5 Most Common Link Building Mistakes

After getting to know that link popularity is the most important factor that search engines consider when deciding your Pagerank, almost everyone has taken to posting their back links all over the internet. However, gaining credible link popularity that increases your page rank is really not as easy as it sounds and most people who do not know much about how Pagerank works keep creating text links that are either useless, or even harmful for their webpage. In order to make link popularity work for you, it is important to avoid the most common link building mistakes.

1. Creating Links On Unrelated Pages.
   Search engines nowadays are smart enough to decipher whether your link is relevant to the users of the webpage that they are placed on or not. So if you are putting the text links of your webpages which are related to cooking on websites that deal with high end electronic goods, wrestling or real estate, you can be sure that these links will be trashed by the search engine, doing zilch for your Pagerank. So create links on sites that have related content. For example, if you have a cooking related website, placing links on home improvement, restaurant, recipe and kitchen equipment sites will be helpful.
2. Creating Text Links That Proclaim,"Click Here".
   Google search engine spiders use the text on your hyperlink to determine what your website is all about and this plays an important role in determining both your Pagerank as well as your search engine rankings. By putting hyperlinks that simply say " click here for more information" or "know more here", you are telling the search engines that your website is about clicking and knowing more and that is where you will be ranked high instead of getting high search engine rankings for your own domain. Make it a point to use relevant keywords in your text links.
3. Creating Links On High Pagerank Pages That Already Have Hundreds Of Links.
   Yes, it is true that the higher the PR of a page linking to you, the higher will be the value assigned to the link by the search engines and the greater will be your page rank. This is because the value or points that you get from a page that links back to you is determined by the formula — page rank of linking page / number of links on that page. But it is equally important to pay attention to the denominator of the formula, since a highly ranked page with lots of back links may end up giving you lower value than a page with lower rank but lesser links.
4. Placing Links On Dynamic Pages.
   Web pages that are generated dynamically take ages to get indexed, and in all probability, a text link on such a page will never help in increasing your page rank. Identify dynamic pages by URLs with special symbols in them (&,? etcetera) and save your time by not posting any text links to your site on such pages.
5. Creating Links On Pages That SE Spiders Cannot Crawl On.
   The whole point of building link popularity for increasing page rank is to make your site accessible to search engine spiders. However, search engine bots have not become smart enough to read pages generated by Flash or JavaScript. They are also unable to read text links placed within frames, so it is a complete waste of time creating back links on sites that are either Flash generated or framed, since these links would be totally ignored by search engine spiders.

Semantics for SEO

Semantics is the study of meaning and relationships and plays a role in SEO. Google makes its money from being successful at crawling, indexing, and ranking data. One important aspect of this procedure is being able to understand content in a manner that is more complex than keyword density. One way of doing this is Latent Semantics Analysis or LSA. Google may not use this exact approach, but Google is sure to use some similar system of semantic analysis to look at textual content.

Intro to SEO Semantics

By using semantics, search engines can have a basic understanding of the English language. There is an understanding of synonyms, antonyms, and polysemes. In addition, Google can relate niches and keywords. They’re able to develop complex relationships with keywords through their huge database of information and linking relationships.

For example, Google can understand the following relationships for a Make Money Online site.

Make Money Online

• Make Money
• Make Money Online
• Make Money Blogging
• Make Money on eBay

Internet Marketing

• Internet Marketing Services
• Online Marketing

Social Media Marketing

• Social Media
• Social Bookmarking
• Web 2.0
• Digg
• StumbleUpon

Blogging

• Blogger
• Wordpress
• Plugins
• RSS Feed

SEO

• Search Engine Optimization
• Link Building
• Article Marketing
• Directory Submissions
• Dofollow
• Nofollow

Google knows that the usage of any of the above keywords is related to the primary keyword of make money online. It can relate long tail keywords as well as related keywords and the long tails of those related keywords.

Role of Semantics when Writing for Search Engines

Knowing that Google uses semantics is important when writing your site’s content and building links. You should use this knowledge to solidify your page’s focus on a keyword.

Quick Note on Keyword Density

Google content analysis is more advanced than keyword density. Do not stress keyword density. Keyword density will not help you rank higher. Anyone still teaching you to achieve a certain density is wrong. Keyword usage is important, but there is no set density that you should target. Simply use it naturally, but ideas like LSA move Google away from basic keyword density analysis. Keyword density is not a direct measure of relevancy. The usage of a keyword 10 times does not make it more relevant than a page that uses its keyword 3 times. If anything, the over usage of a keyword can hurt your rankings. The usage of semantics can be used to determine if a site is using natural language. An over optimized keyword stuffed page does not use natural language and may hurt your rankings.

Use Long Tails

Instead of trying to use your primary keyword over and over, use long tails. Research your keyword before you write your article to determine long tail keywords. Select two or three long tails that have your main keyword as their parent keyword. Use them in your content to support your main keyword and do it without keyword spamming. Not only does this create natural content, but this increases the number of terms you can rank for. You can now work your primary keyword as well as the long tails.

Related Terms

In addition to long tails, use related keywords. If you’re writing about SEO, talk about internet marketing. If you talk about McDonalds, talk about hamburgers. If you talk about hamburgers, discuss hot dogs. If Apple, discuss Mac and Ipod. These related terms will support your main keyword because Google understands the relationship. In addition, it will increase the number of keywords you can rank for.

Role of Semantics when Link Building

The classic advice of varying your anchor text. If you get too many links with the same anchor text, Google will consider it a Google bomb. Varying anchor text is important for two reasons. First, it looks natural. Having the same anchor text is a sign of self generated links. Second, semantics comes into play. You can use related anchor text to support your primary target keyword.

A post about BANS (Build a Niche Store) could use any of the follow keyword(s) as anchor text and still support the primary keyword.

• BANS
• BANS site
• BANS ebay
• Build A Niche Store
• Make Money on eBay
• Make Money Online
• eBay Niche Store
• Build an Online Store
• eBay Affiliate

Google understands that all of these keywords are related.

Dominating Multiple Long Tails Keywords

By using this approach instead of keyword stuffing one keyword phrase, you’re able to dominate multiple keyword listings for long tails. You can rank for many long tails by simply mentioning the keyword. Instead of repeating one keyword phase over and over, use semantically related keywords. This will reinforce your main keyword while also increasing the number of long tails you can rank for. As your page gains authority for the main keyword, your authority for the semantically related keywords will also increase. And the opposite is also true, as you gain authority for the semantically related keywords, your authority for the main keyword increases.

Conclusion

Understanding that Google uses semantics to evaluate content can help you improve your on site SEO. Simple measures like keyword density are out dated and should not be used to determine how targeted a page is. So when developing content, consider developing a list of long tails and related keywords that you can sprinkle through your content to help support your targeted keyword.

How can use good robots.txt for Search engines

Using robots.txt, you can ban specific robots, ban all robots, or block robot access to specific pages or areas of your site. If you are not sure what to type, look at the bottom of this page for examples.

An example of SEO optimized robots.txt file (should work on most blogs… just edit the sitemap URL):

User-agent: *
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /wp-includes/
Disallow: /wp-content/

User-Agent: Mediapartners-Google
Allow: /

User-Agent: Adsbot-Google
Allow: /

User-Agent: Googlebot-Image
Allow: /

User-Agent: Googlebot-Mobile
Allow: /

When robots (like the Googlebot) crawl your site, they begin by requesting

Robots.txt Samples

Following are a few simple examples of what you might type in your robots.txt file. For more examples, read the robots.txt specification. (In the specification, look for the “What to put into the robots.txt file” heading.) Please note the following points:

Important: Search engines look only in top-level domains for robots.txt files. So this plugin will only help you if typing in http://blog.example.com/ or http://example.com brings up Wordpress. If you have to type http://example.com/blog/ to bring up Wordpress (i.e. it is in a subdirectory, not in a subdomain or at the domain root), this plugin will not do you any good. Search engines look do not look for robots.txt files in subdirectories, only in root domains and subdomains.

