I think you should check this article out by Rand Fishkin. He goes into detail about some companies in very BORING industries that have managed to develop incredibly successful link bait.
Best posts made by AnthonyMangia
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RE: Social bookmarking
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RE: How would you set up campaigns?
Ah, gotcha. Personally, I only have one campaign per client I work on. I don't have multiple SEOmoz campaigns to focus on different keywords for one website. I suppose you could organize it that way if you want to, but I think most of us have multiple clients or are working on multiple websites, so our slots are very precious.
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RE: REL = cannonical and web app
Items under the "Notices" section are just that - notices. If a canonical tag points to a URL other than the page it is on, the notice comes up. This is because engines will not count this page as the reference resource, meaning it won't have the opportunity to rank - which could be a terrible situation if you're using the tag incorrectly. SEOmoz includes the notice just to make sure you're targeting the right page.
You can learn more about canonicalization and the rel="canonical" tag at the below resources:
- Canonicalization Best Practices
- Canonical URL Tag - The Most Important Advancement In SEO Practices Since Sitemaps
- Complete Guide to Rel Canonical - How To and Why (Not)
- 301 Redirect or Rel=Canonical - Which One Should You Use?
Additionally, you can find information about other crawl diagnostics in the SEOmoz Help Forums.
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RE: Taking advantage of "Search Plus Your World"
No doubt - you're not the only one who hasn't had a ton of success thus far with the social network. Google Search Plus Your World is an attempt to integrate the social network into their search engine, using their biggest asset to promote Google+. With this move, Google hopes to increase the Google+ user base and make their social network relevant.
If Google gets its way and Google Search Plus Your World does its part in promoting Google+, you might find those +1 buttons being used more frequently. That's the idea, anyways.
You may have heard that Google Search Plus Your World has been included in the FTC's anti-trust probe. This is presumably because Google is favoring its own social network in search results over Facebook and Twitter. Google has said this is only because Facebook and Twitter's terms of service prevent this from happening, and that they are open to the idea of integrating these social networks. If this happens, Search Plus Your World will have implications not just for your Google+ page, but for the rest of your social media presences as well.
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RE: Best WordPress shopping cart?
I've heard very good things about WP E-Commerce, but I haven't used it myself. I did find this nifty SEO guide for that platform, and because WP E-Commerce puts products on pages, the URLs should follow your permalink structure, but don't take my word on that. I suppose since it is free, you can always test it out yourself if you have a few minutes to play around. Good luck!
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RE: What is the general consensus on using Text Broker for content?
I've never used TextBroker, although I too have heard good things. I think their services are a bit overpriced, in my opinion at least. For a 3-star quality article, a 400 word piece would cost you $6.40. I think that's on the high end.
For my lower quality content creation (lower quality here meaning anything I don't write myself), I use freelancers. I shopped out a couple of gigs to Fiverr, found a freelancer that did really good work, then approached her for a bulk order outside of Fiverr. She does great work for me, and I pay $2.50 a piece for good quality 400 word original articles. I've also had luck with freelancers from oDesk, or you can find a local college student from Craigslist. I think no matter how you do it, you can get better quality articles for cheaper than what TextBroker offers.
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RE: Advice regarding Panda
- All of your glossary "Letter" pages are indexed (26 pages with content that is repeated on the individual "Word" pages). Although this is obviously not some intentional or deliberate means at spamdexing, it might appear as low quality to Google.
- Most of your legal definitions on these pages are found elsewhere on the Internet, whether they started out as your original content or not. Example: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22A+barbaric+form+of+corporal+punishment+meted+out+in+the+middle+ages+where+persons+would+be+permanently+blinded+by+the+pressing+of+hot+irons+to+the+open+eyes.%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
- When you combine the above two bullet points, you have 26 pages that contain content that is duplicated on other pages throughout your domain, and then hundreds of pages that contain content that is located elsewhere on the Internet. Classic two way Panda action - duplicating your own content, and having your content duplicated by others.
- The Citations pages are really weak. I know you mentioned there's very little you can do, but really - if there is any way whatsoever to beef these pages up, they need to be. Even if these are on a subdomain, it still isn't a great thing to be associated with. It wouldn't shock me if there were negative consequences, even on a subdomain. (Although given your situation, I think it was a natural first step. It's a tricky situation. See how the move to the subdomain pans out in the next month or two - if things don't start to make a comeback, you really need to figure out a way to beef up the content.)
- A lot of your other content is copied or taken from somewhere. You need to re-write your content or get these websites to re-write theirs.
Example: http://www.duhaime.org/CrimeandSafety/LawArticle-59/Personal-Safety.aspx
Copies: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22In+most+cases+you+are+in+control+of+the+circumstances+in+which+you+place+yourself.+Just+by+being+aware+that+you+are+a+potential+victim+of+a+personal+crime+is+the+first+step+toward+prevention.%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
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RE: Duplicate Content - Video
I doubt the drop is a result of the videos. As far as Panda is concerned, I would focus my rehabilitation efforts on:
- Fixing Duplicate Content (ESPECIALLY on your own website! get well acquainted with how to use rel="canonical")
- Cleaning Up Your Site (focus on making a cleaner experience for your visitors and simpler code for the search engines)
- Fix Your Technical Issues (fix any problems that SEOmoz is telling you about, any crawl errors in Google Webmaster Tools, any page speed problems in Google's Online Page Speed Tool, and potentially any HTML validation problems from W3C)
- Content, Content, Content (create more original content and refresh your evergreen content)
Be warned that there haven't been a ton of verifiable Panda recoveries to date, which may be in part due to the fact that (as Matt Cutts verified) Google isn't updating the "Panda factor" very often. Recovery may take weeks to months. The best article available on the subject, in my opinion, came out last week: http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/40851/10-tips-for-beating-google-panda
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RE: I think I`ve caught some kind of google filter on my site.
If your website was filled with empty pages or pages featuring duplicate content, it is certainly possible that your website was affected by Google's recent Panda update. To recover from this, you're going to want to really focus on cleaning up duplicate content, getting rid of low quality pages, and building more unique content. It's a tough road back, but some websites are starting to see success with Panda recovery. Pocket-Lint recently wrote a great guide detailing their successful Panda recovery efforts.
Your low PA and DA, however, would not be affected by Panda, as these are numbers calculated by SEOmoz according to your backlink profile. To raise your PA and DA scores, find ways to attract or build high quality links to your website. Building links with keyword-rich anchor text (like the links in my response) will help your rankings for any given keyword.
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RE: My first infographic, how to make it exceptional
Content selection is obviously really important. I think if you choose your content well, you can definitely market it to other niche NLP websites. Because of the nature of the topic, I wouldn't expect it to blow up huge on a social media or social bookmarking website, but you should be able to get some good, high-quality links from relevant, niche websites, which is by and large the name of the game.
I think you can get even more mileage out of infographic linkbuilding if you explore NLP as it related to different topics: management training, specific self-help areas, etc. This can help you diversify the type of websites that you can realistically get a link from.
For your first foray into infographic linkbuilding, however, I think you're headed in the right direction.
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RE: No longer to be found for "certain" keywords.
There are tons of reasons why your website might see a drop in rankings for certain keywords. Here are a few:
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Increased competition in your niche pushed your website down as new websites started to rank above you.
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You have been building low quality links and they have been devalued by Google, causing you to lose hundreds (thousands?) of keyword-rich backlinks.
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Your website has been affected by a Google algorithm update. For one reason or another (duplicate content? shallow or nonexistent content on some pages? too many ads / too big of a "footprint"?), your website is being seen as less trustworthy, and this has affected rankings sitewide. (Note, some rankings would be maintained, particularly for keywords with low competition.)
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You were logged into your Google account when you saw these rankings, and your website was appearing higher than it typically does because of your personalized search data. When you logged out and checked your rankings, you noticed a "drop" in ranking that was not actually real. (Okay, this one is unlikely, but we've all seen it before.)
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RE: Footer backlinks for sites I've developed
Will it cause harm? Not likely. If Google suspects the links aren't kosher, it will probably just ignore (or "devalue") the links.
As to whether it is a shady or manipulative practice - debatable. From my perspective, I don't quite see how it is all that different from a company linking to its partners, suppliers, or customers. The link represents a business relationship, and that relationship has value. If I have a client in the position to get these kinds of links, for me it's a no brainer - get 'em. At the very worst, they have no impact SEO-wise, but help with branding and referral traffic. Google's perspective may differ.
As to why the practice might not be working out so well for you - do you run linkbuilding campaigns for the websites you develop? Does anybody? Do many of the websites share a C class address?
A bunch of links from websites with weak backlink profiles or the same C class addresses won't take you very far.
BONUS - a few linkbuilding tactics guaranteed to work:
- Submitting your website to high quality, relevant directories
- Running a guest blogging campaign on a number of influential web design blogs
- Creating TRULY engaging and unique content and promote it via social media
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RE: Generic domain for SEO versus Brand name
You know what's cooler than selling a million knives? Selling a BILLION knives.
Micah and EGOL are giving specific advice relating to choosing your domain name, but behind their advice is a much broader mindset: think big picture.
Why do you expect to get most of your traffic from generic search terms? Why not make it your goal to get most of your traffic from branded keywords?
Make Slycers a household name.
When you get into the link building phase, don't think about the link. Think about the brand. Think about the community you are reaching in building a link. Think about the exposure you are getting for your product.
When you're writing a press release, don't consider the links it might bring in. Consider whether or not this is really newsworthy content. Whether or not this could get picked up by national media. Whether or not your story is interesting enough to get the kind of exposure you're hoping for.
When you're creating content, don't think about optimizing it for Google or Bing. Write for your customers, for people looking for a better kitchen knife. Don't think about "keyword density" or "PR sculpting", think about engaging your audience and developing a website that visitors will find useful and entertaining.
When you're running your social media campaign, don't think about the traffic it could bring in. Think about engaging your audience and building a following. Think about turning influencers in your niche into brand advocates that are in love with Slycers and are telling everyone they know - not because you asked, but because they want to.
Do these things, have this mindset, and this whole SEO thing becomes dramatically simpler.
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RE: How to use articles most effectively
Put your best content on your own website. Have her create an incredible resource section for her field. Literally, aim to make it the BEST CONTENT ON THE WEB for that topic.
Other high quality content can be shopped around to relevant blogs and informational websites for guest post opportunities, as Daniel pointed out. But in order to get the most mileage from your content, put it on your own website. Then, let other webmasters and bloggers know about the INCREDIBLE resource you have created - if your content is really the best on the web, you should have no problem getting people to link to it.
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RE: Is using "-" in the title of a page to seperate targeted keywords bad for seo purposes?
I've seen keywords separated with - and | and even >, and in my opinion, the separator you use shouldn't affect search rankings. It may have an impact on click through rates within any given search engine result page, so you should try to find the one that is most visually appealing.
Also, in general I like to try to be a bit more creative than "KEYWORD1 | KEYWORD2 | KEYWORD3 - SITENAME". In my opinion, something like "KEYWORD1 and KEYWORD2 Tips and Advice, at SITENAME" is much better. It feels less spammy, and I'm convinced results in a higher CTR. I think most people are trending this way, lately: considering the user a bit more than the search engines. I don't think you could have said the same thing a few years back.
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RE: Generic domain for SEO versus Brand name
Most SEOs have the opinion that exact match domains are a bit too powerful in Google's current algorithm, and I think most of us would bet our money on this tactic falling out of favor in the future. Although admittedly, it has stuck around for longer than I think most of us would have expected.
Branded traffic, on the other hand, isn't going to be affected nearly as much by any sort of algorithm change in the future - and it converts insanely well. This should be the primary goal of anybody with a business.
Of course generic traffic is important, but in my opinion, it's not important enough to put building my brand in the backseat, or to affect the way I choose a domain for my company.
Now if this was an affiliate website or some kind of blog that I was launching in order to gain traffic from advertising, my opinion might be different. But because this is a company, and presumably one that you intend to be around for a long time to come, I think branding is the most important consideration.
If I had a sweet generic domain name in addition to my company domain, I might consider making a small microsite expressly for linkbuilding purposes, although I have to emphasize here that the vast, vast, vast majority of your effort should go into working on your primary domain.
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RE: Commenting on an old post
I'm not above re-visiting an old blog post, but like PeterM22 said, make your comment useful and relevant. Sure, you're kind of using the blog for a backlink, but in exchange you're giving them some content that will pull in a long-tail visitor one day. Or at least that's how I justify it in my head.
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RE: Convince me to stay! How should I best use SEOMoz tools.
I'd pay the monthly PRO membership fee just for access to the Keyword Difficulty Tool, alone. I think, value-wise, SEOmoz is the best investment as far as any web-based SEO tools are concerned. Plus, the PRO ability to ask Private questions and get them answered by actual SEOmoz staff? Absolutely in-friggin'-valuable.
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RE: Is there a report in SEOMoz that will show me what keywords each page ranks for on my site?
Exactly. And don't forget to check your analytics to see how those keywords are converting, too! These are the little details that separate good keyword research from great keyword research.
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RE: Cost affective way to automate linkbuilding?
Phew, what a relief. I was half-expecting an angry mob to bust my door down.
I completely get your point, and you're right, best-on-the-web content does rise to the top, even if you don't necessarily give it a big nudge in the right direction.
I agree too that if you've got some traffic to work off of already, your time should be spent focusing on your content. The problem here is the have-nots. If you've got some traffic, you can put up a post, blast it out to Twitter, and move on to writing. From a small business perspective, it's just never that easy.
Interestingly enough, in the back of my head, all I kept thinking was that while my response is how I truly feel, I could definitely be creative enough to get Joe the Plumber's website to blow up on Reddit if I had to.
Thanks for being cool about it! I'd love to see this quality of debate on these boards more frequently.
Note: I edited out the first two lines as they were sort of disrespectful. I originally put them there to get a rise out of people, but on Dr. Pete's advice, I removed them. I didn't want people to read my response and get a bad taste in their mouth from the first couple of lines and have that taint their opinion.