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Link buying vs. link building

Today I want to talk to you about the controversial paid links used in search engine optimization campaigns. With all the chaos created after the Google Penguin and Panda updates, people don’t know what to think any more about paid links. Do they harm or benefit your rankings? How can you make the difference between good SEO efforts and “link schemes”? According to Google’s webmaster guidelines, website owners shouldn’t participate in any link schemes designed to increase their site’s rankings or Page Rank. But when you work with an SEO company to increase your rankings, how do you know if you’re building “natural” links or just get involved in a bunch of “link schemes”? Is your link building campaign integrated into your keyword strategy and overall marketing strategy? To find the answer, you should first ask yourself these questions:

·         Does your SEO effort work hand-in-hand with your marketing strategy?

Your SEO expert should understand what your goals are and also what are the best content strategies for your website and company. The SEO efforts and link building strategy designed to generate and convert traffic should be integrated into the overall marketing strategy.

·         Is your website reporting tools and benchmarks evaluated on a regular basis?

For best results, your B2B link building efforts should include some benchmarks: lead opportunities from referral websites, traffic from referral websites, keyword relevance and also reach to the direct market.

·         Is your SEO expert collaborating with your marketing team?

You can get search engine visibility through B2B marketing initiatives such as: participation to events or conferences, social networking strategies or distribution of content marketing assets. If you communicate well with your SEO team, your keywords and link building strategy can easily be scaled across your B2B organization.

·         Did your SEO talked to you about the link building strategy?

The B2B SEO expert should be able to explain every change implemented by the search engines and educate the company about the possible impact of these updates. Also, if your competitors use reckless, dangerous SEO tactics in order to gain visibility, it doesn’t mean you should do it also.

·         Is B2B link building part of your marketing strategy?

B2B link building could be a great part of your overall marketing strategy. I guess your first thought was that this “B2B link building” is what Google calls “link scheme”. You couldn’t be more wrong. Spending tons of money on irrelevant links that will not benefit your rankings, or your online visibility is a totally different story. B2B link building should be integrated into your marketing strategy because besides the benefit added to your SEO link building efforts, you will also build a positive reputation in the online world.

Good luck with your SEO efforts and see you all next time!

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SEO tips: use the Google Search Operators

Google Search Operators are commands that allow you to find what you’re looking for on the web through modified searches that filter the results so that you find exactly what you want. They are great tools to use in your search engine optimization efforts mostly because they provide you with really useful information: you can check the number of backlinks to a page, or the number of pages indexed by Google for a specific keyword, yours or the competitions’. Using these search operators is actually a white hat method that professionals use for their advanced searches.

             Here are some really helpful Google Search Operators you can use for your website:

·         “allintext:keyword�� – using allintext with your search will show you how many webpages contain that keyword

·         “allintitle:keyword” – using allintitle with your search will show you how many websites contain that keyword in their title tag

·         “allinurl:www.webpage.com” – using allinurl with your search will show you if that page has been indexed by Google

·         “link:www.webpage.com” – using link with your search will show you how many backlinks you’ve got for that page

·         “site:www.website.com” – using site with your search will show you how many pages from your website are indexed by Google

·         “AND” or “+” - using one of these operators will force Google to include a specific keyword in your search. In this way you will combine two keywords in only one search (remember that you shouldn’t put any space after the “+” sign and that the “AND” should be in caps).

·         “-” - using the minus operator will show you search results without that keyword you’ve placed after the operator. The minus sign excludes those pages that contain the specific term.

·         “~” – using the tilde sign will show you synonyms for your term or similar suggestions

·         “keyphrase” – using quotation marks forces Google to search for that exact phrase

·         “OR” or | - using OR or the vertical bar will show you pages that contain your keywords (eg. Iphone or Ipad; Iphone|Ipad)

These are just some of Google’s Search Operators, but I’ll be back soon with more helpful information for your SEO efforts. Stay tuned!

[ruthsalls-blog]

SEO checklist for site migration

If you ever experienced site migration you know it’s not really a piece of cake. It’s a stressful situation, you can experience traffic and ranking loss, and nobody wants to see any drop in their rankings, am I right? But don’t worry, with some good planning and a SEO checklist you can get through your site migration without a scratch.  You’ll need a SEO expert to guide you through the way, but that’s not a problem, there are great companies offering SEO packages designed especially for you. Just say a word and they’ll be there to help you.

Planning, implementation, launching, these are just some stages of your project, but every single one of them needs attention and hard work. No matter if you’re migrating to a new domain or just to a new platform, here’s what you should keep in mind if you want to maintain your search engine rankings intact:

-        Be aware of what’s going to change once you’ll move: URLs, design, structure, content, plugins and functionality.

-         Design your strategy so that you won’t suffer traffic loss – prepare your keyword strategy and your keyword targeting, it will help you find and solve your SEO problem. Are there any misaligned link anchors or incorrect page titles on your website? Not anymore!

-          Get a list of your URLs before your move, they help search engines know your website and your pages and keep them in the same way whenever it’s possible. If you’ll change your URLs without warning search engines of your migration, it will be like starting all over again. Who would want to throw away all their SEO efforts and lose everything: links, history, rankings, traffic? So make any effort you need to convert your new URLs to the old URLs because search engines already indexed those pages.

-        Use 301 redirects to preserve your website’s link popularity and help search engines understand that you moved and you’d like your new pages to be indexed.

-          Use these useful tools for your site migration: Google Webmaster Tools (great for error reports), Google Analytics (for your traffic) and Majestic SEO.

These are just some of the things you should take into consideration, but for more information check this awesome infographic or contact a SEO expert that will take care of everything for you (I know that’s what I would do!). I hope you found this article helpful!

 Source: http://www.aleydasolis.com/images/seo-website-domain-migration.gif

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Funny keyword research...

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this is the question!

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[ruthsalls-blog]

My name is Ruth and I’m a freelance SEO consultant with a passion for crafts and DIY projects. I’m in love with the SEO field and I’m enthusiastic about everything that has to do with social media networks.

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WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL BETTER WHEN YOU ARE IN A BAD MOOD?

Chocolate!