Part (3) Expanding Current Keywords

In the first part of the series I addressed what keywords I’m currently gaining traffic through. The second part of the series showed what keywords I’m currently receiving traffic through and would like to throw additional links at to improve their position, while disregarding some of the keywords not bringing in ideal traffic. This third post will address the long tail keywords of the keywords that comprise the long tail for the following keywords (”wordpress plungins”"make money”"money online”"”making money online”) Confused??? let me explain.

I’ll begin with the example “how to make money”. This keyword can be found in the long tail of “make money”, however, when you type in “how to make money” into keyword tracker this is what you find. As you can see, this keyword has its own long tail. So what I’m going to is build links for the terms “make money”"how to make money” and “how to make money on the internet” over time as my links get counted I’ll start to rank well for the whole long tail on “make money”

Next, there are two things I’m going to need to do: First, I need to write a couple of posts pertaining to the keywords. Second, I need to go out and get links. Here is a list of the posts I need to write and the keywords associated with them:

1) Post about making money by taking paid surveys and getting paid to post on blogs and freelance writing. These are good options for someone that would like to make quick, legal money online. I feel the following keywords are typed in by someone just wanting to make some money online, not build a business. I would go out an obtain links pointing to this article with the following anchor text “how to make money fast” “how to make money quickly” “how to make money at home” “how to make money from home” “how to make money fast on the internet”

2) Post about Bans (Build a Niche Store) and I would get anchored links for “how to make money on ebay” pointing at this post. Later I could expand into the bans long tail searches.

3) Post an article on the best ways I feel to make money online. I would talk about blogging, internet marketing, content sites and niche blogging. I would obtain anchor text links for “how to make money on the internet” and “how to make money off the internet” and point them at this page.

Now I need to address how I’m going to create all of this material to post on all of these keywords. I think I have found a win/win solution. I will give you a brand you blog (I’ll pay for your domain, I’ll register it, I’ll install wordpress onto my server and host it for six months). In return I’m going to ask you for three articles. I’ll pick out the articles based on keywords I would like to rank higher for. This is a great deal for the both of us. I can’t find writers to write at $7.19 for three posts and you get $7.19 (the domain) and six months free hosting (9.95×6=59.7). Side note: you can get a smaller hosting package from hostgator for 4.95/month but you can only have one domain. Even that plan would cost $29.70 for 6 months. So you can see your writing 3 articles for $64.89 or $36.89 depending on how you want to look at it. I can offer this my using the leverage on my huge hosting account. Currently, I have 4 small blogs on my server plus onemansgoal which is rather large. I’m only using 102.82 Megabytes and I have 614,297.18 Megabytes of disk space available, that’s a lot of blogs. So for me to give you hosting is nothing. More on this opportunity tomorrow.

Later

Analysis And Growth Of Organic Traffic (Part 2)

Ok, so we have seen which keywords I currently gain traffic through. Since I’m already indexed and have a little keyword authority on these particular keywords I’m going to expand and optimize them before targeting new keywords.

These keywords are: Current Traffic I’ve Received/Searches Per Day/Current Ranking IN Google/

1) Wordpress Plugin / 3/ 46/#296/

2) Make Money / 8/805/#105/

3) Money Online / 3/ 34/# 36/

4) Making Money Online /14/164/# 63/

Now, for each one on those keywords I will be sending out links to the page that is pulled up for that main keyword. At the same time, I will be balancing out the number of links sent to the main keyword and the number of links being sent to the exact keywords that comprise the long tail. IE: top wordpress plugins, best wordpress plugins, top best wordpress plugins, top wordpress plugin. This process will repeat itself until I see that sending more links isn’t raising the keywords traffic level.

I’m planning on gaining links by doing multiple article runs using article submission software.

If you look at yesterdays post you can tell that some of the keywords I rank well for aren’t the best for monetizing, ie “for free” anywhere in the keyword. There is nothing wrong with this traffic and like mentioned above I’m going to try to rank well for all the keywords I’m currently ranked for. However, eventually I’m going to want to expand into new keywords and in the next post I’ll talk about which keywords I’m going to expand on and why.

Later.

Analysis And Growth Of Organic Traffic (Part 1)

Ok, I realize that if I want to make any money off of this blog or try to sell it in the future to recoup my initial investment I’m going to have to grow my existing organic traffic.

