Monthly Archives: July 2010

What Is LinkBait & How Do You Use it?



BWMagic’s Internet Marketing News


What Is LinkBait & How Do You Use it?


If you have a web site you will probably already know getting
quality one-way link is the key to getting more traffic and
higher rankings, but getting those links is easier said than done.
However, there is one very effective technique which has proven
the test of time and one you should be using.


We are talking about LinkBait.


Simply put: linkbait is any content which is so intriguing/informative/useful
other webmasters and surfers will gladly share it with their
friends and colleagues. Actually, linkbait can be many things:


– an informative article

– a useful software program

– a handy ebook or report

– a YouTube video

– a special seo tool

– an amusing blog post


or just a well constructed web page which your visitors find
especially helpful or interesting.

Whenever I think of LinkBait, I always compare it to “word of mouth”
advertising. Something that is spread virally throughout the
community and in this case, on the web. Never underestimate the
true marketing power of this kind of advertising and promotion.

From my own experiences, I first discovered the instant overnight
power when someone bookmarked one of my web pages in Digg and
it landed on the first page. I received over 70,000 visitors
in one day and gathered numerous quality one-way links from
around the web.

While these visitors were temporary and relatively “useless”
– the seo efforts were long-lasting and very beneficial.
No visitor to your site is useless but these visitors were
not my usual keyword driven traffic which buy my affiliate
products or sign up to my lists.

However this incident showed me why using LinkBait is a very
effective way to get traffic. And since that time I try to
place the simple “Addthis” button on all my content – to easily
let my visitors bookmark the material in all the social bookmarking
sites.


This is an easy way to make all your pages LinkBait.


Another important thing about using LinkBait – Google loves it.
Mainly because it fits in with Google’s original ranking philosophy
and system where web users vote democratically on which content should
be ranked the highest.

It is content recommended by other web users and content which
they find helpful, informative or entertaining.

Matt Cutts explains and gives an example in a YouTube video
which in itself is a form of linkbait. You can view the
video here to get more ideas on this topic:



youtube.com/watch?v=2QIxTI59r5o

In addition, for some time I have been including in these
emails some links to helpful SEO tools. This is an obvious
form of LinkBait.

Here’s another helpful SEO Optimization Tool which helps you write
or correct your HTML code to better rank in the search engines.



http://seoforums.org/seo-tools/optimize-html-code-tool

If you’re not already using some forms of LinkBait – give it a try
and see the results for yourself.


Helping You Succeed Online Since 2002!

Kind Regards,
Titus

http://www.bizwaremagic.com

Did you find the above information helpful? If so, why not
help spread the word – recommend this content by using
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The Yahoo Bing Transition Has Begun – Some Tips



BWMagic’s Internet Marketing News


The Yahoo Bing Transition Has Begun – Some Tips



For over 10 years now, I have concentrated most of my SEO efforts and site design
towards Google, mainly because they send me around 70% to 80% of my free organic
traffic depending on the site in question. Although Google, with their countless
updates and never-ending Algorithm tweaking, has sent me into fits of
depression/rage/pure joy more times than I can count, but I still like Google and
can’t imagine my web-day or web-income without it.

However, Yahoo has now begun to test and show organic, as well as paid search listings,
from Microsoft. You will still see the same Yahoo interface but the results are coming
from Bing. Now is the time to optimize your site or sites for Bing if you haven’t done so
already.

Now I must admit, I am probably not the best one to be explaining this because as mentioned
above, with all my years online I have never really concentrated much of my SEO on Yahoo or
Bing. Now I have paid listings in both of them and many of my keywords are ranked high in
both Yahoo and Bing but I have never gone out and actually tried to raise my rankings in
any of them.

In other words, I have never really bothered with them because of the low volume of
traffic which they produce compared with Google. If you’re on a tight budget or you
have very little time, it’s best to concentrate your efforts on Google.

But putting all your eggs in one basket is never a good idea, especially now when
we don’t yet know the outcome of the Bing/Yahoo marriage. Ranking high in this new
search engine could produce more traffic and it’s best to be prepared for it.

Like Google, Bing has its own section for Webmasters which offers advice and tools.
Using these tools and following the SEO advice should get your site ranked high.


Here’s something directly from the Bing Toolbox:


“Web sites that naturally appear high in search engine results typically
have maximized their SEO methods, by using:


Relevant and unique title tags on all Web pages;
Succinct meta tag content descriptions;
Header tags (specifically h1 tags) within the content;
Text navigation links;
XML Sitemaps; and,
Robots.txt files. “


Find more helpful stuff here:


www.bing.com/toolbox/webmasters

Now of course, how this whole transition plays out and what effect it will
have upon the online search world remains to be seen. Like most webmasters,
I constantly view my site’s stats and raw data… seeing where my visitors
are coming from and what keywords they are using to find my content.

For very lucrative sites I even monitor my site’s traffic logs sometimes on
an hourly basis… checking the latest 300 visitors. I know there are software
programs and site’s stats such as Awstats and Analog Stats. I also use Google
Analytics but closely monitoring your traffic gives you a special feel for how
well your site is performing.

