UPDATE: Webinar audio and video recordings are now available. They’re free, so enjoy!
It’s no secret that link building is the key to any successful SEO campaign. If you want to get traffic from Google, Yahoo, and Bing, getting linked to is crucial. The more links your site gets, the stronger it will become and the stronger it becomes, the easier it will be to get search engine rankings.
In theory, this all seems to be quite simple – get a bunch of links and that will lead to a bunch of traffic. The reality of the situation is that this isn’t always the case. It’s a lot more complicated than that. As soon as you start doing the work that’s required to get links, you will become aware of a lot more questions than you initially anticipated. I talk to people all the time who have worked hard to create hundreds of links that are providing minimal value and minimal benefit. This happens because there are a lot of variables in play, variables that need to be understood and used when you work on your sites.
Here are some of the questions/issues that need to be considered:
- Which URLs are the best ones to point links to? This question is very closely related to ‘Should I point links to my home page or sub pages?’ and ‘What percentage of links should I point at my home page versus my other pages?’.
- How quickly can I get links and does timing matter?
- Where do I get links from and does this matter?
- How do I get the best links?
- Why will no one trade links with me?
- I have some links, why do I not have any traffic?
- I have quite a few links, why do I still not have PageRank?
- How can I get high PageRank links?
- Are PR0 links worth the time it takes to get them?
- Should I spend more time creating content or trying to get links?
- How many links do I need to get before I will see results?
- Why do my tag pages with zero links rank better than my post pages that have back-links?
- I am using (insert method 1 here) and (insert method 2 here) for getting links? Is this enough or are there other methods that I should be using to get links?
The bottom line here is that there are a lot of things to think about when you are building links. The tricky part is that some of the theory that’s out there matters and some of it doesn’t.
Google, Yahoo, and MSN/Bing Have All Changed
In the last year, I’ve noticed some fairly significant changes in the way search engines weight links and rank pages. Don’t get me wrong, they haven’t turned the world upside down but by making a few simple tweaks, they have been able to filter out a lot more weak sites than they did in the past.
One huge change that I have noticed in the last year is that in some cases, links will make rankings get worse in Google. If you have multiple sites at varying levels of age and strength, chances are you have seen this happen. At first glance this seems to be quite contrary to how it should be but once you understand why this happens, it actually makes a lot of sense. This is just one of many issues in play.
Things Have Become More Confusing
While the SEO landscape is mostly the same as it’s been for a few years, small changes have made things become significantly more confusing. If you get a link and your ranking gets worse, it can definitely throw you for a loop. We all know that links help your site to get stronger and it’s REALLY weird when this doesn’t happen. However, once you understand what’s going on it isn’t that big of a deal and it certainly isn’t a ‘death penalty’ for your site.
The key to overcoming the current obstacles is understanding them. If you know what to expect, understand everything that needs to be done, and are executing, you can expect to see great results. If you don’t have all of your bases covered, who knows what will happen.
Knowledge is key. We sometimes work one-on-one with a few clients (right now we’re not taking on more clients – sorry) and it’s safe to say that our average client who we work with is able to make at least ten times as much income as the average member of our program. This is primarily because we are able to teach them what really matters while extracting what doesn’t. We teach them how to get the right links and point them at the right places, with the right timing. We have clients who are doing amazingly well based on these concepts in fact we have multiple clients who are making more than $10,000 per month with these strategies. We have others who are making $5,000+ and then some who are making $1,000+. Everyone is making at least some money. Considering the fact that we haven’t worked with many people, I’d say the results are outstanding.
I’ve been thinking about the differences between what they know and what the average visitor to The Keyword Academy knows and want to do what I can to bridge that gap for as many people as possible.
10 Crucial Linking Strategies For Creating Website Authority
With all of this in mind, I have been working on a 2-hour webinar called ‘10 Crucial Linking Strategies For Creating Website Authority’. It will teach you the strategies that you need to know to create traffic by getting the right links, from the right places, with the right timing. It will also help you to toss out the bad strategy and theory that can lead to inefficiency and confusion. I can promise that those who join us will have a fresh outlook and will understand what’s happening with their sites significantly better than they did before the session.
