I use an SEO plugin for a blog about adulthood I author. The plugin is called "SEO Ultimate" and the designer also writes articles about SEO. As I was browsing the articles, one caught my attention. The article was titled, "Stop Building Worthless Links."


Link building is very important and SEO's ramble on about how some links can harm you. It always strikes my curiosity when I come across one of these articles because I have never experienced (or heard of anyone) a website being harmed by the type of links it has.

The article's author had a very interesting opinion about what to do with your own SEO strategy. Below, I have reposted his opinion.


My Two Cents
(original article at:  http://www.seodesignsolutions.com/blog/link-building/stop-building-worthless-links/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SeoDesignSolutionsBlog+%28Seo+Design+Solutions+Blog%29)


To create a hypothetical circumstance from a combination of metrics above, imagine you have a new domain with no trust and until now you have only gotten hundreds of low quality “noise” type links (such as article directories or pages without Pagerank, rankings themselves in search engines or trust); what would your site benefit from the most?

In this exchange a few high PR links from a neutral or themed website (preferably a segment from an .edu site on the subject), an editorial piece in a newspaper (website) whose links pass trust or links from a source like PRweb.com for a press release are all ideal for a website in this phase of development.

On the contrary, if you have a seasoned domain that is stuck on page 3 for your keyword and need to build links to your category or supporting pages to push that ranking factor up from internal pages to your primary landing pages or categories (which in turn can rank other pages), then in this scenario you won’t need high PR links, just IP diversity and citation from various online sources (blogs, directories, article marketing, etc.).

With SEO, there is a time and place for everything, if coordinated properly. I am not saying that a link without Pagerank or trust is worthless; I am merely saying that depending on the keywords you target, you will have to create a more robust link profile.

Why not get 10 links that are equivalent to 1000 links from off topic sources? You may have to get creative with your approach, such as offer to guest post, call an editor of a magazine, newspaper, or ezine and see if they’re open to writing a piece (if you provide an expert angle or sorts to the story), etc.

The point is, mix it up but don’t get carried away on the noise, find links that count and use the right tool for the right job. In case you need to get started, here is a quick resource for strong directories that have Pagerank, age and trust. Or, if you are out of ideas, here is a post on other ways to build links to think outside the box.

Jeffrey's thoughts are worth sharing here. Maybe you've had some experience with links that didn't help your website, if so, please comment and let us know.

A few months ago, I changed up my services to provide SEO help that was more affordable (In over three years of providing Internet marketing services, I had met so many people who just didn't have the budget for high powered SEO) but still provided value. 

Once I got the clarity, I contacted my power partners to let them know that they could subcontract hire me to do the SEO submissions and they could focus on overall strategy and social media marketing. 

I thought it was all a no brainer and that the new service would be welcomed with open arms, my partners would sell it like ice cream on a hot summer day, and everyone would be happy.

I was wrong. 

Instead, I got a lot of questions and concerns, mostly to do with the type of SEO service I was now providing. People were wondering about the effectiveness of the type of SEO service.

SEO is not a one time fix. It's constant and basically a never ending project. People are now educated enough about SEO that they know what's a scam and what's not.

So my power partners' concerns were mostly about website submissions to online directories and search engines having not much of an impact on SEO rankings. 

Who could blame their concerns?  The search engine optimization "experts" claim that the techniques no longer impact rankings.

I disagree.

When I build links, I tend to focus on two specific techniques:

1. Blog commenting
2. Online Directory Submissions

Doing these two techniques have helped my website obtain a PR 3 ranking and be listed in the top million websites in the world, as ranked by Alexa.com.

It's not the best results, however, my site is only 3 1/2 years old and I haven't paid top dollar to obtain high rankings. My site is doing great! I am proud of how far it's come along in a short amount of time. 

Every time I hear an SEO expert poo poo online directories, I think more about a particular theory I have...

Search engine algorythms are supposed to be some kind of mystery and every SEO is supposed to be chasing them. This protects the search engine from being exposed. 

Well, I think this is intentional, so that SEO's can claim that things which used to work no longer do. But in my opinion, things may change but they stay the same. The old school techniques of link building still have validity and effectiveness.