I firmly believe you have to know your site like the back of your hand, you
have to know how well it is performing and what is working. Most of all, you have
to discover what is not working… if your visitors are immediately leaving your
site, your content may not be of a high enough quality or you are targeting the
wrong keywords.


Or even the wrong search engines.

If my Bing/Yahoo daily search traffic starts to increase, I will pay more attention
to ranking high in those search engines. But as of yet, I am not seeing the numbers
which would warrant extra time. This doesn’t mean these search engines don’t produce
good quality traffic – just saying the numbers aren’t there yet.

Nor should you be misled by the small numbers, if this traffic is converting into sales
– you should be paying attention and optimizing your sites for Bing/Yahoo. That’s why
I have always found it profitable to have paid search listings in both Yahoo and Bing…
their traffic do convert into sales. So the transition does concern me somewhat and
so far things have gone smoothly.

Can Bing/Yahoo really compete with Google in organic search? I don’t think so, but
their combined numbers will probably go up and make it much more worth your while
to optimize for this new search engine.

To find out more about this whole transition and to get more tips try here:

Google vs Yahoo Comparison

And here’s a great site to compare how your site ranks for your keywords
in both Google and Yahoo:



www.langreiter.com/exec/yahoo-vs-google.html




Helping You Succeed Online Since 2002!

Kind Regards,
Titus

http://www.bizwaremagic.com

Did you find the above information helpful? If so, why not
help spread the word – recommend this content by using
the social bookmark sites below. The SEO Gods will Thank You!

Increase Traffic & Sales by Using Sitemaps, Breadcrumbs and Keyword Clouds



BWMagic’s Internet Marketing News


Increase Traffic & Sales by Using Sitemaps, Breadcrumbs and Keyword Clouds


This week I thought I would give you some basic site design tips
which will make your site more visible to your visitors and the
search engines. Over the years, using these design features have
produced more traffic and sales for me. These may also prove useful
to your site or sites.





Google Sitemaps





Some years back, there was a lot of fuss made about placing a Google Sitemaps
on your site. Such a sitemap would let the search engines quickly find your
content and index it. It was also a way for you as a webmaster to let the
search engines know which content you wanted to be featured most from your site.
This was an XML file which updated automatically on your server as you
added new content.

If you want to know more about Google Sitemaps – try this article I wrote
which also have links to some good sitemaps generators.


http://www.bizwaremagic.com/Google_Sitemaps_Explained.htm




General HTML Sitemap




You don’t hear as much about sitemaps these days but just common sense
says you should have a sitemap – listing all your web pages and major
content – featured on all the pages of your site.

This will make navigation of your site much easier for your site’s
visitors. Personally I can’t count the number of times I have used a sitemap
to find what I am looking for on a site. Next to an onsite search box,
a sitemap is a very important element of good site design.

Most of my sites are very simple HTML sites with very simple and easy site
navigation. I try to place a link back to my homepage on every page on my site,
never leave your visitors stranded. Another practice that I have always done,
is to place a sitemap link on every page.

For SEO reasons most experts suggest you keep all links on your site no more than
three clicks away from your homepage. I usually design my index page with my main
keywords listed and then break these keywords up into sub-topics.

Usually, this follows a simple pattern – these keywords are usually made up of one
or two words, then the sub-topics are usually longer three or four keyword phrases.

For example, you could have a site or domain entitled “CheapVacationsDeals” and
on your index (main homepage) you could have links entitled “honeymoon vacations”
“disney vacations”… then these would have further sub-topics or links going
to “niagara falls honeymoon vacations”, “orlando disney vacations” and so on.

If you’re running an affiliate site it is extremely important to create
content/web pages based upon the keyword phrases surfers are using in the
search engines to find what they’re looking for on the web. Obviously this
will increase your traffic and sales.




Breadcrumbs





On this subject there is another related topic which should be discussed
and that is the use of breadcrumbs in your site design. This is a simple
way of letting your visitors know what topics and sub-topics they’re
using on your site and how they can get back to the home page.

For like in the Hansel and Gretel story, using breadcrumbs is one method
to find your way home. Here it’s using a linking structure on your site
to help your visitors find what they’re looking for.

Searching different levels of any site can be confusing for your visitors
so providing some direction can be helpful.

home > computers > laptops > gaming laptops

If you want to know more about breadcrumbs and how to use them, here are
a couple of good links:

/www.devlounge.net/code/css-breadcrumbs-in-5-minutes




Keyword Cloud





And if you’re running a blog related to your site, a common practice is to include
a “keyword cloud” which tells your visitors which keywords are most prominent on
your blog. This is a visual presentation of the keywords on your site and is also
know as a “tag cloud”.

Here’s a nice page which will show you how to use/put a “keyword cloud” on
your WordPress Blog.

www.staygolinks.com/easy-wordpress-tag-cloud-page.htm

Hope this email has you thinking about sitemaps, breadcrumbs and
keyword clouds… all ways to make your site more useful and easier
to use. It will also help those all-important search engines to
find and index your content faster.




Helping You Succeed Online Since 2002!

Kind Regards,
Titus

http://www.bizwaremagic.com

Did you find the above information helpful? If so, why not
help spread the word – recommend this content by using
the social bookmark sites below. The SEO Gods will Thank You!