Archive for the ‘BACKLINKS’ Category
I just received an unsolicited e-mail from a new link building service called Cruz Command. I’ll skip the rant about unsolicited e-mails and go straight to straight to their e-mail (I edited out the name of my site):
I have to admit, my first thought upon reading this letter was: “Are they the ones who have been reporting links to Google?” It’s no secret that something has been going on with some of the major link networks lately, but receiving a letter like this makes me wonder about a few things, like:
- Do they really know that I use a link building service for the site listed, or are they just e-mailing random sites hoping to get lucky?
- If they do know, then how? Did they join this network just to find out what sites the links show up on?
- Where do they get off sending me unsolicited commercial e-mails about their service? OK, I held off as long as I could. This e-mail is undeniably commercial, and there’s no way they sent it only to me. They have compiled some sort of list and most likely e-mailed thousands of website owners about their new service. This gives me a very bad first impression.
I think I’ll avoid Cruz Command, at least for now. What are your thoughts?
Website development entails numerous components which ultimately determines whether or not your site sinks or swims! Getting the right backlinks is the most important factor to consider. Moreover, even if your site has thousands of backlinks pointing to it, if it is not properly developed for search engine optimization chances are the site will not maintain its placement in the SERPS. (Search Engine Result Pages)
I find it simply amazing that there is so much content floating around in cyberspace about the various attributes of back links and whether or not their value has any significance for your website or blog. Some critics will vehemently proclaim that no follow back links have no value whatsoever! Others state that keyword anchored backlinks with either do follow or no follow attributes have positive value as long as they are acquired from a source that:
- has relevant content to the key words utilized in the link; and
- is credible by scrutiny of the search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
In any case it is important to know what does and does not work, otherwise you may just be spinning your wheels…
As for the truth to whether the “do follow” vs. “no follow” attribute matters, it is essential to know that the only difference between do follow and no follow is that a “no follow” attribute is a hyperlink inclusion that tells search engines not to pass on any credibility or influence from the host site to any outbound link from that site. In doing this it allows the host site to maintain its integrity or page ranking assignment. However, that does not necessarily mean that the fact that a site with PR 6, 7, or 8 — a site considered extremely credible by search engines — cannot afford credibility to outbound links from the site, does it?
A recent discovery in my Hostgator cPanel helped me to conclude that even “no follow” backlinks can boost your site up in the SERPS past high PR sites, even if your site has zero or lower PR! What I discovered is that my cPanel now includes SEO Tools called Attracta SEO and it is excellent!
My opinion is that Hostgator is the best hosting source available. My sites are never down, it has an excellent cPanel, and their support is extraordinary! What has this got to do with Backlinks? Well, when you use the coupon code: “FREESEOTOOLS” when you sign up for Hostgator Hosting you save money in conjunction to a service that has excellent SEO tools, resources, and credibility with the search engines.
In conclusion I wish to end this post with a simple question to visitors:
Would you pay for PR 6-7 backlinks? If so:
How much would you pay for six of these high PR backlink resources?
Looking forward to your responses!
First off I wish to thank all the visitors to this site, and I thank you for your interest and all of your comments as well. That is, of course, with the exception of the SPAMMERS and the PORN SPAM comments.
For those of you who are not familiar with Keyword Luv, please follow this link to better understand how it works: Keyword Luv.
SPAMMERS:
Don’t waste your time — I moderate each and every comment that is submitted to this site. Moreover, before I approve a comment I take the following steps:
- I visit the submitted URL and all site pages
- I analyze the site with the SEOQuake plugin and other tools.
- I automatically delete comments that have anchor text or URL’s in the body of the comment. Not only is it redundant, but with my implementation of “Keyword luv” you can attain a quality anchored text backlink back to your site.
To use the Keyword luv feature simply submit your comments as follows:
Name field: “Your name” “@” “Desired anchor word(s)” Example: “Rich@backlink Builder”. This will give your comment the anchored backlink of “Backlink Builder” for whatever URL you submit :-)
Again, thank for everyone’s visits, interests, and I look forward to approving lots of anchored backlinks to some quality sites!