I've seen it with my own eyes and that seems to work for me. 

It can work for you too. 

There are a lot of business owners who are happy to see their business optimized in the search engine results. They think that everyone searching for their business is using their business name.

Here's an example:

You want to search for Boulder seo services. In Google, you type GrowthInHarmony.com.  I'm happy because my business is listed #1 in the results. Your happy because you found my business online. Yeah!

Sounds great, doesn't it?

But guess what? It doesn't work that way. (Maybe if your Target or Macy's)

You have to know if your business brand is reputable and memorable. Chances are, it is not.

So when someone pulls up Google's homepage and wants to search for services or products your business offers, 9 times out of 10, they are not going to type your or any business name into the search bar.

Rather, they are going to search for WHAT THEY WANT.  Here's another example:

You want to check into SEO services in Boulder, CO.  You would search:

Boulder SEO

See how your business name has nothing to do with that search term?

Want another example?

Okay, say you want ice cream and you live in Boulder. You would search something like:

Ice cream store Boulder

I think you get it now!

The whole point of this blog post is to educate you on how people think when they use search engines. They don't think about your business name unless you are a HUGE brand. Rather, they ALWAYS think about what they want. It's just the way it goes.

Don't be fooled by an SEO service provider that tells you your main keywords should be your business name and terms similar. It's a scam. These service providers suck at keyword research and you're going to lose a lot of money by hiring them.

Keyword research is the starting blocks of great SEO. Be sure that your SEO service provider does great keyword research.

How do you tell they do?  Ask them how many monthly search queries the keyword phrase gets? Ask them what they use to determine your keywords? (Use Google's SEO starter guide to read just enough to get an idea of the right questions to ask your SEO service provider.)

And if you have any questions about this topic, contact me. I'll respond!

I marked a couple things to show you why this message is utter crap. The first is who it is from. Gmail is a great Email service. It's too bad that SEO spammers use it too (and a lot of them do!)

Then there's the message itself. How vague can a message get? Maybe, just maybe, if the person who sent this message were to include one of the keywords my site even wants to rank for, I'd give this message 1 second of consideration.

SEO spam messages are too common these days. The number one thing to do is IGNORE them. You'll be able to tell a crap message from legit after looking at the image above.

Don't waste your time with these shmucks!

In your perfect work day, list the ideas and details of what your perfect work day would look like. The more specific you are, the better chance you will have of actually creating a day like this.

What is your ideal start time? Location? Greatest accomplishments?

The point is to let your imagination take over, curb the inner critic, and free write your way to a clear picture of what you want your work life to look like.

It's powerful to do this! For me, it was an eye opener to learn more about what I enjoyed (I didn't realize how much I liked to video and weblog.)

Clarity is so important in anything in life. You will get clarity by doing this exercise.

Suggestions:
1) Write chronologically- from the time you start work to the time you finish.
2) If you get stuck, stop writing, close your eyes, visualize the last thing you just completed, and let your imagination create an image for what will come next.
3) Breathe. Have fun.

Prompting questions:
1) What activities energize you?
2) What accomplishments would you feel the most proud of?
3) Who do you help the most? How are you helping them?

Hopefully you take the time to do this. You will be happy you did. And as suggested in the video above, leave a comment with a link to your results. It will build a micro community of people to support you in succeeding!

I have a lot of compassion for small business owners!

Currently, they are being told that their traditional marketing is a waste of time and if they don't have SEO, they're doomed.

Small business owners are overwhelmed with their work and intimidated with the unfamiliar ways of SEO.

Don't believe any of it. It's a lie.

The SEO industry has some really bad people in it. My thought is that they're doing the work to try to make a quick buck. They're not serving their clients. They're lying to them.

Every day I talk to a potential new client for my services. I listen to their needs and I make it a priority to educate them about what I do. Some of the most common things I hear from small business owners is that someone else has approached them and promised page 1 results in Google...

And that's lie #1- their promise. What makes it a lie is that they are guaranteeing a result that currently doesn't exist. In other words, they are promising you a #1 Google ranking result without knowing the keyword to compete for.

