ReviewBooth.com » SEO

Is Reciprocal Linking Dead?

Wesley Atkins — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:23:16 +0000

To this day I still hear this question asked on blogs, forums and addressed in newsletters and its about time someone put this to rest.

The internet relies on links to and from websites.

We know this, Google knows this.

The only reason reciprocal linking stopped working as well as it used too, is becuase people took it for granted that it was an easy way to increase the rankings on their site. By sending out 50-100 link requests emails every day you could easily get 10-15 links pointing back to your site every day, and in the early days this was the only strategy people used to get links.

…and it worked great!

But sites that were poor, outdated and oftentimes copied content were appearing at the top of the search engines due to all the links they had received – it was time to put this strategy to bed.

So Google reacted and even though reciprocal linking is not as effective as it once was.. It still works if you don’t take this too extreme and use it as the link spamming technique it once was.

Start thinking like Google and you will be much better at SEO..

Here is how to approach reciprocal linking in 2009:

1. If you have a new site do not start the link building process by garnering reciprocal links first. You need to build authority links into your site first to gain trust.

2. Reciprocal linking should never be used as a sole strategy for link building – mix it up with other strategies like directory submissions, articles submissions, press release distribution, social bookmarking, social media link baiting etc… get 1-2 links per day from each and build your links slowly over time.

3. Don’t send out 50+ emails every day or week for that matter to people in *unrelated* industries requesting link exchanges. Find only the best resources for your market and contact them personally by phone or email with a *personal* message.

4. Focus on building relationships with these people and the links will come – try building 1-2 *good* relationships per week. Add them to your recommended resources or links page and then call them or email them. Tell them how you liked their website and have linked to it from your site, then kindly ask them to check out your site for a possible reciprocation.

..by following along above you are not spamming your way to higher rankings, you are merely recommending resources to your customers and contacting the site in question to see what they feel about your site.

It’s not the reciprocal linking that Google dislikes its the spammy way people approach it, that’s the problem.

Build a good site with excellent content, then Build relationships with people in your marketplace and the links will follow.

Best SEO Directories – My Top 7 Link Directory Sources!

Wesley Atkins — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 11:27:31 +0000

Before I start building links to any new site, I always make sure I get a boost to my domain by building some *high quality* trusted links first. This strategy has always worked pretty well for me in the past as I focus on getting highly trusted links to my domain instead of tons of low quality links.

So here are the only directories that I submit my sites too. All have good PR and very good cache dates..

Dmoz – Although it is near impossible to get your site listed at Dmoz these days, its still worth submitting to as this directory is free and is owned by Google. One of the best links you could possibly get.

Yahoo Dir – They charge a $299 annual fee to list your site which even though they tell you otherwise, will get refunded if your site is rejected. Even at this price I highly recommend this directory due to the big boost of link juice. You get listed in all regional directories of Yahoo too, which will give you a bunch of good links.

Best Of The Web – This is my 3rd favourite directory t submit your site too. They charge $99.95 to list your site per year or $249.95 as a one-time review fee. Excellent PR and good cache dates make this a top directory to get into.

Go Guides – This has been a good directory for some time, they charge a $40 listing fee but worth every penny. You can also get in for free as an editor.

Joe Ant – Same as GoGuides, free for editors and $40 fee to list your site, again a very worthy directory.

Skaffe – Originally built from the GoGuides platform, this is also a pretty good directory that charges a $40 listing fee.

Gimpsy – A web directory with a little difference as its verb based. Still very good place to list your site for link juice – again a $40 listing fee.

Search Engine Optimization Courses – Teach Yourself SEO!

Wesley Atkins — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:54:31 +0000

Over the years I have had many requests about what are the best search engine optimization courses available for webmasters to learn the art of SEO.

I’ve read practically every SEO book and taken nearly every SEO course I could get my hands on, and its been pretty easy to sort the wheat from the chaff.

If you are a webmaster looking for good SEO training, firstly let me give you a word of warning.

There are so many contradictions in the world of SEO, all you have to do is visit the forums (which I don’t recommend) to see how confused most people are about search engine optimization basics, site architecture, internal linking, on page SEO, off page SEO… Even some courses I have read can really get in completely wrong, and don’t suckered in by hypey advertisements that promise you high rankings in Google.

