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In a recent blog post discussing the importance of link building for search engine optimization, I asked people to share how they build links to their website. I recommend you go read the responses. I also recommend you read that article so you know how to construct inbound links so they affect your search rankings for individual keywords that you want to rank for. 

In that article, I said I'd be writing a follow up article about "how" to build links to your site. 

Link building is not easy. And it's not that intuitive until you do it. There are also many different techniques and methods that will have varied results. Below is how I recommend clients start and master link building. 

I tell people that there are 4 Levels of Link Building Excellence. And it usually takes 4 years to master it - just like high school:

9th Grade: Links You Can Build Yourself That Require Little Time Investment

Before I get into this, I'd like to stress that you should have a really good keyword strategy and make sure you've optimized each page on your site around a different keyword phrase. Any link you're building should be designed to help a specific page rank high in the search engines for a specific keyword. 

That said, the first set of links that every business should get are the ones that don't require anyone else's help. There are lots of business directories out there where you can just submit your URL, company name and a description of your business. Some of them require approval. Some of them require a fee. Yahoo's directory, Joe Ant, Aboutus.org are some of the ones you should do right away. 

In this class of Level I links, there are also many social media sites where you can simply build links to your site. Most of these no longer pass SEO credit, but they're still good links to get, assuming your target audience visits the site or these sites rank high for your keywords already. 

It's arguable that you should hire someone to do (or start) this stuff for you. It's low level work that generates low level returns. Just make sure that you don't hire a firm that will get you 1,000 links for < $1,000 dollars. If it's too good to be true, it is.

10th Grade: Links You Build Yourself that Require Effort

Before I get into this level, I'd like to stress that launching a business blog should be done before doing this. Without having a blog on your site with lots of good well optimized content, you don't really have anything to link to.
That said, there are two very common link building techniques that work well that don't require you to be a "thought leader". Yet. These activities require a bit more time investment and a small financial investment. They are article marketing and press release optimization. With both of these methods, you have to create relevant content that will appeal to your market. So, it requires more time than Level I. Also, the process of getting your articles syndicated and your press releases submitted and picked up - takes effort. You might consider hiring a wired pr firm or a strong seo firm to do some of this stuff for you. 

If done correctly, both of these methods can significantly increase the links to your site. Also, if you write your articles and press releases with a keyword strategy in mind, and with links that support your keyword strategy, it can significantly raise your rankings for specific keyword terms. Run your press releases and your articles through press release grader to determine whether they're going to help.

11th Grade: Links You Network For that Require a Significant Time Investment

This part of link building is kind of like sales. Cold calling can be done effectively with persistence. But, networking, getting referrals, giving first, the law of attraction, etc is a better way of getting new clients.

Link building is the same way.  If you're more of a cold caller type, and there are lots of potential places you can get a link, you might consider just creating a list of webmasters and asking them for a link. 

If you're a natural networker and you're in this for the long haul, I'd recommend being a bit more patient. Apply your persistence and spend your time building relationships.

No matter what route you take, the goal of this level is to make yourself visible among people interested in the same topics as you. This process is a bit self promotional. But, you must promote yourself in a way that you're adding value. You master this level by acting like a resource for people in your industry. How do you do this? It's all about networking and building meaningful relationships. The first step is reading other people's blogs. Then, commenting on them. Then, eventually starting a relationship where you're communicating 1 on 1 with them. I recommend you take the leap from reader to 1:1 with a blogger, by pointing them in the direction of other people's content that might be interesting to them.  In the non marketing world, this usually happens through email. In the marketing world, this usually happens through Twitter. If you're techy, this might happen through Delicious. If you use StumbleUpon or Digg, those are great platforms to share things with peers. Even google reader lets you do this kind of networking. But, it can certainly happen through any social networking platform or system that enables 1:1 communication. 

From a link building perspective, the ultimate goal of this level is to get invited to write a guest article for other people's blogs or website. For example, I wrote an article about inbound lead generation for Aaron Ross not too long ago. In the article, I linked to relevant resources on my blog and the HubSpot blog and site. These are great links from an authoritative  source. Aaron reaches our target market sending relevant traffic. These links also help us rank for our target keywords.

During this process, you're also building up a group of people that will most likely begin following you...

Seniors Rule! (12th Grade): Links Other People Give You Because You Create Remarkable Content. 

This level is like the last month or two in high school when you've already passed mid terms and you've been accepted to the college of your choice. You've done the hard work already. Now, it's time to go to parties and enjoy being the care free big man on campus.

You don't necessarily halt the activities above. But, you spend more of your time just creating remarkable content.  (And some link bait.)

