Copyright © 2010 I-COM International 2010-09-09T20:31:50+0100 2010-09-09T20:31:50+0100 http://www.i-com.net/blog/ Leading Manchester SEO, SEM and web design agency blog. http://www.i-com.net/blog/ http://i-com.net/images/icom-net.gif http://www.i-com.net/blog/ Leading Manchester SEO, SEM and web design agency blog. I-COM International blogmaster at i-com dot net I-COM International I-COM International en SEO, SEM, Web Design, Web Development 1440 http://www.i-com.net/blog/lda-latent-dirichlet-allocation-and-searcher-intent-393/ I'm no expert on IR (information retrieval, in case you're less of an expert than I am),  but I've always found, working in SEO, that it's important, to some degree, to understand the various ways that search engines may index and understand the data on a webpage/website.This week, SEOMoz has released a new tool to calculate LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation), a concept currently so obscure that I couldn't find a proper definition of "dirichlet" (it is, it would seem, a scientist, a crater on the moon, and has something to do with 'boundary conditions' relating to a mathematical equation).  For the purposes of IR and how search engines work, however, LDA refers to yet another way to understand what a webpage is about by calculating the probable topics covered on the page based on the words used and the relationships between those words. As SEOMoz explains, using the LDA model, theoretically you "can compute the similarity between any word or groups of words and the topics it's created." LDA = Topical RelevanceWhat the SEOMoz research demonstrated, to a simplistic degree, is that far from looking just at repeated mentions of a keyword and a few synonyms, the Google algorithm is actually calculating the degree to which a page appears to be about a specific topic based both on the number of words on the page that the search engine identifies with that topic but also the number of words that the search engine identifies as being about RELATED topics - topics you would expect to find covered at the same time. For example, if I produced a page of content about the new Grinderman album I might mention: Nick Cave The Bad Seeds Australia garage rock Warren Ellis The Dirty Three Jim Sclavunos The Birthday Party Heathen Child music videos John Hillcoat laser beams Roman Centurions guitars gigs You could then classify the words into topics in the following way: Grinderman - Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, garage rock, heathen child, guitars, gigs, Australia Nick Cave - Bad Seeds, Birthday Party, guitars, gigs, Australia Warren Ellis - Bad Seeds, Dirty Three, Australia, gigs Heathen Child - Grinderman, laser beams, Roman Centurions, music videos, John Hillcoat You can then see that a page about "Grinderman" is also likely to cover topics relating to Nick Cave, to the Bad Seeds, to Australian bands, to Warren Ellis, etc.  So a page that mentions Nick Cave, Warren Ellis and Heathen Child but doesn't mention Grinderman may be as relevant to a search for "Grinderman" as a page that mentions "Grinderman" 7 times but instead mentions "top 40" "album chart" "airplay" and "Rhianna" as it doesn't cover the same subset of topics - so even though both may be relevant to "Grinderman" the pages themselves indicate a very different searcher intent.Why It's Important to Understand LDAWhether Google is using LDA and how Google might be using LDA is less important perhaps than the fact that the research demonstrates yet another step by search engines to determine searcher intent and deliver the most relevant content - which should, quite rightly be based on the overarching topics or themes of the page rather than one specific keyword phrase. It's something which Google has demonstrated recently with changes to the blog ranking algorithm, according to a recent blog post on SEO by the Sea which essentially points out that Google is using a variety of new indicators to not only deliver relevant blog posts, but to try and understand the niches of blogs in order to also deliver a list of relevant blogs that regularly cover topics related to the searcher's query.   It's Still Links as Much as ContentI think, however, it may be premature to completely rethink the way we approach search campaigns based on the fact that in SEOMoz's testing, inbound links from different IP addresses appear to have less relevance than the LDA calculation.  Even today, when Google has outlawed paid links and has spent the best part of a decade pushing the notion that "content is king" to SEOs, it's blatantly obvious that content is only king if your competitors haven't found a way to game the link part of the algorithm. Just do a search for 'leather jackets' in Google.co.uk and check out the backlink profile of the site at #1. Low quality, paid, unrelevant links do appear to work in volume still. This is one example of many - we've seen again and again in the last 12 months sites shoot into top 5 listings for competitive keywords - and stay there - on the back of link building alone.LDA is a Mirror into What Google Wants to AchieveWhat this new metric may reveal is the best intentions of Google - or what should happen in an ideal