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e_Marketing Blog Traffic: Why Links Are Important Why are links so important to website owners? I haven't spelled out the answer to this question in a very long time. So here goes... Web Traffic: SEO and Links You want people to visit your website, and one of the important ways to get these visits is from the search engines. By some counts, around 70% of all website visitors come from search engines. So obviously getting help from the search engines can make a big difference to the success or failure of your site. Question 1: To score well with the search engines you need to impress them that your site is worth visiting. OK, so how do you do that? Answer: You have to convince them that your site is an important and helpful resource for specific search terms. Question 2: How do the search engines determine what is an important and helpful resource for a specific search terms? Answer: They evaluate each and every web page in terms of its "quality". Question 3: How do the search engines determine quality? Answer: There are two important factors: on-page content, and inbound links. Question 4: What do you mean by "on-page conent"? Answer: The text on every web page is analyzed to determine what that page is about. The search engines look for "keywords". They assume when specific keywords are mentioned in a page then that is what the page is about. Question 5: How is the "quality" of a page's content determined? Answer: This gets a bit trickier. There are many factors considered by the search engines, but the most basic are the amount of text on the page that focuses on specific keywords, and the presence of specific keywords in critical places that the search engines assume are important places (e.g., the title tag, the main headline, the first bit of text on the page, etc.) Question 6: How else is the "quality" of a page's content determined? Answer: In-bound links. When the search engines see a link pointing from an outside site to a page on your site, they assume that means your page is important enough to be considered a resource worth looking at. The more links you have pointing at your page, the more important your page is considered and the higher it will rank when people search for the type of content your page is about. Question 7: So links help the search engines determine the quality of websites? Answer: Yes. In the eyes of the search engines - especially Google - links are like "votes". When someone links to your site the search engines assume that is like saying "this is a worthwhile resource worth looking at." The more "votes" like this you get, the more likely the search engines are to consider your site a worthwhile resource. Question 8: So is that the whole story on links? Answer: No. Not all links are given the same weight by the search engines. And some links never get discovered because they are on pages that are never visited by the search engines. So you don't get credit for those links. I'll say more about linking strategies in the next post. Resources: Twitter Tools and Strategies - Twitter can be a boring waste of time, or a great way to build and enhance a profile, group of followers, online reputation, etc. It's been around long enough now to have an established track record as a useful social networking forum. Not having months of serious Twitter experience I've been surprised at the superficiality of most tweets, and especially surprised at the kind of filler some people use...but whatever... If you are looking for suggestions on how to leverage the "power" of Twitter for your marketing efforts, check out the resources listed here: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR, which includes links to resources like the Big Juicy Twitter Guide (Caroline Middlebrook), Newbies Guide to Twitter (Rafe Needleman) and many more. Special Link Building Program Just put the finishing touches on New Power Links Plus. This program combines our link building plan called New Power Links with our self-serve blogging platform called The Link Builder Network - access to more than 50 blogs. Together these two programs cost $108, but this combined program is selling for just $69 - a savings of almost 40% every month. PLUS you get something that is not normally included in a Link Builder Network membership - more than 100 professionally pre-written blog posts written especially for your website. These can be used for posting to the Link Builder Network blogs. Learn more about New Power Links Plus. |
Review-of-the-week.com features Product Feature Pages — pages dedicated to descriptions or reviews of products or websites. Product Feature pages can include photos and graphics (as long as these are readily available), and can have links pointing back to your (single) site. Product Feature Pages are linked from at least 5 blogs, a number of high traffic article and announcement sites. Web Hosting Scams - What Some Web Hosting Providers Aren't Telling YouMar 20, 2006 - Linknet Internet News Web Hosting Scams - What Some Web Hosting Providers Aren't Telling You Mar 20, 2006 - Linknet Tech News - by Hosting-Review.comIt's hard to separate fact from fiction in advertising, and certainly no less so when dealing with web hosting providers. Bold, broad-sweeping claims are endlessly repeated in a shameless effort to keep you from reading the fine print. In an age where it seems there are almost as many web hosting providers as there are websites to be hosted, competition is fierce, and competing web hosting providers will say almost anything to get you to sign up with them. That's why you need to know what to look for, how to read between the lines, so that you don't fall victim to any of the most common scams that plague the internet in the guise of once-in-a-lifetime offers you absolutely can't refuse. Free Web Space: Yes, some web hosting providers will give you 5 or 10 MB of web space for no charge, however (and we know you've heard this phrase before) certain restrictions apply. Make sure you know what they are. Unlimited Bandwidth: There's no such thing, plain and simple. The web hosting providers themselves have limitations imposed on their bandwidth; how can they offer you any more than that? They can't. When web hosting providers offer "unlimited" bandwidth it means they've estimated how much usage their average customer could ever possibly need, thereby giving the illusion of unlimited bandwidth. Free Domain Names: Sure, they're free, but so's dirt. You want some free dirt? We didn't think so. Free domain names are about as valuable. First of all, they look something like this: www. webhostingprovidersname.com/user/usersname.html (or some equally excruciating variation thereof). Now, consider this: First, most internet surfers are wise to these types of URLs; people know that companies with domain names like these are not usually the most well-established or reputable businesses online. Second, the more slashes your URL contains, the lower your page rank. And third, no one will remember the name of your website! These are just a few of the reasons why free domain names aren't all they're cracked up to be. Domain Registration: Now, this by itself is no scam; to the contrary, it's a useful and convenient feature many web hosting providers offer. Some, however, will actually register your domain in their name. This way, they locked you into service with them as switching web hosting providers now means losing your domain name. Web Templates: Don't mistake us, web templates are great. How else can the average computer user whip out a website that looks halfway decent without spending a fortune? But what web hosting providers don't tell you about these templates could end up costing you later. Any images or page designs or web forms or any other objects that originated from your web hosting providers database belongs to them. They own the copyright. If you ever switch web hosting providers, you can't take any of it with you. Not to mention, if you ever decide to hire a professional webmaster, many will refuse to work with template-driven websites, as they're (ironically) harder to manage. No Contact Information: If you can't find on their website at least one way – email address, query ticket, phone number, mailing address – to get in touch with the web hosting providers you're considering, stop considering them. Discounts for Long Term Contracts: Before falling prey to this alluring gimmick, ask yourself, even if your website lasts as long as your contract, are you sure your web host will? Web hosting providers (like websites) are born and die every day, and they know it. That's why most of them include somewhere in their Terms of Service that they won't be held liable if they can't fulfill their end of the contract. So, if they go under, so does your website. And if you go under first, say goodbye to the money you paid for the long term contract. Either way, it's no bargain. Stick with a year or two at most. No Guarantees: Whether for web hosting providers or wetsuit manufacturers or weight loss programs, they've got to have a money-back guarantee. These days, it's essential. And there's zero reason you should ever pay for a product or service that doesn't offer some form of money back guarantee or another. Really, now. Hosting-Review.com is the premier resource on web hosting. Visit http://www.hosting-review.com for comprehensive reviews and rankings of over 50 web hosting providers, as well as informative articles about everything to do with hosting and the top-rated picks for different types of hosting packages. Cheap Web Hosting | Free SMS Service
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