At HubSpot, we do some guest articles once in a while and we optimize our press releases. But, mostly we just put time into churning out content on our blog and producing other online marketing resources like webinars and white papers. Some of you seem to think this stuff is pretty remarkable. As a result, it generally creates great conversations in our comments, strong attendance at our webinars and lots of white paper downloads. And regularly, people link to our webinar announcements and blog articles of their own accord. 

This doesn't start happening overnight, unless you're already famous. We have a lot of advantages at HubSpot. Website grader's success, funding in the bank, successful clients, smart founders who started blogging before they had a product and now... a lot of employees who contributor to the blog, a strong social media following, etc.

But, we did it in < 2 years. If you're a small business and you follow the path above, there's no reason why you can't stake your claim on the web. Link building is an important part of that. Hopefully, this post demystifies the process a bit and gives you a roadmap to get started. 

The biggest mistake that newbie internet marketers make is thinking that creating great content on their blog will be all it takes to be successful internet marketers. My biggest frustration is when newbie bloggers pack up shop after just a month of writing because the blog doesn't have an immediate impact on their search traffic and lead volume. 

At the end of the day, if you publish great content on the web AND connect, relate and build relationships with other humans, really good links will come naturally. Until then, put in some homework and earn your way through link building high school.

Photo by CarbonNYC

Comments

Posted by Pete Caputa on Tue, Sep 30, 2008 @ 08:15 AM

COMMENTS

Pete, this is an exceptional post. In Marketing 101 we are taught the four Ps of "traditional" outbound marketing (product, price, place, promotion). What you have defined here are the four Ps of inbound marketing — Profiles (directories, social networks), Publishing (articles, optimized press releases, etc.), Participation (in blogs, forums, social networks) and Publishing (great, multi-media content). And yes, I know Publishing is in there twice, but it's that important. Inbound marketing comes down to continually publishing great content. Nice work!

posted on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at 10:40 AM by Paul Roetzer

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Thanks Paul. I agree that "publishing" deserves a second mention. Did you just make this 4 P thing up? I think that'd be a good guest post.

posted on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at 10:47 AM by Pete Caputa

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Pete, 
I appreciate how you broke the idea of link-building down into tactical "grades." Nice idea! I also agree fully that having a corporate blog should be a major portion of any web strategy, though the reasons for blogging and the way the blog is managed may differ among B2B and B2C companies. I just posted a newsletter on blogging, specifically targeting B2C professional services companies.  
Best, 
Chris

posted on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at 10:54 AM by Chris Butler

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Pete - this is great. Not enough people break down the ideas we're all hearing about into actionable plans. WRT SEO'ing your articles and releases, how many marketers have been able to "train" their existing agencies on doing this, versus finding a new PR agency that takes a more comprehensive social media approach? Is it worth it, if you have? 
The other thing that would be so helpful for this guide... Time estimates, especially for the underclassmen. For example, when you transition to HS, there's an emphasis on time management, guiding students on how long they should spend reading, studying, etc. This transition to link building can be overwhelming; there's so much noise and so many distractions. Should you set aside a window of time, a certain amount of it each day? Or a certain number of comments or posts or links that you try to achieve each day? Should you designate some percentage of a headcount on your marketing team for just this? (I see that HubSpot is hiring a FT person just for this, so I guess I know what the answer is!) That gives a real target for people.  
Thanks so much for doing this. Really interesting stuff...

posted on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at 11:07 AM by Katie Poplin

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Great questions, Katie.  
I'm not the best guy to talk to about time management. I get distracted easily. (I'm in sales actually, so I should be calling people instead of using Twitter and writing blog posts.)  
But, in principle, what you're suggesting about time management is necessary. It seems that people "never get started w/ link building" because they have a million other things to do.  
There are some smart people at HubSpot trying to make it easier for our clients to do link building on a regular basis. But, at the end of the day, the marketer or biz owner has to have some discipline to create content, interact w/ people online and build links.  
Re: training a traditional PR firm to do online PR, I start by sending them to Press Release Grader. I have one client/partner who is an SEO consultant and she works with a traditional PR company who is very good at traditional stuff. The SEO consultant does keyword research, guides blogging content production, reviews press releases, and runs social media marketing w/ traditional agency oversight.  
I think teaching old dogs new tricks is hard, personally. But, sometimes it is necessary. Traditional agencies still add a lot of value with TV, event, print and radio exposure.  
Paul Roetzer wrote a really cool article the other day called, The Dawn of the Inbound Marketing Agency. 
At HubSpot, we're seeing a lot of demand from traditional agencies who want to "learn internet marketing". I think they'll need to adapt or at least broaden their offerings to include online marketing, if they want to survive.

