In this post I want to discuss what you can expect from a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) campaign. Due to the mystery surrounding the SEO process and other factors, business owners often have expectations that are way out of sync with the reality. What Does ‘Prominence’ Mean in SEO? Before we get started, I want to…
Link Building
The State of Small Business SEO: Link Building
Up until now I’ve always advocated that small businesses use a purely white hat approach to link building for their SEO. However, I’ve recently changed my stance as I think for most small businesses, the cost of outsourcing this type of SEO campaign is now just too high and hence not really worth it. You’ll notice…
How to Do Effective Content Based Link Building
As you know, link building is a vital part of Search Engine Optimisation because its the primary way that Google determines the value of your site. ‘Content Based Link Building’ means the links are gained entirely on the merits of the content being linked to which makes it the most ‘white hat‘ strategy for gaining…
4 Effective Link Building Techniques We Don’t Use (but you can)
There’s hundreds of techniques you could use to build/attract links to your website. Each technique has different requirements, costs, time to implement and effectiveness. Here’s 4 link building techniques which we don’t use for clients, for various reasons explained below, but you can do for yourself effectively. Real Relationship Building Relationship building isn’t a link building…
What is ‘Outreach’ & Why is it Important?
I regularly mention outreach as an important part of link building so, in this post, I wanted to take the time to fully explain what it is any why its important. ‘Outreach’ refers to the process of connecting with another individual or website in some kind of targeted way. This is usually done by email…
SEO Content Strategy for Small Businesses
Ongoing content creation is important to cover more keywords and help to attract links. You could just jump on your blog and start writing but its much better to have a strategy to ensure you are using your time and resources effectively. In this post I’m going to lay out an SEO Content Strategy (a…
How do I Build Links to My New Content?
You know that links are an important part of SEO and that attracting those links has something to do with creating great content, but how do you put those two things together? Many people make the mistake of starting the question: How do I Build Links to My New Content? The problem with this question…
9 Reasons Why People Give Links (and how to use them to your advantage)
Understanding the motivations behind people (yes, that’s right, the links appear on websites but it is people to which you must appeal to get your link added) giving links can help you increase your success rate because you can craft both your content and promotion strategies to match the motivation of the linking audience. I’ve…
The Case for Sponsorship Links
Sponsorships & Donations have been a popular link building strategy for years and seem to have continued effectiveness despite Google’s recent crackdowns on link manipulation. This type of link building technique is definitely black hat, which we usually advise against due to the risks of a penalty down the road. However, in this article I’m…
Stop Building Links and Start Getting Mentions
You probably know by now that getting other websites to link to your website ie. “Link Building” is a really important part of SEO. But I think this focus is misplaced and often leads to webmasters pursuing the wrong activities. I’d like to make the case that we should be focusing on getting ‘mentions,’ that is…
Bloggers & Brands: You’re Doing it Wrong (SEO Edition)
With the growth of the web, online publishing and social media and the fall of traditional media, bloggers have gained more and more influence over consumers in many markets. The ability to rank well in Google can mean the difference between a business succeeding and failing. Google determines their rankings using complex algorithms but the…