Here at Out-Smarts, we often get asked to assess company websites from a search engine perspective, to ascertain why their page isn’t appearing higher on Google.  Often one of the main reasons is because they don’t have enough back links to their website: links from other websites tracking back to their site.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again: links are like gold online, the more your website has the better its ranking will be.  Link building can be extremely time consuming and can seem like a fruitless task but its worth it.  Here are 10 ways that you can easily build links back to your site:

1. Blog Comments – find blogs that are relevant to your industry and business and post appropriate comments with a link back to your website.

2. Directories – there are gazillions of websites that simply list the URL’s of other website (rather like the Yellow pages but online).  Submit a link to your site on the ones that have a good page rank.  Avoid the ones that ask for payment or reciprolinks to save you.

3. Articles – if you blog regularly or write articles then use that great content and submit your articles to online articles sites.  Again, choose articles sites that have a high ranking like Ezine articles.

4. Events – if your business is a service that regularly hosts events then list your events and link back to your site in so doing.  Read this blog post for more.

5.  Social Networks – use your social networking presence to link back to your site.  These links count and are really easy to create.

6. Relationships – ask partners, clients and organisations you are a member of to place a link on their site back to yours.

7. Bookmarking – sites like Delicious or Stumble Upon allow you to submit sites that you like.  Submit your own (carefully) to build valuable links back to your site.  Read this article for more.

8. Press Releases - if your company regularly creates promotional pieces or press releases, use free PR release sites: submit your press releases to these sites with a link back to your website.  Here’s an article all about how to go about doing so.

9.  Content - make sure that the content on your website or blog is great.  The better it is the more likely people will find it and link back to it.

10. Advertising - consider advertising online:  Craigslist can be a valuable way to to this – not only does it bring visitors to your site who might link to your content (see 9 above) but it also gives you the ability to link back to your site from another high ranking site.

Thanks -wink- for the great Flickr image.

Search Engine Optimisation

Search Engine Optimisation is a must if you want to make sure your intended audience finds your website but it can be time consuming and technical – patience is invariably required and it is usually best to employ an expert to help.  There are, however, some things that you can do to improve your website ranking that are easy to do and don’t require the assistance of an SEO specialist.

Easy Ways To Improve Your Ranking

1. Update your site regularly – this may seem obvious but many corporate sites rarely change.  Search engines like sites that change often so by updating your site frequently you can improve your ranking .

2.In case you haven’t done so, remember to submit your site to Google and other search engines  to help them find and crawl your site.

3. Post video to YouTube -  posting a video on YouTube and linking it back to your site has the added benefit of building really valuable links to your site.

4. Add a podcast – our traffic peaks every time we podcast and by submitting the podcast to top pod sites, the effect ripples. Coincidence? I think not.

5. Label your images – most sites don’t bother but this is viable real estate on your site, use it. Image titles should relate back to your keywords and offering for maximum impact.

6. Use Google’s webmaster tools – make sure your site is crawled regularly, submit your sitemap and identify any problems so that you can fix them.  If you can’t work out how submit your sitemap do it page by page in Google.

7. Get bookmarks – book marks build links and the more you have the better. Hit on employees, partners and colleagues to bookmark your site.  Good sites include Digg,  or Stumble Upon.

8. Comment regularly on relevant high traffic blogs and always remember to insert your url correctly.

9. Spend some time developing a keyword map for your products and services so as to identify the most effective words to use and those to avoid. Content on your web site is key to helping the search engines understand what your site is all about.  When considering content, remember to put yourself in the shoes of your audience.

10. Use bold and headings to identify key terms in your text.

11. This one should be first on the list but it seems so obvious I almost left it out. Use a website traffic tool like Google Analytics to measure traffic to your site.  If you don’t then how will you know which of the above is working.

If you don’t have time for SEO yourself, remember, it is one of the services we provide.  We’d love to talk to you about your SEO goals.

Thanks to a2d on Flickr for the image!

This month we’ve invited some guest bloggers to contribute. The first is by friend and colleague Guacira Naves (Owner, The Online Strategy House):

The Whole is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts

Over a decade ago, an online marketing strategy was comprised by separate tactics that had only one concern in mind: to drive traffic to a site. The game was relatively simple: a site would be built, it’d be supported by email newsletters, advertising, maybe some traditional media, and that was all that there was to it.