Did You Graduate From Link Building High School Yet?

The numbers this fall aren't good.

After a high above 14,000 last year, the Dow is now thrashing around well below 9,000. The U.S. government is spending over $700 billion to buy unprecedented stakes in the nation's largest banks. Many industries, including technology, are hemorrhaging jobs.

This post isn't about all that. It's about the silver lining -- the fact that, just as we saw eight years ago when the first Internet bubble burst, financial pressure is now forcing companies to make changes. And just like last time, these changes are laying the foundation for a new, more efficient period of Internet growth.

In 2001, when the last downturn began, businesses began shifting some of their marketing dollars to search engine advertising. It was more measurable and targeted than display advertising, so it was appealing to marketers with tight budgets.

As we enter a second Internet downturn, businesses are again seeking efficiency. They're shifting money out of expensive paid search advertising, and into optimization, content and social media that help them get found in organic search results.

These changes are laying the foundation for a new era of marketing on the web - the Inbound Marketing era.

What Is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound Marketing is marketing focused on getting found by customers.

In traditional marketing (outbound marketing) companies focus on finding customers. They use techniques that are poorly targeted and that interrupt people. They use cold-calling, print advertising, T.V. advertising, junk mail, spam and trade shows.

Technology is making these techniques less effective and more expensive. Caller ID blocks cold calls, TiVo makes T.V. advertising less effective, spam filters block mass emails and tools like RSS are making print and display advertising less effective. It's still possible to get a message out via these channels, but it costs more.

Inbound Marketers flip outbound marketing on its head.

Instead of interrupting people with television ads, they create videos that potential customers want to see. Instead of buying display ads in print publications, they create their own blog that people subscribe to and look forward to reading. Instead of cold calling, they create useful content and tools so that people call them looking for more information.

Instead of driving their message into a crowd over and over again like a sledgehammer, they attract highly qualified customers to their business like a magnet.

The most successful Inbound Marketing campaigns have three key components:

(1) Content - Content is the substance of any Inbound Marketing campaign. It is the information or tool that attracts potential customers to your site or your business.

(2) Search Engine Optimization - SEO makes it easier for potential customers to find your content. It is the practice of building your site and inbound links to your site to maximize your ranking in search engines, where most of your customers begin their buying process.

(3) Social Media - Social media amplifies the impact of your content. When your content is distributed across and discussed on networks of personal relationships, it becomes more authentic and nuanced, and is more likely to draw qualified customers to your site.

Why Inbound Marketing Makes Sense in a Recession

As the economy slows down, companies are turning to Inbound Marketing because it is a more efficient way of allocating marketing resources than traditional, outbound marketing. As our CEO, Brian Halligan, puts it, when you're inbound marketing, the thickness of your brain matters a lot more than the thickness of your wallet.

There are three specific ways Inbound Marketing improves on the efficiency of traditional marketing:

(1) It Costs Less - Outbound marketing means spending money - either by buying ads, buying email lists or renting huge booths at trade shows. Inbound Marketing means creating content and talking about it. A blog costs nothing to start. A Twitter account is free, too. Both can draw thousands of customers to your site.  The marketing ROI from inbound campaigns is higher.

(2) Better Targeting - Techniques like cold-calling, mass mail and email campaigns are notoriously poorly targeted. You're reaching out to individuals because of one or two attributes in a database. When you do Inbound Marketing, you only approach people who self-qualify themselves. They demonstrate an interest in your content, so they are likely to be interested in your product.

(3) It's an Investment, Not an Ongoing Expense - When you buy pay-per-click advertising on search engines, its value is gone as soon as you pay for it. In order to maintain a position at the top of Google's paid results, you have to keep paying. However, if you invest that money in quality content that ranks in Google's organic results, you'll be there until somebody displaces you.

The Roots of the Inbound Web

Only in the past year and a half have the technology, the tools and the public's use of both evolved to the point where Inbound Marketing is practical.

In the early days of the Internet, there was no mainstream marketing. There were lots of experiments but few business buyers and consumers.

In the mid-1990s, as the first Internet bubble grew, companies began to follow their customers online. Tools for independent publishing were weak, so companies' online presence mirrored their offline presence. They sprayed advertising across mass media sites and prayed a few potential customers would see it.