This will be short and sweet…
Ever since I saw a post in a forum that I frequently visit that asked whether other webmasters were having difficulties getting their site(s) indexed in Bing, I have been paying extra close attention to the Bing search engine results in my SeoQuake toolbar. More often than not I see that the numbers for indexed pages in Bing are substantially LESS than Google and Yahoo! Why this is I yet to really know or understand… However, I heard from a reputable source that the way to the Bing index heart is through LOTS of backlinks; which necessarily means — at least in my thinking, anyway — is that I would prefer as many backlinks from sites that are indexed well in Bing. It only makes sense, right?
The Bing Search Engine
Now in the course of my website development scrutiny, just as in attaining backlinks from any other site, I pay very close attention to the content of the site, as well as the co-citation that may negatively affect my site. Some people say its no big deal, just get your backlinks! But its not too long before you don’t hear from them any more. They’re probably busy trying to dig themselves out of the Google sandbox? That could be the price you pay and that’s where I believe that Bing focuses its primary algorithm calibration that makes it difficult to attain a lot of indexed pages in the Bing search engine. I can’t say this as a matter of fact, but I have reasonable suspicions that will either be confirmed or completely dismissed based upon the results of this post.
So for now I will leave it at that and I will let things propagate, churn, and materialize before I continue further on this suspicion of mine. But remember, build those backlinks, and try to get as backlinks as you can from sites that index well in Bing and PLEASE let me know what your results are.
Backlinks Maintenance
I religiously awake at 3AM every day, fire-up the coffee pot, brush my teeth, log into the computer, smoke a few drags of a cigarette, pour a cup of coffee, and grab a seat at the computer. Every Day! Now some, if not most of you may think I’m nuts — my fiance surely thinks that I am! But average people do not understand the maintenance involved with attending several websites and blogs either. Its a lot more than creating a site, building a few backlinks, and letting it sit there. For example. Do you see the pretty YouTube icon to the right over there? I know, you can’t miss it… That simply happens to be a reciprocal backlink in action. And, I might add the link from YouTube is “follow”! That little project took me about 1-1/2 hours to implement; from creating the YouTube channel, to finding the YouTube icon image, editing it in Photoshop, and uploading it into cPanel and creating the HTML widget to display it on the page. Yea, I’m a little slow, but I’m okay with slow.
You see, I am the type of person who likes to invest constructive time in the process of building natural backlinks to my sites. Although there are many automated link-building software programs out there, I am kind paranoid of being slapped by Google and having any of my sites disappear into cyberspace oblivion because I was too lazy or inpatient to invest a little bit of time into my project(s). A lot of people probably think that I’m nuts for doing things the old fashioned way in this regard too, but when things go bad for these link-building sites and the penalties start being imposed, my investment won’t seem so bad, will it? I thought you might see things my way, and if not I wish you all the best in your risk-taking endeavors. For me it’s simply not worth it.
Comment Moderation
Now in addition to the development processes of my site I also have the painstaking endeavor of moderating my comments and the litany of SPAM that comes in to. For those of you who post relevant comments I apologize for utilizing the term “painstaking” to describe my comment moderation obligation, because in many cases I enjoy reading your comments and answering any questions, etc.
Although I utilize the Akismet application, some times individuals like to post multiple comments with the same text and different backlinks associated with the same text in their comments. I personally categorize those comments as SPAM, period! I mean hey, if you want a backlink I am more than happy to share, but at least take the time to write something constructive to provide some meaningful conversation, questions or whatever? Its only fair in my estimation. And please don’t utilize the same text for multiple backlinks. I’ll give multiple backlinks, but at least invest some time to comment — its really not too much to ask. As you can see from the comments that pass my muster, there are some relatively decent comments from various people and their websites or blogs. And the backlinks in those comments get the follow tag as well. In all cases I will first visit the site from the comment source to ensure that the site is not SPAMMY! Like my article on co-citation clearly describes, I simply don’t want this site or any other to be associated with any SPAM, period! Is this system perfect? Probably not. But its personalized and I have fun doing the work… Speaking of which, It’s time for me to head to my day job so this post is going to be cut shorter than what I anticipated.
