It is indeed very embarrassing to see as to how reluctant most of the bloggers are, to learn new avenues in the SEO arena. If you are not focusing on building backlinks for your blog, I feel that you are simply skipping on new ways and sources of building traffic. As such, generation of traffic is very much related to the workings and practices followed by prominent search engines, which in my opinion, none of the bloggers should give it a miss. So as to say, these bloggers cannot be averse to seeking out new SEO streams and avenues.
The functionality of SEO for blogs is certainly not a complicated task. For me, great rankings can be sought by using the simplest SEO tools, such as:
1. Sync your site with relevant and reader-engrossing content, rather than incorporating content for the search engine.
2. All the relevant content so incorporated in the website should be annexed with relevant links.
These two-step processes are essential for your basic blogging endeavors as a blog owner, although SEO functionalities can be much more complicated than these. However, getting “great links” on the blog content is one such question which is considered as a tedious task by most bloggers, and thus worth pondering upon.
My article attempts to be one such guide for attracting certain essential links onto your blogging content, which if followed, could also reward increased earnings for your blogging business. While I would rather escape the theories pertaining to social media bookmarking and forum profiles, enlightening you on generating traffic through effective use of links is what my article thrives for.
1. Keeping a tab on the backlinks of your competitors
You should be aware as to what your competitors are doing from a broad perspective of using backlinks. Apart from the traditional well-known backlink tools, we ought to know what works in the current trend of back linking. Although Yahoo! site explorer (now comprised in Bing’s webmaster tools) could be your obvious option, choosing something as new as Open Site Explorer to help your back linking endeavors would certainly make a difference. With free version of Open Site Explorer, checking the pages and domains of the links would be very easy and convenient. If you want a more enhanced insight on this perspective, its premium version would be optimal.
If your niche content published in some blog has helped your competitor in his back linking endeavors, then you have to personally communicate with an Email to its author to offer them more content or a story to better their viewership. Subtle Emailing is the most preferred mode over the not-so-subtle request such as “link to me please.” Irrespective of whether you own a website or a blog, filling it with relevant content in terms of updates or guest posts is what would precisely aid you in getting links. If you keep a tab on how your competitor has got linked through several communities, having your resource pages or website linked by these communities would be simpler than you think.
2. Have a reader-engrossing content, rather than making it tailored for Google
My futuristic view on most of the prominent search engines like Google is that their functionalities are surely going to be transformed for following people, rather than links. Not to state that links are going to be dormant in a few years from now, however their significance in the long term is certainly questionable. Having your content tailored to your viewership is therefore a much preferred alternative than tailoring it for your search engine such as Google. An engrossing content will render you fan following or viewership, which would only result in enhancing your search rankings. Mere traffic creating sites devoid of good content have been recently shunned by Google by punishing sites which in their opinion are “over-optimized.”
Alternatively, if your site has been built on the base of good relevant content, it can withstand drops in rankings as generating traffic had never been the prime objective of your site business. Useful content in your site would automatically attract your reader’s attention, which in turn would be sufficient to build natural links. This is more productive for your site’s business than building of artificial links as done my all the traffic creating sites. Links follow from discussions and information, which in my opinion stems only from a good and relevant content.
3. Contributing regularly on other blogs
Guest posts are one of the unique modes practiced by several bloggers to garner maximum benefits from blogging. As such, the prime benefits that could be garnered from guest postings are a visible increase in traffic, building of more links, and enhanced brand visibility.
More so, your consistent contribution to large blogs can help you earn good reputation garnering ease in link building activities, even on the oldest content you might have. You could make such contribution either on paid basis or for free.
With all such contributions, I can link them to my older works, and due to my consistent contribution to content writing I can avail link building so as to even highlight my oldest work as much as my most recent. This strategy according to me should work well for facilitating the building of links optimally. However, “Guest Blogging Blitzkrieg” technique if adapted should render you the finesse in the avenues of building links.
“Guest Blogging Blitzkrieg” technique pertains to contributing to several guest posts combined perfectly with the act of getting them simultaneously published. For instance, the use of this strategy has proven to be a stellar success when used by Bamidele Onibalusi as well as Kristi Hines, from their contributions made at YoungPrePro, and Kikolani respectively. Both these are blogging stalwarts recognized for their consistent contribution in blogging content, either through paid submissions or by way of guest posts. It is these modes of contribution that are proved to create direct links apart from stirring a constructive buzz around their brand, thus resulting in garnering many more linking from such brand appeal.
4. Beautifying your blog
An attractive blog design is directly relevant to the SEO functionalities, even though many bloggers would think otherwise.
A good blog design plays a prominent part in enhancing your rate of conversions. As such, an attractive blog design would also help in deflating your bounce rate. Most of the bloggers do not understand the significance of having a good blog design and its possible effect on SEO. However, a good design for your blog would certainly propel the magic of attraction, inviting many more readers to look into the contents of your blog.
In statistical parlance, research states that well-designed sites are better trusted than the sites displaying an ordinary appearance. Needless to say, trust should be the primary trigger on which a blogger’s link building activities should be based.
Several sites also permit activities of direct linking for sites or individual pages having good design. Contributing to this avenue of thought, TheLogoMix helps your site or blog receive backlinks for it, provided you have submitted you blog or site logo to it. Moreover, your site design could even increase your website’s or blog’s prospects to be showcased, from which you could surely receive positive links back. The CSS galleries are good examples in this aspect.
Attracting many people to discuss or write on your good designed blog might in fact render it an opportunity to be a fully-fledged case-study.