This being part one of the series and my first day spent heavily on the topic, I’m going to start out by looking into Google Analytics and finding out where I am now. Tommorows post will be an analysis of my current situation.

I took over ownership of onemansgoal on the 5th of April. Since then, here are the results and traffic I’ve seen from the search engines.

4/5/08-6/24/08 - 2,819 visitors

Google - 2,479
Yahoo - 206
Live - 54
MSN - 42
Alta Vista - 9
AlltheWeb - 3

I have received traffic from 1,456 keywords. Here are the top ten along with number of visits.

one mans goal - 212
onemansgaol - 169
one man’s goal - 82
top wordpress plugins - 73
best wordpress plugins - 58
make money online - 47
bryan clark scammer vic - 47
onemansgoal.com - 37
types of visitors - 37

Now, I realize that with the exception of 4 of those keywords most of them don’t do me anygood. So I’m now going to point out the 4 that I like and pull others from deep down the list that I’m going to be targeting.

- The first column is have many visitors I’ve received since April 1st on the keyword according to google analytics. The second is the daily search volume of the keyword according to wordtracker. The third is my google ranking for that particular keyword according to seoelite. Seoelite is really cool software and in my opinion a must have for anyone trying to increase their search engine traffic.

4) top wordpress plugins - /73/0002/#009
5) best wordpress plugins - /58/0004/#010
6) make money online - /58/1067/#0NA
10) types of visitors - /37/00NA/#001
11) understanding your alexa rankings - /32/00NA/#146
13) top best wordpress plugins - /21/00NA/#013
14) make money online free - /19/0030/#023
17) niche marketing - /15/0053/#0NA
18) making money online - /14/0164/#063
21) increase adsense income - /11/00NA/#002
25) top wordpress plugins - /10/0002/#009
26) make money for free - /09/0012/#018
28) make money - /08/0805/#105
30) adsense income - /07/00NA/#016
64) 101 wordpress plugin - /03/00NA/#001
65) best wordpress plugin - /03/0004/#0NA
75) increase adsedse clicks - /03/00NA/#005
76) increasing adsense income - /03/00NA/#002
78) make money online for free - /03/0076/#049
79) money online - /03/0034/#036
80) money online free - /03/00NA/#018
84) search engine friendly permalinks - /03/00NA/#001
88) wordpress plugins - /03/0046/#296
120) easy money online free - /02/00NA/#14
122) free make money online - /02/0017/#034
123) free money online - /02/0142/#099
124) free to make money - /02/00NA/#48
134) how to make money - /02/0365/#0NA
135) how to make money online - /02/0266/#211
151) make money blogging - /02/0036/#279
157) make money free - /02/0151/#046
169) online marketing - /02/0396/#0NA

Tommorows post will address these numbers and show the keywords I’m going to target and the “why” around it.

You can buy SEOElite here

Elements in Directory Submission

If you’re trying to increase your search engine rankings, one of the first methods you should consider is to link to as many legitimate directories as possible. Usually, directories have a higher PR compared to the usual link partner. Also, since they bring one-way links to your site, your PR won’t become diluted by outgoing links. But before you submit your site to directories, it is important to carefully determine what your directory listing will be, some elements you need to consider include:

1) Title – the directory title should have the keywords you want to rank higher; it is recommended for you to use your webpage title if possible. Take note that some directories will only let you include the company name of your site but many others are not so picky.

2) Description – most directories allow you to include a description of your site. So make sure that this description is rich keywords that are important to your site.

3) Category – another aspect in directory submission is selecting the right category. Look at the available categories listed before you submit your site. Categories are essential because it improves the chances of site acceptable, it will also help your site rank higher in the appropriate category.

4) Keywords – some directories allows you to tag your site with certain keywords as well because it will help searchers find what they’re looking for. So before you submit your site to directories, have prepared comma-separated keywords you will submit.

It is especially important for you to be careful when submitting to the <Yahoo! Search Directory as well as the Open Directory Project because they have the highest PR. In addition, these directories have human editors who check your descriptions and category. Make sure that you follow their instructions specifically before submitting. Make whatever changes are necessary to the prepared entries you already wrote to get your site listed.

How To Get Search Engines To LOVE Your Blog

Search engines make efforts to “rank” the best sites out there with the most pertinent content first and foremost.  So if your blog or site offers very relevant information, that your visitors are “needing“, you’ll get more attention from Search engines.

Here’s why:  You deliver articles, blog posts … content that your visitors are really in need of.  It’s factual, no BS, strait and to the point content that gives them exactly what they have been looking for.   They are so excited or thankful for the information you’ve published that they link you to social bookmark networks, their own blog or site.   At this point, your quality is showing through and search engines will see all the links that are “linking” back to you, thus creating higher rankings.

So how do you figure out what your readers are really in “need” of?

Love Google:  One way is taking a closer look at your web stats.  Importantly, take a look at the “Google” referral links.  Click on that link and it will take you to the Google search results.  What you want to look at is the search terms (found in the search box above).  You can now write specifically on that search term or rather keyword your viewer typed in.

Alternatively, you may not be that popular yet and have had NO referrers from Google at all.  So what do you do now?

Here are several ideas that will provide you with many “slam dunks” for your topic of “readers” choice.

• Spy on your competitors!   This is really a big one and one that proves to help you out big time.  If you have never checked out www.SpyFu.com, you should now.  (If you’re new to all of this, my suggestion is to try the 3 Day Subscription for a one time payment, and only $6.75,  for a 3 days of full access to SpyFu member areas).  You can determine what the main keywords are that their visitors, customers…etc. are searching on.  SpyFu is a little difficult at first to understand, but they do provide information on how to read the data they have.  Just take some time to understand what all the data means and then go spying!
• Forums are a great source and free:  Make notes on the most frequently posted topics or questions.  Get an understanding of what your readers find important to know about.  Make sure you are looking at the most up-to-date topics that are generating the most interest and use that knowledge to create your high-quality content.  You are now addressing your markets needs.
• Try and keep it unique:  What I mean by this is find a topic that hasn’t covered the readers needs yet.
• Don’t be a salesman:  This of all any is very important.  For God sakes don’t go trying to sell information to your readers.  No body wants to be sold to and you must get that in your head as your number one rule of thumb.  If you are going to place ads, do it in a subtle manner - like banner ads in your side bar, or below your post.  Don’t just be so blatant about what you’d like to sell.   People will link back to you because the content you offer is quality.  They rarely link back to a sales letter, or advertisement.

Another tool I found for WordPress bloggers is called,  Link to Me Textbox:  This plugin will set up a “link to me textbox” with HTML code in your blog posts and increase your search engine rankings. This WordPress Plugin is by Jim Westergren and one that specializes in WordPress SEO.  He also gives out a ton of information free regarding the subject. So worth it, I found it exciting enough to link to him!  Get the idea?

How to Target the Right Niche

As John Williams, President of LogoYes and Entrepreneur said in his latest article about Image & Branding with Entrepreneur.com, “It’s a common misconception that if you’re not casting a wide net with your marketing, you’re leaving money on the table. Actually, the opposite is true. It’s more expensive and usually less profitable to sell a range of products to a wide audience. Furthermore, if your product or service is too similar to a competitor’s, price will always be an issue. When price is your only point of comparison, it’s tough to build a successful brand. Targeting a niche market is a great way to avoid these issues and make your company stand how.”

John also states a very important factor that home business owners need to completely understand, “First, a broad category, like small-business owners, doesn’t constitute a niche. A niche is a much more narrowly defined group of prospects.”

So let’s highlight some of what John suggests to look for:

• The common-denominator needs to be pinpointed: You need to find a market that differs from the rest and then market your product and service to that market. As John uses the “Attorney” example; Attorneys have special document copying needs, so you provide copying services targeted only to attorneys specifically. TIP: Using Google Alerts, you can effortlessly monitor what is being said online about you, your company, your products, and your competition. It shows results from the Web, Google News, and Google Blog search. All of this competitive intelligence can then be sent directly to your email inbox.
• You have a better solution to offer, than what your competitor offers: You need to provide a “true” value to your audience, above and beyond what your competitors offer. So let’s say for example you offer a WordPress theme, as many out there do. But you need to separate yourself from the herd by maybe considering a 100% money back, telephone support, free installation…etc. But you can only determine where you can do better than your competitor by doing a little spying on them first.
• Economic factors to attain a decent ROI: If you are working on a budget, you must find ways to inexpensively but efficiently market your service or product. One of the latest books published by Mike Dillard, “Building On A Budget” is a great way to start out. It provides ways to successfully market your product for less than $500 a month.
• Your target group is large enough to generate the revenue you need to remain in profit: You need to have a large market, period. It needs to make monetary sense to market to who you are promoting to.
• You need to market to prospects who’s needs aren’t being met, or who needs are being met as well as you can: Focus on looking for an “over-looked” market or one that isn’t being serviced properly.