search environment - it'sstill quite clear that if Google is using it, it's not using it terribly effectively and it's still just one factor amongst many. Focusing your content on delivering information that will help searchers, targeting keywords that searchers use when looking for the information on your pages and finding links from relevant sites back to your content is still the best formula for SEO success and that's not likely to change any time soon. Advanced Search Marketing 2010-09-07 10:37:27 http://www.i-com.net/blog/lda-latent-dirichlet-allocation-and-searcher-intent-393/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/changes-to-dmoz-hopefully-so-383/ I received the following message when I tried to submit a client to DMOZ this morning. Apparently this occured last month as well. Hopefully these "behind the scenes" improvements will lead to a much better directory submission service and maybe even bring back the glory days of DMOZ? Enlarge image in a new window Search Engine Optimisation 2010-08-18 11:49:43 http://www.i-com.net/blog/changes-to-dmoz-hopefully-so-383/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/your-dofollow-does-look-silly-354/ We  got a great spam comment from an "SEO" agency this morning:For those of you who can't read it and don't want to enlarge the image, that link has a rel="dofollow" attribute attached to it.  Here's the thing - there's no such thing as a "dofollow" attribute. The search engines created the "nofollow" attribute so webmasters could indicate links to which they did not want to pass PageRank/link authority - for example, advertisers, sites they were talking about negatively, etc. You don't need a "dofollow" because any link that doesn't have a "nofollow" attribute is by default going to be followed - it'll count.What makes this comment so darn funny (if you hadn't already grasped the irony) is that the people trying to use the "dofollow" are also trying to rank for "SEO" - so they should know better. The fact that they don't (and that they're using comment spam on an SEO blog to try and rank for "SEO") suggests they aren't very good at SEO and so probably haven't a hope in h*** of actually competing for that search term. In fact, they could probably use a little SEO training themselves. Search Engine Optimisation 2010-05-20 08:28:56 http://www.i-com.net/blog/your-dofollow-does-look-silly-354/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/by-destroying-dmoz-the-seo-industry-has-eaten-its-own-head-345/ Years ago there was this great, authoritative resource called The Open Directory (Or DMoz). This directory prided itself on being staffed by volunteers in it for the value of the resource and to give something back to the web. Their job was to find the best sites on the internet and list them by location and category.This site used to be such a great resource that even Google, itself on a mission to categorise, classify and map the web, used a scrape of the Open Directory for its own Google Directory. In fact, it was considered such an authoritative resource that Google (and Yahoo) are still prone to using DMoz descriptions of websites ahead of descriptions provided by the sites themselves.Submitting a site to DMoz used to be the first thing any SEO consultant did in a campaign, particularly for new sites,  because the value of the DMoz link was like a giant gold brick. New site goes up, gets reviewed by DMoz, gets listed - Google immediately knows it's a good site and a site worth including in the index.Now,  you ask, why am I saying "used to" when The Open Directory is still around? Well, unscrupulous SEO's and unscrupulous DMoz editors have, over the last few years, turned this great internet resource into a  giant cesspool which is rapidly bleeding authority.How have unscrupulous SEO's and DMoz editors destroyed DMoz? Well, there's the people who apply to edit a category so they can remove their competitors and promote their own sites, no matter how poor.There's the editors who sell on their account details.There's the editors who extort money from listed companies.And then there's the editors who can be bribed. Oh and don't forget the folks actively touting guaranteed DMoz listings for a set price.Now, call me crazy, but if the whole purpose of DMoz is to create a useful resource by web users for web users, and the editors are, as one said in an old Webmaster World thread, "category builders" and these "category builders" are simply in it for personal gain & profit then this is self-defeating. DMoz is not a useful resource if the listed sites are no longer reviewed for quality but instead they just paid to be there - in fact it makes DMoz no better than any other low-value directory which takes payment for a "review process" that never happens and which passes no discernable value to sites or to visitors (if it even has non-SEO visitors).I have, today, seen yet another instance of a corrupt DMoz editor promising listings in exchange for cash. Wouldn't it be great if the SEO community and any webmasters who see this sort of thing going on had the guts to report the abuse to DMoz.Somehow though I doubt that this will happen, as a group we all tend to grumble but then do