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| Friday, November 16, 2007
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Using Content That Works (CTW) to create traffic.
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Content, content, content. That's all I hear...probably because that's what I am always saying. Content! I think people don't fully understand me when I tell them let their content do the work work for them. Usually, it's the other way around. People write content to post on their blog, for
creating a page to put adsense on and to write articles. These are all very good ways for you to use your content. What you need to do is create not just content but Content That Works (CTW). This is something I created to help me keep my writing goals in mind.
CTW is content that either creates a buzz or is used to start a conversation, so to speak. It's content that gets people involved in what you are writing It could be positive, negative or neutral. It's a way of thinking. How many times have you written an article just so you can submit it for backlinks? I think just about everyone involved with SEO has at one time or another. But how many of those articles gave people something to really talk about? Not too many, I would assume. The same goes for messageboards, blog posts and other places where you can use CTW.
We all know content spam is bad. But that doesn't mean you can't give people on a blog a reason to see your site. Who is the most popular person blogging in your field? I bet he receives a lot of hits. You can steal some of those hits and gain more readers for yourself. The key is to have knowledge of the topic and give people a reason to leave and see your site. It could be an article you wrote or a podcast you made related to the topic. If your opinion differs from other bloggers and you can back it up, people will flock to your blog or site out of pure curiousity.
Articles are the best way to use CTW. I know we all have written some not so terrific articles. Why was that? Were you pressed for time, short on ideas or perhaps you just didn't care? The more you care about what you are writing about, the better your article will be. What was the message? Their was a message, right? How attuned are you to what people in the industry you are writing for want to read? I wrote an article about how to spam Google and get away with it. It really had nothing to do with spam. The title alone, however, generated a lot of buzz. That article is one of the the most posted articles I have written to date. It not only created a buzz, but it created traffic. People on message boards discussed it. Some agreed with it, others hated it. The bottom line is, it served its purpose by creating buzz.
Do you frequent messageboard? Are your posts with CTW in mind? Anywhere you can write something that other's see is a place where you can potentially gain a new visitor, sale, listener or notoriety for yourself. All if these things are important. I know, we all want backlinks. We want high rankings and we want to brag that we are on the top of Google for our keyphrase. That's fine. But, with every algorhythm change their is a risk of your methods not working quite as well as they use to. Or, maybe you get banned, or overrun by your competition. Whatever the case may be, as long as you use CTW with everything you write, Google and all those other search engines can never take that away.Labels: seo article |
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posted by Admin @ 5:57 PM
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Biggest mistakes with do it yourself SEO
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I read and evaluate hundreds of websites a month. Some sites I read for information, some are my own, some are blogs, messageboards and so on. The rest are from people who request a free SEO site evaluation from my company. Some are from large corporations and others are from mid-sized companies, but almost 50% of the evaluations requested are from do-it-yourselfer's.
There is so much information available on SEO and SEM. Everywhere you turn there is another article on SEO. One thing I often notice is many people suffer from information overload. They try to read everything they can find and in many situations, they try everything they read. Some of that information is either outdated or ineffective. Some of these self SEO'ers simply don't use what they read effectively. I have taken some of the most common mistakes and listed will explain them for you here. Hopefully, this will help you correct any problems on your site.
Keyword research: Many people have no idea that it's even necessary. I have seen website owners attempt to optimize for key terms that do not even exist. One gentleman created a new product that no one has even heard of. The only marketing he was doing was SEO and some PPC. You can't optimize for the product name only when no one has ever heard of your product. If no one has heard of it, how will they search for it? They won't. The research needs to be done to determine what keyphrases people would type to find what your product is offering or related to.