The webinar will be held on Thursday, February 25, 2010 at 6:00 PM, US Mountain time. All are invited to attend. You can register for the webinar here:
Is Internet Marketing Overly Saturated?
March 8th, 2010 | by Court | Published in Industry Commentary | 10 CommentsA few days ago I was talking to a good friend about work. He’s a real estate agent and is GREAT at it. He’s made a lot of money and even with the current real estate climate he’s still making money. He’s pretty interested in getting some other things going so he was asking me quite a bit about what I do.
During the conversation, my friend asked me a question that I found interesting:
It was an innocent enough question and probably one that a lot of people think about. He knows that there are a million websites out there and there are a lot of people who are trying to make money with them.
The funny thing is that my friend could have easily answered his own question. Where I live it seems like there are about 8,000,000 real estate agents in a valley that only has 500,000 people. It seems like about half of my friends had their real estate license during the last real estate boom here in Utah. The fact that my friend is still able to do well even though that market tanked and everyone else blew up says something doesn’t it?
You Either Have The Expertise Or You Don’t
My friend is able to do well with real estate because he has a legitimate edge – he’s better at it than most people. The down market didn’t make him blow up like everyone else because he has skills and talents that other people don’t have.
The answer to my friend’s question is: You develop legitimate expertise and you work hard.
Internet Marketing Actually Is Pretty Saturated
The internet is saturated in the sense that it isn’t like taking candy from a baby anymore. Back in the day you could launch a site and get a ton of traffic by simply putting a lot of words on your pages. That obviously didn’t continue working once there was more competition, not to mention the fact that search engines have gotten a lot better at getting rid of those types of results.
There’s no question that there are a batrillion-zillion websites out there and this causes a lot of people concern. My belief is that there is healthy competition – enough to make you work for it. However, there isn’t enough competition to make it so people who are willing to develop themselves and work can’t make money.
Almost everyone I know who does internet marketing is ridiculously lazy. The easiest way to gain an edge over most people who do IM is to put in more work than other people. However, this isn’t the only way to gain an edge.
It’s also pretty easy to gain a ‘tactical’ edge on the competition. Most people don’t know how to pick the right keywords and don’t know how to promote their sites well. On top of that only a tiny percentage of people who do IM know how to apply any leverage to their business. If you understand these concepts AND are willing to work really hard you won’t even notice the ‘competition’.
People Who Do Well In Life Generally Earn It
I have a great friend who does really well selling insurance. He understands that you can never learn enough and you can never work hard enough. It isn’t uncommon for my friend to work until 11:00 at night and even though he is already immensely successful by the standards of most people, it isn’t uncommon for my friend to be at workshops and/or classes on the weekends to learn more about business and insurance.
There’s Plenty Of Room For Legit People In Internet Marketing
People who are willing to work on themselves and on their businesses will ALWAYS do well with online business. Internet marketing has a lot of unique characteristics that allow you to apply a tremendous amount of leverage that simply isn’t there with most other types of business.
If you are willing to spend time every single day to get better, there’s no doubt that you will find the success that you’re looking for. Here are some of the things that I would recommend working on:
An outside factor like ‘market saturation’ is never going to determine whether you succeed or not. I have a theory that each market eventually saturates itself to about the same point – the point where only the people who are willing to develop themselves are able to make a lot of money. Almost all of my best friends have their own businesses and they are all businesses of completely different types. It isn’t shocking at all that the ones who are persistent, hard working, and driven are the ones who find the most success.
I would argue that in its current state, the internet provides more leverage than any other type of business. I would also argue that online business is actually a lot easier than businesses of other types. There’s no question that I have a lot more upside than many of my friends because of the opportunities that my business has to scale to places that other businesses can’t.
Useful Reading
I love reading. It helps me to expand my thinking and it helps me to learn a lot about myself. I have a lot of weaknesses and I try to become aware of them so that I can work on them. Books are extremely useful for that. Here are a few of the books that I would consider reading if you’re trying to develop your online skills: