Link Building

The last time I wrote a note I was still in transition from my shared hosting to dedicated hosting. I am 99% done that transfer. I am still keeping my GoDaddy shared hosting account as all of my "gocurious" sites are still on it (including this one).

I did about $390 in October and am looking at more than $500 in November...who knows how well December will do? All I have to say is thank god for Christmas, some of my other sites are not performing as well as they were pre-move, but my two Christmas sites are doing fantastic. In fact, my North Pole Christmas site is really killing my bandwidth. If you search on google on christmas wallpaper, or christmas backgrounds then look at the images you'll see: http://www.north-pole-christmas has a pretty high ranking on some images. I'll discuss why in a later post, but I believe the "why" is what's draining my bandwidth (120GB so far this month).

In more new, I'm still using SubmitEaze to do my Directory Submisssions. I find this to be a really well written piece of software, easy to use and updated frequently. They've just added Article Submissions to version 6...wahoo!

After taking a quick look at the article submissions portion of Submit Eaze, they still have some work to do to catch up with Article Post Robot, but it's a start and it's included with the software at no extra charge. It's certainly better than doing the article submissions by hand.

I like Article Post Robot (which I had been using), but I do wish that APR had the polish that I see in the rest of SubmitEaze, especially the automagic updates that SubmitEaze has. For the money, SubmitEaze has been my best purchase so far. If you'd like to try it out, follow the link below (or on top of the page). I believe they have a free trial.

SubmitEaze Directory Submission Software.

And yes, I am a SumitEaze affiliate, but remember I only recommend software and services that I actually use and really believe in. I recommend GoDaddy because I've been with them for more than a year and while the rest of the world will tell you horror stories, they have been better/fairer to me than "other" hosting companies. The same goes for SubmitEaze, I found it to be best of breed and after using it myself for the last 6 months decided to join their affiliate program and endorse their product here. You will note that I did not join the Article Marketer affiliate program or the Article Post Robot affiliate program. I like and currently use Article Post Robot for article submissions. I found Article Marketer to be very unprofessional (read through some of my earlier posts if you'd like to see why). Article Post Robot is a few features and a little polish away from being a real top notch product. Maybe in time I will fully endorse it (I still use it).

On other news, I am trying to get some of my sites listed in the Yahoo Directory. A tip I found on a certain web forum said it's easier to get listed regionally and since my sites have a certain Canadian Flavour to them, I am going that route. I'll let you know if this works or not.

Still nothing in DMOZ after 9 or 10 months. I'm starting to think that you need to know an editor, be and editor or pay an editor to get listed in DMOZ.

Oh, I made some performance improvements on the sites, APC cache and MySQL query caching. I was able to get twice as many visitors in the last UFC (35,000 on fight night) with these changes. I'm thinking of installing/configuring squid in front of my web server to get even better throughput for the next fight as it still got pretty slow (and some denials) during the main event.

Don't forget to try out the SubmitEaze Directory Submission Software. It's a free trial and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

I am here to tell you first hand, do not buy paid links. Many will tell you that paid links do not incur a penalty with Google, but I tend to disagree. Let me give you a case in point.

My site blah.com. (that's not the real name, the real name is kept secret to protect my real job)

Once upon a time (a month ago) blah.com was rated #1 on all 3 search engines for the phrase "Blah". That makes sense for sure. I've owned this domain for more than 5 years, but only started using it for a web site about 6-9 months ago. It's been #1 or #2 for the phrase "Blah" almost since day 1.

Then I was reading in some SEO forum that it's more effective to buy one good PR paid link than doing a ton of free directory submissions. I'd like to meet the guy who made that suggestion.

Anyway, to make a long story short, life is never that easy. Now that I've purchased my link, my site has dropped out of the top on google...how low did it go? Let me put it this way, I got tired of hitting the next button. Now, I am still listed somewhere (i.e. not banner), but I am being penalized for buying a paid link (I'm sure of it).

To compound the situation, I am having trouble getting the link dir that I purchased the link on to remove it. I've sent them 4 e-mails with no responses. My next step is to try to involve paypal...but then what?

So, now I need to do everything I can to remove the link, then beg google for re-inclusion, admitting that I've been bad (even though I didn't know it) and saying that I'll never do it again.

Many "experts" will tell you that I am not incurring a penalty for this, they are WRONG. Nothing else has changed on my site and "Blah" is not a common search term (even at #1 I only got 10-20 hits a day on the site, but I was starting to get ranked on other keywords as well and traffic was starting to grow).

So Paid Link Penalties are real, deal with it, don't do it...find a better way. Nuff said.

I've taken a while off from submitting articles to increase my sites link popularity (not this site, my other sites). In place of that, I've decided to start submitting my sites to link directories. There are many services out there which say that they do manual submissions and also some software packages to help you out. I of course decided to pay about $100 for a software package. I believed that this would be the right thing to do, considering I have about 20 sites to submit.

I chose SubmitEaze and it seems to work well enough. I can create as many projects as I like and SubmitEaze is pre-populated with a number of directories (likely from DirectoryCritic). SubmitEaze has a drop down for free, paid, reciprocal. SubmitEaze also has the ability to add your own custom directories. I think it would be great if they added several niche lists and also deep link lists. Perhaps someone from SubmitEaze will read this and add it, or I could get off my lazy butt and send them an e-mail.

In addition to using SubmitEaze, I decided to utilize a manual directory submission service that came recommended from a popular seo forum (search in google for seo forum and you'll find it). The service was www.seoster.com. I chose the 500 submissions for $50 package. It took about a week for them to start my submissions, but after that they seemed to do about 100/day. At the end I got a file with the submission list. A lot of the directories send confirmation and/or informational e-mail, so be sure to use an e-mail account that you don't mind some spam in...also, make sure it is an account under the domain you are submitting (or lots of directories won't even look at you). Last of all, be sure and check the e-mails in case they do require confirmation.

So, other than maintaining my sites that's what I've been up to. My AdSense numbers have been growing steadily, but at my current rate I won't be able to retire for another 20-40 years or so. I'm sure if I threw more money at the problem things would move quicker, but what is one to do?

If google ever shows my article links (the ones in the article directories themselves) then perhaps I'll re-visit that strategy, but for now it's link directories, niche directories and a few choice blogs that I post at to build my links.

If I was more focused I'd keep a list of blogs and forums related to my subject matter and make it a habit to post to each of them at least once a day (but only if I had something to say).

I found this little article by Wendy Suto and decided it was exactly the type of thing which belongs on Project AdSense or the AdSense Project or whatever this site is called:

Businesses can gain a competitive edge with Google and other significant search engines through relevant link building strategies. The search engines track links in ranking algorithms while crawling the Web. It is advantageous to grow the number of incoming links to your company’s site alongside effective search engine optimization techniques.

There are numerous link building solutions.

1. Free and paid link directories

Link directories all provide either one-way or reciprocal links. Some are free, while others are paid only. Link directories are beneficial because Websites that place your link on their site without requesting a link back to their site are considered more valuable than reciprocal or link exchanges, in the eyes of major search engines. There are many reputable directory sites that are well trafficked by potential buyers for your product. You will find one-way and reciprocal link directories by typing into any search engine search box, keywords like “submit a link”, “add a URL”, or “add link”.

Some small business owners will only link to sites that link back to their site. This creates reciprocal links pages and triangular link patterns. Reciprocal links do not improve a Website’s rankings, and should only be done to give value to your site visitors. This is not a savvy SEO tactic or a wise link building practice. Stay clear of SEO companies who use these link exchange strategies; they are not considered real SEOs by other professionals in the field.

2. Business Blogging

This is an ever growing Internet trend gaining in popularity with businesses – corporate blogs. Blogging started as personal spaces for individuals to share their thoughts and the events around them, like an online diary. Corporate blogging is then defined as another way to publish business-related content and gain more visibility for your company on the Web. By offering information and sharing knowledge, a company can quickly establish itself as a leading industry expert, get information to customers quickly, increase sales, attract journalists seeking news releases, and attract new customers looking for relevant information.

3. Article Directory Submissions

Article directories are sites that house free reprint articles, allowing authors (people like you) to become known as experts in a field or industry. These sites help authors gain one-way link popularity because others seeking free articles to reprint on their newsletters, Websites, blogs and in print can find them here. Reprint articles can only be used elsewhere if providing a link back to the author’s Website. You also receive free advertising and promotion.