This is impossible. SEO doesn't work this way. A good SEO will give you an assessment of the keywords your business should compete for, and offer advice for more specific keyword terms.

An SEO expert needs to know the amount of search volume for a specific query and how much competition there is for the keyword phrase.

For example, if you were a massage therapist and you were to compete for the keyword "massage," good luck. You just won't be able to optimize for that keyword. An SEO expert should be telling you this and then making a suggestion to optimize a website for a specific technique of massage (and including the city you work in.)

Lie #2- You'll see results tomorrow. Yeah right! Search engines take time to index content. Just because Google can give you results in an instant doesn't mean that the search engine is crawling your site and indexing pages instantly. It works the opposite way.

Some SEO strategies require adding more content on a frequent basis (that's why people/businesses blog.) From my experience, you should expect any small business SEO to take 3 months or more (of course this depends on what keywords you are competing for.)

Lie #3- Your business will fail without SEO. It's really sad how many SEO experts use fear tactics when selling their services. They try to scare the heck out of their potential clients.

This has worked in the past and I think it's why SEO wannabes continue to do it, but it's a shame that it happens. It's just not necessary (and total BS.)

I'm still seeing people benefit from in person networking referral groups. I still believe this is the fastest and strongest way for someone to gain trust in your services.

Yes, people will search, but they'll also ask their network. Your business is not doomed if your website is not optimized.

Hopefully these three tips will help you discern the SEO "bad eggs" from the good ones. If there's anything worth repeating again- it's to not let some SEO "Joe Schmo" scare you into investing in their services.

Be empowered. There are SEO experts who are here to help. Listen to the ones who educate. They're the ones who do great work and will get you legitimate results (rather than telling you lies.)

If you like this post, please share it. Small business owners need to know more about the crap SEO wannabes are selling.

Funny how syncronicities happen so frequently! Today, I was helping an SEO client create profiles on important web directories. He asked why he needed to do this and I told him that it would provide a "backlink" to his website and would help for SEO.  He was still a bit puzzled and I had to explain that the more places (web pages) his URL was on, the better potential it has to rank his site #1 in search results for his keyword terms.

Many people go about their business thinking that once they have a website built the search engines will rank their website #1 in search results pages. This is not the case. Small business SEO just doesn't work that way!

And today, search engine guide published a new blog post that explained how blog commenting was good for getting links. For getting valuable links to your website, one has to communicate with others online.

The blog post shares five tips for commenting on other people's blogs. I couldn't agree with search engine guide more. After viewing their post, I have decided to take each tip a little bit deeper. This will help anyone asking "why" to better understand the importance of commenting on other people's blogs.

If you comment on a blog, read the entire post.  This is pretty obvious, but worth mentioning now more than ever. There are software programs that will auto submit comments on other peoples' blogs. It's lame cause it will say something like "Great post. I will be back to read more."

What I've learned from commenting on  blogs is to share what you have learned, ask a question to engage further into the topic, and/or share something you know that can contribute to the topic. These three tips have gotten me hundreds (maybe thousands) of visits to my website. People like my comment and then get curious about what I do. They then click the link to my site.

Include your name.  As noted by search engine watch, many spammers place keywords in the name field when they submit. Don't do this. Put your real name there. Other readers and commenters will get more curious about who you are and what you do. Authenticity gets you the clicks, not spamming.

Be personal and friendly.  Experience has also taught me to be very specific. Perhaps take a look at the blogger's tags and try to use one of them in the body of your comment. This is a good relevance match. The blogger may be more attracted to your comment and likely to note it (with a link) in a new or updated post.

Contribute something to the conversation.  Again, be specific. It will show thought and consideration. People will read and think about the information you have shared. It will then motivate them to click on your name to learn more about you and what you do.

Be sure to come back and keep in touch.  Any business coach would tell you to develop relationships with professionals who are power partners.  One comment on a blog will not build the relationship. Conversing online through blog commenting or social networking will help you build the relationship that will eventually build you business.

Do you like this post? Please share it by clicking: