From time to time, I check the bookmarks of SEOs who are using SB sites for link building. One thing I've noticed that is a big no-no -- you're not alternating the tags.
Anchor text is one of the most important indicators that Google and MSN use to determine what a website is about. Having the same tag, or anchor text, associated with a link on all of your SB sites will diminish their own effect, plus minimize the possible advantages granted for the link itself.
There is always a temptation to use onlywire or one of the other automated bookmarking tools. If you do use them, make sure to split it up amongst 3 or 4 different submissions. In other words, use the tools, but submit a site once with only a few SB sites checked, then resubmit with another set, and on and on.
Google doesn't like it when the same anchor is used constantly. They want websites rankings and link building to be natural. They don't want googlebombing or any other form of SERP manipulation.
It will take more time, but it is worth the effort.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Digg Becoming More about Photos than News
Photos have always been popular on Digg. Now, they are becoming more "Popular" as an increasing amount of users digg the sacred word pic normally written in parentheses to indicate 3 things:
1) It's probably funny
2) It won't take any time to get the full effect
3) It won't require any thought or reading
This screenshot of "Top 10 in All Topics" was taken shortly after midnight cst, 8-20-2007. It is clear that the key to not only going popular but also making the most of it after going popular is to add 5 characters to the headline, ( p i c )
With Google Universal Search starting to have effects on the results, we should start seeing an increase in Digg's power over the search engines.
Social Media Marketing
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Kevin Rose's First Digg that DID NOT Go Popular
It's official. Kevin Rose, the Digg Master, has submitted a story that did not make it to the Popular front page. His 285 submitted story, "XREP - Taser via Shotgun", was submitted on August 7th.
It has stalled at just over 100 Diggs and did not make it over the hump.
Proof positive, in case anybody doubted, that Digg is truly algorithm based without manual override.
The funny part is, that story will probably get more hits now than it would have had it gone popular. You have to admire the guy, not just for creating the most powerful social news network on the planet, but also for "keeping it real" in most situations and not abusing his fame and power. Unless...
Why would he have submitted this story? It doesn't seem to fit with his standard Digg-related or tech related-story submittals. Did he just find the story interesting, or was it one of my possible conspiracy theories?
1) He was paid. Lots. The company with the product or the website with the story (or both) sent him a large check with a url.
2) Someone close to him was kidnapped. The ransom was one crappy Digg submittal.
3) Blackmail. Someone found a deep, dark secret about Kevin and they forced him to submit the story in exchange for their silence.
4) Hackers. His account was hacked and he either hasn't noticed or he's keeping it quiet until there's a full FBI investigation.
5) Disinformation. The algorithm IS rigged and they wanted to ruin his perfect record just to prove it.
6) Stocks. Kevin bought a ton of stock in a company that manufactures the Taser XREP and he's trying to cash in.
7) Attacked. Someone hit Kevin with the XREP, knocking him unconsious. They had just enough time to submit the story, and since there's no way to unsubmit or correct errors like there should be (like with comments) he was unable to correct it and just hoped for the best.
Whatever happened, I give my full kudos and respect to Kevin Rose...
...but something seems fishy.
Social Media Marketing
It has stalled at just over 100 Diggs and did not make it over the hump.
Proof positive, in case anybody doubted, that Digg is truly algorithm based without manual override.
The funny part is, that story will probably get more hits now than it would have had it gone popular. You have to admire the guy, not just for creating the most powerful social news network on the planet, but also for "keeping it real" in most situations and not abusing his fame and power. Unless...
Why would he have submitted this story? It doesn't seem to fit with his standard Digg-related or tech related-story submittals. Did he just find the story interesting, or was it one of my possible conspiracy theories?
1) He was paid. Lots. The company with the product or the website with the story (or both) sent him a large check with a url.
2) Someone close to him was kidnapped. The ransom was one crappy Digg submittal.
3) Blackmail. Someone found a deep, dark secret about Kevin and they forced him to submit the story in exchange for their silence.
4) Hackers. His account was hacked and he either hasn't noticed or he's keeping it quiet until there's a full FBI investigation.
5) Disinformation. The algorithm IS rigged and they wanted to ruin his perfect record just to prove it.
6) Stocks. Kevin bought a ton of stock in a company that manufactures the Taser XREP and he's trying to cash in.
7) Attacked. Someone hit Kevin with the XREP, knocking him unconsious. They had just enough time to submit the story, and since there's no way to unsubmit or correct errors like there should be (like with comments) he was unable to correct it and just hoped for the best.
Whatever happened, I give my full kudos and respect to Kevin Rose...
...but something seems fishy.
Social Media Marketing
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Creating a Social Network for Links (oh, and networking)
MySpace. Facebook. LinkedIn.
Yesterday's news from an SEO point of view.
The use of redirection, no html in posting, nofollow, or whatever other methods that these and similar social networks are using is making them less valid for search engine optimization. They still draw some traffic depending on what you're using it for, but in reality, they don't help making your own websites rise in the rankings.
Social bookmarks are still currently strong, but it's time to to hedge bets and go somewhere between the blogs and the social bookmarking sites. It's time for personal social networks.
What is it? A personal social network is one that is created by an individual or company using Ning, Goingon, or one of the many emerging websites that offer the service. You create a site, formatting it as a blog, an RSS site, a commenting or forum site, or just about whatever you want from it.
You invite people or get found on its own merits. People can join, post photos, videos, articles, or whatever you want your people to be able to post.
I will show you Ning in this post. I created a few myself, but my focus is on Automotive Network. Searches for "Car Dealer Social Network" or "Auto Dealers Social Network" on Google will show that it is currently #1 as of the time of this post. The site itself has only been up for a couple of months.
Through the blog posts, through the editable text boxes, a good SEO can really create some strong, relevant links on a separate server that are under the website owner's control. It's a brilliant method from the perspective that it serves two purposes -- you can create the links with ideal anchor text and you can find like-minded people who can become partners, collaborators, contributors, or even customers.
Car dealers like Toyota Portland and Glendale Nissan will be able to connect with their customers and connections in return by building their own social networks.
Any business, automotive or not, will be able to have their own website that can rank well for their brand name (if optimized) and push down any negative blogs or reviews that also show up for the company name.
Of course, there is a cost. Time. From a financial perspective, it's perfect. It's free.
SEO with Social Media
Yesterday's news from an SEO point of view.
The use of redirection, no html in posting, nofollow, or whatever other methods that these and similar social networks are using is making them less valid for search engine optimization. They still draw some traffic depending on what you're using it for, but in reality, they don't help making your own websites rise in the rankings.
Social bookmarks are still currently strong, but it's time to to hedge bets and go somewhere between the blogs and the social bookmarking sites. It's time for personal social networks.
What is it? A personal social network is one that is created by an individual or company using Ning, Goingon, or one of the many emerging websites that offer the service. You create a site, formatting it as a blog, an RSS site, a commenting or forum site, or just about whatever you want from it.
You invite people or get found on its own merits. People can join, post photos, videos, articles, or whatever you want your people to be able to post.
I will show you Ning in this post. I created a few myself, but my focus is on Automotive Network. Searches for "Car Dealer Social Network" or "Auto Dealers Social Network" on Google will show that it is currently #1 as of the time of this post. The site itself has only been up for a couple of months.
Through the blog posts, through the editable text boxes, a good SEO can really create some strong, relevant links on a separate server that are under the website owner's control. It's a brilliant method from the perspective that it serves two purposes -- you can create the links with ideal anchor text and you can find like-minded people who can become partners, collaborators, contributors, or even customers.
Car dealers like Toyota Portland and Glendale Nissan will be able to connect with their customers and connections in return by building their own social networks.
Any business, automotive or not, will be able to have their own website that can rank well for their brand name (if optimized) and push down any negative blogs or reviews that also show up for the company name.
