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A lot of times when I go to my WordPress administrator panel, I look at the trackbacks. Sometimes it may be someone referenced a post in twitter, or another person’s blog.

According to Wikipedia,

A trackback is one of three types of linkbacks, methods for Web authors to request notification when somebody links to one of their documents.

Same can be said of pingbacks. Pingbacks are more of a request to alert sites that you linked to them. It is different at the trackback is not what you send like a pingback, but what you received- an acknowledgement of sorts. In pingbacks there is no content sent, but only an alert. For a better understanding, you can read about it in the Managing Comments section at the WordPress Codex.

This can be great SEO for you and other bloggers who bounce ideas back and forth over similar topics. While you could definitely use the person’s comment system, in blogging about the conversation and sharing your point while including a reference to the original source will allow your visitors to not just respond to you, but also possibly respond to another.

I find that a lot of times when I have written articles filled with opinion based on another’s article, that I often receive feedback. It is in no way an underhanded tactic. As said, it is a way to share the conversation with other people and encourage more interaction on a topic. This is one way to use trackbacks successfully.

However, it can also backfire and seem like an underhanded and obvious search engine optimization tactic if I were to just blab out a bunch of related subject links without tying them together with valuable thoughts. I would just have to make my site some type of robot that published random stories within a certain niche.

Although posting frequently can create more possible pingbacks, it could prove tiresome and also look to be a desperate SEO tactic. The point is to try to entice quality trackbacks. Those will be sites that have people who are looking to give more feedback on a particular subject if the original article only says so much.

Above all, make sure to give appropriate anchor links when credit original sources. Sometimes listing the article’s full name or specific keywords will do, but if those keywords are quite vague. For example, when I blog about Google webmaster tools, I put ‘Google’ in front, instead of just ‘webmaster tools’. Webmaster tools can be quite vague as there are plenty of sites – in fact millons listed in Google when searching for webmaster tools. Although the link it listed at the top, with ‘webmaster tools’ only the first 2 listings on the first page list what I am exactly looking for while the other lists more relevant links.

Do you like to use pingbacks and trackbacks? How do you use this linking method successfully? Got any pointers?

Google+ quite recently launched a new feature called Google+ brand pages. This was quite similar to the Facebook pages. The feature also provided certain other perks to the companies as their profile could be searched directly from the Google search bar by adding a ‘+’ before the brand name. Also, the brands can use the Google+ brand badge, which can be put up at the main site to directly connect to the brand page.

Though these are still early days, these brand pages have already had some impact on the search engine’s result pages. Here is quick look at how companies have used these brand pages and how it has affected their internet marketing campaign.

Brands present on Google+

Brightedge recently conducted a research and found out that the number of companies present on Google+ through brand pages was 77 in December 2011 and this number has increased from 61 in November 2011. The number of people who add these brand pages circles has also been increasing considerable at the rate of 50% per month. As of December 2011, there were 222,000 people who had added at least a single brand to their pages.

The picture is a bit bleak when you compare it with Facebook but that is due to the fact that Google+ has not had enough time in the market. When all the top brands were compared on both Facebook and Google+ it was found that Facebook brands had 300 million fans, and the same brands on Google+ had 148,000 people who had added these brands to their circles. There were a few companies like Google, IBM, and Vodafone that were not present on Facebook but had their page on Google+.

Combining the social and search elements

When Facebook launched the Open Graph, its main aim was to combine sites, search and social networks. Google is trying to do the same thing by incorporating various features of its social networking platform into its other services. Many of the brands have realized that Google in fact may offer them something completely different in terms of internet marketing as it has control over internet search like no other company.

The impact is visible already, as a lot of Google+ brand pages have started coming up in the search engine result pages because of search engine optimization. One such example is T-mobile. This gives companies an extra incentive to join Google+ and spend more time on making the brand pages. The move also makes a lot of sense when you consider the fact that 34% of Facebook’s traffic comes from Google, Bing and Yahoo searches.

Legal aspects

Some people are of the opinion that by including the brand pages in search engines Google is acting a bit like Microsoft when they included Internet Explorer in Windows during the 90′s. In fact, two US senators have asked the Federal trade Commission (FTC) to carry out an investigation on Google as they believe the company is taking unfair advantage of the dominant position it has on the web today.

What are your thoughts on Google+ Brand Pages?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to the process of enhancing the visibility of a website. There will be more visitors to your website if your site tops in the search engine listings. In order to make your website top in the search results, it is important that you write attractive and relevant content and incorporate the right keywords in the content. Here are a few tips that will assist you to strategically place the keywords in your piece.

The headline

Place the keywords in the headlines because the search engines look for the headlines to classify a piece. Simple, straightforward headlines with keywords can easily grab the attention of readers too.

Place them in the first paragraph 

If possible try to place the keywords in the very first paragraph itself. If relevant keywords appear in the first paragraph, your piece will be easily picked up by the search engine. Make sure your first paragraph is well-written in order to fetch the attention of the readers.

Subheads

Another place to incorporate the keywords is the subheads of the article. Search engine do not scan the text word by word. They tend to pick up the articles that have keywords in their subheads. Moreover, bolded headlines assist the search engines to spot the keywords easily as they make the search engines to stay on a particular page for a longer period of time. So, if you can place the keywords in the bolded subheads, your piece will be top in the search rankings.

Since the search engine scan the pages, looking for the keywords, it is not good to have a dense web copy. Break the piece using subheads and keep the paragraphs relatively short. Such pieces are easy to read too.

If you can write humorous and catchy subheads, you can easily make your site rank in the search list and can grab the attention of the readers.

The final paragraph

The main keywords should appear in the last paragraph of the piece too. If possible try to place them in the last sentence of the piece. Your piece will have more visibility if the keywords are located in the last paragraph too.

Website body

The keywords should be present in the body of the article. If you can, try to place them after every 100 words, depending on your keyword density. When you place the keywords, make sure that the sentences make perfect sense.

URL

Try to position your keywords in the URL of your website. Use hyphens to separate the text in the URL.  Do not use underscores to separate the text.

If you can find the right keywords and place them in your articles well, your website will easily top in the search list. It is important to have fresh content too as the search engines tend to pick up fresh pieces. The readers too will be interested to read fresh articles. Make your piece new, entertaining and informative to attract the readers.

In a matter of a few years, search engine optimization has grown into a big industry. Many articles and blogs are written dedicated to spreading knowledge about SEO, and covering aspects like identifying the right keywords, social media marketing and link building. Yet there is one aspect that is not very well looked into- how do you know the value of a link? Since building inbound links will be a critical part of your SEO strategy, this is a question that cannot be ignored.

The basic rule of thumb in finding out whether to link from a certain site or not depends on the potential of that site to deliver relevant visitors through the link. Relevant sites with high traffic will not only send you targeted traffic, they will also prove to be more valuable in terms of improving your search engine ranking for certain keywords. Here are a few factors that determine whether a site will prove to be useful or not.

Geographical location

The geographical location of the site you are linking on will be a factor worth considering. For instance, if you run a hardware store in the UK and want to build links to draw traffic to your site, then linking from a site that is also UK based would be a better idea.

Audience of the site

You create a link on another website in the hope that the link will draw enough amount of traffic to your site. So you must make sure that the site on which you are creating a link must have some sort of following in terms of visitors. You can find visitor figures of certain sites in the “about us” pages. Most websites these days also have plugins from social media sites like Facebook where people can “like” a particular page. Such figures will also let you know the following of the website.

Thematic similarity of the site

This is one of the most important factors that an SEO firm must consider while executing a campaign. Before you create a link on a particular site, you must make sure that the site deals with themes that are relevant to yours thematically. For instance, if you deal in computer equipment, creating links at an electronic equipment based site will drive more traffic to your site than linking from a site that deals with apparel. Regional relevance and thematic relevance are factors that go hand in hand in link building.

Reliability of Page Rank

Another useful piece of advice would be not to rely heavily on tools like PageRank to judge whether a link is good or not. In most cases, they may not be up to date or the number can be inflated.

Along with all these factors, you should also consider the reputation of the site, its age, and its authority in the field. And do not forget that simply building inbound links is not enough to make your online business a success. You should also ensure that you offer the users real value through your products and a great user experience on your site.