When the dot-com bubble popped in 2001, marketers began to reassess the effectiveness of the spray-and-pray approach. They saw that consumers and business buyers were starting their purchase process less on mass media sites, and more on search engines. They discovered that in many cases targeted search-engine advertising was far more effective than display advertising on large media sites.

As spending poured into search marketing, a new era of Internet growth began. In addition to changes in Internet marketing, this phase of growth -- Web 2.0 -- produced significant changes in the way we use the web. It shifted from a read-only platform to one where anybody could publish, connect with friends and share content.

Now, as we enter a new economic downturn, online marketers are using the tools of this new read-write web to become more efficient. They're using social media, they're publishing content and they're optimizing it. They're becoming Inbound Marketers.

The Inbound-Marketing Secret? Empowerment!

Eight years ago, when the dot-com bubble collapsed, the idea of a single man using great content, social media and search engine optimization to build a New Jersey liquor store into a $50-million-a-year business in the course of two years would have been absurd.

Yet that's exactly what Gary Vaynerchuk has done since he launched Wine Library TV in 2006.

This is the power of Inbound Marketing.

With the tools that have become mainstream over the last two to three years, the scale of any business can be unlimited. If you have a great product and the skills to communicate with your customers, you can compete with the biggest advertising budgets.

That is exciting, and for small businesses it's empowering.

Inbound Marketing & the Next Phase of Marketing on the Web

Many small businesses do not know that you can get some free advertising on Google, using Google Local or Google Maps.  Google is looking to increase the value of their local search and their mapping application, so they have a simple way for you to tell them some information about your business, and now they are infusing those results into their main search engine.  It is basically a way to advertise your business on Google for free, and everyone loves a free advertisement.  This will help your advertisement show up in searches and can help you get more traffic, leads and customers.  For example, a Boston volunteer organization I work with called the Boston Scholars Program is currently listed at the TOP of the Google search results for searches like "volunteer in boston", "volunteer boston ma", and "volunteer boston, ma".  See the image below.

How to Get Free Advertising on Google

Things You Need Before Starting Your Free Advertisement

• A description of your business
• Your phone number, address and any other contact info you want to advertise
• A logo or image that represents your business (some people use a picture of their office, store or restaurant)
• A coupon or special offer you want to advertise (Google also lets you add a coupon for FREE if you want)

Step-by-Step Guide to Free Google Advertisement

1. Go to www.google.com/local and search for your business to verify it is not yet listed with an advertisement.
2. Go back to www.google.com/local and click on Add/Edit Your Business at the bottom left part of the page.  (See image below.)
   
3. Follow the steps provided by Google.  They are pretty simple and straightforward.  As part of the process you will need to verify your business either by phone or mail.
4. Check back in a few weeks with Google and verify your listing.  If you want to update it, you can use the same process outlined here to update your listing.  See image below of the advertisement for the Boston Scholars Program including details and logo. 
   
   Have you found any free Internet marketing tricks?  Have you advertised your business on Google? (You can also check out our free internet marketing tools.) Leave a comment and let me know.

Free Advertising on Google

Beyond Google: SEO and the Social Web

Lee Odden on May 18th, 2010     Content Marketing, Online Marketing, SEO

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88 billion (OK, 87.8, we rounded up). That’s the number of search queries Google web properties are responsible for each month according to comScore.

Core to many search marketing strategies is to “Fish where the fish are” and make no mistake, the fish are decidedly hanging out on Google. YouTube, Gmail, Blogger.com and many other online services from Google make its presence ubiquotous in the online marketing world.

Now imagine if Google disappeared tomorrow. What would that do to your marketing? What would it do to your business?

Some of the people reading this post have experienced such a disappearance. Not of Google going away, but the experience of their own sites or pages disappearing from high visibility positions within Google search results.

Beyond Google: SEO and the Social Web

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B2B SEO: Content Sourcing & Optimization

Lee Odden on May 3rd, 2010     B2B, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, SEO, SEO Tips

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B2B marketers have always been in the business of “content marketing“ with white papers, case studies, webinars, demos, free consultations, ebooks and the like. Longer sales cycles due to more complex products and services and business purchasing processes often require more information. The content used to educate buyers of B2B products and services can be a very valuable asset when it comes to content optimization and acquiring leads via organic search.

When assessing B2B client resources for optimization, most marketers focus on web pages and increasingly, digital assets and social media content.  Web pages are more often directly linked to by other sites vs images or video, so it makes sense to start optimizing a B2B site’s web pages.  The operative word in that last sentence is “start”.

B2B SEO: Content Sourcing & Optimization

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B2B Search Engine Optimization: Focus on Content SEO

Lee Odden on Apr 30th, 2010     B2B, Content Marketing, Marketing PR Conferences, Online Marketing, Other Events, SEO

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MarketingProfs B2B Forum is coming up quickly next week and I will be presenting about an hour of essential search engine optimization tips and insight specifically for B2B web sites along with Vocus Product Manager of PRWeb, Jiyan Wei.

There’s a tremendous opportunity for B2B marketers to leverage SEO to increase prospect acquisition and to facilitate after the sale support and upgrades.  Most B2B marketers create a substantial amount of content to guide prospects through sales cycles that are much longer than companies selling consumer products/services.

B2B Search Engine Optimization: Focus on Content SEO

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Key Questions to Optimize Your Content Marketing Strategy

Lee Odden on Apr 19th, 2010     Content Marketing, Online Marketing

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I’ve been thinking about how entering the content marketing space is not for the faint of heart. It can be a signifcant undertaking both in terms of resources and a change in an organization’s approach to marketing and sales. Obviously, content marketing is better for some companies and industries than others. Outside help also makes a difference.

While increasing numbers of companies are realizing they  must provide more than product information to satisfy customers, many of those same companies fail by implementing random tactics and missing out on benefits like better search visibility.

In order to take full advantage of the significant gains in search traffic that are available with a content focused marketing effort, it’s essential to answer some key questions:

Key Questions to Optimize Your Content Marketing Strategy

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5 Ways to Leverage Real Time Search in Your Online Marketing Mix

MichelleB on Apr 9th, 2010     Blogging, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, SEO, Search Engines, Social Media

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Since late 2009 when Google introduced real time search, the concept has gained a lot of attention.

Today, real time search is at the top of the priority lists for all the major search engines – Google, Bing and Yahoo!.

As part of the new technology, Google is combining live updates from sites like Twitter with the latest news headlines and blog posts in search results.

For web searchers, real time search means the ability to discover breaking news the minute it’s happening.

For marketers, it presents a whole host of opportunities to increase online visibility. Here, we’ve provided five ways to leverage real time search in your online marketing efforts.

5 Ways to Leverage Real Time Search in Your Online Marketing Mix

11 Comments and 370 Reactions

5 Tips for Better B2B Branding

MichelleB on Mar 26th, 2010     B2B, Blogging, Content Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media

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Think branding only falls in the B2C court? Think again.

In fact, three of the top 10 brands in 2009, as ranked by Interbrand, generate a sizable amount of revenue from their B2B customers: IBM, Microsoft and GE.

As a B2B marketer your brand is your most valuable asset.

B2B branding is less about cool, hip monikers (the Apples and Starbucks of the world) – and more about thought leadership.

Particularly in down economies, B2B prospects and customers conduct significant research leading up to purchases. That means you as a marketer have to educate them early on, and establish your brand as a trusted resource that gets their problems and has the solution.

To help your organization be seen as the thought leader it is, we’ve identified five B2B branding tips:

5 Tips for Better B2B Branding

16 Comments and 281 Reactions

How To Develop Great Content – SESNY

Adam Singer on Mar 25th, 2010     Content Marketing, Marketing PR Conferences, Online Marketing, Search Engine Strategies

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At Online Marketing Blog, content marketing is frequently a hot topic.  And with good reason:  it’s a vital skill for marketers. Not only do we at TopRank Online Marketing see great results implementing content marketing for clients, but the industry as a whole sees it as a clear trend.  Consider the following stats:

• 6 in 10 marketers plan to spend more on content marketing in 2010.
• 71% of bloggers who maintain blogs for a business – their own or one they work for – report that they have increased their visibility within their industries through their blogs (as just one example of content marketing in action).
• Content marketing plays an integral role in many of the top digital marketing tactics marketers implemented in 2009.

How To Develop Great Content – SESNY

5 Comments and 200 Reactions

10 Steps to Optimize Your Content Marketing Strategy

Lee Odden on Mar 24th, 2010     Content Marketing, Digital Asset Optimization, Online Marketing, SEO

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SES New York kicked off with an excellent keynote presentation by David Meerman Scott (interview) followed by a panel on Digital Asset Optimization including Mark Knowles, Chris Boggs and myself. Richard Zwicky moderated.

The rising importance of optimizing one’s digital assets came out of Google and other search engines’ decision to start including information and file types from other sources than their main search index. Some queries trigger search results that go beyond web pages, MS Office docs and PDF files to include sources such as images, blog posts, news, video thumbnails, books and shopping.

While many SEOs were responding to the changed landscape of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) and optimizing for other file types, many others were already optimizing holistically under the premise of, “What can be searched on can be optimized“.

