Bye, Bye, backpage.com. I just noticed backpage has recently implemented rel=”nofollow” on all outbound ad links. I’m not sure when this went into place, but I couldn’t find any other resources acknowledging it yet.
While I do believe this will help the quality of their free classifieds, I don’t know of anyone other than myself that has actually ever used their website to buy something or find a service provider. Unfortunately, the majority of value was in their ad links. With that said, it is quite possible Google manually stopped allowing them to pass outbound link-juice a long time ago anyway. Tough to tell though, any link-juice that might have been passed before was minimal already.
You have to wonder if they were given the infamous Google ultimatum.
Now that backpage no longer helps with link-building for SEO, I’ll be interested to see what happens with their traffic over the next few months.
Does anyone know on what day they actually implemented the nofollow tag on user-generated outbound links?
Recently I was asked for some advice by someone looking to start thier first online business. This person reminded me a lot of myself, because I had no clue what I was doing when I first started online. In response, here are a few things that first come to mind.
You can start a successful online business without implementing SEO. Conversely, however, you’re not going to be very successful online if all you’re counting on is SEO. With that said, search engine optimizing a high-quality website can grow it tenfold.
SEO is still a relatively new practice; one that is constantly growing. So the way one professional defines search engine optimization can be completely different than the way someone else does.
Since I’m writing this post primarily for the typical newcomer, based on my experience, I’m going to assume most people outside of the industry think of SEO as the practice of getting their website top rankings in the search engines, and that’s it. But to me, it is a lot more than that. I’ll explain later. Considering the above definition though, SEO, without offering anything of value, is not enough to be successful online.
Here is a list of the mistakes I made with when I jumped into my first online endeavor:
I ONLY focused on getting top search engine rankings.
My first website sucked! It was just a site filled with a bunch of affiliate links and not much content (which you could get away with a little more back then).
I only thought about the first sale, and didn’t worry about getting visitors to return or give them any reason to recommend me to someone else.
I spent most of my time researching and chasing what one of my major competitors was doing. Or at least what I saw them doing. I should have been paying more attention to Internet marketing leaders.
I didn’t start blogging soon enough. You don’t have to blog, but you should at least be updating or adding new content to your website on a regular basis, i.e., your website should always be growing.
I threw a bunch of money at PPC, directing people to a crappy, poor-performing website.
I tried to build out multiple half-assed websites, hoping one of them would stick, rather than putting in the work necessary to become successful with the first one.
You can still be successful with an affiliate website, however you need to offer additional value, i.e., a lot of additional content people can use. Perhaps really good product reviews, how-to guides, or a glossary. I think you get the idea.
Today, I think of SEO quite differently than I did in the beginning; I worry about my search engine rankings as well as bounce rate, conversions, unique visitors, return visitors, natural links, popular content, user experience, subscriptions, new customers/clients and of course revenue and ROI. Just to name a few important KPIs.
Starting an online business takes a lot more than what I can explain in a single blog post. Just take your time, do your research, provide great value, and don’t try to monetize too early.
When you are ready to build a website for your business there are a a few simple search engine optimization tips you should consider as soon as you purchase your domain name. Implementing a few things correctly, right from the beginning, can slingshot your website into top search rankings within just a few months of launching.
These are my top ten highly effective SEO tips which you can apply to your website for free:
Choose a short descriptive URL with your primary keywords in it (if possible).
UPDATED: Only target 1-3 major keywords on each page.
Separate keywords with hyphens in the url – with the domain name being the exception, preferably.
Use Keywords in your navigation links where they make sense, however, like always, don’t overuse them.
Optimize your title tag – a good rule of thumb is up to 70 characters with your most important keywords first. Separate phrases with a “|”.
Optimize your meta description tag – One or two sentences max; using a keyword variant or two.
Provide a substantial amount content on each page and use a few keyword variants within the content.
Install Google Analytics.
Add a blog to your website and post to it at least once a week – don’t use a separate domain name for your blog, make it a sub-directory or sub-domain and fully integrated into your main site.
Get links pointed to your website using keywords in the anchor text related to the page they link to – AboutUs.org, DMOZ.org and sending a free press release are a few good ways to start.
Do you have any SEO tips you think should have made it on my top 10 list?
I just received an email because of my partnership with the Best of the Web directory, which notified me of their a New Year promotion. If you enter promo code: “NEWYR” during the sign up process at BOTW you will instantly save 20% on all Best of the Web products and services. This promo code may be used multiple times for multiple products and services through January 31st. If you haven’t already submitted to BOTW.org directory, you may want to take advantage of this offer. Remember, Best of the Web is on my list of quality web directories. Don’t forget your code: “NEWYR”!
Also, if you sign up for their affiliate account you can get an additional 25% off submissions, as well as any submission through your affiliate links. That’s what I did.
I usually do a “what are people searching for” post around the major holidays, but thought I’d post the first thing that popped into my head this time. Plus I never post anything fun here. It makes me laugh every time. I’m not sure what what that says about me though?
If you stumbled here looking for the best New Year’s Eve parties, check out this site.
It is not a bad idea to have a favorite website or blog for industry related information, but it’s not smart to have no other resources when you’re trying to learn SEO. Especially if you aren’t paying for it.
There are several website and blogs I read regularly. Some of them I typically agree with, and some of them I often don’t. However, they all offer some great tips I wouldn’t have known otherwise. Some times you have to take the good with the bad, and learn how to ignore the crap.
One way to siphon through the junk is by looking it up on another trusted source. Another good indicator of marginal information is the certainty of the author. If they don’t sound sure of themselves, then chances are they probably aren’t. You should double check questionable advice with two of their direct competitors. Otherwise, you are likely to find teachings elsewhere that was just repeated by one of their blind supporters.
Another reason to reference multiple resources is because no one writer is going to give out all of their golden eggs for free, and for good reason. Do you really expect them to? But what might be a private trade secret to one expert, may be just another carefree blog post of another. There is a lot of great information you can get for free, if you do your research.
I try to share as much information on this blog as I can without compromising the SEO industry as a whole, and of course, my business. Some times I mention things I wish I wouldn’t have, and other times perhaps I could have said a little bit more. If only we didn’t have to worry about the hypocritical Google brown-nosers revealing the unparalleled impact of some good honest SEO strategies.
SEO is an industry where there are a lot of “experts” and an abundance of advice to go along, but the fact is many of them are just inexperienced SEO neophytes with a professional level blogging platform.
Today’s post is a holiday themed one. Looks like the Wordpress template I’m using has the right colors for Christmas time.
I always find it really interesting and particularly useful to see what people are searching around the major holidays. So what exactly are people searching for this Christmas Eve?
Google Trends makes it easy for us to see the latest hot topics and search trends.
Hot topics are those things being discussed in the news, social media and such. Hot searches are just that, the fasted rising search queries.
Looks like health care reform is today’s hottest topic, and I’m sad to say the death of famous sportscaster George Michael is the hottest search trend.
Also, apparently you can track Santa, and that’s what people are looking to do. But why wouldn’t they.
Anyway, that’s about all I have for today. Best wishes, and happy holidays!
Well, kinda. SEO is a lot about getting links. In fact, getting a few select links can get a poorly optimized website ranking for just about anything. But getting that caliber of link is nearly impossible unless you’ve got serious connections or you’re filthy stinking rich.
However, this blog is true testimony that a well-optimized website can rank highly in a competitive industry with only a fraction of links, comparatively.
Since I started posting here regularly only a few months back, I have made no major attempts (offering payment) to get it listed in the high-authority, SEO-friendly web directories. Nor have I manually requested links from anyone other than a few free blog directories – most of which use nofollow anyway – so they don’t even count. And yet, this blog still ranks really well in Google for a lot of SEO related search queries.
