Article Archive by Michael Bergbauer

Five Types of Tasty Link Bait

by Michael Bergbauer

Just about anyone in SEO will tell you that building a strong catalog of backlinks to your site is important for success. There are several link building techniques at your disposal you can use to accomplish this. However, the best way to build links is to have interesting, quality content on your site.

Creating content that other people will be tempted to link to is known as link bait. There are many strategies available to create some irresistible link bait:

• Breaking News: If you can be among the first to report the latest news in your industry, you will be the first to start getting links. Better yet, if you can do this consistently, users will come to see you as an authority on the subject and may begin to link to other materials on your site.
• Instructional materials: “How to _____” is among the most searched topics on the Internet. A comprehensive “How To” article or video can become quite popular among users. People use the Internet to learn and share, and you can help them do both with instructional material that generates backlinks for you.
• Information Presented Interestingly: Your website is full of information. Then again, so is everyone else’s site. If you want your information to stand out and collect links, it must be presented with an interesting angle. Set yourself apart from the walls of text found across the rest of the Internet. Bullet lists, infographics, cartoons, and comic strips all have stronger potential for link value that text alone. Try to present your content in entertaining ways that people will like to absorb and share.
• Polls and Reviews: These are a great way to engage your audience in conversation. As the conversation grows, so does the potential to get more links.
• Tools: Users love free widgets, software, or other tools. Take, for example, MoreVisibility’s Google Analytics URL Tagging Tool. When you can simplify a task for a user, they will share it.

As you can see, creating quality link bait can require a lot of time and creativity. It’s no coincidence that link building can be the most difficult part of an SEO campaign. But, with effort and perseverance, you can get the links you need to increase your traffic and conversions.

Farewell to Yahoo Site Explorer

by Michael Bergbauer

Earlier this month, Yahoo announced that it will discontinue Yahoo Site Explorer, which comes as a blow to many professionals in the SEO industry.

Despite the steadily diminishing influence of Yahoo on search engine optimization, many SEO professionals still value the Site Explorer as acomprehensive and reliable tool for running link competitive analysis. For example, if you are beginning a link-building campaign for your website, you can go to Yahoo Site Explorer and enter the URLs for your competitors. Site Explorer will tell you what other websites are linking to those competitors — effectively giving you a list of relevant sites to request links from. You can also view pages of your own site to see what audiences are really interested in your content.

Yahoo Site Explorer is also an easy and useful tool to check if a site is involved in any unscrupulous link farming. A few months ago, entering the URL for JC Penny’s website clearly revealed such tactics, which lead to its penalization from Google.

Yahoo claims that, because it will be merging its organic search results with Bing, having two webmaster portals (Site Explorer and Bing Webmaster Tools) is unnecessary. No official date has been set by Yahoo, but Site Explorer is expected be offline later this year.

Yahoo recommends users transition to Bing Webmaster Tools instead, but many SEO professionals are concerned that the same level of detailed link data will simply not be provided. Because Bing has not yet announced any new features to match the functionality of Yahoo Site Explorer, there could be a chance for competitors to arise and fill the gap. New site, Ahrefs looks to be the next best thing, if not better than, Yahoo Site Explorer. Still others may fall on more established pay-sites like SEOmoz or Ontolo. Only time will tell.

What is Google Panda?

by Michael Bergbauer

Those who have been following news from Google are well aware of the impact (or panic, depending on who you ask) the Panda update has had on search results. But just how is Panda changing the way Google views your website?

Panda was often referred to as an update to Google’s ranking algorithm. However, Search Engine Land has since pointed out that it’s really more like another ranking factor similar to page rank, but with more importance.

Whenever Google runs a Panda update (which appears to be shaping into a monthly schedule) Panda looks at your website to determine if it contains quality content. Pages on your site that contain low-quality content — such as spammy text; unoriginal, plagiarized, or duplicate content; irrelevant text; too much unmanaged user submitted content; etc. — get penalized (or “pandalized” in some circles) and suffer on the SERPs.

If you notice a drop off in your analytics that coincides with a Panda update, there is a good chance you may have a content quality issue with your website. Reevaluate the text on affected pages and look for ways to increase quality and relevancy. Unfortunately, you may not see a recovery in your analytics until Panda checks your site again.

Please keep in mind that, if your site is providing relevant, useful content to searchers, then Panda is nothing for you to worry about. Simply stay on the right track, and watch your website grow.