Nov 22, 2010 Posted in Marketing Ideas

No Such Thing as Building Links Too Fast

At a very high level, the Google robot looks at two aspects of your website when determining where to rank it. The first is your on-site content. This includes how your site is structured and the content (words, audio, pictures and videos) that your site contains.

The second aspect that Google looks at is your in-bound links. When other sites link to your site Google sees it as a ‘vote of confidence’ and the more sites you get, the better your ranking will be. Of course, as with all things related to Google, it isn’t that easy. Where those links are coming from and how other sites link to you are also important. The more important (or higher authority) the site that is linking to you is, the more valuable that link will be.

This is all basic search engine optimization stuff but important to review in light of today’s discussion. What I do want to talk about is linking strategy. Of course, given the information above, it stands to reason that if you get as many links as possible from as many sites as possible your search rankings will improve. That only makes sense.

However, many SEO experts are incredibly paranoid about getting links. They believe that getting too many links too fast will land you in the infamous Google sandbox, your site will get de-index and you’ll never receive another visitor through Google’s organic search results.

Here is why I believe that all of this is hogwash and why you can never build links too fast. That isn’t to say that you should use stupid tactics like link farms and free for all listing sites but you should never be worried about other sites linking to you. Why? Because who links to you is beyond your control. I can’t stop a porn site from linking to my blog anymore than I can stop the rain from falling during the winters in Vancouver. I can control who I link to but I can’t control who links to me.

And Google knows this. Why is this so important? Because if a site could get penalized for what other sites link to it and if I wasn’t such a nice guy, I would spam all of my competitors’ sites. I’d place links to their sites from all these shady sources and they would get de-indexed. Of course, it doesn’t work that way.

All of those links would likely be discounted but it is hard to imagine that Google would destroy a site because of something that is clearly beyond a webmaster’s control AND can be so easily gamed. Same thing goes for duplicate content but that is another discussion.

At the end of the day, inbound links is one of the main criteria that Google looks at when rating your site. I’m not suggesting that you spam to get as many links as possible but I am saying that you shouldn’t worry about getting too many links too quickly.

These are called viral campaigns (people pass around great content) and the number of links to a site increases immediately. This the nature of good marketing on the web and Google expects this to happen. They are not going to penalize you for it.

Nov 21, 2010 Posted in Marketing Ideas

The ONE Thing That Never Fails Online

Everyone talks about search engine optimization and how to get a site to the top of the search rankings. SEO experts go around and around in circles debating what Google may or may not be thinking and make every possible excuse not to do something.

I hear it every day. “If that site links to us, Google may not like us anymore” or “We can’t get too many links at once or Google won’t like us anymore.” It drives me absolutely crazy because everyone is just pontificating rather than testing and seeing what works and what doesn’t.

So what does work? I’m glad you asked. Creating good content works and it will always work. Google has always been consistent in the fact that it will reward sites with good content. When a site has good content other sites will mention it and link to it. That is why Google puts such an importance on incoming links.

At the same time your customers and future customers will appreciate you putting out valuable information. And I’m not just talking about good content on your site. You can post helpful information on Facebook, in forums or any of hundreds of social media sites. When people find this content they’ll pass it around.

They’ll tweet about it, they’ll friend you and they’ll send it to their friends and colleagues in their social networks. Guess what all of that does? Right! It creates more and more links and more and more actual traffic back to your website.

Let’s quit trying to ‘game’ Google. Google likes good content and your customers like good content. And at the end of the day, creating good, helpful content is a whole lot more rewarding and enjoyable than buying links or begging site owners to link to you.

What you may be asking is what constitutes good content. That part is easy. Solve your customers’ problems. Whatever you sell – whether it is a product or a service – solves some kind of a problem.

Every day you probably get the same questions over and over about whatever it is that you do. Those are your Frequently Asked Questions or FAQs. Answer those freely both on your site and on remote sites.

If you’re a business owner I know that you’re the expert in your field. Share that expertise whenever and wherever you can online. That effort and the fact that you’re actively and willingly helping people will come back to you in droves.

Nov 1, 2009 Posted in Fun and Inspiration

Funny Halloween Story

Daredevil pup Stanley attracts more than a few stares when he goes for a ‘walk’ in his miniature Spitfire. Passers-by might think the four month old wire-haired fox terrier is crazy, but he loves donning his flying hat, goggles and jacket for a spin reports the Metro.

Owners Phil and Sharon Cook, both in their 40s, mocked up the miniature plane for a Halloween party, but Stanley enjoyed it so much that they can be seen trundling around the streets near their home in Leigh, Essex. Mrs Cook added, ‘Stanley loves it. We decided to go for a Spitfire as a nod towards Remembrance Day. He is content to sit in the cockpit and watch the world go by.’

The plane is made from an old holdall attached to a skateboard, while Stanley’s flying hat is fashioned from an old cuddly toy.

— originally published on www.guy-sports.com —

Jul 23, 2009 Posted in Marketing Ideas

Google Taking Out the Ruler and Spanking Affiliates – Again.

Anyone doing pay per click marketing for any length of time knows that Google Adwords is the main playing field if you want to get serious traffic quickly. You would also know that setting up Adwords campaigns is complicated and often frustrating due to the fact that Google is less than forth-coming with all of the rules you’re supposed to follow if you want to compete in their auction-like pay per click advertising program.
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May 8, 2009 Posted in Marketing Ideas

A Harsh But Practical Lesson in Managing Affiliates

Many companies believe that selling their products or services through an affiliate programme is the dream solution. They have visions of thousands of sales people promoting their products all over the Web. These little guys never get tired, they work 24/7 and they only get paid after they sell something.

Ah, Xanadu.
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