Bad web design: This one really gets to me. This is one I see more than any other. People hiring a web design firm or DIYing it before fully understanding what SEO is. The way most strictly online businesses begin is by someone deciding that they want to create a website online. Then they have one built. Then they learn about how to promote it and how search engines are used. The problem there is, if their site is not SEO friendly (meaning clean urls, not in frames, not 100% Flash and other search engine indexing problems), it will hurt their ability to rank well. Many people don't find this out until after they have their site built. This can cost a new website owner a lot of money. Educated yourself. Do not rely on the web designer to tell you about SEO and what you need to know to have a SEO friendly site. Many web designers are just designers. They have no interest in what is SEO friendly or not. Do all your research before you have a site built and find a web design that can provide what you need for your site and the search engines.
Hidden text: This one still amazes me. That method hasn't worked since Ebert sat next to Siskel. Why do people still try these old methods? They read old articles, blog entrys or messageboards. They think doing things unnaturally will help them in the natural listings. If you don' know this yet, you do now. It doesn't work.
Repeating words too often: This one gets overlooked a lot. Let's say for example you sold tickets. Now let's say your menu is all HTML (links). Your menu may read something like this; Hockey tickets, Boxing tickets, Wrestling tickets and so on. Now if you have fifty events and you have tickets after every one, you could run into a lot of problems. Especially if you wanted to come up on the search engines on any phrase with the words tickets in it. There are a lot of other factors that would need to be considered as well, such as the length of content on the page, off site SEO, etc. If this was a typical site, it would hurt your rankings in the SERP's.
This is just a small portion of problems I see. Hopefully, you can learn to avoid common SEO mistakes. Unless you are SEO savvy, it's almost always better to hire a professional if you can afford to. I know that isn't always possible. Also, try to get your information and tips from reliable sources. It will save you a lot of back tracking.Labels: seo article |
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posted by Admin @ 5:54 PM
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Using your blog to get one way links
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Blogs are a great tool. They allow you to add new, fresh content to your site. They are also a great way to build readership. Think about all the blogs you read. I'm sure that if you're reading this, you're also likely subscribed to a few or at least check them on a daily to weekly basis. Why? Is it because it is entertaining, informative or both? Blogs have been given a bad name because of splogs. Darren Rowse has a terrffic blog (http://www.problogger.net.) where he posts daily with tips for bloggers. Darren has discussed the "Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers", which consist of tips from highly successful bloggers who tell you what they do and make suggesstions as to what you should do.
So, how does all this help you get one way backlinks. Preferrably, you want people to link to you naturally. The best way to do that is to give them something worth linking to. Let's say I was an MS Office guru. My blog might be about relatively unknown tips and tricks on how to use MS office or for creating calenders and spreadsheets. Many people who work with MS office would be interested in that. They may like the tips so much that they list it on their blog or site.
What makes a good blog? Information? Yes! Consistency? Absolutely! However a great blog has to have its own style and flare. A blog that invites its readers to participate in the post is a golden rule. That's almost a guaranteed way to ensure that people will be coming back for more.
If you want to get traffic to your blog, one of the best ways is to leave comments on other blogs. Keep in mind, however, that it has to be done in a smart way. People can always tell when something is spam, so avoid being so obvious. Limit your posts to those blogs that are at least somewhat related to your blog. If a blog is about automobiles and you try to plug your aquarium business, you'll do more harm than good. Go to blogs that are related and take part in the discussion. The more informative and intellectual your comments are, the better chance your post will stay around long enough to be read. That is how you can start to build your readership. If you can convince people what you have to say is worth reading, they will come and read it.
Regardless of what you do to get people to your blog, the proof is always in the pudding. If you can't keep them coming back, all the advertising and work you put into creating traffic will mean nothing.Labels: seo article |
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posted by Admin @ 5:50 PM
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Getting backlinks the shady way
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Some people would do anything to get high ranking at Google. Including filing a lawsuit against Google itself.
Moral questions aside, I think it's a good pragmatic strategy to sue a search engine like Google, Yahoo! or MSN, provided you:
1) Can afford it
2) Have at least half a chance of taking seriously by the courts
3) Are thick-skinned enough to tolerate the resulting moral outrage
4) Have the nerve to face the possibility that a giant company might slash back at you and slash back at hardLabels: seo tips |
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posted by Admin @ 5:48 PM
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