in bound links

Build quality, inbound links

Paul TagentLeave a comment

This might sound obvious, but by continuously building links into your site your rank in Google will be infinitely improved. However, be very aware of using black hat link building as this is a sure fire way to get your website black listed so, to make your links as successful as possible, your link creation should look natural to create the appearance that you earned these links.

Try and make the links that come into your site look natural and in Bath Marketing Consultancy’s opinion, avoid reciprocal links (a situation where you link to a site that also links to you) as that looks unnatural to Google and these links tend to cancel each other out.


Strong links really help SEO.

When discussing link building into your site, there is also the practice of asking for links. It is a common (but not attractive) SEO practice and is necessary to some degree. What you do is identify and then email a few hundred respectable and highly reputable sites in your niche and politely ask if they would link to you. Depending on the quality of your site you are likely to have a c5% success rate. This rate will be significantly lower if you have a new, recently launched, or a somewhat non-professional looking site.

However, if the sites you email are reputable, the very few links you will get will go a very long way in helping you grow trust in the eyes of search engines. Often, a few great links is better than thousands of low-quality links and if the quality of your site and product is high people will take notice and be more willing to link to you.

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Website, Blog, News…..why all 3?

Paul TagentLeave a comment

A great deal has been written about the merits of creating quality “inbound” links with regards to boosting a websites performance within search engines and I wanted to clarify how I position 3 possible activities within your marketing to facilitate this.

We all know about websites, but what is a website for? In my opinion, a website is your 24/7 shop window and as such, it should contain the factual information about you and your business. i.e. what your business is called, what is does, who is involved in the business + their background, the benefits your business brings, the costs, where to find you etc etc. This information is very likely to change periodically so having some sort of content management system within your website that allows you to make these changes is a facility I would very much advocate. Not only does this facility mean that you can time proof your website, the activity within the pages (i.e. the changes you make) will get noticed by search engines and, as such, will benefit you.

My final word on a website is DON’T scrimp on yours. Take pride in it and invest time (and money) to get something that you are proud of. After all, you might “know someone who knows IT” like a friend of a friend or your son, but would you trust this person with your company?! No.

“What about a Blog? Do I need one??”…are 2 questions I regularly get?!” I have actually written a post answering these a while back. See http://www.themarketingexpert.net/2010/01/what-is-blog-and-why-do-i-need-one.html but the content of your Blog should contain a more light hearted tone than your website. i.e It doesn’t have to be factual or contain lots of information about you or your business. In fact, it doesn’t have to be used to “sell” you or your company and, as such, I actually see a Blog as a way of demonstrating ones credibility within a sector and even a way of opening a discussion with readers. A Blog must therefore be, interesting to read and short enough to get your message across. In addition, a Blog will allow the Blog owner to create “links” to wherever they want…..such as your website i.e create quality inbound links Do this by hyperlinking certain key phrases within the copy and/or by linking images.

And finally, my suggestion is to have some sort of “news” section within your website. “Do I really need a website, a Blog AND news???”

The answer in my opinion is yes.
A news section allows the site owner to keep customers and prospects up to date with what they are up to. Yes, a news section may also well mean competitiors can see what your up to, but so what? I am personally proud of being busy and having news within your website allows continual updating (which Google and its friends can see) and it also means that you can keep people informed.

These 3 elements, if used properly, can make a big difference to your marketing and how customers and prospects “see” you and your business. Remember the world wide web is exactly that, “world wide” and means anyone can see what you write and do so use it properly!

If you need any additional advice about online marketing, please get in touch with me via my website………………………………..and feel free to see my news and blog at the same time!!