When I first set on the path of SEO, I wanted to learn from the best, not from someone who has therioes or conclusions about how to rank higher, so I made a point of finding people who…

1. Test their SEO therioes

2. Have outstanding results in Google for competitve terms

There are only a couple of SEO guru’s I listen to when taking advice on optimizing my websites for higher rankings here are my top 2.

Jerry West
Jerry West is the owner of Web Marketing Now with over eleven years experience on the web, he gives you access to tested SEO results and expert search engine positioning advice. they have eight testing servers and over 500 test domains under their control. Their analysts track SEO methodologies in search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) better than any other web marketing firm I know of.

Bruce Clay
Bruce Clay is the president of Bruce Clay Inc they are a search engine optimization firm that has been operating since 1996. Bruce Clay, Inc. has established an industry reputation as a high-quality and effective technology provider in SEO, PPC, Analytics, SEO Web Architecture and Branding. With over 200+ clients employing his services he was voted no:2 top seo in January 2009.

These are the only 2 SEO professionals that I take advice from and over the years I have learned pretty much all there is to know from these 2. If you can afford the montly fee I recommend you subscribe to the Web Marketing Now Newsletter as you won’t get any better SEO testing results online than that from Jerry.

Also, make sure you take a look at the newsletter archives from Bruce Clay, paying particular attention to his archives on Siloing, they are golden..

Top 10: The Best Article Directories For SEO

Wesley Atkins — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 11:05:05 +0000

There are quite literally millions of article directories out there that you can submit your articles to. However, you get the best bang for your SEO buck by hand selecting the best article sites to submit your articles.

Below you will find my favorite list of article directories that all allow DOFOLLOW links.

1. EzineArticles
2. IdeaMarketers
3. GoArticles
4. WebProNews
5. ArticleDashboard
6. ArticleCity
7. Article Alley
8. Amazines
9. Articles Factory
10. Buzzle

I never liked the idea of automation software that spits out your article to 600+ sites. You will get no benefit from those links for SEO as most of the pages will be in the supplemental index, as caused by the duplicate article content.

My favorite article strategy has always to hand select and hand submit to only the most authoritative sites in Google’s eyes.

Enjoy!

Before SEO – What You Need To Do Before Starting Any SEO Campaign!

Wesley Atkins — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 11:03:37 +0000

Before you start any SEO campaign there are a few vital things that you need to pay attention to, otherwise all your search engine optimization efforts will be in vain.

It’s amazing too me how many people jump head first into an SEO project without conducting thorough research of the market ahead of them… and that is just plain STUPID.

I’ve been approached for many SEO projects in the past, and more often that not the client will say to me, “I want to be ranked Number 1 for ‘Keyword‘, can you help me”?

…and the first thing I say is, why do you want to be ranked for that? And their response is almost always, “That’s what my competition is ranked for and I want to beat them..”

This thinking is plain *DUMB*

Before embarking on any SEO project, 99% of people forget two vitally important things – the power of research and testing… Never ever assume your competition has done thorough research and testing…

Why would you waste 3-6 months of your life embarking on a SEO project before you know the keywords you are trying to rank for will bring you:

1. Profit

2. Traffic

…and the only way you will find out the above two is conducting thorough research and testing of your markets keywords.

The first step to all this is too use a keyword research tool and get a list of your markets keywords… I’ve used nearly all of them out there and my favorite has always been Google’s Keyword Tool.

You will need to input a few keywords for your market, or your competitors URL and Google will throw back a list of relevant keywords and synonyms, this allows you to see traffic volume, trends, CPC costs and Adwords competition – all vitally important data.

You can also use a really cool tool called; Google Insights that gives a unique overview of keywords by showing you country, city and state regions of where those queries originated…this is very powerful…

The next thing you need to do is test a batch of keywords that you uncovered from using the keyword tools above using Google Adwords PPC engine.

Why? Because you can test your markets keywords quickly, often in one day, and identify your conversion rate and profit projections from this keyword – only then, once you know a keyword will produce you traffic and profits, should you Endeavour in optimizing your website for those keywords in the organic listings.