We all know how important linking is when it comes to SEO.  We have talked quite a bit about linking and how it can help your web site in many different ways.  For one, the more links you have pointing to your web site, the higher your PageRank would be.  This is simply because the fact implies that your content is good enough for other people to refer to your site.

Another important aspect, however, goes beyond mere linking.  I am talking about the practice of deep linking.  If you have not heard of deep linking, it is the practice of other sites linking to different web pages in your web site aside from the main page.  Why is deep linking more important than linking to the main page only?

David Leonhardt explains it:
Make sure you have links coming in to as many pages as possible. What does it tell a search engine when other web sites are linking to different pages on your site? That you obviously have lots of worthwhile content. What does it tell a search engine that all your links are coming in to the home page? That you have a shallow site of little value, or that your links were generated by automation rather than by the value of your site.

A thought – you cannot really get deep links unless you do it naturally.  This means writing great content spread out through your different pages and encouraging readers to link to those pages.

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I talked about buying links in the previous post. If that was not enough to convince you that buying links may not be the best option when it comes to improving your PageRank and attracting traffic, here is a list that was written by Brian Chappell. I think, myself, that it sums up the argument against buying links quite neatly.

1. You are buying links through a network
2. You are buying links in chunks, 3-5 at a time on one page.
3. You are buying all your links on sidebar, footer locations.
4. Your entire niche buys links.
5. Your site sucks, as in no one in there right mind would naturally link to you.
6. All of your links have perfectly, articulated anchor text that simply looks fake.
7. You are not a 300+ Million dollar brand name.
8. You are doing really, really well in the SERPS, and rank in the top spot for a majority of the money terms.
9. 70+ % of your sites traffic comes from Google organic results

Furthermore, according to Brian:

The bottom line is if you are buying links you really have to be under the radar. I know this has been said for a while but more so then ever. If your entire niche is buying links then there is a much greater chance your site is going to get checked out in my opinion.

Don’t go overboard, actually buy links that will get you traffic and conversions.

PS. If your link profile is made up of 1/2 to 3/4 paid links you might as well stop now, and start building defensible traffic.

Photo courtesy of amalthya

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In my quest to learn more about optimizing blogs and web sites, I have noticed many recurring patterns.  One of them is the idea of buying links.  I have received lots of advertisements offering thousands of links for less than a hundred dollars.

On the surface, the idea seems to be a very good one.  You only need to shell out a relatively small amount of money and you will get a lot of links just like that.  You do not have to surf, you do not have to network.  Then again, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is, right?

In this case, the “too good to be true” part is highlighted mainly because of how Google treats paid links:

This is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact your site’s ranking in search results.

Examples of link schemes can include:
•    Links intended to manipulate PageRank
•    Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web
•    Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging (“Link to me and I’ll link to you.”)
•    Buying or selling links that pass PageRank

Take note of that last point.  Google does frown upon this practice.  More so, Google looks not only on the quantity of links but on the quality as well.

Have you been tempted to purchase one of those link schemes where they guarantee a thousand links for $50?  If so, then you might want to think about it.  It might not be worth it in the end – especially if Google finds out and penalizes your site.

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There are a lot of myths in the modern world and SEO is not exempt from this. I was reading a very interesting article by Joey de Villa wherein he detailed his notes from Search Engine Strategies 2008 Toronto. Take a look at some of them and see if you believe them OR if you can be a myth buster.

You have to submit URLs to search engines. Search engines will find you if people link to you. If people are linking to your site, you don’t have to go around submitting its URL to Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and so on.

I used to believe this – like eons ago. That was even before I started blogging. I guess I didn’t know anything after all.

You need to provide a Google site map. It’s nice, but it’s not really going to help. “Most sites are spiderable the way they are.” If you have a site with millions of pages that changes often and your system can auto-generate a map, then mmmmaybe…

I still see some blogs and articles which encourage site maps. What’s your take on this?

Frequent spidering helps rankings. If it’s already indexed, getting it spidered again isn’t going to do much.

This makes a lot of sense. Once a site is indexed, it probably wouldn’t really make much of a difference if it is spidered another time, within a short period of time, would it?

PPC ads will help organic rankings! PPC ads will hurt organic rankings. Google keeps its search engine and Adwords divisions separate and it appears that your ranking are not affected by whethe ror not you’ve bought pay per click ads.

Photo courtesy of manfry

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I realize that the title may have a negative connotation for keywords and everything related to it but please do not get me wrong.  Keywords are an inherent part of SEO and will always be important.  Yet is it right to merely throw all your energy in keywords when it comes to your SEO strategy?  I think not.  There is more to SEO than smattering your pages with keywords.

The reason I am going back to this basic concept is this guy I interviewed the other.  I have a day job which is totally unrelated to SEO and web writing but when I went over this guy’s resume, one of the bullet points in the work experience section said “SEO specialist.”  Of course, I could not help but delve deeper into this.

So there I was, checking his command of the English language when I asked him, what exactly is SEO?  He hesitated and said “search engine optimization.”  Okay…and?  It was actually painful really.  I am not sure if he was not sure how to explain it in simple terms but what happened was that he kept on repeating the idea that you have to have a high density of certain keywords in your web pages.  This alone, according to him, would put you at the top of the SERPs.

If all SEO specialists think like this guy does, then we are doomed.  Look through other SEO blogs.  Look through this blog’s archives.  We need more than keywords, don’t we?

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When it comes to SEO, there is one thing that we can never overlook. That is, content writing. I am a strong believe in SEO techniques and other strategies that help you get on the top of SERPs. However, I also believe that the bottom line is having great content. You can employ all the best SEO tactics there are but if your content is not worth it, then all your best efforts will simply go to the dogs. As such in the next few posts, we will probably be focusing on content writing.

In this post, I want to answer two questions that have been bugging me lately. How often should one post? More so, is it alright to change posting frequency? I think that there is no simply answer to the first question. How often you post really depends on what you have to post. If you have no new (and worthwhile) content, why post at all? Then again, if you want to keep your readers coming back, then you have to have new content up and running as often as you can. I think that a good frequency would be at least a couple of times a week. If you have the time and the content, once a day would be great.

On the second question, what if you wanted to increase or decrease your frequency? Would it matter? I think so. If you post too much – say 3 times a day, it might bug your readers, making it hard for them to catch up. On the other hand, if you post rarely, your readers might get bored waiting for new content. The idea is to be able to maintain a good balance. And remember the bottom line – post when you have something worthwhile to write about.

Photo courtesy of Leo Reynolds

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In the last post we took a look at some of the things that you should consider when making your web site accessible. Yet we did not really delve into the reasons you should make your web site accessible. Why is it important?

Search engines prefer accessible web sites.
It’s a simple fact. Search engines place a higher premium on accessible web sites over inaccessible web sites. How so? Spiders – or search engine crawlers – browse web sites much like people would. The easier access you provide, the easier it is for search engine spiders. This means that the fewer hindrances you have in your web site for browsing, the better the search engines can index your web site. This includes the proper use of tags and the like.

Accessible web sites makes for stronger branding.
One of the things that you want to do for your blog is to create a strong brand. It is much like that principle that business men employ in marketing their brand. The idea is to create an impact in the minds of their target clients and to maintain that impact. So how does making your web site accessible create a stronger branding?

I suppose the idea is to cater to your audience. Having an accessible web site, of course, gives you the image of wanting to deliver what your audience needs. you offer the image of making it easier for them. That makes for stronger and longer recall.

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