5. Resource pages should be implemented
Resource pages are highly recommended to increase your site or blog rankings as much as they are known for rendering you reduced bounce rate. Copyblogger is the best example I could possibly cite, for demonstrating the ability resource pages inherit. As such, resources on Copyblogger are profound and comprehensive, good enough to generate links back to their blog post content, effectively done by the most difficult keywords so targeted. Moreover, their high rankings on the first or second pages of search results pertaining to copywriting, SEO writing or marketing content are suffice to ensure you that their mode of working or implementation of resource pages is just right.
Primarily, you ought to seek the most popular topics circulating on your blog, optimally followed by researching of keywords which these topics contain. Researching of keywords could be done via Google Keyword tool by setting “exact” searches in the advanced options so as to enlighten you with your optimal search count. Understand the words from amongst these which could render you practical higher rankings, and just use them. As an alternative, serpIQ free version would avail you many more creative words you might like to choose from.
Likewise, a “paleo diet guide” would just do the trick in increasing your rankings rather than using a pale “diet” word. Your link-bait will thus result from optimal implementation of resource pages so as to cover the whole topic of content, good enough to attract a lot more links than you could possibly perceive.
6. Embeddable images/widgets to be used
Although apparently the most dormant suggestion in the entire post, embedded widgets and images were optimally used in TheOatmeal, the comedy site, by its maker Matthew Inman to generate links. In doing so, he succeeded in ranking Mingle2, his online dating site, by successfully competing with renowned sites like PlentyOfFish, Match.com, and eHarmony in beating their general “online dating” terms and the likes., Matthew created a much more profound content by embedding images and widgets for enabling people to showcase on their respective sites. These embeddable images and widgets rendered Matthew to get links back onto his own site.
Using this technique again on TheOatmeal with successfully adding “Are You Addicted to Twitter?” Quizzes on it, he enabled people get their own results embedded. Even the content marketing team at Mint.com have opted for embeddable inputs to help their rankings and compete with certain tough terms. The embedded images or an interesting widget are easily shareable thus enhancing a website’s interactive attribute than just creating links on it. Your pre-defined HTML as well as your backlink insertion would be welcomed by many if you could render them the privilege of sharing via embedded images and/or widgets imparted in your website/blog.
7. Interviewing someone well-known
In my opinion, interviews of big or trending personalities are optimal for new blog creation and to create a bigger fan-following for your posts. Which is why, interviewing someone influential certainly should have a significant fan-following and not just be a “has been” whom readers do not like to associate with anymore. By doing this, you will ensure accruing of links from prominent people from the concerned segment although you might not accrue direct links onto your content.
8. Creating round-up posts
One such good strategy for creating links could be the creation of round-up posts. A round-up post is compilation of articles, and all such resources pertaining to it so as to render the topic its complete coverage. The Entrepreneur’s Handbook and Leaving Work Behind 100 are two such good examples which come to my mind, wherein the former illustrates 101 resources for new entrepreneurs or beginners, while the later demonstrates beginners who want to start marketing or freelance blogs.
As such, round-up posts work very well for their sheer attribute to become new havens for bookmarks apart from their becoming a function of one’s link-building exercise. In creating round-up posts, you have to indulge in a planned research for seeking keywords which could render you a rank even prior to your publishing and titling of your post. For example, the topic of “going green,” should help me research on terms of significance such as “Beginners going green” or “green guide for beginners” before even ranking them. With this, your endeavors of building links can be successfully achieved by generating your post much more traffic than you had imagined.
9. Using “crowdsourcing” to your advantage
Crowdsourcing is certainly topping the popularity charts in every SEO tactic used for optimizing websites or blogs. In fact the strategy to use “crowdsourced” post is very much similar to the rounding-up of posts by way of certain influential interviews. The only difference which lies between these two strategies is that crowdsourcing allows you to get small pieces of information from multiple authorities, wherein in case of round-up posts you could possibly get all your information from your interviewee.
Several hyperlocal websites have used local business owners to get pertinent pieces of information from them. Moreover, blogs that constitute several experts in one single post can also be termed as a classic example of crowdsourcing. Social Media Examiner prediction post for 2012 has recently successfully executed crowdsourcing by including 30 social media experts in one single post. Your endeavors to link-bait can efficiently be carried out by means of crowdsourcing, if you select a large number of big names appropriately so as to attract fresh attention for your niche, for ultimately pulling off big rewards for your post for creating or building links in your posts.
10. Product creation
One’s product creation endeavors, in my opinion, can be stalled. What I mean is that every blogger should first attend to building audience for the products before he starts on marketing and promoting of his product. If product creation succeeds audience building, more brand awareness could be achieved.
Corbett Barr from ThinkTraffic has depicted a rather interesting insight into the methodologies of creating product. His most recent course, How To Start A Blog That Matters, enunciates the essence of many interviews and promotional posts embodied in the blogs for promoting products. Doing this can not only lead to increased traffic during the product launch phase, but also enable a healthy discussion pertaining to new product development.
As such, your niche could also benefit from a widget or any such application. Glen Allsopp of ViperChill is yet such another person whom I perceive to have used the tool of plugins to maximize his benefits. His free ViperBar plugin has received significant support from bloggers, especially the WordPress users to render themselves direct links apart from vivid exposure they procured from using it. Likewise, his OptinSkin, a flagship premium plugin, has rendered utility to most others with premium requirements.
Product creation at the earliest could avail you certain essential opportunities and promotional advantages for itself, however you ought to succeed in doing the same after building a significant audience.
Let us not get stuck into the rigmarole of “information paralysis”, wherein we fail to understand how to use the abundant information to our advantage. However, picking up one or two pointers from each piece of information, so as to be used as strategies, would be an optimal thing to do in most cases.