Of course, there is a cost. Time. From a financial perspective, it's perfect. It's free.
SEO with Social Media
Monday, August 6, 2007
Online Marketing: Digging the Competition
This is a terrible, nasty, devious, evil technique that I am ashamed to even post. I am compelled because someone, I’m sure, already has posted it and others will follow. That doesn’t make it right, but at least it justifies my intentions in my own mind and makes me feel better about myself.
Digg your competors. No, not their websites. Most companies have someone who has had a bad personal experience in their dealings. The internet, which is often a place for people to vent publicly, likely has a documented incident that they do not want read by many.
Even better, if you can find a news report about them that portrays them in a bad light, you want that up there.
Best possible scenario, there is a court document out there that truly is “dirt” against them.
Find these stories, pages, documents, whatever. Research them and see how old they are. Brand new posts are often not the best, as they do not have enough history in Google to do well. Try to find something that is not too old that it no longer applies, but that is old enough to have been indexed and perhaps even linked to from other sites.
Digg it. Furl it. StumbleUpon it. Reddit, del.icio.us, simpy – all fair game. The key is to make the title of the Digg or tag or seed the name of the company. You will have a hard time getting to the top spot if they optimize their website at all, but you may get on the front page, even as high as number 2.
Man, it’s dirty. Really, really filthy as a technique, but if I didn’t post it, someone else would have. Heck, I’m sure it’s been posted a hundred times. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself so I can sleep at night.
Social Media Optimization
Digg your competors. No, not their websites. Most companies have someone who has had a bad personal experience in their dealings. The internet, which is often a place for people to vent publicly, likely has a documented incident that they do not want read by many.
Even better, if you can find a news report about them that portrays them in a bad light, you want that up there.
Best possible scenario, there is a court document out there that truly is “dirt” against them.
Find these stories, pages, documents, whatever. Research them and see how old they are. Brand new posts are often not the best, as they do not have enough history in Google to do well. Try to find something that is not too old that it no longer applies, but that is old enough to have been indexed and perhaps even linked to from other sites.
Digg it. Furl it. StumbleUpon it. Reddit, del.icio.us, simpy – all fair game. The key is to make the title of the Digg or tag or seed the name of the company. You will have a hard time getting to the top spot if they optimize their website at all, but you may get on the front page, even as high as number 2.
Man, it’s dirty. Really, really filthy as a technique, but if I didn’t post it, someone else would have. Heck, I’m sure it’s been posted a hundred times. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself so I can sleep at night.
Social Media Optimization
Monday, July 30, 2007
Using Social Media to get Pages Indexed Quickly
Sometimes I laugh at the ads posted through banners and links on different web pages.
"We'll submit your website to 65 trillion search engines for $29."
Sometimes I just shake my head, not because it's such a scam, but because I know that people do it. That's their $29 SEO. The pay and go and wonder a few weeks later why Google has not indexed their page yet.
There are a few things you can do to get your pages indexed if your site is new. You can submit it to the search engines. This takes a while and by the time Google and the others get around to indexing submitted sites, you've probably given up on it.
There is the link purchase, where you buy a link on a PR 6 or higher websites. It works, but it costs quite a bit, especially if you're smart enough to search for relevancy.
The easiest way to get you pages indexed is to "AddThis" or whatever widget you use for social bookmarking. If you submit your site to Digg, Furl, Reddit, etc, you have made the second step towards getting your website indexed.
The first step? Be active and make friends on Digg, Furl, Redd1t, etc. There are many people who have these accounts on the SB sites, submitting their own work in a few seconds, and never exploring or making friends or anything that will actually help them. It is a time investment, but the rewards can be tremendous.
If you can make enough friends (and by friends, I mean those who mutually befriend you) by Digging their stories, the right people will befriend you and Digg your stories back. This is the key. Hoping that your one single Digg to your page or website will be enough is a stab in the dark. It may get indexed, it may not.