Right after creating their official website, the next thing businesses do is to look for SEO advice to make their site more searchable on Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines. As innumerable websites share space on the internet, creating your mark will require some effort. It is essential that you follow a meticulous plan for your website to be optimized and drive in a steady stream of traffic. There are three important factors which you will need to consider if you want to improve your SEO results.

Content effectiveness

The effectiveness of your content is a very important factor that needs to be considered. Your success on search engines depends to a large extent on the quality of the content and the positioning of the keywords. There are a number of tools that give information about the most popular keywords related to a certain business. Carefully insert the keywords into the text so that it does not look contrived. When inserting the keywords, you must strictly consider the keyword density of the article. Overuse of keywords may result in the website being marked as spam. They have to be inserted in such a way that they appear natural, and you should also take care to see that the sentences are grammatically correct.

Reaching out

Once you finish writing the content for your site, the next target should be to let people know about your website. This can be best done by submitting your webpage link along with your content in as many forums and article directories as you can. Search engines are bound to index your content this way and very soon your site could be popular in the internet. It gives your site greater exposure and can generate traffic to it as well. You can approach professionals for SEO advice on further ways to promote your webpages online.

Social bookmarking

A very effective SEO tactic is social bookmarking. You can add bookmarks to your webpage on bookmarking sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, delicious etc. using the right keywords for search tags. This will help users find your site more easily and if they like it, they will recommend it to other users as well. This is another great way to get search engines to crawl your site frequently and to enhance your visibility online. There are bookmarking sites that are focused on more niche topics. You can find one that is related to your business for reaching out more effectively to your target market.

Though these methods are effective, do not rely only on them for your website optimization. There are many other techniques that can help your site climb up the PageRank ladder, pay per click advertising and link building being a few of them. Social networking websites are another very effective way of promoting your company and website online. To achieve the best results, it is a good idea to consult an experienced professional for valuable SEO advice for improving your site’s ranking on search engines.

To understand how pinging your site be beneficial, you have to understand what “pinging your site” is all about. To ping your site is sending the link or even feed link of your website out through one or many services that help index your site faster. It also tells search engines your site is updated.

Some of these places may be article sites where they give you a back link to your website and post the title, link to the original page or article, and a short description. Some of the sites out there may send your article to those places for you quickly (somewhat like social bookmarking.)

With search engines that you update your site with, your site will be ranked amongst others that have similar descriptions, titles, keywords, and more. For those who optimize their pages already, and even ping their site, it could mean a better listing.

It can be tedious to enter in your links to ping sites. Some of the ping sites out there are free to use. Some are free, but have limitations, and others for mass submission have a fee. It is at your own risk if you want to pay to use any of the services out there, so do a little research to make sure they are reputable.

Side note: Also, there are people on Fiverr (as of July 2011) that will submit for you too. However, from my own experience, many of the places submitted to were 404 errors, so please keep this in mind and only use at your own risk.

Often, I hear bloggers ask why they should spend so much time to ping sites if the back links do not have much quality. My answer- while you may not have the time, you can certainly schedule to ping your site sometimes… perhaps once a week, or twice a month. I might not recommend pinging your site constantly. Some sites do have rules and it could get your banned from using their services.

Now, for users of WordPress and some other CMS, you may have a built in pinging service that you can put the links to the places you want to notify of your updates and submit your updates for you.

Do you ping your site? How often do you? What ping services do you like to use?

Link building for a lot of people is confusing or may be time consuming. However, for those who may not have the money to spend on link building companies, building links is a huge undertaking. I am sharing 12 simple link building strategies to give your website a leg up.

1. Start a Twitter Page

If you fill out your profile, you will show up in the search results. Furthermore, if your website link is in your profile, people can easily find your website.

2. Start a Facebook Group and/ or Fan Page

Got friends, colleagues, co-workers, a startup business, or a fun idea? Groups and Fan Pages are great. You can share links from your website, and above all connect more with your followers and fans.

3. Ping Your Site’s pages.

There are so many sites out there that you can submit your own website to that will give you a back link. Take advantage of those (I will be putting out an A-Z list shortly and put a link here for your convenience.)

4. Use link baiting techniques.

Please note that link baiting should be done at your discretion and also be done in good taste. There are some site owners who link bait negatively, so if you do not want bad attention, try to be courteous.

5. Submit your site to directories.

Directories are effortless method to create back-links quickly. You are able to submit many of directories for free. However, quite a few directories are garbage sites that will put a virus on your computer, or put you on spam email lists.

6. Submit Press Releases

Drudge Report or Fark.com are great places to do this.

7. Participate in Discussion boards

While you may be ecstatic about Facebook and Twitter, some of the forums and discussion boards out there are still excellent places to mingle.

8. Blog Comments

Make sure that if you do drop a link that it is not spammy and that it is indeed related to the post you are commenting on. In the case that you are commenting at a blog that has CommentLuv enabled, make sure to put your site link in, and choose an article related to the topic. Of course, with CommentLuv, it is fine to just choose one of your posts, but if you have a recent article, you never know, sometimes the blog owner might add it to their article as a related link to read.

9. Join Your Local Chamber of Commerce
Most bloggers should be considering themselves businesses, especially if you monetize your site. If you are to the point that you are successful, try applying for your local Chamber of Commerce. Sometimes you can get a great back link with them, especially if you offer discounted services to the Chamber of Commerce card members. It does not matter if your website targets a national audience. You are still a local business.

10. Call or email clients that already use your services or support your website.

If they have a website too, perhaps you can exchange links with them.

11. Ask your blog friends to link you or exchange a link.

Regardless of it being a return link, both you and your blog exchange buddy are basically telling your blog circle that you recommend certain people and proudly list them on your site. Even if it is not a link in a sidebar, and on a special link page, it can be a win-win situation.

12. Social Bookmarking.

A lot of social bookmark sites give great back links. It can also drive in traffic depending on the topic. Encourage your readers to submit your articles to social bookmark sites and also, do not forget to do it yourself too.

There are many more link building strategies, and I am sure from time to time I will be introducing them. In the mean time, I really would love to hear what your link building strategy has been.

If your website was designed by someone else other than you, and their link to credit their work is at the bottom of your site, are they stealing your link juice?

Some of the SEO consultants out there will flat out say yes.

However- it is not true…

…unless you are not putting your own site link at the bottom as well. It is not illegal, not frowned upon by Google, and usually is something agreed upon between the client and the web designer. It does give your web designer some link juice and some help. While it can be seen as advertising, like said before, it is a choice between the web designer and the client. The client can always remove it later or request their designer to do it for them.

To Improve Your Footer:

• You SHOULD have a link to your site at the bottom for your home page, just like the top of your site.
• You SHOULD even have the simple javascript hyperlink to allow your visitors to jump to the top of your page lickity-split.
• You MIGHT want to make sure your web designer’s link is not bigger than your site name at the bottom of the site and is not before that link.
• You SHOULD make sure your website designer has made sure that your site has valid coding, both XHTML or CSS.
• You MIGHT consider if you are hesitant about having the link in the footer: a) make a blog post and mention the designer, b) add them to your blog roll, or c) make sure the keywords used (if the designer uses them instead of their business/ website’s name) does not conflict with what you are trying to optimize on your own site.

Most web designers who still put the link at the bottom of their work normally try to ask clients if it is okay. While in the late 1990s and earlier 2000s, it was fairly common to see this practice, it is not as prevalent. Link juice is link juice however you give it: in a post, in your sidebar, on a static page, in the footer, or even author credit in the meta or style sheet.

Will leaving the credit link to the web designer have a negative impact on your rank?

NO, unless their site has already been tagged as spam, or removed from the search engines (blacklisted).

Optimization started with the website owner’s basic layout and the content. It goes with putting your keywords in the titles, making sure titles are the right headings are being used, images labeled properly, and much more.

Do only cheap web designers put links at the bottom of their client sites to get link juice or as some say- Google juice?

No, all types of web designers and developer of all price ranges practice this. Now, not all web designers do, but it is not just the beginners who charge barely enough that put a link on their design work.

One link to a web designer to give them credit is NOT going to ruin it all! The funny thing is that in a lot of cases, the client gets a return link from the designer’s portfolio, so it ends up being good for both parties.