Now go get some backlinks and be kind and constructive in your endeavors…
Effectively Marketing Your Site For End-Users
Although it can often times be easy to forget, first and foremost the essential and fundamental truth about websites which transcends all the conjecture floating around in cyberspace by so called SEO and internet marketers is this: Sites that do not work for end users (i.e., customers, visitors, and browsers) absolutely do not work! Websites are simply no good for anything or anyone other than the self-serving ego of their creator if their primary is search engines… Most importantly, unlike us mortal beings, search engine robots with their crawling spiders — limited only to that which was programmed into their silicon chips and lacking any free-will — never forget this truth! Relentlessly crawling and collecting words and link sources, search engine robots always put the end-user friendliness and content quality high on the priority list of factors when they are assigning return position and/or page rank of all sites. So the next time you stumble across a site and read that backlinks — one way links, regardless of quality or relevancy – have become the crème de la crème of search-engine optimization and are the only kinds of links the search engines are still including in their ranking calculations, just bear one thing in mind:
This unfounded myth is patently incorrect!
Go ahead… ask! Don’t be shy? I already know; your wondering how I or anyone else would know this, right? It’s relatively simple. Because they (the search engines) say so! That’s correct… facts right from the source. And there’s no better place to get the facts, unless of course you wish to skewer them for self-serving interests?
Now before I go any further, perhaps you might be thinking, “yea right; why should I believe what the search engines publish?” “Such and such site states that one-way backlinks are gospel, and that search engine technicians and publicists are likely to misguide webmasters to try and keep their algorithm parameters (or some other off-the-wall rubbish) a secret … For this type of proposition I would be forced to respond with a few simple questions?
- What are the credentials of the author at such and such site, and where does he or she obtain the factual basis to support their proposition?
- What is it at the such and such site that they are marketing or otherwise looking to: a) gain from you, or b) keep from you?
- Why would anyone render anything from an internet marketer, webmaster, or SEO — whose identity may or may not be available — gospel over the credibility of huge corporate businesses whose ultimate goal is to become most popular by rendering the best end results for people searching for things? It is my experience that the primary goal of search engines is that they want your legitimate, popular, and NO SPAM site to perform well for the customer just as badly as you do.
What the major search engines state about indexing, return position, and page rank:
Google:
“make pages primarily for users, not for search engines.”
~Official Quality Guidelines
Yahoo!:
It prefers to index “pages designed primarily for humans, with search engine considerations secondary.”
Bing:
Microsoft advises webmasters trying to optimize for Bing to concentrate on making sure the site’s “target audience is interested.”
That is what they say, and they want NOTHING from me or you other than simple compliance with user friendly principles. Now back to links…
Good backlinks can often help a site’s search engine rating. All links are a sign of popularity or a “vote” for your site. Believe it or not, search engines do tabulate votes favorably as long as:
a) the links are relevant
b) the links are organically obtained; and
c) the links are non-spam in nature.
Now because search engines primarily trade in relevance, and make very few — if any — value judgments whatsoever, it is practically impossible for a backlink to hurt your sites page rank. And although backlinks can and will drive potential customers to your site and act as votes by search engines, they provide absolutely nothing in the form of value or benefit to your end users! They don’t see them, and probably don’t even know that they exist. Moreover, as for fulfilling the prerequisites of the search engines by creating “pages primarily for users and being designed for humans,” it becomes clear that one-way backlinks are detrimental to the rudiments of successful SEO and internet marketing campaigns which focus on conversion and targeted traffic.
On the other link horizon, however, are reciprocal links, and for the purpose of catering to the end-user they are the best link source. Here is why.
Not only are reciprocal links an integral part of making a site “primarily for end users“, they are also pathways to:
- how to tips and tricks for fixing stuff
- virtual rooms jammed with useful information
- portals to necessary service providers and communities
Moreover, a quality reciprocal link is better than a one-way link because its diverse nature enhances your site’s search engine appeal twice-over by providing both a backlink vote with search engines, and a forward link which can help you comply with search engine recommendations to “make pages primarily for users.”
What are Reciprocal Links?
Wikipedia defines a reciprocal link as follows:
“A reciprocal link is a mutual link between two objects, commonly between two websites to ensure mutual traffic. Example: Alice and Bob have websites. If Bob’s website links to Alice’s website, and Alice’s website links to Bob’s website, the websites are reciprocally linked. Website owners often submit their sites to reciprocal link exchange directories, in order to achieve higher rankings in the search engines. Reciprocal linking between websites is an important part of the search engine optimization process because Google uses link popularity algorithms (defined as the number of links that led to a particular page and the anchor text of the link) to rank websites for relevancy.”
Granted, quality reciprocal links relevant to your site are very tough to attain and take a lot of manual work, but the benefits achieved through your hard work serve the common goal of both you and the search engines by marketing your site for end-users.
When the search engines like your site everyone is happy!