a successful tool at converting people into customers. In fact, if you have read my other articles, I believe that creating a customer is the sole purpose of having a business. This meaning that your website is probably the essential tool in bringing you the most new customers. So, how do you naturally attract people to your website?

Think of your website as an island. Weird right, no seriously it's an island. It is out there alone on the internet asking for customers to come to it. How do you get to an island? You get to an island through a bridge, a boat, a plane, a tunnel etc. You need people to come to your island. So what is a bridge in the internet world? The answer is a LINK. The secret to natural traffic to your website is a link and, not just one link, tons of links. I sure hope there is not only one way to get on and off an island. There are four primary ways to create bridges to your website number one, articles (like this one), number two, videos, number three, pictures, and number four, social media. There is no equal to posting good content every day. Yes, you must try to post an article, video, picture or social media every single day. If you have a blog, all you need is to create one piece of content and it will post to all of your social media (twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pintrest, Google +) it is the easiest and fastest way to create more traffic because it creates more links. However, there are different sizes of links. Let's say for example, a local business owner I know would post a link to their website on my blog. Now, that is fine because it is creating another path to your website but, my blog only has so many links so it is only creating a narrow road for traffic to travel on. What type of site would you want to get a link on so a wide road of traffic could travel on? You got it, a big one! A site that has the most links coming off of it (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, Yahoo, Bing).

I know this may all be a little common sense but, I just want to paint the picture for you on the back end. I want you to visualize what is happening when you are creating content over and over again so you get traffic. So go out and do it make as many links to your website or blog as possible. This will create traffic which will lead you to your ultimate goal of creating a customer which is the reason you own a business.

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SEO - Bad Links Are Worse Than No Links

If you own a business and have a webpage, you have no doubt received emails from companies promising thousands of links to your site that will guarantee you a spot on page one of any online search. Hopefully, you have relegated those emails to your spam folder because that's where they belong. Google is taking a hard line on unauthoritative links, crushing the ranking of some websites along the way. Here are some things Google is looking for and what you can do to avoid problems with your site.

Paid Links - If you're buying links, HALT! STOP! CEASE! Google will punish you. Google is on the lookout for artificial and unnatural site links that are intended to effect page rank. If you suspect you may have been penalized for links you paid for, delink from them as quickly as possible. Go back as far as you need to go back. If you've been buying links for 3 years, go back 3 years and delete all of them.

If you suspect you have links to your site that you don't know about, use a tool such as SEOmoz to check your backlinks. There have been occasions when a website has bought links to a competitor's site, and then reported the site to Google. Using SEOmoz will allow you to see what sites are linking to you. If you find a site that should not be linking to you, contact them and demand to be delinked. If your demand goes unheeded, have the rel="no follow" attribute added to them.

Once you have cleaned up your site, don't wait out the penalty. It may take longer than you think. Instead, write to Google outlining the steps you took to clean up your site, and ask for reconsideration.

Widget Bait - Have you ever seen an advertisement asking you to sign up for a website counter? You think it's pretty cool, and it's free, so you sign up. There's a good chance that there are hidden links in that widget. In fact, there is a website counter out there with links to a pay day loan outfit. The website owners who posted the widget didn't even know there were links associated with it. This is an example of widget bait. If you decide to insert a third party widgets into your site make sure that all the links are clickable, readily viewable, and relevant to your site.

A widget that has links in plain site but is not relevant to your site will not buy you a lot of love from Google. Google is looking for links that conform and are relevant to the editorial content of the site it is linking to. If the link within the widget goes to a totally unrelated site, Google will not look upon it as being authoritative and will not give you the editorial vote you need for a higher page rank.

Reputation Management - Google is on the lookout for sites that appear to use a "reputation management" firm. Many of these firms use spammy links to try to push up positive articles on the site. Google is ignoring those links.

As I've said again and again, if you have great, relevant and compelling content on your site, Google will reward you. If you have sites linking to your site because your site is engaging and editorially relevant to the linking site, Google will reward you for that. If your content is unique you will be rewarded. In SEO, hard work and creativity is being rewarded, shortcuts and trying to rig the system is not.

J.A. Moffitt is the President of Elvin Web Marketing. Elvin Web Marketing is a full service online marketing company. Whether it's getting on the first page of a Google search, improving your site content, blog writing, submitting your business to online directories, or social or email marketing, we can help! Call us at 203-882-0171. We now offer targeted ads on national websites. Visit our webpage at http://onlinemarketinginct.com/

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3-Way Links: Link Building That Google Loves

As an online marketer, you already know that Google rules the roost when it comes to getting traffic to your website. Your site must show up near the top of the results on Google when a user types a search term into the box if you hope to get visitors and shoppers to enter your web store. Since there are more than 8 billion websites on the Internet at last count, it is not that easy to be sure that the web crawlers that Google sends out will locate your site and boost it to the top of the list. One of the best ways to attract the attention of the Google-bots is to acquire a large number of one-way links that point to your site. So, what strategy should you use to gather those links?

Jonathan Leger is a marketing expert who has written several ebooks and developed a number of software products that were all designed to help marketers earn that crucial top-tier Google ranking. After extensive research and a lot of trial and error with his own sites, he has learned that there are three basis types of links that Google is looking for before it will bestow the honor of a good rank on your e-commerce business. In a nutshell, you need:

• Several different link texts. Google does not look kindly on hundreds and hundreds of links to your site that all have exactly the same text. In fact, you may actually be punished and put in the infamous Google "sandbox" if you have too many identical links. Jon Leger says his research shows that creating about 60% of your links with your top search term is good. He then recommends that you use a secondary keyword for about 30% of the links, and 10% for a third term. This method produces the kind of diversity of links that Google loves while keeping your main keywords in the forefront of your efforts.

• A gradual growth in links. The Google-gods will not be pleased if hundreds of new links to your site appear all at once. That is like a huge red flag that says, "These links are from spammy, poor quality link farms." There are some services and unscrupulous SEO experts out there that will do this kind of linking, and it is bad news for any business. Instead, a slow but steady growth in the number of links to your site is the ideal you should strive for.

• Links from many different geographic areas. Likewise, Google is not fond of links that all come from the same IP address, or even several different addresses that are too close together geographically. The best idea is to have incoming links from many different places all around the world.

Ok, so now that you know what Google wants, how do you as a marketer go about making sure Google is pleased? Jonathan Leger has created a product that can satisfy all of the criteria set forth by the search engine giant, and save you lots of time and effort in the process.

3 Way Links

When you sign up as a member of 3 Way Links, you will be joining a vast network of websites that are all looking for links the way you are. It is an easy process to join the program. All you have to do is add the domain you want to promote and your desired keywords into the system. Then, you upload a PHP file to your site from 3 Way Links, and make a link to that file from your home page. That's all you have to do. 3 Way Links then automatically creates links from other sites within the network that follow all the rules that Google sets out.

You will get links with several different texts, from many unique IP addresses, that build up gradually over the course of a few weeks. As an added bonus, none of the links will be simple reciprocal links that are usually ignored by web crawlers. Instead, they all involve three different sites where A links to B, and B links to C, while C links back to A. That way all the links are one-way and are smiled upon by Google. It is a terrific time saver for a busy web master, and a very effective strategy.

Cost

As a businessman, you are undoubtedly interested in the cost of such a valuable service. For $47 a month, you can put as many as 50 sites into the network and receive up to 250 links for each website. That's less than $1 per site per month. When you think of the potential for a return on your investment that is many times larger than your $47, the program sounds like a very good deal, indeed.

A computer geek as a child, Adam C. Cherrington grew up to discover he had a surprising talent for creative internet marketing. He's the creator of more than 100 websites, including Sandtray Therapy Institute, now in its third year online, and SiteGrinder. He currently mentors marketers to be full-time Internet Marketing Consultants, and helps them create a promotional presence that attracts the kind of clients who make them happiest.

To learn more about his unique methods, and read all about his exact six-figure blueprint, check out his site "The Shoestring Marketer": http://www.theshoestringmarketer.com/blueprint

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Automatic Backlink Software: 5 White Hat Ways to Build Inbound Links

Inbound links are incoming links to a web page or site from another website. Link building is important for any online marketing campaign. Whether you have a blog, an online store, or a portfolio website, you need to focus on building high quality links that are relevant to your site. This strategy can increase your search engine rankings, drive traffic to your content, and increase brand exposure and awareness. Inbound links are also known as backlinks. You can implement a few strategies by yourself or you can use automatic backlink software.

Here are five white hat ways to get backlinks to your site:

Create Link Worthy Posts

Writing quality content is the best thing you can for your website. Create engaging posts that people re eager to share on social media sites, forums, and blogs. Covering a controversial topic is a great way to get backlinks. Browse thorough social networking sites and forums for the most discussed topics and monitor the most common questions from your readers. Use this information to create interesting content that stands out.

Write Guest Posts

Find high authority blogs and websites that are related to the content of your site. See if they accept guest posts. Write unique content that fits the overall theme and style of the blog where it is going to be published. Include a brief description of your site in the author box. Add a link back to your site. Deliver your best work, making it hard for anyone to turn away your post.

Distribute Press Releases

Press releases are an excellent way to get backlinks from well established sources. Write an engaging press release and submit it to news wire sites. A well optimized press release can get published on hundreds of other websites, which will increase traffic and backlinks to your site. Track your performance with marketing analytics tools. For faster results, use a backlink generator.

Talk About Other Companies in Your Industry

Writing about the most popular companies and websites in your niche will increase your chances of going viral. Share your article on Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sires. This way the companies that you've written about will find out about your post and share it with their contacts. This strategy can deliver steady traffic to your site and help you get quality one-way links.

Use Social Media

Social media is a highly effective marketing tool that can help you gain exposure for your site. In addition to sharing content on social networking websites, you need to interact with other users and build genuine relationships with them. Leave comments on their posts, give them advice, and answer their questions. People who perceive you as an authority in your niche are more likely to visit your website, share your posts, and purchase your products.

A quality backlink tool can boost your link building campaign and help you rank better in search results. Many websites are offering both free and paid automatic backlink software to help webmasters get faster results in terms of SEO and boost their popularity online.

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Automatic Backlink Software: Build Quality Links With Guest Posting

Guest posting has gained a lot of popularity in the last years. It is one of the most popular and successful methods of building quality links. Search engines reward contextual links from relevant sites. When you write a guest post, you are allowed to include one or two links to your site in the author box. If you provide compelling content, people will read your article and share it with their social media contacts. This means that you will send your message to a wider audience and get highly targeted traffic to your website.

Many website owners and Internet marketers use automatic backlink software and guest posting to get relevant links and boost their popularity online. Guest posting is a great way to build new and valuable relationships while promoting your site to the target audience. This strategy helps you to get your content in front of other publishers' readers and subscribers and build loyal readership.

Search for blogs and websites in your niche. The last thing you want to do is write about the latest makeup trends a financial blog with an anchor text link pointing to your fashion site in the resource box. If you want to use guest posting effectively, you need to seek out all niche related blogs and pitch a post. Find an eye catching title and optimize it for search engines. Focus on keyword research. Look at your competition for different keywords that you might use. Your title should communicate a benefit to the reader, ask a question, create controversy, or deliver a promise to your audience. It should also include relevant keywords and key phrases.

Write a captivating post that provides quality information. You don't have to reinvent the wheel, but present an engaging topic from a different point of view. Don't be afraid to share your opinion and make your voice heard. When you contact the blog's administrator, introduce yourself and tell him about your idea for a guest post. Ask for a backlink in return. Almost all bloggers are interested in receiving quality content for free, so they will be more than happy to link back to your site.

If your request is approved, write a compelling post and send it to them in a timely manner. Write a short description of your site and include one or two links to the pages that you want to drive traffic to. Share your guest post on social media and social bookmarking sites, and track your website's activity. Writing content for a new audience can only be a good thing for the reputation, visibility, and connections on both sides of the equation.

If you want to maximize your link building efforts, use a quality backlink tool. Most webmasters use guest posting in conjunction with automatic backlink software to get qualified traffic and increase the number of inbound links pointing to their sites.

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Harnessing the Value of Site-Wide Links

Before you can harness the potential value of sitewide links you need to first truly understand what they are. In simple terms, site-wide links are links that are obtained from every single webpage on a particular website.

If you browse through websites nowadays you'll notice that they appear in a number of places. For example, blogs very often have a column on the side with various widgets, one of which may be the 'recommended links'. Any link to a webpage appearing there will appear on every page within the blog - making the link a site-wide link.

Now as you probably well know, when you're trying to accumulate backlinks it really is a numbers game and so having your link appear more times is definitely going to be more advantageous. That being said, you may not get the full value of site-wide links in certain situations.

Over the years, Google in particular has started to 'de-value' certain types of site-wide links, especially those that appear only in sidebars or footers. So it is more valuable if they do not appear in either of those locations.

That being said, it is important to realize that sitewide links provide more than just SEO juice.

Direct Traffic From Sitewide Links

One of the advantages of site-wide links that is very often overlooked is the fact that it can generate a lot of direct traffic, particularly if it is a sitewide link from a website that has a lot of internal traffic.

When a link appears conveniently on every webpage that is part of a website, it is far more likely to be noticed and clicked by the people who are browsing through that website. Again, the format and location of the link have a role to play in how many clicks it gets - but consider it a form of free advertising.

This sort of direct traffic is valuable, and in some cases may be even more valuable than getting a couple of extra backlinks to help with SEO value. Depending on the circumstances, you may find that a single site-wide link on a popular website actually helps you generate more traffic than ranking on search engines for many keywords.

If you want to truly harness the potential of site-wide links, you need to keep this in mind. It isn't enough to just count on these links for their SEO value - ideally you should be thinking about whether or not they can help you to bring in traffic, because that is the ultimate goal that you intend to fulfill by ranking higher on search engines anyway.

With the right approach, site-wide links can certainly help make that happen.

To get site-wide links from a popular and highly recognized web directory, check out the packages that are being offered at Cosmo Rankings and start ranking higher on search engines and generating more traffic than ever before.

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