What is Link Building?

Link building or the skill of attaining back links is essentially working to gain website links from other websites pointing to your site. Understanding there are many that are somewhat new to SEO and they are not quite aware of the importance of building a good backlinks structure, I am going to dip into it a bit here today.

There are a few names you might have heard like; backlinks, link building, linking, inbound links, one way linking, reciprocal linking, 3-way linking, etc. For the most part they are all talking about getting a website link from someone else’s site pointing to yours.   The reason for the popularity of this is for some search engines the more important one being Google, they look at the amount & quality of links pointing to your website and that helps them determine how popular and relevant your site is for certain terms and helps them rank your site accordingly. Though this is only one of the many ways they determine your relevance and ranking for a term, it is a very important one. Please don’t smack me on my phrasing as I am trying to put this in layman’s terms for those that are not fluent in SEO and link building.

One of the more important aspects of link building and achieving backlinks is the way the links are produced. If you have a site that places a link to your site that looks like this  http://www.HowardSEMGroup.com it will work just find and even push a little authority or link juice your way though it doesn’t show the search engines what your site is really relevant for. Now if you have a link from a site pointing to yours that looks like this Small Business SEO this is the way that will give you the most relevance for your terms as this link is essentially telling the search engines that Small Business SEO = http://www.HowardSEMGroup.com essentially giving you a popularity point as well.

With that said remember this is the very watered down explanation…When it comes to one-way linking and reciprocal linking, one-way linking coming from another site to yours is always better, though much harder to achieve. If the search engines are giving you let’s say a popularity point for getting a link, when you give the linking site a link back (reciprocal) you are essentially giving them half of your earned point. Hopefully that makes sense.

One of the most important things to remember is that theme related relevance does matter when you are receiving links from other sites. When the search engines notice you’re getting a link from 2 different sites (using Howard SEM Group as an example), if you get a link from Mikes Donuts, and California SEO Services which do you think the search engines are going to give more value and credit to?

Unfortunately like all things many have tried to manipulate rankings by using black hat and unethical linking techniques. These techniques might produce great results as for your ranking in the short term, but can get your website banned or penalized in the long term. The search engines all have their own guidelines, but for the most part it’s pretty simple to understand. If you play by the rules you will succeed if you don’t, you won’t!

Effective link building and attaining backlinks can be very time consuming, and many in the industry struggle with this aspect of SEO. This is something you can learn as there is a lot of information on the Internet, though we always recommend using a professional SEO Firm or SEO Consultant to aid in your success. (Did you catch those? Ha!)

Happy 4th of July from the team at Howard SEM Group!!! We hope everyone out there has a wonderful and safe Independence Day celebration with their family and friends. We will be enjoying the traditional barbecue & picnic theme while watching the wonderful fireworks show where the music is choreographed with our local radio stations 93.9 FM  The Lake & 1490 AM KOWL …. We are also looking forward to listening to a few commercials we have out with those great stations to ensure our local businesses know we are here, and can help them succeed on the web.

You can listen here Howard SEM Group – Radio Commercial – 4th of July 2010

If you are needing help ensuring your business is found on the Internet and succeeds, give us a call at 1-877-4EZ-RANK or 1-877-439-7265  or visit us at www.HowardSEMGroup.com

HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY!

If you like Java, Google Caffeine is going to rock your world! For those of you that are not aware Google has fully launched there new web search indexing system called Caffeine on June 8th, 2010. With this new indexing system new content will be indexed by Google much faster compared with there old system. There old system used to index every few weeks or some times as long as a month or so. With Google Caffeine indexing will be so much faster it will be almost like real time indexing. This full roll out of  Google Caffeine has been long anticipated as Search Engine Marketers and SEO Consultants have been curious of effects Caffeine would have in the market since mid 2009.  This will change a lot in regards to Internet Marketing….