10 Steps to Optimize Your Content Marketing Strategy

21 Comments and 507 Reactions

12 Tips on Live Blogging & Content Marketing at SXSWi

Lee Odden on Mar 12th, 2010     Blogging, Content Marketing, Marketing PR Conferences, Online Marketing

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So here I sit in the DFW airport hanging out with David Berkowitz and Joe Morin waiting for my connection to Austin. What better way to spend that 45 min than to write a helpful blog post? A big part of my “mission” for SXSXi is to create content after all.

I have several other goals like networking (reconnecting and especially new contacts), competitive research, recruiting and potential client prospecting. But content marketing is our bread and butter. It can be an effective tactic for you too, especially if you can learn to be highly efficient at liveblogging conferences.

Here are a few tips that will not only give you a tested and proven guideline but should improve your efficiency and quality of output.

12 Tips on Live Blogging & Content Marketing at SXSWi

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5 Sure Fire Tactics to Promote a Business Blog

MichelleB on Feb 26th, 2010     Blog Marketing, Blogging, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media

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Relevant, Consistently Updated Content + Flawless Technical Functionality & User Experience = Perfect Blog Launch

What’s missing from the equation above? You guessed it: blog promotion.

Creating a glitch-free blog with informative content means next to nothing without attracting readers.

Start promoting your blog today with these five effective tips:

1. Involve influential industry bloggers.

By linking to popular blogs, you can gain the attention of both the influential blogger and his or her readers.

But your blog won’t be the only one to benefit. You’ll be giving the other blog a little link juice – and be paying them a compliment at the same time.

Try out a few of these ideas for leveraging other blogs:

5 Sure Fire Tactics to Promote a Business Blog

50 Comments and 734 Reactions

How to Source Content on Twitter

Lee Odden on Jan 26th, 2010     Blogging, Content Marketing, Microblogging, Online Marketing

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With the increasing emphasis on content marketing for both SEO and Social Media, I thought I’d offer some specific tips on dealing with one of the most prevalent issues companies face in this area:  long term sourcing of content.  While we’ve written about content sourcing for corporate blogs in the past, but this post will emphasize how to use social media darling Twitter to find a goldmine of useful resources, tips and information that your customers will love and keep coming back for more.

The irony here is that there’s been speculation as to whether the growing popularity of Twitter has reduced the effectiveness and popularity of blogging. The reality is that Twitter and blogging compliment each other exceptionally well. Here are 5 tips on how to use Twitter to do just that:

How to Source Content on Twitter

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A Challenge: Content or Die

Lee Odden on Jan 14th, 2010     Blogging, Content Marketing, Online Marketing

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Time after time, when I discuss the search and social media based opportunities for companies to reach new customers and achieve other online communications goals, it comes down to content.  Most companies understand the need to have a web presence and publish some kind of web site. For many, the creation of a web site is a one time event with minimal updates. Marketing budgets are tight and companies are frugal.

For the most part, updates and new content on many web sites are limited to news, an occasional press release or product announcement. Site owners are happy with the design and employees are happy they don’t need to come up with new content. IT staff do whatever they can to minimize site maintenance (which often means shortcuts or templatization that makes page level editing difficult). Essentially, this kind of web site with static content is a tombstone when it comes to being a search marketing asset.

A Challenge: Content or Die

Content Marketing Category - Online Marketing Blog

SEO

5 Ways to Kill Your Search Rankings & Their Solutions

Lee Odden on Jun 15th, 2010     Online Marketing, SEO, SEO Tips

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One of the biggest fears for web site owners that have long relied on search traffic for new business is a sudden drop in search engine rankings.  Some webmasters are experiencing this very situation as a result of Google’s recent Mayday update (Matt Cutts video).

In most cases, it takes a lot for a tenured web site to mess up it’s search visibility.  In other situations, it doesn’t take much at all. Avoiding mistakes that result in exclusion, penalties and more often confusion for search engines are often overlooked.  Don’t fall victim to carelessness and ignorance when it comes to maintaining the search visibility achieved from years of content and online marketing by avoiding these common mistakes:

5 Ways to Kill Your Search Rankings & Their Solutions

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Tell All Q&A With Google’s Maile Ohye – SES Toronto Keynote

Adam Singer on Jun 11th, 2010     Interviews, Marketing PR Conferences, SEO, Search Engine Strategies

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Maile Ohye, Senior Developer Programs Engineer, Google delivered the morning keynote on day two of Search Engine Strategies Toronto.  Maile discussed Google’s approach to helping site owners and shared answers to burning questions from the moderator and audience.

