What is a Backlink?
This is how a backlink structure looks like.
A Backlink in simple terms is an “external link that is directed towards your website”.
It is also known as an Inbound Link.
Backlinks are a vital part of Search Engine Algorithms, the more backlinks you have, the more chances you have, of ranking higher.
Backlinks are also indicative of popularity and it also results in more traffic.
Here are some ways by which you can acquire backlinks for your site
- By submitting your site to web directories.
- By submitting your site to social bookmarking sites.
- By being active in forums that are related to your niche.
- By socializing with bloggers related to your niche and making them link out to you.
- By writing content and copy on your site and providing value which will influence users to link out to you.
What is Keyword Density?
Keyword Density is the term given to “the measure of how many times a keyword or a keyword phrase appears on a page,in comparison with other words that appear on the page”.
Keyword Density is an important part of search algorithm and pages with a certain keyword density index are rewarded with better rankings.
The whole concept of keyword density has undergone a sea-change because of issues concerning keyword stuffing which have resulted in search engines tightening the belts on too many occurances of phrases in a particular page.
Here are a few things you need to keep in mind with respect to Keyword Density:
- Make sure that you mention the keywords in the copy just enough so that its human readable and acceptable.
- Make sure that the keywords are not mentioned too many times in the copy.
- Ensure that there is a decent occurrence of keyphrases and keywords in the page, so its not necessary you avoid putting keywords in where necessary just to avoid search engine filters.
- Most importantly, write content for the users and not for the search engines.
Vertical Thinking - Content and Long Tails
IMAGE CREDIT: LAEVEN
I love thinking vertically, a lot.
And, this little post made me thing vertically on the topic of long-tails and the relation it had with fresh content on a page.
Now, lets do some introspection.
How does a user land up into your page for a long tail?
Is it because of the title, meta or in-bound links?
I don’t think so! Its all about what’s on the page.
Assume that your getting 1500 visitors to a page from 750 different long-tails, its not because your “trying” to rank for all 750 of these keywords i.e your not optimizing your titles, or building in-bound links with anchors of these 750 keywords to get ranked for them.
It would also not be technically feasible, to do so - you can’t effectively “optimize” for long tails in the conventional way - you need to work around it and think.
I ran a small research, with long tails and how pages were ACTUALLY ranking for them, and here’s something interesting that I found.
I ran a Google search for the keyphrase “cadillac escalade wheels rim red and white”.
And, here’s what I found.
Now, if you look at result #2 and analyze it, you will figure these thing out:
I - Result #2 does not have all the long-tail keywords in the title.
II - Result #2 does not have any in-bound links pointing to the URL with the anchor “cadillac escalade wheels rim red and white”.
So, what’s making it rank there?
Pure Content! Look at the page in question and you will see that its a keyword rich content mine.
So, for actually ranking for these long tail keywords, all that you need is relevant and keyword rich content.
So, there are the analogies broken and here’s what no guru will tell you about ranking for long-tails.
#1 - Build Keyword Rich Content.
#2 - Build even more keyword rich content.
#3 - Create specifics about whatever your selling in a page ( tables maybe? )
#4 - Get the page indexed and get it a few generic links.
What are Link Farms?
Link Farms are sites which link to every other site in the same network.
A link farm is categorized by a large number of links being given out from it, and its primary motive is to manipulate search engine rankings.
Link Farms are based on the theory that popular search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN base their rankings partly on the basis of in-bound links from external sources and link popularity.
Links Farms were initially developed to increase the Page Rank and in-bound links of all the sites participating in the network, but were later forced to evolve due to issues of fairness and manipulation of these link farms.
Five Reasons why you shouldn’t acquire a link from a link farm:
- Links from link farms are usually junk and are of little or no value.
- Your site may get penalized or blacklisted for participating in link farm mechanisms.
- Links farms link out to many other sites, so obviously they are being seen as SPAM by users and search engines.
- Link Farms may be penalized themselves, resulting in these links being of no value.
- You may get reported by someone for acquiring links from a link farm or, linking out to one.
What is Link Spamming?
Link Spamming is the process of spamming other web-sites or web sources with the goal of acquiring backward links.
It might be otherwise defined as the process of trying to “acquire links from a source which is not relevant and which doesn’t want to link out”.
Otherwise, it is the process of over-acquiring links from a particular source in order to increase search rankings without taking into account relevancy factors.
Link Spamming results in the acquisition of links which are of low value and less authority.
Five Reasons why you shouldn’t involve yourself in link spamming:
- The links acquired from link spamming are of low quality, and won’t help too much with Search Engine Rankings.
- Link Spamming can be reported by a webmaster or a website owner and you can get penalized for it.
- Google will eventually catch up with link spamming techniques and link spammers and devalue such links.
- Link Spamming creates a bad example - its almost like your setting a bad precedent.
- You are providing bait for others to spam your site by spamming theirs.
What is Link Popularity?
IMAGE COURTESY: CUSTOMER MAGNETISM
Link Popularity is defined as the “popularity of your web-site in terms of in-bound links and the number of resources over the web pointing to your website”.
Link Popularity is different from what we would normally claim to be link building, because it is more of a direct result of link building.
The Link Popularity of your site is determined not just by the sheet “number” of sites pointing to yours, but rather by the intrinsic value of these sources according to Google.
Link Popularity and Page Rank
Link Popularity and Page Rank are completely different factors, since Page Rank is more of a number or scale rather than a clear representation of the “popularity” of your website over the web.
Page Rank is often confused with Link Popularity for the wrong reasons.
What is SEO Hosting?
IMAGE COURTESY: SEO HOSTING
SEO Hosting refers to the practice in which a website is hosted in a web server with a dedicated C-Class IP Range.
This is done in order to eliminate effects of spam and sites being de-listed on shared servers.
The idea is pretty simple..
If your on a shared host, there is always the change that one of the sites sharing the server with you might take up to shady SEO practices or spam.
In this scenario, your server IP may get blacklisted by the search engines and may result in a blacklist or penalization for your website.
SEO Hosting enables you to host yourself on a dedicated server and IP range eliminating these mishaps.
Three reasons why you should be using SEO Hosting:
- It enables you to have your own unique IP range.
- It eliminates the risk of getting de-listed for spam because of spam emanating from another source in your shared server.
- It allows you to garner in-bound links more effectively.
What is SEO Score?
SEO Score
SEO Score is the score given to every page based on its on-site optimization factors.
The SEO Score is based on a number relevant key factors which include and are not limited to:
- Page Titles
- Page Code
- META Tags
- Page Content
- Image ALT
- CSS Code
The SEO score is not a “full explanation” into the Search Engine Optimization of your site, it is more of a retrospect into the Score according to the on-site crawlability of website according to the Google Bot.
It is relatively easy to get an SEO score of a 100%, but the SEO Score is a major factor which helps in optimizing a page for the search engines.
Breadcrumb Navigation For SEO
Many of us have probably seen the breadcrumb navigation in action in a couple of sites, without understanding fully what it was for.
This is what a breadcrumb navigation looks like:
The breadcrumb navigation initially evolved as a usability and user experience strategy.
The whole idea was that a user could “retrace” his steps with respect to his navigation from the homepage which would enable him to get back to where he was previously by just utilizing the breadcrumb navigation bar.
Ever heard of the Hansel and Gretel story where breadcrumbs where used as markers?
The breadcrumb navigation got its basic framework from this exact same idea.
Now, getting back to the topic of the Breadcrumb Navigation for Search Engine Optimization, its a big plus to your website because of the following points:
- It helps your pages get more internal juice to each other, because they are being effectively interlinked thanks to the breadcrumb navigation bar.
- It enables users to get more incentive to go back and forth, thus generating more page views per user.
- It allows Google to properly index and cache pages according to the relevant structure.
- Its an amazing way to cluster based on different keywords and groups for the search engines.
Heck! Even the Beginners Guide to SEO published by Google advocates the usage of the breadcrumb navigation.
Your just missing out on something neat if you don’t have the breadcrumb navigation installed on your site.
SEO An Art or Science?
This is probably the gazillionth time someone has been talking about whether SEO ( Search Engine Optimization ) is an art or a science.
There’s this set of people who claim to specialize in the “art of SEO” and others who claimed to have mastered the “science of SEO”.
But, what the hell is SEO?
Is it an art or a science?
I just thought it would be fun to do a little bit of an investigation.
Here’s what dictionary.com defines an art to be:
” the craft or trade using these principles or methods.”
So, the definition typically means that an art is something where we apply acquired knowledge to create something.
In the case of Search Engine Optimization, we apply the acquired knowledge of the way google behaves, the way it ranks sites or the way search engines work in order to generate results i.e search engine rankings and traffic.
So, that seems okay doesn’t it?
I was pretty confused myself, so I decided to go and pick up the definition of “science” from Wikipedia, and this is what it said:
” systematized knowledge in general.”
“a particular branch of knowledge.”
These are two different definitions of Science, and I thought both made sense with respect to SEO.
With SEO, its definitely a systematic process and definitely a branch of knowledge.
We use acquired knowledge systematically to optimize sites.
So, how do we actually categorize SEO? As an art or a science.
This brought me to a single idea.
In common usage, we don’t actually represent anything too “systematic” as an art.
Art is more of a creative idea than a systematic and singular process.
Even thought we all like to claim that SEO isn’t a systemized process, it is one to a large extent.
There is a lot of creativity involved in Search Engine Optimization, but it is at the end of the day still a singular system of process which are used to procure results.
SEO as a science makes more “sense” - since its more of application of acquired knowledge and systemized processes.