Friends allow you to get 10, 20, 30 or more Diggs on a story. If it gets 30 Diggs, Google will index it. If somehow it is able to go Popular, prepare for the storm of traffic.
A case in point is Portland Toyota Dealers. They are a new site that was having trouble getting indexed. Using my SB sites, I was able to get it indexed and start a nice flow of backlinks pointing to it.
If you do not want to spend a few hours per week with social bookmarking to help your SEO, you shouldn't spend any time at all.
Social Internet Marketing
"We'll submit your website to 65 trillion search engines for $29."
Sometimes I just shake my head, not because it's such a scam, but because I know that people do it. That's their $29 SEO. The pay and go and wonder a few weeks later why Google has not indexed their page yet.
There are a few things you can do to get your pages indexed if your site is new. You can submit it to the search engines. This takes a while and by the time Google and the others get around to indexing submitted sites, you've probably given up on it.
There is the link purchase, where you buy a link on a PR 6 or higher websites. It works, but it costs quite a bit, especially if you're smart enough to search for relevancy.
The easiest way to get you pages indexed is to "AddThis" or whatever widget you use for social bookmarking. If you submit your site to Digg, Furl, Reddit, etc, you have made the second step towards getting your website indexed.
The first step? Be active and make friends on Digg, Furl, Redd1t, etc. There are many people who have these accounts on the SB sites, submitting their own work in a few seconds, and never exploring or making friends or anything that will actually help them. It is a time investment, but the rewards can be tremendous.
If you can make enough friends (and by friends, I mean those who mutually befriend you) by Digging their stories, the right people will befriend you and Digg your stories back. This is the key. Hoping that your one single Digg to your page or website will be enough is a stab in the dark. It may get indexed, it may not.
Friends allow you to get 10, 20, 30 or more Diggs on a story. If it gets 30 Diggs, Google will index it. If somehow it is able to go Popular, prepare for the storm of traffic.
A case in point is Portland Toyota Dealers. They are a new site that was having trouble getting indexed. Using my SB sites, I was able to get it indexed and start a nice flow of backlinks pointing to it.
If you do not want to spend a few hours per week with social bookmarking to help your SEO, you shouldn't spend any time at all.
Social Internet Marketing
Friday, July 27, 2007
Some Rules for Social Media Optimization
If you can get past the marketing of the services, the advice on this article (the one linked to below) is actually very good. Replace the "we can" with "you can" and learn the techniques that they are suggesting, and it should be an excellent source of information.
One thing to remember - these services are very useful, but much of it is very isolated to certain markets. Low traffic websites are not going to get a burst of traffic by paying people to do SMO for them.
I consider social media as a true means of generating traffic as a fad without growth. While the fad will continue (it shows no signs of slowing down) by saying "without growth" I mean that the quality traffic that it generates will not turn into a substantial increase in sales (if you're selling something) or return traffic unless what your website does is provide a flow of information.
The true benefit of social media for many sites, especially stagnant market sites like automotive and real estate (where people look for these sites only once every few years) is in the boost you get for search engine optimization purposes.
Still, the article is excellent and I am happy to link to it. Be sure to go past the 5 and read the other 12 listed below.
Social Media Optimization
One thing to remember - these services are very useful, but much of it is very isolated to certain markets. Low traffic websites are not going to get a burst of traffic by paying people to do SMO for them.
I consider social media as a true means of generating traffic as a fad without growth. While the fad will continue (it shows no signs of slowing down) by saying "without growth" I mean that the quality traffic that it generates will not turn into a substantial increase in sales (if you're selling something) or return traffic unless what your website does is provide a flow of information.
The true benefit of social media for many sites, especially stagnant market sites like automotive and real estate (where people look for these sites only once every few years) is in the boost you get for search engine optimization purposes.
Still, the article is excellent and I am happy to link to it. Be sure to go past the 5 and read the other 12 listed below.
Social Media Optimization
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