Then, marketers became aware of the importance of search engine optimization, and added that component to their plan. Today, social media marketing is the new kid on the block. Not only that – it’s changing how the other online marketing elements interact with each other.

Below is a sample of how this interdependence plays out – and how you can combine each individual channel for the greater good:

Twitter and Google:

• Google’s new real time search results mean that tweets with your brand may now appear in search results. So, a strong visibility on Twitter can very well influence your site’s exposure on Google. That’s another reason to maintain an active Twitter profile, and populate it with quality content.

Twitter and Customer Opinion:

• Not only is Twitter the most important micro-blogging network, it is increasingly used as a search tool. It is a channel where people go to find the online equivalent to “word of mouth” about a product, service, etc. On Twitter, frustrated customers often share their gripes, and loyal clients rave about their favourite brands.  Here’s an example:

Imagine if you were looking for reviews on Virgin Mobile and came across the two tweets above.  They may very well sway your decision-making.

However, Virgin Mobile could have stepped in to have their say. It’d potentially have an impact not only on the three individuals involved in that dialogue, but Virgin’s update would’ve been found in searches made for that brand.

Here’s a positive example of how proactive companies observe Twitter conversations, and interact with users: on December 10th, I decided to try Pearltrees. I then tweeted this update:

Minutes later, I received a reply from Pearltrees CEO, Patrice Lamothe, with this message:

That update was not only relevant to me, but to any other individual making a search query for “Pearltrees” around that time.

So, the lesson is: people are going to use Twitter’s search tool to find information on your products or services. You might as well help them find information that is as positive as possible.

YouTube and Search Engine Optimization:

• YouTube videos are prominently represented in Google’s search engine results.You do have a YouTube channel, don’t you? Then, make sure that, among other things, your videos titles and tags are optimized. And guess what – this will help your presence in search engines, too.

YouTube and other Social Networks:

• YouTube also gives viewers the option to share a video via Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, orkut and StumbleUpon, directly from the video’s YouTube page. You can also embed a video into your blog, and invite readers to share it – either by embedding into their own blogs, by adding it to Facebook, or inviting them to share it through social bookmarking sites like Reddit. Earlier today, I embedded this third-party YouTube video about Hewlett-Packard into my own Facebook profile:

I wasn’t the only one. According to the video statistics, it was watched an additional 279 times as a result of links from Facebook. Reddit, a popular content-sharing site, had also generated 1,317 views.

Blogs and Search Engine Optimization:

• By frequently adding fresh, relevant content to your company’s blog, not only will you improve your brand’s presence and clout in the blogosphere, but you will help your site become more appealing in Google’s eyes. That is because Google naturally gives more importance to sites that are updated on a regular basis.

Blogs and Twitter:

• Blogs can easily be set up to automatically promote a new post, as soon as it is published. You will be not only be driving traffic to the blog itself, but will also help to keep your Twitter profile active with new, original material.

I could go on and on. This just scratches the surface, but gives you an idea of how, nowadays, online marketing elements are so interdependent. When planned accordingly and executed in an orchestrated manner, these tactics will make the whole stronger than the sum of its parts.

About the author: Guacira Naves is an online marketing strategist who has 18 years of Internet experience. Her company, The Online Strategy House, develops and executes holistic online marketing strategies to help clients achieve their short, medium and long-term goals.

Thanks to Guacira for this.  If you are interested in contributing  a post – give us a shout!

Its almost the festive season, the sun finally came out in Vancouver today after three weeks of rain and there is lots going on online.  Check out our new media reasons to be cheerful for this month:

Grooveshark – groove to your favorite music while you work.

About Men – a new men’s health site in BC.

Twubs - making sense of Twitter hashtags #.

Twittersheep – see what your followers are Twittering about.

Sprouter – collaborative networking tool.

Slickplan – Create flowcharts and site maps for free.

SiteScan – verify your Google Analytics tracking codes.

Enjoy!

Our SEO copy writing  partner Louise Desmarais of Mud Creative recently wrote a great article in their newsletter that discusses the key elements that make your website attractive to visitors.  Louise kindly agreed to allow me to share it with you:

As your site’s welcome mat, the elements of the home page are critically important in terms of communication and usability.

What’s your story? Just say it.

Visitors expect to find out in three seconds or less if a site has what they’re looking for. Jakob Nielsen, a web usability consultant, says that not explicitly stating what you have to offer is #1 of The ten most violated home page design guidelines.