How Google Caffeine Will Effect SEO

Time will tell as many are consistently researching the changes in Google’s new indexing system. One thing is for sure the websites that are creating fresh, quality on-going content, on a normal basis will have an advantage in the SERPs (search engine results pages). Those who are not, might find their rankings being crowded by newer fresher content pages. So if you do not have a blog, and/or you do not update content on your website it’s time for change.  As we’ve recommend in the past, Google and other main search engines love fresh, high quality, original content, so don’t be left behind get that WordPress blog going and be consistent.

With MSN’s Bing roll out in 2009, and Bing and Yahoo joining forces, Google has lost a small piece of search market share to Bing. Though we like Bing, and the size of Yahoo’s massive index of sites and pages we just don’t know if they will be able to catch up with Google’s massive amount of search market share. Now with Caffeine launched, instead of the Google search engine indexing the majority of the web every few weeks, it now indexes pieces or chunks of the web almost in real time and continuously. Meaning it is updating the index on such a larger scale and with a more in depth and faster look at the web, that new content like this will be live to search on Google possibly within hours rather than weeks, so you can see how the competition for popular search terms will really start to shift more aggressively.

We understand many small businesses do not have the time to update blogs, or write fresh new content on a continuous basis to their site so we recommend working with a professional content writer that has experience in writing SEO optimized content & best practices. You may also look into hiring a SEO Consultant or SEO Firm as many of them provide SEO content writing services.

We would love to hear about the changes and effects Google Caffeine has had on your website or just the way you search and the results you receive??!!!

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Google PageRank Update, What That Means To You?

Google, the most popular search engine on the web uses a tool called PageRank, which was believed to be named after Larry Page co-founder of Google, Inc. to help determine their view of the popularity, authority or quality of a web page. Using numerous terms, filters and variables PageRank determines a numerical value for a specified page. Taking into consideration other pages that link to your specific page and those links/page value as well, it will determine a PageRank between 1-10,  ten being the highest. Simply thought of like a popularity contest, the more web pages that point a link to your web page, it’s reasonable to concur it is like a vote for your page. The more votes (links) to your web page, the more popular you are considered, thus aiding the PageRank increase in your favor. Now don’t get me wrong it is much more complicated than that, as there are many, many other variables that are considered like the value of the page that links to you for instance.  “PageRank” itself is a known trademark of Google, and the process in which it operates has been patented (US Patent 6285999). Though this will give you a basic idea…

April 2010 PageRank Update

As some of you that might keep track have noticed, Google performed a PageRank update in the beginning of April 2010. This seems pretty standard for Google’s trending MO (method of operation) as it seems to have happened around the same time in the last few years.  This update looks to have happened on April 2nd, so if you notice a slight increase in your page rank that is why. With these possible increases can also come a negative decrease in page rank depending again on their algorithm, and how they determine your web page to rank depending on their findings. Link Farms and other sites known to sell links have been known to have their pages PageRank decreased or penalized severely by Google. A black hat practice that should be avoided at all costs.

Why Is It Good To Have High PageRank?

For small businesses the value can be enormous as PageRank is considered to be involved in organic search rankings. Meaning if your small business web page has a high PageRank combined with its relevance determined by Google for a specific keyword or phrase it can equal very high rankings within the organic search results used by most folks to find information, a product, or a service depending on their needs. This high visibility will increase the visitors/consumers that frequent your web page or site equaling in increased interaction, sales, leads & targeted consumer traffic. I consider this to have enormous value as it can essentially make a business! Think of it like:  A customer wants to buy a baseball bat and in driving down the freeway to a sports store they get lost, or cannot find one until they see this HUGE billboard pointing them to your sports store that sells baseball bats. By having a high PageRank and a high relevance for a certain term related to your business that can lead to a high ranking in the search results which will show your billboard helping folks to find you on the web.

There are also many businesses out looking to advertise on blogs and websites with high PageRank and visitors to expose their brand, product or service. So there are different values for your business that can increase your overall value and monetization of your website to be considered when thinking of the value of PageRank. Though the true value and results of PageRank has been debated within the Internet Marketing industry over the years it is still a strength, and / or weakness of a site that can be changed to help monetize your small business site.  You can find out what your PageRank is by downloading the Google Toolbar for your browser. Also you might want to seek the help of an experienced SEO Firm or SEO Consultant to aid you in increasing your PageRank.

Tell us if your PageRank has moved at all with the April update???

How Can SEO Help Your Small Business online?

SEO services and techniques are very important for any small business. With the advent of the Internet, more and more people are searching things online, whether it’s products, information or services.  You want your site to be found! So many believe all they have to do is build a website, sign-up for Facebook, Twitter and a few other social sites and they are good to go, unfortunately 6 months later they find that is the farthest from the truth. So how do you catch the attention of your online customers? How do you ensure people can find your website? SEO & Internet Marketing is the answer…

First of all, you need a good website.  Your website is the interface between your business and your online customers. A good website is the one which has fresh, original content as well as good SEO optimization. When looking for an SEO services company or consultant, check with their references, past clients, etc. to ensure they can provide results. As there is a lot of promotional talk and advertising but the fact is , if they can’t provide proof  of their results over and over again then you are better off seeking services elsewhere.  Ask  just to make sure they have worked with websites in your same niche/industry before hand, to ensure they are not learning as they go.

SEO – search engine optimization

So many ask the simple question of  “What is SEO” –search engine optimization? It is a combination of art & science that use numerous processes to increase the amount of visitors to a website or page, and increase the quality of the traffic to that site or page. This type of optimization uses techniques that involve cleaning the website code to ensure spiderability by the search engines, and engaging in attracting one–way links from others sites to your own to show a sort of popularity, and most importantly ensuring the content and usability of the site is ideal for your customers and search engines alike.

This means that when a prospect comes online looking for some products or services that are provided by your website, your website will be visibly and easily found, ranking high within the search engine results. An SEO firm can achieve this targeted goal for you. There is a never ending increase thus far in the amount of businesses spending for SEO & other Internet marketing services year after year. If your not doing it yourself, don’t get left behind.

Studies prove that a person is more likely to pick the results from the first page listings of search engines for that searched keyword or term.  So if your website is among the first page results provided by the search engines, it has higher chances of being chosen.  More people visiting your website, mean more customers for your business, more leads, more sales, etc.

One of the main and most important techniques in SEO is choosing the right keyword/terms for your site. A skilled professional will be able to assist your site in choosing the perfect terms to target and not waist your money. Good SEO attracts search engine bots & spiders that scan your site to index data into the search engines, though your website needs to be ultimately aimed for the visitor, not the search engine.  An SEO Consultant can ensure that your site is targeted for the user not the robot. After all it is ultimately the prospect, and not the bots, which will increase your sales. For this reason, choose the services of good SEO consultants or Firm if you have no experience in professional SEO content writing.

If you are thinking about developing a web site for your small business, it is advisable to consult an SEO services provider. If you already have a business website but are not getting the traffic or sales you need, or no one can find your site, consult with a reputable SEO firm that will work within your budget. If you don’t have the patience and time it takes to learn SEO (search engine optimization) yourself, it is better that you leave it to the experts so that you can focus on your business.

Having your site rank high in the SERP’s (search engine results pages) resulting in a large increase in targeted high converting traffic, when properly optimized will increase sales, leads and brand recognition naturally and organically. Not like the typical advertising that stops providing, when you stop paying.

Remember, if you see an ad for “TOP Rankings in 14 days for $199.”  If it feels too good to be true, it probably is. Many reputable SEO Consultants and firms charge between $600 – $20,000+ per month depending on many, many variables with an average campaign running anywhere between 6-12 months.

Don’t forget about Us!  Howard SEM Group specializes in affordable SEO for small and medium sized businesses. Contact us today for a FREE, no-obligation quote/proposal.