little to straighten things out.But unfortunately if things continue as they are, I fear we will see DMoz destroyed and the precious DMoz link devalued entirely because of the greed of a few editors and shady SEO consultants. Search Engine Optimisation 2010-04-30 14:52:09 http://www.i-com.net/blog/by-destroying-dmoz-the-seo-industry-has-eaten-its-own-head-345/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/sascon-roundup-344/ Yesterday was the first (annual) SASCon (that's #sascon if you want to see what people were saying on Twitter about it) SEO Conference, held at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester and the first major SEO event in Manchester. For an inagural event I must say I was impressed with the quality of the panelists and impressed at the relatively few and minor hitches (overruning keynotes, lack of wi-fi) in the day.Here's a run down of some of the highlights:Bruce Daisley from YouTube gave a keynote address which was very much a pitch about why businesses should be using YouTube and moving into video - and he was very convincing. Video is indeed one of the biggest growth areas, and when he drops statistics such as the prediction that by 2013 90% of the web's bandwidth will be taken up by people watching video, attentiveness is 1.5 times higher from audiences watching online video than watching TV and that you're 50% more likely to have your YouTube content found in blended results (if optimised correctly) than you are to be found in organic search results, it really drives home the importance of video and of targeting universal search in SEO campaigns rather than just the organic results.The Search & Social panel featuring Lyndon Antcliffe, Andrew Barke of Google, Massimo Burgio from SEMPO and Joost De Valk of Yoast.com was one of the best panels of the day. They emphasised the importance of setting out goals and objectives before embarking on a social media campaign, of planning and of picking the right sites, not just going to the biggest sites (e.g., Facebook and Twitter).  There was the usual SEO conference Google-bashing as Andrew was told that the real time results do not bring much to Google Universal. Finally there was some discussion of privacy issues, particularly in relation to Facebook and Facebook's decision to make data protection an opt-out rather than an opt in as people do not know that Facebook may pass their data to advertisers and do not understand that unless they opt-out their profile is crawlable and viewable by anyone.The basic theme of the Black Hat/White Hat panel was that there's really no such thing as outright White Hat SEO anymore. Tactics which were once considered black hat (such as linkbaiting and automation) are now used universally and that when launching an SEO campaign the important thing is to look at what your competitors are doing and not stand out from the crowd too much by being more aggressive. As we've pointed out here before, Google seems unconcerned about TOS violations if everybody in a given SERP is doing the same things. You will only really run into trouble with clear TOS violations above and beyond anybody else. All the panelists emphasised the importance of making any SEO work you do look 'natural'.The Analytics 2.0 panel was the first (and only) out-and-out disappointment of the day. The panelists spent much of the short 45 minute session talking about their own business offerings before uttering beautiful little truisms like "analytics is about more than just reporting numbers."  There were a number of mentions of ways to use analytics data to understand conversions and where a business loses conversions with no clear examples and no practical information on how to do this. It was, for all intents and purposes, 45 minutes of being told "you can use analytics in a lot of cool ways and we'll show you if you hire us." I can imagine this was frustrating to those delegates who were hoping for some help in learning to use Analytics more effectively. I was hoping to pick up a trick or 2 I don't know about, but no such luck.On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised with the panel on Pan-European search campaigns as I was expecting an hour of being subjected to a debate on the relative merits of subdomains, tlds or sub-folders and how to deal with duplicate content issues. Insead, Bas Van Den Beld talked about the importance of knowing a little history  when setting up websites in different countries. I always knew my history degree was useful for SEO, I've just never found anybody else who understood how useful. In all seriousness though, the panelists focused on the fact that people in different cultures use the web differently, and that colour conveys different meanings in different places and that things are described differently in different languages - so you can't just do direct translations. It's all pretty logical stuff, yet something even big brands forget.Finally, the Advanced Linkbuilding panel probably should have been called Linkbuilding 101 as there wasn't much that was advanced about it, but for people just getting a feel for it, there was some useful information. The panelists talked about about gauging the potential value of a link, understanding what it would take to compete in a given SERP and about targeting a range of different types of links - from authority sites to content networks to blog comments and even from unindexed pages - to make your link footprint look as natural as possible. Considering that nobody ever wants to give away their linkbuilding secrets lest they get out and stop working (cheers Joost de Valk for the great tip, boo to the livebloggers who had it on Twitter within 30 seconds!), there was some good, clear, best-practice advice given out.Although some of the panels were a little basic for someone who's been working in the industry as long as I have and a few were a little lacking in detail in favour of sales pitches, on the whole the content was pretty good and the wealth of knowledge held by the panelists was pretty impressive. I think having some more advanced sessions (smaller, round-table discussions for those of us who've been around the block, perhaps?), or sessions with just one speaker giving a more in-depth presentation on something specific might have been very useful and would help SASCon stand out from the other SEO conference offerings. I'd also like to see someone putting on a session about content - what is good content, how to write it, how to entice visitors and search engines with it. More specific discussion about on-page and the technical aspects of SEO would be useful too.I'm sure this is all feedback that is being taken on board, however, and having sucessfully pulled off year 1, they're already thinking about ways to move the conference forward for 2011. Search Engine Optimisation 2010-04-29 10:05:56 http://www.i-com.net/blog/sascon-roundup-344/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/8-tips-for-successful-link-building-emails-340/ Those of you who thought emailing an organisation such as a charity or university for a link was easy, think again. There's a big difference between a successful email and spam. Heres some tips to stay away from the Junk Mail box 1. Contact a Person (Where Possible) When searching around a website for contact details try, where possible, to find an actual person usually in charge of press/media/website content or an administrator. These individuals will not only be able to change the website content but also have more time to reply than, say, the Director or Chairman of an organisation. 2. Keep it Personal & Tailored Add as many references to both the individual reader and the organisation you are emailing to keep things personalized and relevant. Make reference to a blog or interesting page on the site, including the link to the page, to confirm you have actually spent some time navigating their site. By adding the organisation name as an email header and addressing the email with "Dear Name" you reduce the risk of being considered a spammer and increase the possibility of a reply. Add the initials or name of the organisation in the email subject along with your client name and "Client's Support", "Useful Link" or "Site Sponsorship" to reduce any spammy connotations.3. Keep it Brief By keeping your email neat and concise, you put across an organised image and show that you realise the reader may be rushed or have restricted time. 4. Show Value Whether this is financial, experience, content or sponsorship, show the reader the value in linking to your client's site as much as possible. This may include mentioning that you can also add a site link on your client's website (a reciprocal link). Use words like 'perhaps' or 'possibly' to give an open offer and not a guarantee or promise before you have the client's approval. 5. Keep it Structured Create a structure that can replicated for other link building emails. Start with an introduction of who you are and what you are responsible for. This gives the reader a person to relate to and lets them know why you are contacting them or their organisation in particular. Next, lead on to a bit of information about your company or the client you are link building for, keeping it short and to the point with information that shows how successful the client is and the types of work they do. It's a good idea to take the information from the clients Homepage/About Us and condense it. Give a link URL at the end of this to the homepage. Then, explain why linking to your client would be useful/beneficial for their site's visitors such as offering a related service or product. Including a link to the most relevant page on your client's site helps them relate to your client. Now is the asking/begging part where you let them know what you would like to offer them in return for a link on their site. Paste in the page URL where you would like your link placed as it shows them you really have searched around their site and makes the whole process a little smoother. Be helpful by enclosing the html code for your link as it gives the reader the opportunity to simply paste the link into the page source code and reduces hassle. Remember to make your anchor text a targeted, relevant keyword. Lastly, give your contact details to not only confirm you area real person making a legitimate request, but also in case they would like to call you or require more information to review the proposal. 6. Always Reply Whenever you get an email back whether positive or negative you should ALWAYS reply. If they say no and give reasoning then reply saying "thank you for taking the time to get back to me". If they reply back quickly then thank them for "replying swiftly to my email". If you don't have the power to say yes or no to an offer then respond stating "I will contact the relevant person at "Client Name" and get back to you as soon as possible". This way you are not keeping them waiting and can forward the email on to the relevant person. 7. Keep Track Remember to keep track of every email sent on behalf of a client. By filling a spreadsheet with the address, contact name, website links and dates you emailed/spoke to them on top. This allows you to quickly note down any replies received and not be confused when someone replies by phone and leaves you lost for words. It also means that if a client asks for a report on progress of the link building or wants to see where you are up to, you have a full spreadsheet of who has/hasn't replied, etc. 8. Be PatientRemember that people are busy and take time to pass things on to the relevant person or discuss with a team or committee. You may get a few replies quickly then nothing for weeks, but be patient throughout and if you are really desperate for a reply then consider calling the person directly and making reference to your sent email.Happy Link Emailing. If anyone has any further tips feel free to comment. Alternatively, if you'd like to know more about link building or SEo in general, contact us about SEO training. Search Engine Optimisation 2010-04-22 11:02:37 http://www.i-com.net/blog/8-tips-for-successful-link-building-emails-340/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/sourcing-backlinks-is-like-making-love-to-a-beautiful-woman-336/ I've come to the conclusion - link building isn't a million miles away from wooing a woman. Both can lead to prospective partners for life. Both require patience and understanding. In addition you need to be friendly, courteous and have a good ear for listening. So here's a little SEO training for you - my list of six tips to wooing a woman (or even getting a backlink):1. On the first meeting dont be too fresh. Sometimes being too self-confident is perceived as being arrogant. Arrogant men are not well liked - even as friends - and are a major turn off for women. In the same way you definitely can be too confident when sourcing back links. Don't believe that your site has the right to get back links from other sites. You need to explain why it's worth while to put a link from your client on another website. Give a good reason. Does your site have lots of useful information? Does it give value to visitors? So don't send emails demanding that your backlink is placed on another site, explain why it's worthwhile to have this link. Never send emails demanding backlinks because your client is a major player in some sector type or business. Remember it can take many months, even years, to gain that "special partner" so don't be too demanding.2. Be a gentleman. Opening a door, pulling out a chair all show that you care and that she is special enough to be treated well. Similarly you should be courteous and polite when you contact a prospect for a back link. If you email or phone, make sure that you are polite, address the contact correctly, explain how you have found the website, what positives you found when you looked at the site ( "I really liked the web design", "I really liked the content you have added", "the site is really good - I found this section really good"). Explain clearly and simply what you are looking for and why you think it would be great to have a back link to your site.3. Little things mean a lot. Letters or notes saying how much you love her; red roses given even when there are no special occasions are small little things that can melt a womans heart. It's surprising how much the little things matter when sourcing backlinks too. If it's an informational site or blog you are sourcing a backlink from - send an email and offer to write guest posts regularly. Very often webmasters and bloggers have limited amount of time to write content and will see this as a welcome addition. If you are sending an email requesting a backlink make sure that you include the anchor text details and a short description - send the programming code for the backlink in html format as well as hyperlinks. Webmasters are always busy and if you can send all the details in a format so that they can be copied an pasted into the programming code there's more chance that a webmaster will add the link.4. Make time for her family, especially her parents. It shows you care for those she cares about and that would give you additional points in her heart.  Once you've got a backlink keep in touch with the webmaster. Don't ignore them. It's important that you build a good relationship with the webmaster that has given you a backlink. They have done you a favour. They didn't need to put a link on their web site and they could remove it if they want. It costs nothing to send an email asking how they are and asking if they need any help with content. By building up a good relationship with webmasters who are in the know you can often get good backlinks on other similar niche sites or networks - often by word of mouth from other webmasters.5. Listen when she speaks. Women want men to listen when they say something.  It shows that you care about her thoughts, concepts and beliefs and that you are not one insensitive person. It's important to listen to what webmasters, especially those with niche web sites, are saying. Before you go out sourcing backlinks, make sure you understand who you are dealing with. By listening you get to understand a particlular niche much better and can build up real lasting relationships with webmasters.Most importantly if a webmaster who has given you a backlink contacts you, make sure you reply to them.6. Don't be selfish.Selfishness is one of the biggest turn offs for women. Ask any woman and they will tell you so.Don't be selfish when linkbuilding. Webmasters may want something in return for adding a link to their site. It may be a reasonable request - a mention on your client's site, a sponsorship of a particular section in their own website site or help with content. By refusing to help you may sour the relationship and inevitably not get the backlink you're looking for. Search Engine Optimisation 2010-04-16 15:29:04 http://www.i-com.net/blog/sourcing-backlinks-is-like-making-love-to-a-beautiful-woman-336/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/7-tips-for-judging-the-quality-of-your-backlinks-329/ In my first post on link building I mentioned in some detail how you can find your online competitor's back-links using a free, simple tool from Yahoo! Now it's all well and good having a list of competitor back-links, but how do you know which ones are good quality back links and have been given some value by Google? The truth is that no one has an exact metric that can tell us which back-links to competitors are the most important or have the most value to Google. What we do have is an experience that comes from many years of link building and some basic tips that can make finding the right types of links much easier. Below are some of the questions you should be asking yourself when you have found possible back links: Is the page on which you are looking for a back link "on-topic" and related to your own web site? Look for websites relevant to what your site offers but have a different focus, i.e. submit to a gardening site if you sell garden tools. Is the page you wish to get a back link from already in Google or the other search engines? Copy the url for the web page you wish to get a back link from into Google and (hopefully) a listing will appear for it. If there isn't a listing there may be a (serious) reason for the web page not being indexed. There's no point having a link on a web page that isn't even in Google. When was the web page you are getting a back link from last cached in Google? When you are building backlinks you need to know if the page you are looking at is still getting cached. If a page is no longer getting cached then a link there is pretty much useless. Lets not waste our link building efforts on an old dead page. You can find the cache date of a web page by copying the web page url into Google and clicking on the cached link in the listing. This will tell you when Google last cached the page in it's index (database). If it was recent (within the last month) that's good; however if it's over six month, this suggests that Google has little or no interest in this particluar web page and the web isn't updated very regularly (if at all). Does the web page have any Google Page Rank? Google PageRank is a numeric value from 1-10 that represents how important a page is on the web. You can find out a web page's PageRank by adding the Google Toolbar to your browser. While not as important as a few years ago, PageRank is still useful for determining if new web sites are linking to a specific web page. Are there any unsuitable back links on the page from which you want to source a backlink? Try and steer away from pages and sites with "off-topic" back links for prescription drugs, adult themes etc.  A number of links on sites with these other types of links is not too bad but if you are actively seeking large amounts of this type of back link (250+) Google may see this as counterproductive. How many links are on the web page? Google and the other search engines generally frown upon too many links on a single web page - any more than one hundred is generally not good and should your link be at the bottom and more than the one hundredth it may get ignored by the search engines. You can find out how many links there are on a web page by counting them or using the Chris Pederick web developer plugin with the FireFox, Flock or Seamonkey browser. Do any existing links on the web page contain text and if so are they showing suitable text? Google first gets an understanding of the web page that is being linked to from the text in the link to the specific web page. For example if the text link says "PPI Claims" Google assumes that the web page that is being linked to is about PPI Claims - if this is not the case Google will give