Here are two Don’ts and a Do: Don’t Cheat, Don’t Fish, and Share!
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Don’t cheat the system
For years, we’ve been told that other people linking to our blog is the best SEO trick that we can do, and using “link farms” was a way to lift rankings. The problem with this statement is the word “trick.” These rules caused bloggers to spend more time chasing links than providing real value for their readers. It’s tempting to look for shortcuts to blogging success, isn’t it?
There is no iron-clad shortcut, and the right answer is organic, trustworthy and sometimes slow and painful: Provide insightful and valuable content that answers readers’ questions.
In the snippet below from Search Engine Land, you will see that one of the Google Webmasters is warning us about this type of linking effort.
Google’s John Mueller was captured saying live in a Google+ hangout on Friday morning that webmasters should avoid trying to focus on link building. John went on to add that doing so can ultimately lead to more harm than good for your web site.
Do you like my outfit?
I bought a new outfit the other day: a pink silk shirt and a gray blazer. Man, I looked spiffy. I FELT great. I figured, what will it hurt if I ask friends, family and grocery-line customers if they’d take my picture and tell their friends about my new outfit …wait, what? That doesn’t sound like reasonable behavior in real life, right? It’s not online, either. Fishing for compliments doesn’t make many friends online or off. Of course we want people to notice my stellar taste in design and color choice. Put that energy towards quality, not quantity. Answer questions, offer help, read and review books and products for indies, retweet, mention and write blog posts that matter. Google will find you. Some say Google is all the validation you need.
Google will index tweets again
It is so exciting to see that Twitter and Google are going to play nice again. Sharing your content on Twitter with a relevant hashtag will help your SEO. Back to the future we go.
(Bloomberg) — Twitter Inc. has struck a deal with Google Inc. to make its 140-character updates more searchable online. “For Google, we believe search results will be enhanced by access to real-time tweets and a much broader amount of content,” Anmuth wrote.
Share the content of those who are at all relevant to your industry. If you’re a PR pro or brand evangelist, social media is your freakin’ oyster.
So there was my piece of the world’s SEO rhetoric pie, tips that have not only helped me but my clients as well. You don’t really have to jump through hoops to remember those two Don’ts and one Do:
- Don’t hire a link farm. If you must build links, use white-hat link-building strategies. Some good ones for small businesses listed here: http://www.semrush.com/blog/10-local-link-building-strategies-small-business/
- Don’t fish for mentions and link-backs, or at least, don’t overdo it.
- Use Twitter to share, retweet and mention, especially now that tweets will again show up in all their glory in Google searches
“All the little birdies on Jaybird Street … Love to hear the robin go tweet tweet tweet.” ~ Bobby Day
[su_box title=”What do you think? ” style=”noise” box_color=”#c1671d” radius=”12″]What overwhelms you about SEO? Do you have any SEO-specific tasks that make your blog shine? Let’s hear from you in the comments below.[/su_box]
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I’ve never been good at the whole link-back thing. Thanks for explaining it a little better and reiterating my feelings that asking for them is as sketchy as it sounds.
Renee,
yea that is what I have been hearing too. Don’t cheat the system just continue to produce good content. I often wonder those that buy a million back links if they would get penalized. Good to know that they actually do.
Now if only that would stop all the bogus spam. Alas!
Thanks for these valuable tips. I also prefer avoiding link building and always advise people of choosing better methods to rank rather building huge backlinks profile.
Great post for SEO students, Specially for beginning level SEO learners.i like your post
Thank you so much. I appreciate your kind words. Do you have anything that you would add?
That was excellent post and topic was good too. I build back-links for seo practices and I know building huge back-link profile is a good practice unless we are avoiding low authority websites.
Great post Renee, do you have a updated version please?
Regards,
Christopher