If the headline on your home page says “Welcome to company X,” that’s only telling your visitors who owns the site – not what you can do for them. If your company story is buried in generic corporate speak, it is a one-sided pitch that visitors quickly see through.

In plain language with purposeful words, explain what your product or service is and how it can help your visitors. Use first person so that it feels like a comfortable conversation. Then casually direct them to other pages for more information.

Keep the important stuff above the fold – that is, above the point where visitors have to scroll down to continue reading. They may not get that far, so you want to make sure to make an impression early on.

Make the reading easy with subheads and bullets

Web readers tend to scan on-page content to decide if they want to stay or move on. (Did you know that the back button is the third most-used button on the keyboard?) To make it easier to scan and to hold visitors’ attention longer:

• Break up your story with intriguing subheads
• Use bullet points to separate thoughts
• Incorporate links into bullets to direct visitors to other pages

Where do they go from here? Don’t leave them hanging.

There are many ways for visitors to navigate your site. But it’s up to your site to show them where to go and how to get there.

Does your site have a global navigation – defined as a set of top-level navigation links (for example, Home, About Us, News, Contact Us) – that appear on every page? This helps to orient your visitors. The global navigation should be in about the same place on every page, with the page or section that visitors are currently on highlighted.

Don’t rely on your global navigation alone to be your site’s road map. Include links to important pages in the content of your story. At the bottom of the page, give readers an option to go elsewhere, such as “Contact us for more information.”

Let visitors know they’ve landed on a happening site
Today’s websites are dynamic, engaging and interactive. When people arrive, convince them that there is real value in sticking around. Some ideas for doing this are:

• What’s new? – showcase your latest projects
• Newsletter sign-up – offer free information
• Recent blog postings – prompt visitors to read and comment
• Social media widgets – invite them to follow you on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook
• Post your latest podcast
• Link to your latest press release

Say no to digital barriers – open the doors wide
You want to eliminate any and all frustration around your site, so avoid the following:

• Splash landing page – you know you hate these. So do your visitors. What’s more, splash pages make your site virtually invisible to search engines
• Pop-ups – unless there’s a good reason for a pop-up, don’t go there
• Embedded scroll-down boxes – these can be confusing to visitors, and they’re not pretty
• Long sign-up forms, surveys and password requests – too much work and your visitors are reaching for that back button

When visitors arrive at your site, they already know what they’re looking for. Will they find it on your home page?

Louise Desmarais is an SEO copywriter with a loyal following of web clients from across North America. Louise operates Mud Creative, a writing company based in Calgary, Alberta.

As your site gets established and gains attention, the inevitable link request emails will begin to appear.   Here’s Jose Uzcategui’s blog post following one such email he received  recently:

Today I received a letter requesting a link from my blog. Because I’m a relatively small player, I though some of you might be interested in seeing what one of these looks like.

Link building is ultra-very important when trying to build our site’s authority, page rank, and overall SEO awesomeness. What is “link building” you say? It’s any strategy used to get links from other websites pointed to your website.

How do you it? There are many ways, and one of them is sending a letter to the site’s owner requesting a link just like the letter I received today. Here’s the letter:

Good morning,

My name is Xxxx Xxxx and I work at a company called Xxx Xxxxx Xxxxx. We are a publisher of a variety of leading business and industrial sites across North America and Europe.

I have noticed that your organization’s website, http://www.joseuonline.com/, is linked to http://www.boardoftrade.com/ which is a Board of Trade in Canada. I am writing to you to request that you please also link to our Canadian industrial business site called Canadian Trade Index at http://www.ctidirectory.com/.

Why link to http://www.ctidirectory.com/?

* Canadian Trade Index is Canada’s leading industrial website (comScore, March 2009) with nearly 9 million annual visitors.
* The site plays a key role in connecting buyers and sellers of industrial products.
* The site features a rich, relevant and searchable database of industrial products and the suppliers, distributors and manufacturers of these products.

More information about us can be viewed at www.ctidirectory.com/pages/about_us.cfm.

For these reasons, it’s likely that your constituents that visit your site may find Canadian Trade Index to be a valuable resource to source, buy and sell industrial good and services.

Would you please place a link to http://www.ctidirectory.com/ on your site?

Thank you for the consideration and if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my email below.

Regards,

Xxxx Xxxxx
Xxxx Xxxxx Xxxxxxxx
XX@XXXX
905.xxx.xxxx xxxx

I am sending this email to you using an address I found on your web site. If you no longer wish to receive emails from me, please click here: unsubscribe. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. Xxxx XXxxx xxx-xxx-xxxx ext. xxx.