Following are a few examples of what you can type in a robots.txt file.

Ban all robots

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Allow all robots

To allow any robot to access your entire site, you can simply leave the robots.txt file blank, or you could use this:

User-agent: *
Disallow:

Ban specific robots

To ban specific robots, use the robot’s name. Look at the list of robot names to find the correct name. For example, Google is Googlebot and Microsoft search is MSNBot. To ban only Google:

User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /

Allow specific robots

As in the previous example, use the robot’s correct name. To allow only Google, use all four lines:

User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Ban robots from part of your site

To ban all robots from the page “Archives” and its subpages, located at http://yourblog.example.com/archives/,

User-agent: *
Disallow: /archives/


robots, robots.txt

Web Optimization – Four Common Problems That Stop Your Success

Anyone interested in online marketing knows that web optimization is critical to a successful business. Web optimization comprises a number of different ideas, including search engine optimization, website analytics, and design factors, among many others.

However, optimization is more than just a standard set of practices. As every good interactive marketing agency knows, it is different for each business, and within each industry.

Those differences are one of the primary aspects that make ‘do-it-yourself’ optimization without an interactive marketing agency such a risky prospect. An interactive marketing agency keeps abreast of the ever-changing landscape in order to implement best practices to achieve good positioning and visibility for a website — they are also able to conduct in-depth research to understand what your competition is doing as well.

If you are learning from scratch and implementing as you go, you can be put at a disadvantage compared to competitors who hire professionals.

In this article, we’ll walk through some of the most common misconceptions about optimization. We’ll also look at what your company can do to see real optimization success.

Problem 1: Seeing Optimization as a Project With An “End Date”

Optimization, and online marketing in general, isn’t a destination. Rather, it’s a road, one that must be constantly traveled for optimal levels of success. There is no time when your optimization is “complete”, in fact, even once your initial online marketing plan sees success, there will be other ways that you can improve your online presence. The process can always be improved.

Problem 2: Not Planning For Optimization In The Long Run

Because online marketing is a process, wise companies will plan for optimization in the long run. Don’t think of it as a short-term investment, and don’t divert resources you are only comfortable diverting for a few weeks. Think about it more broadly, and give your optimization plan the time and support it needs to be successful. Like any company initiative, if the program is understaffed or underfunded, it won’t be able to thrive as it ought to.

Problem 3: Not Monitoring Progress

In the old days, it was next to impossible to know if your agency’s plan was doing the job. But now, tracking online marketing results are easy. Think of it like cooking: you have to test the food every so often to see how it’s going. If you need to make a change, you learn about it early on, and if the food is great, you know more about how to make it the next time around.

Web optimization is exactly the same way. Keeping track of what policies bring success and which don’t will help you in the short term and in the long term. You will have more to work with when you start additional campaigns, and you’ll have real results that you can point to. So much depends on customer preference, and only when you start to get a feel for that preference will you see the best outcomes.

Problem 4: Working Alone

It is the rare person who can successfully design and implement an online marketing optimization strategy without the help of an interactive marketing agency. Optimization is a very particular process, with a number of techniques and strategies to learn. Articles like this one can help, but it takes years of experience to become a real optimization expert.

Does it really make sense for you to spend your time learning, rather than hiring the expertise of an interactive marketing agency? In almost every case, focusing on what you do best – running your business – is the best idea.

Putting it All Together

Now you know some of the most common pitfalls that make optimization programs fail. Do any of them sound familiar? If so, then you’re now equipped with the knowledge to change the problem. You can start fresh, and get the optimization results you’re looking for. You might not see them overnight, but with time the effect will be noticeable.

How to get your lens into the top 100 & other great tips

Here are some tips on what I did:

* Be sure to have at least four modules (so your lens gets featured on Squidoo)

* Add as many tags as you can (you can use 40) about your topic so it is indexed higher when searched--Try to use phrases that people will actually enter when searching

* Post comments to other lenses so they will hopefully return the favor & visit your lens to comment, rank, and favorite. I also post messages in groups & forums online. I use the forums; Yahoogroups & Cafemom regularly.

* Search other lenses about tips to making a good lens.

* Add Widgets to get more traffic. Lensmaster, thefluffanutta, has created a number of widgets you can easily add to your lenses. Check out his Love this lens? lens to get them. Love ya Fluffa...you create awesome stuff!!!

* Search for lenses to make money with Squidoo.

* Search other lenses on your topic to see how they did theirs. You don't want to make one that is already covering your topic...or you will want to make it differently...

* Join Squidoo groups for even more exposure for your lenses.

* Create back links to your lens by posting messages with your full lens address to blogs, social networking sites, forums & groups. Be sure to have your lens URL in email, blog & forum signatures lines too.

* Spread the word about any new content to your lens. Use a Squidcast, Twitter & Facebook first. The lens I was promoting is for Baby & Kids Freebies so it was easy to send out messages (posts) to my groups & blogs about any new freebie finds. I really concentrate on making sure the freebies are legitimate and I think that helps get return visitors to my lens & website because the freebies are real not a bunch of surveys & trial offers you have to fill out to get the freebie.

* Social bookmark your lens on sites like tagfoot, digg, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, Facebook & Twitter. Make sure your Squidoo bio has set up the Twitter setting so you can send updates to Twitter with a single click!

* Be sure to "Ping" your lens. Do this every time you have a significant update to your site. Pinging your lens sends out a notice to search engines that your site has been updated. This helps your lens, blog, or site so it may be noticed sooner by google, yahoo, msn and the other search sites when they crawl the web. You can Ping your lens easily at SquidUtils.com after logging in and going to the "advanced dashboard".

* When creating a lens address use something that is a short phrase or words that would be searched on your topic and use an underscore or dash between the words. Ex: Use special_education_tips or special-education-tips not specialeducationtips.

* Let all of your friends know you have published a lens and ask them to visit, rate, comment, join and favorite. Friends will help you like that. :-)

* Lensroll lenses to yours that are appropriate and send a note or comment to that lens owner and ask them to do the same with yours.

* Add the google blog or news search to your lens (usually at the bottom). A lot of lensmasters use this module. I like it too. I usually mention how often it is updated too. This is a easy quick way to keep your lens updated without doing a thing. When search engines crawl for updating sites yours will be one of those. I usually set mine to update 1 x per day.

* Include a comment module on your lens. People like to comment. And, people like to read what others have to say. It is a useful module. It really bugs me when I have something on my mind to say and there is NO comment area. Plus again this keeps your lens updated (in the eyes of search engines).

* Include a links plexo for visitors to add their lens, blog or website. Great way to give others a way to get "Back Links".

* Look through the module selection list and play around with what is available. There is lots of great modules and more being created.

* Search Squidoo for "How to Monetize your website or Blog" & "How to get more traffic". Great tips can be found.

* Search Squidoo for lens that give tips to improve your lens--there are a lot of helpful lenses already made. (I am going to make a lens that highlights the lenses that I have found most beneficial to me--I just do not have it done yet) Here some places I found helpful ~ The Squidoo Answer Deck and for sure the best resource.... Squidutils.com

* Be sure to go to "my dashboard" and find near your picture "edit bio" and be sure Allow Contact is set to yes so others can contact you through Squidoo. This has been a great help to me. It is very frustrating to want to contact a lensmaster and this feature is turned off.

* Save all of your hard work! Back-up your lens. To do this you must be in the "edit" feature of your lens. Look along the right column of tasks under tags & lens settings you will see "Export". Click that to save (back-up) your lens. I recommend saving it to a specific folder in your hard drive in html format.