little or no value to this particular link. So, as you can see, there's a lot not only to finding a back link that is suitable for your site but ensuring that the quality of the site and web page that your back link is going to be on. There's no doubt link building can be a very time-consuming process but inevitably it can be a successful strategy for improving your website rankings. Search Engine Optimisation 2010-03-30 12:37:25 http://www.i-com.net/blog/7-tips-for-judging-the-quality-of-your-backlinks-329/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/some-free-link-building-tips-that-will-help-you-to-get-to-number-1-in-google-313/ OK so it may not be as simple as that but, as one of the senior SEO Consultants here at I-COM, I thought it was about time I shared some of my tips and tricks that I've gathered over nearly 10 years of Search Engine Optimisation and link building. While we all know that social media (microblogging, etc.) is fast becoming the new metric for Google to measure the relevancy and freshness of websites (and rank accordingly) it's still important to remember that links are still the life blood of the internet and a properly managed backlink building campaign can generate qualified traffic and better conversions. So, we're not talking about a link building free-for-all like the old days where 'the most backlinks wins' in the listings race - we're talking about quality links from on-topic sites, with authority and relevancy in a specific niche or topic. So how do we go about getting these types of back links? Well the simple answer is there are many different ways and over the next few months I will begin to give you some idea of the various methods and techniques that I've used (and still use) to find these back links.It's worth remembering that before you begin researching back-links it's a very time-consuming process - you'll need to set aside lots of time (and energy) to the process. You'll need to understand what makes a back link good or bad for your website.  Think about it - have you got the time to do this? If not, are you better off outsourcing this process?Adrian's Link Building Tip #1Identify your competitors in the Google listings - then you can identify their back-link footprint (the number of back-links they have, the quality of those links and where they are). You will need to understand what keywords you want to your web site to be found for and who your main competitors are in the top ten listings. Here's what I do:Make sure you have a full list of the products or services being sold or supplied by the web site. From this I can check each of the keyword phrases in Google to find the top ten competitors. For example, if the web site is a law firm and it's based in Northampton, check in the top ten listings in Google for the keyword phrase 'solicitors in Northampton': Once I have a list of the top ten competitors for the keyword phrase "solicitors in Northampton" I can check the back-links to each of the individual competitor web-sites using Yahoo Site Explorer:Yahoo! Site Explorer is a tool that lets you access the information Yahoo has about a site's online presence. You can see which sites and subpages are indexed by Yahoo! Search, track sites that link into each webpage, and view the most popular pages from any site. Use Site Explorer to: Find which sites and subpages are indexed by Yahoo! Search Find inlinks or pages that link to any site or any page View the most popular pages from any site Yahoo Site Explorer only allows you access the information for 1,000 back-links. There are other methods to find out about competitor back-links but I'll save that for another day. With Yahoo Site Explorer you'll need to make sure that you click on the Inlinks button (highlighted in the images below) and that you change the drop down to exclude links from within the domain you're researching - otherwise Yahoo Site Explorer will show you all the internal links of the web site as well. Once you've done this you should have nice list of back-links to the website which you can export using the "Export first 1,000 results to TSV" link.Make sure that you import the TSV links using MS Excel. You'll now have a nice list of your competitors' back-links to help you find suitable inbound links; i.e. sites featuring the same or similar subject matter with well-written content that is not duplicated on other web sites. Also make sure that the links you pursue are on pages with a less than 100 links on them as Google doesn't like more than 100 links on a web page. Also, you will want to find the contact details for the webmaster or owner(s) of the web site. These are whole different tasks in itself and something I will discuss in some detail in the next few posts. Search Engine Optimisation 2010-02-15 08:36:30 http://www.i-com.net/blog/some-free-link-building-tips-that-will-help-you-to-get-to-number-1-in-google-313/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/seo-still-doesnt-get-social-305/ I've been looking at the Twitter feed of a fairly comprehensive list of UK SEOs this morning and I noticed something. Of the most recent 140 tweets in the feed at the time I was looking (about 11:45am): 13 people plugged their own content 27 people plugged random sites such as newspapers, YouTube videos, funny pictures and other amusing "viral" content 25 recommended or retweeted content on the most popular SEO/Tech sites (e.g. SEO Moz, Techcrunch, Mashable, Sphinn, etc.) only 4 tweets recommended articles on their direct compeitors' blogs - 3 of those four were by the same Manchester SEO person (cheers, BTW, @Psychobel) Now call me crazy, but there's a huge difference between the way linking takes place within search compared to social, and a different purpose. This type of usage is understandable if people are using Twitter to market their services to customers via Twitter - but most SEO'ers I follow are using Twitter to network with other SEO'ers and industry folk. The value of using social is that you're getting something useful from the people you're following, the maxim I find myself repeating ad nauseum to clients about social is that "you have to contribute to get back" - so why is it that all we're getting off social from our SEO peers are links back to content we're probably already reading?I contend that SEO'ers still fundamentally don't understand social MediaAs SEO consultants our instinct is to get links and more links to our own site(s). We want everyone to see our content and we certainly don't want to pass linkjuice back to our competitors - if a link is a vote, you should always vote for yourself!However, on social sites, a link doesn't necessarily equal a vote. For starters, the links don't pass PR - so although you may get 2 seconds in a real time SERP, you're not going to boost your listings that way. You may get some trust from Google, if they see social media mentions to back up your other linkbuilding, however. What you want on social, is to build up networks of friends and contacts who not only like your content, but are willing to recommend it - to retweet, bookmark and plug your blog posts and articles.  How do you get this? You have to be willing to give back as much as you get.Yes, you will be boosting your competitors' blog posts - but if you get in there and make great comments on those blog posts, you get a tasty plug back for yourself in return. You also get gratitude. And when your followers aren't SEO'ers hogging the link love for themselves, they may start passing your content around a bit more - because they like how "social" you're being.Links (of the non-PageRank variety) are what blogging is all about In my experience, the best way to get links to a blog is to link out to other bloggers, comment on their posts both on their sites and on your own and generally be generous with link love.  Blogs are designed to be link-friendly by making a Blogroll* of other recommended blogs a standard thing and by offering commenters the option to link back to their own websites. Some of my favourite blogs are the ones that engage with other blogs in their niches, and there is a lot to be said for following one conversation through several sites at once that engage with and respond to each other. It's social. Blogging is social. Social is about conversations, community and other people. Read: it's not about you. Wouldn't you be completely turned off by someone who constantly turned every conversation back to himself if you were sat in the pub? Well, how are conversations online any different?This is the second thing that SEO'ers don't get about social. They consistently don't want to link out - possibly because they don't want to give their competitors a leg up in the SERPs - although this could be solved with use of rel="nofollow" on those links - but more likely they don't link out because they're scared of bleeding PageRank.Can I just say though, guys, if you're really scared of bleeding PageRank so much that you won't link out from your blog - a format designed for outbound links, a format where if you don't use outbound links it looks wrong - then you need to go back to 2005 and do SEO there because your ideas are well out-of-date.PageRank is only one small part of the algorithm these days and by linking out a couple of times on a page - out of what, the 50, or 100 you'll have on your pages, a link out, you really aren't reducing the internal juice you can pass back to yourself by much, now are you? Having those links makes you look more legitimate and trustworthy. Not having them is just tight - and reduces your chances of anybody linking back in to you as well.Stop thinking like an SEO, start thinking like a personWhat we as SEO consultants need to remember is that social isn't the same as search and we need to start thinking differently. Sure, using social media wisely can bolster an SEO campaign - however, the way to reap the highest rewards isn't by using social media like an SEO trawling for links by any means necessary, but by using it like a person. Think about what social is for, and how people approach social - and how you would like people to approach you using social media, and maybe you'll start learning to love instead of just link.*I never said I practice what I preach - I am a (Manchester) SEO consultant after all... Search Engine Optimisation 2010-01-26 14:25:09 http://www.i-com.net/blog/seo-still-doesnt-get-social-305/