The lack of perosnal detail tells me that this is probably the work of some automated system, so I’m probably not goingt to act on it. Having said that, I did check Canadian Trade Index site advertised here.

I believe in these letters, as long as they are personal and have sound reasons behind them. Have you ever sent one of these? I’m curious on the results. Feel free to coment here.

Lots of new media reasons to be cheerful this month.

Microsoft has a new offering the promises to change the way we search the Internet. Its called Bing and is still under wraps so we’ll have to wait and see if it will better the mighty Google.

Not to be outdone, Google also has a new offering in beta. Google Wave promises to change the way we communicate and collaborate on the web.

Make your own book with Blurb and BookSmart.

Have fun with your desktop at Bump Top.

Twitter tools: Untweeps (get rid of anactive users), Twilert (Twitter keyword listening tool) and Just Tweet It (another Twitter directory).

Here are 10 great ways you can easily improve your search engine positioning without putting your hands in your pocket and without having to be a SEO technodweeb.

1. Update your site regularly – this may seem obvious but many corporate sites rarely change.

2. Post a video – it can be short and sweet but has the added benefit of enhancing your image.

3. Add a podcast – our traffic peaks every time we podcast and by submitting the podcast to top pod sites, the effect ripples. Coincidence? I think not.

4. Label your images – most sites don’t bother but this is viable real estate on your site, use it. Image titles should relate back to your keywords and offering for maximum impact.

5. Use Google’s webmaster tools – make sure your site is crawled regularly, submit your sitemap (okay I concede you might need a technodweeb for that) and identify any problems so that you (or your technodweeb) can fix them.  If you can’t work out how submit your sitemap do it page by page in Google.

6. Get bookmarks – book marks are like links the more you have the better. Hit on employees, partners and colleagues to bookmark your site.  Good sites include Digg,  or Stumble Upon.

7. Comment regularly on relevant blogs and always remember to insert your url correctly.

8. Spend some time developing a keyword map for your products and services so as to identify the most effective words to use and those to avoid.

9. Use bold and headings to identify key terms in your text.

10. This one should be first on the list but it seems so obvious I almost left it out. In case you haven’t done so, remember to submit your site to Google and other search engines otherwise there’s no hope whatsoever.

1. Understand your prospective customer: who they are, why they buy, when and so on – do they buy on-line or use the Internet to research product information – are the using social media and if so which tools?

2. Your company – what resources are in place or will be made available. Also consider existing web presence, company culture, mission, goals and policies.

3. Competition – check out what your competition is doing on line, track blog and RSS feeds that mention them as well as comments on their products or service from users. Also consider the actions of similar companies operating in different jurisdictions.

4. The market – is your market place experiencing and up turn / down turn or is it in a state of flux? These will all impact the approach you take.

5. Integration with your overall marketing and advertising strategy is imperative. Each must complement and support the other by conveying the same brand image and messages.

6. If you don’t have web savvy resources in house then don’t worry – get guidance from people who do this (like us ).

7. Positioning – find out where you stand in the web rankings in comparison to others in your field.

8. Traffic – who visits your site right now, how often and how long do they stay.

9. Pricing – if your offering is considered “prestige” then your web strategy will be different than if your its aimed at the masses.

10. Consider all tools at your disposal to promote your web presence and don’t forget to consider newer technologies such as wikis, social networks and microblogs for effective online marketing.

1. Write an article that relates to your area of expertise and submit it to ezine and article sites (the ones with the highest Google ranking).
2. Update your site often – a blog is a great way to do this.
3. Add forms to your site – check out Jotform.
4. Get more backlinks – find out which sites link back to your top competitors and submit your site to those with the highest traffic – don’t use a mass submit tool.
5. Podcast – add audio or video content to your site and make sure its listed in the podcast hubs.
6. Have the right content: effectively use keywords and appropriate SEO copy writing (listen to our upcoming podcast to find out more).
7. Get active in social networks – LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter and make sure that those link back to your site.
8. Encourage community – use your blog or podcast to build community and invite others to get involved.
9. Remember that Google may be the most common search engine but there are many others – take these into account when considering SEO.
10. Utilize the hot spots on your site to the best advantage. The top left hand corner is valuable real estate – use it to tell the audience (and the engines) what you do.