Inbound linking is an essential part of search engine optimisation, and from time to time it is worth revisiting the basics to make sure we’re not missing obvious opportunities for getting those all important inbound links.

We need to get the right quality of links and we need to get an appropriate quantity of links.  The difficulty, of course, is balancing the two:  finding enough of the high quality links.

It isn’t a question of getting any old links; we need to be getting perfect links with characteristics that are acceptable to the search engines.  Good quality inbound links have these three characteristics:

1.  They come from authoritative web sites – if the links to your site come from trusted and important sites they are essentially telling Google that your site deserves to be trusted also.  Read this article on identifying the characteristics of authoritative websites.

2.  They have Keyword rich anchor text – you want the keywords that are relevant to your site to be used in the text that is linking to your site. This will tell Google that theses words are relevant to your site.

3.  They come from a wide range of IP addresses – the IP address of a host computer uniquely identifies a website, and having lots of links from sites on the same IP address isn’t just useless, it can also be a sign of spam to Google.

The best quality links to your website are always a “gift” from another website.

It means they like your site, and the link is a “vote” to say here is some great contnet.  Links that you can generate for yourself from free directories are, as a general rule, not worthwhile.

Writing quality content for your website- Having great content on your site means people want to link to it, and this is called “Link bait”.  Create content that people will want to link to and then submit it to the top social media sites. The sort of article that oftens does well on these sorts of sites tend to be helpful top ten lists and top tips – make it easy to digest.  Take a look at this list of ideas for generating link bait.

Generating content for other websites- We all need fresh content for our websites, and a great link building strategy is to give away content that you’ve written that can be used on other authoritative, trust worthy sites.  In return for the content, of course, you must get the keyword rich link coming back into your site.

Researching your competitors’ links – Investigating the inbound links from high ranking websites forms the cornerstone of your link building strategy.  Here are some suggestions for back link checker tools; this list is out of date, and we’ll be writing an updated review soon.  From this list you can ascertain who is linking to your competitors and try get yourself a link form them also. Remember that you want sites with good authority and to be topically relevant. Often the pages you find will have links or resources page that you can get a link on. If your competitors are getting links from blogs you may want to suggest that you write some topical unique content for them in exchange for a keyword rich links

Getting listed in Niche Directories – Niche directories and directories specific to your industry still provide valuable links due the fact that they are often authoritative and are always topical.

General Directory Submissions – This may be a good starting point for your link building efforts, but it doesn’t hold the influence it did previously. You want to start with DMOZ and the Yahoo! Directory as these will give you good authoritative links to begin your campaign with. DMOZ is free but can take a long time to get accepted. The Yahoo Directory costs the equivalent of about £200 but is worth every penny. There are a number of Directory of Directories you can use for your research, including  the Top Web Directories List.

There aren’t any magic ways to get high quality links;  it’s all about generating great content, and rolling up your sleeves and doing the hard work.

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Wayne Barker

A new top level domain name is now available:  .CO provides a new branding opportunity for companies to have a short, meaningful domain name.

From now until 10 June,  the domain names can only be acquired by trademark holders with exact match domain names registered prior to July 30, 2008. This allows companies to apply for their desired domain or domains and secure their trademarks. Matching domains will go to auction.

I would strongly recommend companies with trademarks to get these domain names during this period.

Once the intial sunrise registration period is closed, then the landrush registration period opens.  Landrush takes place from the end of June through mid-July, and will be open to anyone interested in registering domain names of high commercial value. Any interest in matching domains will go to auction.

And finally, the .CO domain name will open to general registrations on 20 July.  Currently there are 10 domain name providers selling these names.

Read full details of the .CO domain name launch:  http://www.cointernet.co/

The Internet Conference takes place on 14 May at the East Midlands Conference Centre;  10 reasons you shouldn’t miss it:

1. Learn from national experts. I’m delighted to have some of the UK’s leading Internet marketing experts presenting at the conference.
2. These are seminars, not sales pitches. Our conference presentations are not sales pitches, they will be packed full of information and you’ll have a choice of sessions to attend.  There’s something in the programme for everybody.
3. Charles Arthur, The Guardian’s technology editor, is our keynote.  He’s going to give us a heads up on what’s waiting for us around the corner on the Internet, and how we can prepare for success
4. Dave Chaffey will be speaking, and he has been named by CIM as one of the one of 50 marketing gurus who have shaped the future of marketing.  You’re bound to learn loads about using Google Analytics to improve your business process
5. Mike Baxter advises companies like Google, KLM, and Argos.   He’s the  Ecommerce User Experience guru, and he’ll be sharing his knowledge with us.
6. Free lunch.  Did I mention the free food?
7. Inspirational marketing practitioners sharing their knowledge and experience  including Kelly Herrick from Abacus Lighting, Mark Shaw from Nutshell, local SEO expert Ian Lockwood, and Richard Flewett from New Edge
8. Mingle with the experts.  This is a relatively small conference, and you will have the chance to meet with our speakers, and sit down for coffe and a chat.
9. Network with other marketers.  The delegate list includes marketers from pharmaceutical companies, law firms, manufacturers, the public sector, and marketing agencies.  This is a chance to share your own experience, and make new contacts
10. The Web Inspector.  I’ll be there, ready to review your website, live and on screen.  Come along and get my view on what is great, and not so great, about your website.

Book your place now at The Internet Conference.

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With the election campaign in full swing it is probably as good a time as any to see how Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are fairing on the Internet. How the three main parties appear in the search results is of great importance in our Internet savvy times so let’s have a look at what the potential voters see in the Google search results:

What we are looking at here are the organic results for the Labour Party, Conservative Party and Liberal Democrats . There are three main points to consider here:

• David Cameron’s name appear in the Labour Party search listing.  Ouch. The two lines of black text in each listing is typically the Meta Description tag.  Google is not taking the Meta Description provided by Labour and is instead extracting text from their site. Unfortunately this has put Labour in the slightly embarrassing situation of having David Cameron’s name the first word that appears in the Google search results.

• The Conservative Party have the added benefit of being granted a search box within the search results, essentially allowing any potential voters to search for particular policies without having to click onto the Conservatives site.

• How do the 3 parties Site Links compare? If you look at the Sitelinks for the Conservatives you can see that there Sitelinks are using active voice and  have a definite Call to Action – ‘Join The Party’ and ‘Get Involved’ as opposed to Labour’s rather vague ‘Join’ and ‘Recruit’.  LibDems have more descriptive and conversational sitelinks.

We can also see some interesting paid advertising results popping up in the sponsored links for all the parties.  Advertisers on the Labour bandwagon include Ann Summers, as well as counter offensives from the Conservatives:

• Ann Summers appears at the top of the sponsored links for the Labour Party. Here we can see a cheeky Ann Summers advertisement piggy backing on what is a popular search term at the moment. Granted, the ‘Mass Debate’ joke is not one that I have used since I was about twelve but it is clever piece of advertising that will stick in the memory.

• Why are Google advertising on the sponsored links for the Labour Party? Google is also using the piggyback tactic to effectively get you to click through on to their Google Trends data for the election. It is an interesting tactic for Google and I don’t suppose they are charging themselves too much either!

• The Conservatives and the Greens are advertising on the sponsored links for Labour. The third result down on the sponsored links shows the Conservatives using the tactic as well to promote their YouTube channel. On this occasion it displayed the title ‘Labour have failed’, sometimes it displays ‘It’s Time for Change’.  There is also a specific Conservative candidate who chose to bid for the Labour Party phrase.

The Conservatives also benefit from an Ann Summers onslaught, with counter-advertising from the Greens:

• Once again we can see both Google and Ann Summers choosing to advertise for the political party phrase, but in this instance Ann Summers has a variation on her cheeky ad.

• Labour do not appear to be bidding for Conservative phrases, whereas the Green Party is.

• The BBC advertises on the Conservative results but not the Labour ones. The BBC have chosen to advertise when someone searches for the Conservatives but not when they search for Labour.

Only the Liberal Democrats get the honour of a betting agency, with counter advertising from the Roar Party….?

Are we being a bit picky, do these little things even matter? The Internet and your appearance in the search results is of great importance nowadays, and the little things can make a huge difference in how you are presented to the people that are searching. The Internet is the first port of call for a large number of people when they are looking for information so it is crucial to have a stronghold on your identity or brand or you may lose out to your competitors.

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Wayne Barker

Linkbait – an easy way to get inbound links rolling in, right?  But wait, you followed my How to Write Great Linkbait in 5 Easy Steps guide to the letter, and you haven’t seen your inbound links increasing yet.  What’s gone wrong?

You’ve been waiting for visitors to come to you, that’s what.  If you want your linkbait to be a success you need to get out and promote it, and here’s my 3 step Social Media plan of how to do it:

1. Encourage Social Bookmarking

Start off by adding bookmarking buttons to your pages, making it easy for visitors to bookmark your linkbait.  Here are a few examples I’m sure you’ve seen before:

These are simple buttons that encourage readers to share your linkbait through their social network of choice.  By adding bookmarking buttons, not only are you making it easy for your visitors to share your content with everyone they know, but you’re also reminding them that they should.

There are a number of different services around that offering bookmarking buttons.  You can get buttons just for Twitter and Digg, or a more generic share button, like addtoany.  A service called AddThis offers a highly customisable share button that works across many different CMS, blogging platforms, email providers and even collects analytics data on how often your page is shared.

Whatever button you go for, remember it needs to be visible, alongside or just below the headline is often a good place for a bookmarking button.

2. Use Social Bookmarking

At the same time, create a few bookmarks of your own using sites like Delicious, Digg and StumbleUpon.  These sites are easy to use and normally let you install a toolbar so that when you’re on a page you like (e.g. your lovely linkbait) you can just click and save.

NB: Always add tags and a review, some users subscribe to these and will be sent your page without any extra work from you.

Don’t forget that it’s called social bookmarking for a reason.  If you’re going to be really successful and get loads of link love coming in you need to really engage with these sites.

Build your profile by subscribing to relevant tags and connecting with other users who share your interests.  Gain credibility by engaging with the voting systems (but don’t only vote for your pages!) and link to pages other than your own.  Add links from related sites (and if you’re really clever, from other pages linking to your website) and you’ll build trust with other users.

Each of these sites work slightly differently – for example on Digg it’s frowned upon to link to your own pages, where on Delicious that isn’t an issue – so the best thing to do is get online and start using them.

3. Use Social Networks

Do you tell all of your friends on Twitter / Facebook / Google Buzz that you’ve got some exciting new highly link-worthy content on your website?  You should be – if you’ve built up a following on a social network then you’ve got an audience for your content ready and waiting.  And if they really love it, they may just tell all their friends about it too.

If you’ve been neglecting your social networking profiles now’s the time to think about getting it up to scratch.  Make sure it’s up to date and start connecting to people with shared interests.  Once again the rules of engagement will depend on the network you’re using, but the key is to get involved and start conversations.

So hopefully that’s given you a taster for how to promote your linkbait, and remember my two final pearls of wisdom:

• Remember you are using social networks – don’t do a hard sell or people will switch off
• You’ll only get out of this what you’re willing to put in.  Not every campaign will go viral instantly, but if you keep working at it, testing new ideas and making those all-important connections in time you’ll see your volume of inbound links increasing.

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Katie Saxon

Google has announced that the speed of your website is now included in their search ranking algorithm.

The Official Google Webmaster Central blog confirms it is using a new signal, site speed, which is the speed at which your website responds to requests. Google is using a number of  sources to determine how fast your site is relative to other sites.

This algorithm change only applies to google.com at the moment, and for searches in English. No doubt it will be coming to google.co.uk at some point.

Whilst this is a new contributing signal for Google, it is relevance that remains the primary ranking factor, and indeed fewer than 1% of sites’ rankings are influenced by the site speed issues.

Your Google Webmaster Tools provides an overview of your site performance in the Labs menu choice, and gives a visual overview together with a set of recommendations as to how you can speed things up:

If you’re feeling geeky, here are some tools you might want to try, but they reallly are for the developers amongst you:

• Page Speed is a Firefox plugin that gives a Page Speed Score detailed technical recommendations for speeding things up
• YSlow, another Firefox plugin, this time from Yahoo!
• WebPagetest is an online service with detailed recommendations

This course is Solicitors Regulation Authority CPD accredited for 2 hours and 45 minutes

Is your firm ready to improve its Internet marketing?

Do you want to know which Online Marketing techniques are right for your business?

This seminar will provide you with information you need to make the right management decisions when it comes to marketing your firm on the Internet.  Learn how to get Google to send more visitors to your website.  Create a plan to spend your online advertising budget sensibly. Avoid wasting time and energy on marketing that won’t get results.

This seminar will provide you with a plan of action for using:

1. Search Engine Optimisation
2. Pay Per Click advertising
3. Social Media Marketing

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Your Solicitors CPD workshop is in the afternoon, but in the morning join us for an inspiring conference with some of the UK’s leading Internet experts, including our Keynote speaker:  The Guardian’s Technology Editor, Charles Arthur.  Our expert social media marketing panel will be discussing how to engage with your clients using Twitter and YouTube, or you will have the chance to have your site reviewed by our own “Web Inspector.”

Date

Friday, 14 May 2010

Times

(09:30-12:30 Optional: Main Conference speakers)

12:30-13:30   Conference Lunch - included in your seminar fee
13:30- 16:30  CPD Seminar: Successful Internet Marketing for Law Firms

Venue

East Midlands Conference Centre
University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RJ

Fee

£245 + VAT .
Early Bird Registration only £195 until  16 April.

Additional discounts for LawNet members

Course fee includes comprehensive course notes, lunch, and afternoon coffee

Register Now

CPD Seminar Leader

Susan Hallam is Managing Director of Hallam Communications, an Internet marketing training and consultancy agency serving small and medium sized businesses in the UK. Hallam has specialist experience in working with a range of law firms across the UK, and has delivered workshops for LawNet and the Professional Marketing Forum, and is a contributor to Delia Venable’s “Internet Newsletter for Lawyers and Law 2.0”  She was previously Senior Lecturer at Nottingham Trent’s Faculty of Law, Economics and Social Sciences.

Her accreditations include:

• Chartered Institute of Information Scientists
• SFEDI Enterprise Trainer / ILM Enterprise Trainer
• Google Analytics Accredited
• Google AdWords Professional
• She is approved supplier for BusinessLink in London, West Midlands, and East Midlands

CPD for Solicitors: Successful Internet Marketing for Law Firms.

Course level:

General

Delegates:

Solicitors, Practice Managers, Marketing managers, Trainee solicitors, Legal executives and other legal professionals

Course Aims and Intended Learning Outcomes

The aim of this course is provide to solicitors, trainee solicitors, legal executives and other legal professionals with a sound understanding of three Internet marketing techniques that will, in turn, give the learner both the confidence and a structure in which they can explore how these technologies can be used as part of their law firm’s marketing activities.

By the end of this seminar learners will be able to:

a)      identify the advantages and disadvantages of each the three Internet marketing techniques

b)      assess their firm’s readiness to undertake these marketing activities

c)      estimate the resource requirements for the delivery of these activities

d)      draw upon new models for developing a set of Internet marketing strategies

e)      develop a plan of action for the next steps for their firm to take

Register Now

Happy April Fools day everyone!  Did you all spot Google’s latest April Fool?  Yes, unfortunately Google Translate for Animals really is just another one of Google’s yearly pranks.

If you missed any from the last few years, here are Google’s April Fools pranks from 2009, 2008 and 2007.

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Katie Saxon

The course has been developed for marketing managers and Internet professionals who already know the basics of search engine optimisation and want to know more. It is also particularly suitable for web designers who want to get up to speed with latest developments in SEO.

A number of delegates on our Successful Search Engine Optimisation Course have asked me for a “next steps” search engine marketing course in order to further improve their SEO skills.

It’s going to be a really good, fast paced day:

• Update: what is new in search engine marketing
• Advanced Search Engine Optimisation Strategies
• Innovative techniques for building inbound links Understanding linking: reciprocal links, buying links, high quality links
• Jump starting poorly ranking websites
• Practical new keyword analysis tools and techniques
• Do not be afraid of Latent Semantic Indexing
• Latest Google Webmaster Central developments
• Exploiting Web 2.0 and Social Media Marketing
• How to use Blogging as an SEO tool
• Localisation and getting found in Local Search
• Techniques for increasing conversions rates and sales
• Staying out of trouble with search engine

Date

15th April 2010

Times

09:00 – Registration & Coffee
09:30 – 16:30 Course
16:30 – 17:00 Informal Q&A

Venue

Hallam Training Suite
2 King Street
Nottingham NG1 2AX

Fee

£395 + VAT
Includes comprehensive course notes, lunch, drinks and snacks.

Click Here to Book Your Place

The Trainer

Susan Hallam one of the UK’s leading Internet marketing trainers and consultants, with more than 20 years experience in the information industry.  She is a Google AdWords and  Google Analytics accredited consultant.

She has been named as one of the UK’s top SEO Twitters, and writes a blog “Internet Marketing Made Easy,”

She is a regular speaker at conferences including Search Engine Strategies, InternetWorld, and other Internet marketing conferences.

The essential one day Hallam Search Engine Optimisation seminar focused on improving your rankings in the search engines, solving your SEO problems and answering your search marketing questions.

This independent, practical and highly enjoyable SEO Training course is a must for businesses owners and managers who want to get Found in Google.

This course has been designed for business owners and managers who need to understand what is involved in search engine optimisation.

Many attendees are senior managers who are working with an Internet marketing agency and want to get a better understanding of what they are getting for their money, and to be sure they are receiving a high quality service.

Or, you may want to be undertaking the SEO (search engine optimisation) yourself, and want to sharpen your skills to improve your rankings in the search engines.

You will learn how to:

• Diagnose your website problems
• Create an SEO plan of action for your website
• Use search engine optimisation tips and tricks to increase your rankings and traffic
• Understand why some sites rank so highly
• Measure your SEO success

Date

23rd February 2010

Times

09:00 – Registration & Coffee
09:30 – 16:30 Course
16:30 – 17:00 Informal Q&A

Location

Hallam Training Suite
2 King Street
Nottingham NG1 2AS

Fee

£395.00 + VAT
Includes comprehensive course notes, lunch, drinks and snacks.

Select the “Other Payment Options” if you would prefer to pay by cheque or pay by invoice.

Click here to book your place now via email

About this Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Training Course

This course has been designed for business owners and managers who need to understand what is involved in search engine optimisation. You may be doing the SEO yourself, or you may be working with an agency and need to be sure you are getting value for money, and that they are delivering a high quality service for your business. We are assuming that you already have a website, or you may be planning a new website and that you understand the basics of how search engines work.

You will leave the day with a written plan of action detailing the specific steps you need to take to optimise your website.

Susan’s workshop materials are constantly updated as the industry shifts and changes, and this workshop will reflect the latest strategies to reflect the evolving search engine optimisation marketplace.

You will be provided with a comprehensive set of course notes, articles and reference guides. Following the course, you will have access to Hallam’s password protected online library of SEO support resources.

Seminar Programme

• Update: the lastest news in search on the Internet
• Principles of SEO: content, links and relevancy
• Jump starting poorly performing websites
• Producing keyword rich webpages
• How and when to use keyword analysis tools
• Copywriting perfect webpages
• Understanding Google Page Rank
• Innovative techniques for getting inbound links
• How to use Blogging as an SEO tool
• Your Google Toolbox: Webmaster Central, Local Search & More
• Google Analytics: What to measure, and how to interpret your web statistics
• Staying out of trouble with the search engines
• Researching your competitor’s SEO campaigns

The Trainer

Susan Hallam one of the UK’s leading Internet marketing trainers and consultants, with more than 20 years experience in the information industry.

She is a regular speaker at conferences including Search Engine Strategies, InternetWorld, and is a Qualified Google AdWords and Google Analytics consultant.