4. Press releases

Submit your company’s news releases to sites like PRWeb.com and PRNewswire.com to allow journalists and bloggers to find important information about your company, its products and services. These releases also build links to your site, and attract attention from prospective buyers.

5. MySpace.com

This is a tremendous opportunity for free publicity, through networking with prospects from around the world. Place your business profile, your company logo and business pictures, commercials and videos, write comments on other myspace.com profiles, receive email, instant message, and search for prospective clients. MySpace.com also has a business section that is cost effective and a great way to share your business with people searching for a certain product or service. This is another way to increase your link popularity.

6. Yahoo! Answers

This site is relatively new, and lets people in all industries become an expert in their fields. Answer questions in categories related to your expertise. Choose a subject from an extensive list of categories. Create a profile on Yahoo!, and you get to list up to 3 other one-way links. Yahoo! Geocities offers free a Website template and tools to build a simple Website. All these avenues add a host of easy ways to increase link popularity for your business.

7. One-Way Links on other Business Sites

Even with these link building strategies, having one-way links are considered much more valuable than link exchanges, also called reciprocal links. One way links from other related business sites or blogs with pertinent subject matter to the Website is an excellent way to drive traffic to your site. Although it is time consuming asking other sites to link to your site, these methods will assist in building stronger link popularity interest among the major search engines.

8. Business Networking Sites

FastPitchMedia.com and LinkedIn.com are two business networking sites that give professionals and business executives many resources under one place. These one-stop shops give professionals a lot of excellent exposure for free, by housing a database of business owners linked to each other’s online networks. Try something new! Create a profile through these sites, and you will reach other decision makers, stay in touch with others in your network, fill a key position, and keep contact information current.

Wendy Suto is president and CEO of Search Circus, Inc., an ethical SEO firm specializing in one-way link popularity building. The company also offers natural search engine optimization, blog marketing, Website copywriting and article submission solutions. As a certified search engine optimization consultant, she teaches SEO seminars throughout Cleveland, Ohio.

wendy@searchcircus.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Wendy_Suto
http://EzineArticles.com/?Increase-Links-Naturally-With-Link-Popularity-Building-(LPB)&id=550935

I've seen people saying that the Google sandbox does not exist. I say this is both true and untrue. I have seen my site appear in the google index in as little as a week, however there are portions of googles searches which I believe are way behind current. Let me give you some examples.

I have a Christmas site

http://christmas.gocurious.com

I started developing this site, probably in October 2006. Google shows 9 backlinks to this site (as seen by going to advanced search and choosing links.

I have another site

http://mma.gocurious.com

I started developing this site, slightly afterwards.

Google shows 2 backlinks to this site (same method).

Here's the rub. I have recently written 10+ MMA related articles. These articles at minimum should be worth 1 backlink each (however, they are distributed to multiple article sites, so maybe more).

So, I go to one of my competitors sites (although competitor is not correct...they are Christmas sites, aren't they). Anyway doing a link search on that site yielded 43 backlinks, most of them internal. I know my site also has these internal links, but they aren't showing up.

Conclusion1: The backlinks and links shown currently were harvested sometime in early November, a full 3 months prior to the pagerank update. So, if you are wondering how old the data is which is being used for the current pageranks, it is 3 months old. This is just an educated guess, but probably correct.

Conclusion2: Assuming I am correct with #1, then the next pagerank (perhaps April or May) should show a dramatic increase in backlinks for both sites, but my MMA site should go through the roof.

OR

For some reason, Google is not seeing the real backlinks to my site as existing...yikes! Or most/all of these article directories are blocking outbound links...I prefer to use the stale data theory.

Note: This does not mean that google uses old data for search engine rankings or search results. I know they index my MMA site (at least the main page) about every week or two.

So, if you are thinking about setting up a web site and you have a target date to reach pagerank or full SEO, you'd better start 6 months in advance. Start by putting up your root page, then get your linking done (either by article marketing, buying links or smart link trading). Then add relevant meaningful content. Of course everyone else will tell you to build up the content on your site first and perhaps they are correct...what do I know? Not much, but I am learning!