I’m going to use Mike Dillard, CEO of Live Five Star Marketing LLC, as a prime example of “why” he is now a successful self-made millionaire.

Mike saw an opportunity and seized it. The opportunity was to help network marketers and direct sales distributors find better ways to market their products and services online. To also help the majority who fail (HUGE market and one that was untouched successfully) finally have the success they have been looking for.

Now his new line of competitors are struggling to top what Mike does. But in my humble opinion, they are wasting their time, “unless” they can tap into “another” area that will help the same market.

You just need to open up your eyes and look around you before you leap. Experimenting with your hard earned money in a niche that is completely covered in every area isn’t the best thing you can do for your online success. It’s time to wake up and become creative and watch what is around you.

Maybe even ask yourself what needs you have that ARE NOT being met and go from there for a niche. To me that’s one of the best ways to create a niche product or service.

Curious George, SEO, & The Scientific Method

A couple of days ago, I was watching the classic cartoon called Curious George. You all know it, I’m sure. The tall lanky guy that’s always dressed in yellow, and of course, George, the money that is… well… curious.

Anyway, “the man in the yellow hat” (can’t remember his name), was taking part in a science fair, and nothing was going his way. His devices weren’t working properly, everything was reacting different than it should, and he was getting flustered because of the complete disaster that was unfolding. Then, when he finished, he actually received a standing ovation, and was praised because, quote: “The Scientific Method is such that experimentation, and failure, are necessary in order to advance knowledge and discovery.”

The phrase that caught my attention, while watching Curious George with my 2 year old, was “The Scientific Method”. Within The Scientific Method is the process called “iteration”, and I wrote about that a few weeks ago here at OMG (see here). But even more than iteration, The Scientific Method is not only the core of successful SEO methodologies, but is 100% necessary to continue your march up the rankings for your targeted keyprhases. Let’s take a deeper look into The Scientific Method, and see how it all ties into the art and practice of search engine optimization.

Here’s Wiki’s take on The Scientific Method:

Scientific method refers to the body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. It is based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning. A scientific method consists of the collection of data through observation and experimentation, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses (view source).

As a professional SEO, I live with perpetual “questions” and “what if scenarios” such as: what’s the best way to build links? Will Google blow me up if I do this, that, or the other…? How can I increase client volume, yet still manage to deliver fast, powerful results to each individual client? How can I leverage blogs into my SEO program? Is link exchanging still valuable? How about directories? What’s the best way to utilize anchor text? How relevant are meta-tags? And which meta-tags carry more weight and influence ranking the most? How relevant is on-site content, and what is the optimal keyphrase density?

All of these are valid questions! And they are questions that I ask myself, and ponder, each and everyday. However, it does me no good just to sit and think about all of these issues and wonder if one thing works better than another. In order for me to deliver fast, effective results to my clients, I must pursue answers, and I must seek out knowledge that is necessary for me to remain competitive. Because one thing’s for sure, in the coming years, there is going to be no shortage of SEO’s in the market place.

So, even today - even now, as I write this posting - I’m experimenting with different methodologies, trying out new strategies, applying and exploring new theories to link building and SEO. I have different testing grounds established to where I can compare results from one strategy to the next.

I guess the point of this posting is to encourage you also to pursue your own strategies - devise your plans - burn your own path to success. And not only in SEO, but really in any aspect of life. Ponder the what if’s, and then test and pursue them. Prove their validity, or lack thereof. Don’t be afraid to fail, and learn to welcome failure as valuable data that can tell you a lot about your theory, and then learn from the data and go back at it…

The Scientific Method is the process that is necessary for any long term, successful SEO undertaking. And, The Scientific Method will be required because as something is discovered that works, then it will become saturated and diluted to a point where the value is ultimately removed. Don’t be the person waiting for someone to release the newest, latest, and greatest strategy - be the one who discovers it, and then leverages it for success.