The format was a Q&A, and the following is a summary of the best questions and answers from the session.

How did you get to Google?

I studied computer science/artificial intelligence in college.  From that point on, I went into information retrieval and then joined the department of defense.  Then I took some time off, and eventually joined Google.  I’ve now been at Google for 5 years.

After a previous update, we heard a story of someone ranking #1 who lost positioning (and was previously making $10,000/month just from that one ranking).  The same thing again seems to be happening with the Mayday update.  What exactly is that it?

Tell All Q&A With Google’s Maile Ohye – SES Toronto Keynote

3 Comments and 169 Reactions

6 Tips on Image SEO

Glen on Jun 11th, 2010     SEO, SEO Tips

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Images as an asset for organic search results and search engine optimization are often overlooked.  Images can drive traffic through image search as well as inclusion in universal search results.

There are actually several dimensions to image optimization that involves better placement in search results, optimization for user experience and in some cases, optimization for easier sharing of images on the social web.

For image SEO, it can be helpful to think of optimizing images like optimizing a tiny webpage within your page. Things like url structure, anchor text and descriptive tagging are factors for optimizing images for search engines, just like regular webpages.

Here are a few tips for optimizing your images to improve their performance on the page and in search.

6 Tips on Image SEO

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Getting Marketing & Development Teams Working Together – SES Toronto

Adam Singer on Jun 10th, 2010     Marketing PR Conferences, Online Marketing, SEO, Search Engine Strategies

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It’s a common story: an online marketing professional returns from a conference full of exciting new ideas and tactics, only to fail at selling those ideas internally.  In many cases, marketing and IT/development professionals don’t always understand each other, and as a result potentially high value projects stall out and never see the light of day.

How can you get your marketing and IT teams working together?  The following panel of speakers moderated by Tracy Falke, Social Media Specialist at Freestyle Interactive tackle the subject matter:

• Jonathan Allen, Director, SearchEngineWatch
• Puneet Bhasin, Independent IT Consultant,
• Casey Rovinelli, Director, Digital Marketing, National Hockey League Players’ Association

Casey Rovinelli, Director, Digital Marketing, National Hockey League Players’ Association

Getting Marketing & Development Teams Working Together – SES Toronto

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7 Benefits of Partnering SEO & PR

Lee Odden on Jun 10th, 2010     Online Marketing, Online PR, SEO

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There are many intersections between earned media and organic search engine rankings, so it makes sense that they would work well together. The PR industry is in an interesting situation right now with so much of the traditional media world moving to digital media.  Whether they admit it or not, journalists rely on PR professionals for a pipeline of stories and information. When journalists lose their jobs, media relations professionals lose an essential reason for being in business.

Even if PR departments and organizations are digitally savvy, there are a good number of reasons (7 in fact) to incorporate search engine optimization into their processes:

7 Benefits of Partnering SEO & PR

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Monster SEO: Interview with Matt Evans of Monster.com

Lee Odden on May 31st, 2010     Enterprise SEO, Interviews, Online Marketing, SEO, Spotlight on Search

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Spotlight on Search Interview with Matt Evans of Monster.com

There simply is no substitute for well rounded experience over a period of time to give a search marketer perspective and the skills to handle a variety of problems. Add to that “sink or swim” SEO training and you have a guy like Matt Evans, SEO Manager at Monster.com. In this interview, Matt is generous with sharing his experiences working agency side and in-house, insights toward code SEO, the new Google design, social media, advice for marketers that want to enter the Search Engine Marketing field and how SEO is a lot like Rugby.

You’ve worked both on the agency side and now as an in-house SEO Manager for Monster.com. Can you share a bit about that journey and what are some of the big differences between working on the client side vs. agency? What do you like most about working in Search?

Monster SEO: Interview with Matt Evans of Monster.com

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Best Practices In SEO And Marketing: IMS MN 2010

Adam Singer on May 26th, 2010     Enterprise SEO, Local SEO, Marketing PR Conferences, Online Marketing, SEO, SEO Tips

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At the recent Minneapolis Integrated Marketing Summit, TopRank Online Marketing CEO Lee Odden moderated an exciting panel of a diverse group of SEO professionals:

• Alex Bennert – Chief Search Strategist at The Wall Street Journal
• Brian Kleisner – Search Engine Marketing Manager for FindLaw
• Bill Leake – CEO of Apogee Results

The focus of the panel was on search engine optimization best practices, and panelists discussed everything from leveraging web analytics for decision making to how to scale efforts and many topics in between.  Following is a summary of each presenter’s top points:

Alex Bennert – Chief Search Strategist at The Wall Street Journal

Alex spoke on the important of using data to make decisions, including leveraging sources such as Google webmaster tools.  The information provided in webmaster tools has grown significantly since they have implemented it.

Best Practices In SEO And Marketing: IMS MN 2010

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Enterprise SEO Interview with Scott Skurnick of Edmunds.com

Lee Odden on May 25th, 2010     Interviews, Online Marketing, SEO, Spotlight on Search

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Spotlight on Search Interview with Scott Skurnick of Edmunds.com

For every SEO guru speaking at a conference, there are 10 or 20 more SEO experts you might not have heard of, making things happen in amazing ways. Scott Skurnick has worked in the Search Marketing industry as long as anyone I know on the conference speaking circuit and has a tremendous amount of experience and expertise to share.

In this interview, Scott shares his journey to become Executive Director of Search Engine Optimization and User Insights at Edmunds.com, his take on social media and SEO, scalability of SEO, tips on audits, best practices, tools and more.

You’re a long time consumer products search marketer, having worked at companies like Circuit City, OfficeMax and currently with Edmunds.com. What made you decide to work in the search marketing industry and what do you like best about it?

Enterprise SEO Interview with Scott Skurnick of Edmunds.com

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7 Essential SEO Tips for Small Businesses

Glen on May 21st, 2010     Online Marketing, SEO, SEO Tips, Small Business

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When it comes to marketing in the current economy, small businesses need all the help they can get. They don’t have the ad budgets, the personnel or the time that the bigger competition has. But none of those factors really matter to search engines, and SEO is a great way to both level the playing field and steal marketshare.

Here are a few tips that small businesses can use to improve their SEO and user experience.

1. Turn everything into content

Content is still King. Search engines still love unique content, and the more useful content there is on your website, the more opportunities you give searchers to find your products and services. Rob Snell gave a fabulous presentation at PUBCON South, and one of the main takeaways was how to turn everything on an e-commerce site into content. Here are some ways to “free” extra content on your site. Here were some of his tips:

7 Essential SEO Tips for Small Businesses

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10 Easy Local SEO & Online Marketing Tips

Thomas McMahon on May 20th, 2010     Google, Local SEO, Microsoft Bing, Online Marketing, SEO, Small Business, Yahoo

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There are currently 29.6 million small businesses in the U.S. (SCORE). 63% of consumers and small business owners use the Internet to find information about local companies and 82% use search engines (Webvisible & Nielsen).  That means there’s a lot of opportunity for local SEO.

Recently I attended GetListed.org’s Local University in Minneapolis which focused on how to optimize web sites for local search.  Out of all the good information that came out of the event, here are 10 easy things you can do today to optimize sites and content to attract local customers.

1. Claim your profile.
It’s as simple as logging into Google Places, Bing Local and Yahoo Local and walking through the verification steps which include a phone call or post card to verify your address.

10 Easy Local SEO & Online Marketing Tips

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SEO at Turner Broadcasting: Dan Perry Interview

Lee Odden on May 19th, 2010     Enterprise SEO, Interviews, Online Marketing, SEO, Spotlight on Search

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Spotlight on Search Interview with Dan Perry, SEO Director at Turner Broadcasting

Working with Enterprise SEO projects is compared to smaller company sites is as different as marketing to BtoC vs. BtoB customers. This interview with Dan Perry, the SEO Director for Turner Broadcasting covers his SEO dream job, in-house SEO career advice and skills, enterprise SEO, the future of outsourcing to agencies, being persuasive inside organizations and of course, Golf!

We met while you were with Cars.com and now you’re with Turner Broadcasting. (Congrats) How did you get into the SEO world and what is it that keeps you there?

SEO at Turner Broadcasting: Dan Perry Interview

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Beyond Google: SEO and the Social Web

Lee Odden on May 18th, 2010     Content Marketing, Online Marketing, SEO

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88 billion (OK, 87.8, we rounded up). That’s the number of search queries Google web properties are responsible for each month according to comScore.

Core to many search marketing strategies is to “Fish where the fish are” and make no mistake, the fish are decidedly hanging out on Google. YouTube, Gmail, Blogger.com and many other online services from Google make its presence ubiquotous in the online marketing world.

Now imagine if Google disappeared tomorrow. What would that do to your marketing? What would it do to your business?

Some of the people reading this post have experienced such a disappearance. Not of Google going away, but the experience of their own sites or pages disappearing from high visibility positions within Google search results.

Beyond Google: SEO and the Social Web

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