It doesn’t make much sense for me to spend money or time link-building on this blog right now. I don’t make any money from it; it is just a side project at the moment. A place for me to centralize the tools I use regularly and further my writing skills. If I had time to monetize this website I’d definitely spend a lot more of it adding tools, content, and link-building.
Let’s take a quick look at the on-page factors contributing to why this site ranks so well for related search queries: (I’ll put them in order of importance)
Domain name contains two primary keywords (and more variants)
Keyword variants are used in the title tag
Blog posts and pages stay on theme
No overuse of keywords throughout internal linking
Useful out-bound linking to related web pages
No keywords stuffing
Yes, there are plenty of other changes I have made to the blog template to properly optimize it (and some I still need to do), but the list above covers the most heavily weighted, competitively.
So, is SEO just about getting links? Absolutely not! Links are very important, however because of the rise in information pollution and linking misuse, on-page optimization is gaining its importance again.
HotFrog.com is a free US business directory. This is an easy way to get a free one-way link back to your website, which helps with SEO. You just need to create a business profile and add your link.
You can get more than one link by creating news articles under your business profile too. The more information you add to your profile the higher up in each category your business will show. You can read their optimization tips here.
Even though I consider this a lower quality directory, I do believe there is some link-building benefit to adding your website there. This is because whenever I add a businesses website, the newly created HotFrog business profile is usually indexed and ranking in Google search within a couple of hours to a couple of days.
However, If you don’t take the time to submit a thorough, well-optimized listing, then I don’t recommend submitting at all. You’ll just be wasting your time.
There are a ton of social networking sites on the Internet today. Most of them come and go pretty quickly. However, the ActiveRain real estate network has steadily grown over the last couple of years.
The great thing about this social networking platform is that it is targeted to, and all encompassing of a specific industry. At first glance you might think this network is primarily for real estate agents, however it is social networking for just about anyone who does business in the real estate industry. That can range from real estate agents to mortgage lenders, attorneys, web design professionals, and some others.
Another great thing about this community is that it is one of a few communities that still allows you to post customized profile links, blog links, and navigation links that don’t use the rel=”nofollow” tag on them. Hence this website is not only great for social networking but link building too.
Although you can post pro-followed links there, they will likely carry little weight unless you properly build up your network and profile reputation just like anywhere else.
Overall the ActiveRain community offers great business networking opportunity for companies offering services to real estate professionals, and real estate professional to real estate professional. The overall design of the ActiveRain network is fairly search engine friendly, which makes this my recommended community for people in the real estate industry.
Bye, Bye, backpage.com. I just noticed backpage has recently implemented rel=”nofollow” on all outbound ad links. I’m not sure when this went into place, but I couldn’t find any other resources acknowledging it yet.
Recently I was asked for some advice by someone looking to start thier first online business. This person reminded me a lot of myself, because I had no clue what I was doing when I first started online. In response, here are a few things that first come to mind.
When you are ready to build a website for your business there are a a few simple search engine optimization tips you should consider as soon as you purchase your domain name. Implementing a few things correctly, right from the beginning, can slingshot your website into top search rankings within just a few months of launching. 
I just received an email because of my partnership with the Best of the Web directory, which notified me of their a New Year promotion. If you enter promo code: “NEWYR” during the sign up process at 
I’m not sure what what that says about me though?
It is not a bad idea to have a favorite website or blog for industry related information, but it’s not smart to have no other resources when you’re trying to learn SEO. Especially if you aren’t paying for it.
Today’s post is a holiday themed one. Looks like the Wordpress template I’m using has the right colors for Christmas time.
Well, kinda. SEO is a lot about getting links. In fact, getting a few select links can get a poorly optimized website ranking for just about anything. But getting that caliber of link is nearly impossible unless you’ve got serious connections or you’re filthy stinking rich.
There are a ton of social networking sites on the Internet today. Most of them come and go pretty quickly. However, the 