As always, I’m grateful to Bryan for giving me this opportunity to share, and I thank you all, the readers here at OMG, for the opportunity as well…

For those that don’t know, Robert Holland is the SEO Consultant for OMG. He offers great prices, and fantastic service for bloggers and owners of static sites. Give him a try for your next SEO campaign.

Link Building Strategies: The Authoritative Link Portfolio

Search Algorithms & The NFL Draft

With the NFL draft just around the corner, it provides a good opportunity for me to draw a strong analogy to the link building, and the authority given to a unique page by search engines, such as Google, that ultimately determines the ranking position in the search results.

Quarterbacks hold an authoritative position on any football team. In fact, the entire team, including coaches, look to the quarterback to lead them down the field for a touchdown. And when it comes to the NFL draft, you better believe that teams take a good hard look at each quarterback prospect before determining which one is worthy of being picked as the best.

Let’s say you’re Robert Craft, the owner of The New England Patriots. And you needed to draft a quarterback to back up Tom Brady. And let’s say you had 10 prospects to choose from. What’s going to drive your decision making process?I’m going to say that you’d take a “best overall” approach with your decision making process. Meaning, who runs the fastest; who has a better completion ratio; who’s able to lead a team to victory when the game is tough. And, perhaps you’d settle for the quarterback who’s not the fastest, but has other positive attributes that outweigh the lack of speed, and ultimately making him the best choice for the quarterback position on their football team.

Algorithm’s Decision Making Process

As algorithms begin calculating and determining the order in which to present search results, the process is not much different than the that of determining who is the best choice for quarterback - out of 10 to chose from - for your football team.

Inbound linkage data, anchor text for each link, age of domain, internal linking structure, age of external links, the authority of the referral pages providing links, on site content, and as Bryan and I were just discussing yesterday, even the DNS history associated with a domain; these are all attributes that are part of the algorithmic calculation used in determining the most favorable order of results according to a particular search query.
However, as it might be difficult to nail down the most important attribute of what makes the best NFL Quarterback (speed, precision, leadership, etc..), it is NOT difficult to nail down the most important attribute in determining your rankings in search results - and that is linkage data.

The Power of Linkage Data
Nothing carries more weight in determining search results than linkage data. It was spelled out at the dawn of our current age of search relevance – way back in 1998 - when Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed what we now know as PageRank - Google’s search algorithm used, as they put it, to bring order to an otherwise chaotic pile of data, better known as the web.

In case you’ve never read the origin of PageRank, here is an excerpt from Para 2.1.1 from Larry Page’s The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine view source

2.1.1 Description of PageRank Calculation

Academic citation literature has been applied to the web, largely by counting citations or backlinks to a given page. This gives some approximation of a page’s importance or quality. PageRank extends this idea by not counting links from all pages equally, and by normalizing by the number of links on a page. PageRank is defined as follows:

We assume page A has pages T1…Tn which point to it (i.e., are citations). The parameter d is a damping factor which can be set between 0 and 1. We usually set d to 0.85. There are more details about d in the next section. Also C(A) is defined as the number of links going out of page A. The PageRank of a page A is given as follows:

PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + … + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))

Note that the PageRanks form a probability distribution over web pages, so the sum of all web pages’ PageRanks will be one.

PageRank or PR(A) can be calculated using a simple iterative algorithm, and corresponds to the principal eigenvector of the normalized link matrix of the web. Also, a PageRank for 26 million web pages can be computed in a few hours on a medium size workstation. There are many other details which are beyond the scope of this paper.

Although the algorithms has changes continuously, or I should say updated – and mostly to account of spam – the core has not changed, and that is determining the search results based on linkage data – or as Larry Page puts it – citations.

Building A Strong / Diverse Link Portfolio

With linkage data being the most important element, it should constitute the majority of your efforts in any SEO endeavor. However, within the parameters of linkage data, there is a way to maximize and leverage the full crediting power of the links you build, and you do this by creating a diverse link portfolio.

I’ll use Bryan - the owner here at OMG - as my example. He is targeting the phrase “make money online” as one of his most profitable keyphrases to rank this blog for. However, if all of his links - all 12,600 of them - where anchor texted with the phrase “make money online” it would actually hurt, not help, the authority of his link building efforts, and his overall portfolio.

To build the strong, authoritative link portfolio you need for that #1 position in Google, you must diversify your anchor texts by using phrase variations, long tail phrases, etc… This provides a much more diverse linking structure, or linking theme, which presents a much higher level of authority to search algorithms, and sets the stage for your pages to outrank your competitors who have less authoritative link portfolios.

Conclusion

Focus on diversifying your link portfolio, don’t use the same anchor text, and don’t build all of your links from the same resources. I take the approach of getting links from whomever and where ever I can. Even if it’s from non-associated, low authoritative content, it is at least adding to the volume of my portfolio, which complements the more authoritative links I have to work hard for / or pay to get.

By being consistent, steady, and focused with this type of strategy, you will soon see your pages make their way straight into the top ranking positions in all major search engines. And then you’ll be commanding the search market for your most profitable keyphrases, capturing high volumes of quality traffic, and expanding your business based on increased sales and revenue!

As always, I do not take this time and opportunity for granted. I sincerely appreciate Bryan, and all you - the readers here at OMG - for allowing me to share my thoughts about search optimization, and discuss the fascinating, and quickly changing world of the world wide web…

- Robert Holland - SEO Consultant For OMG

Link Building Strategy: The Power Of Link Exchanges

Written by Robert Holland - SEO Consultant for One Man’s Goal.

Ok - up until now, I’ve seen a very favorable response from my postings. I’m excited to have this great opportunity that Bryan has given me, and I’ve appreciated every second interacting with each of you. However, this posting might be the one that brings the calls for Bryan to BAN ME FOREVER from OMG! So, without further delay, let’s get to my next strategy on link building >> THE ART OF LINK EXCHANGES!

Ahhhh… I hear the chanting already “to the gallows… to the gallows…” However, before you execute me for suggesting you take part in link exchanges, please let me explain my thinking — better than that, let me share with you the proven value of this powerful link building strategy.

Anyone that’s been around for awhile knows about the old strategy of link exchanges, and / or if you’re a website owner, you’ve received the emails asking you to mutually exchange links with another site owner. To tell you the truth, not only do I delete these emails, but some of them I actually mark as “spam”.

I’ve said it before that I’ll take a link anyway I can get it. That is a bit of a watered down version of my true position on this subject, because I will not spend my time on just any garbage link. I am actively finding ways to get the “biggest bang for my buck” or efforts in you will. Let me take us out of the old, outdated way of exchanging links, and fast forward us into the hear and now world of the web!

In one of my previous postings, I talked about the value of adding anchor text links to the blogrolls / sidebars of blogs. And by doing this, you are acquiring links according to the following formula: 1link added to the blogroll / sidebar of a blog automatically earns you links equivalent to the total number of postings within that blog. So, let’s say here at OMG, Bryan has a total of 200 blog postings. By adding 1 link to the blogroll, I actually net a total of 200 links to my overall link portfolio.

Ok, so now let’s look at this in light of a link exchange. I know that Bryan’s blog is valuable with the homepage having a PR4, and lot of sub pages (postings) having anywhere from PR1 - PR3. And I know that if I can get a link added to OMG, then I’ll net 200 inbound - one way - anchor text targeted links >> VERY VALUABLE. However, I also own a blog with depth and value. So, I contact Bryan to negotiate a possible link exchange and sell him on the value of what a link exchange between our blogs can do for both of us.

As you can see, this is not a link exchange according to the old way of doing it. The stakes are considerably higher, and link juice being delivered is substantially more powerful. You see, I’m now proposing a link exchange where if you add my link to your blogroll (netting me 200 inbound, anchor text links), and I will, in exchange, add your link to my blogroll (netting you whatever my blog can deliver).

So there it is - short, simply, yet powerful…. are you still wanting to take me to the gallows???

As I’ve always ended my postings, I want to thank Bryan, and all the readers here at OMG, for this amazing opportunity I have to share my thoughts and interact with such a great blogging crowd… thank you all.

Link Building Strategy - The Power of Alt Tags

Written by Robert Holland - SEO Expert for OMG

So here we are, onto our second strategy for building links! Again, I sincerely appreciate all of Bryan’s readers here at OMG for the great interaction, and the warm welcome, I’ve received so far… Just wait until I start talking about how I still believe in link exchange - then you’ll all be clamoring for Bryan to take me to the gallows!!!!

Anyway, let’s get to it. In this posting, I’m going to introduce you to the power of the Alt Tag - or as the Wiki editors like to call it, the Alt Attribute (see Wiki article here).

This strategy is not only relevant now, but will continue to be an important link building tool into the future. This is primarily due to the many ways the alt tag ads value to mobile search, hand held data devices, braille technology, semantic technology and research, etc.. all of which are playing a greater role in the overall structure of the web, and contributing to what will become Web 3.0 and beyond!

2 Alt Tag Strategies for SEO

I’m going to present 2 SEO strategies for the alt tag that you can immediately begin working on after you read this article, and begin dramatically improving the quality of your link portfolio, which in turn will dramatically improve your search rankings!

First, let’s look at using the alt tag for site wide images. Take a look at my site, for example. My image is used on the homepage, a few sub pages, and pages that are built specifically as landing pages for my advertising campaigns. Also, if you right click > properties, you’ll notice that the alt tags are targeting keyphrases that are important to me from an SEO perspective. Now, if I only had 1 image on my website (which I don’t recommend anyway), then the value would be minimal. But since the image is site wide, it adds a valuable opportunity for me to leverage a strong internal linking structure within my site. And again, the image alt tag is targeting specific keyphrases, which makes it considerably more valuable to my overall link portfolio.

The True Power Of Alt Tags

Second, the value of external images, and targeting keyphrases with the alt tag. A quick side not here - you’ll notice that I’m talking about the alt tag just like I would an anchor text. That’s because the alt tag IS equivalent to an anchor text. In fact, the alt tag IS the anchor text for images.

So, again let’s turn our attention to external - or inbound - linking strategies which as we all know, are the most important links to be building in any SEO campaign. Let me use this blog (OMG) as an example. On the right hand side of this blog, you’ll see Bryan’s sponsors. These are all 125×125 images that have the same characteristics as any other image on the web. I want you to go to each ad, point over the image (don’t click it), right click your mouse, and click the “properties” element.

Notice that of the 6 images present, only 2 have an “Alternate Text” of Alt Tag present - the other 4 (including mine) is missing (not good). And even the 2 that have alt tags, I think it’s questionable if the phrases are really targeting what we’d call a profitable or relevant keyphrase. Also notice that these images are on the side bar of the blog. Remember last week, when I talked about using the side bar (blogrolls) of blogs to dramatically increase the volume of your linkage data? The same principle is true here, except now we’re talking about building massive volumes of links using alt tags and images.

So, if I was smart, I would send Bryan an updated snippet of code with an alt tag for my 125×125 image that targeted one of my most profitable keyphrases. And if I did this, then I would be adding well over 200 targeted anchor text links back to my website. And these links would be alt tags associated with images, which would also ad a substantially amount of diversity and authority to my link portfolio.

Summary

This strategy will continue to ad value to your linkage data because of the diversity it brings to your overall link portfolio. I’ve always been of the opinion that search engines, especially Google, favor sites that not only have a large amount of linkage data, but have a vast amount of diversity amongst the links. I can’t think of a better way to add diversity, power, and authority to your linkage data than by properly implementing images and Alt Tags into your link building strategy!

With the coming age of semantic search, mobile browsing - especially Google’s Android - and other diverse platforms that make up the web, it’s going to be critical to think outside the box when it comes to link building. Because no matter how much the web changes, or how advanced algorithms and semantic technology become, the dominating element in ranking will always be links. And the more diverse your overall link portfolio, the more authoritative your site(s) can be in all elements, and all platforms that will make up the web of the future!

Thank you again Bryan, and all of you, for having me here at OMG - it is truly an honor to be here as a guest blogger, and to have this opportunity to share my thoughts with you, and to hopefully impart some value and insight into the fascinating world of the web and search engine optimization…