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The Backlink Debate: Should you focus on thousands of links or a few quality ones?
Posted Apr 11th, 2011 By Mirna Bard in Link Building, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) With | 2 Comments

When link building, many SEO practitioners face the question: Should I focus on getting thousands of backlinks, or a few quality backlinks? The answer is you want to get as many quality backlinks as you can. Building tons of links might sound like the most effective means of improving your visibility in the search engines, but quality is and always has been more important.

Think about it like this:

Backlinks are like human citation on the web. The way we link out to sites expresses how we feel about them: better sites get more links from more authoritative sites. Just as an expert’s opinion on the news is held in higher regards than your average Joe, a link from an expert site is respected the same way. If you were looking to lose weight, whom would you trust more: an experienced dietician or some random guy you met at the supermarket? Just like we trust those with more credibility and experience in our day-to-day lives, Google trusts sites that display experience and authority more as well. This principle applies directly to link building and how we practice it.

Let’s say you’re the guy from the supermarket earlier, and oddly enough, you actually know your stuff. No one is going to necessarily believe what you have to say without further proof or evidence. But what if there was a health expert nearby that verified your opinions? With the support of an expert, your opinion would now be held in higher regards by others. Similarly, you have a small niche site on health; Google isn’t going to see you as much of an authority. But if you got a link from an authoritative health site…I think you get the idea.

If you are getting a ton of backlinks from non-expert, non-authoritative sources it is going to take a lot of links to achieve anywhere near the results you want. You can improve your rankings somewhat effectively with these types of links, but it takes a ton of them. To compare backlinks with real life again; how many people would it take to convince you of a stranger’s opinion if none of these people seemed qualified to make judgments about said stranger’s opinions? 5, 10, 200, 1,000? In other words, you would probably demand the support of many people if none of them were experts in order to trust this stranger. In the same fashion, Google is not quick to trust and increase the rank of sites with just profile links and other non-authoritative links. However, each one does count a little bit, and I mean a little bit.

We always want to aim for quality over quantity. Vast quantities of low quality backlinks can help, but the core of your link building strategy should revolve around acquiring high quality backlinks. These quality links also often send traffic to your site which is a huge added benefit. You’re not going to get any additional traffic from profile backlinks which is going to leave you entirely reliant upon Google and the other search engines. Most people find a balance in their link building efforts between the two. Find what works for you, and stick to with it until you hit the top.

Guest Author: Ben Jackson is an SEO expert/enthusiast and founder of www.seodiscovery.org.
6 Common Misconceptions Clients Have About SEO
Posted Nov 10th, 2010 By Mirna Bard in Internet Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) With | 5 Comments
Dealing with clients having very high expectations that are hard to meet is not an uncommon thing for search engine optimization (SEO) providers. Since SEO is an always changing industry, and techniques and methods get outdated very soon, lots of misconceptions take birth in the mind of potential clients which eventually gets transformed into unrealistic expectations. So, it becomes very important for every SEO provider to clear all kinds of misconceptions a client may have before taking on optimization projects.

Here, we’ll cover the most common unrealistic SEO expectations clients usually have and how they should be addressed.
1. Speed of ranking improvement – Normally clients have a misconception that the amount of time required to take a website from page 2 to page 1 is the same as the amount of time it takes to bring a website from page 3 to page 2 of search results. Ranking of a website depends on many factors (links, domain age, content, onsite factors, etc., and the amount of effort and time required increases exponentially when one has to compete with websites on page 1 as compared to time and effort required when competing with websites on page 3 and so on.
2. You can’t rank for everything – The other unrealistic expectation clients usually have is the desire to rank for all the keywords in their niche. Only the most relevant pages can rank at the top for a keyword, and one can’t make a website highly relevant to all important keywords. Also, since most SEO’s work on a fixed monthly budget, increasing the number of keywords will dilute the overall impact for each keyword. So either they have to increase their budgets or limit themselves to specific set of keywords. (more…)
Brand-What the Heck is That?
Posted Jul 12th, 2010 By Mirna Bard in Branding, Business With | 3 Comments

Many people use the word brand quite loosely. So let’s define what a brand is? For many people, a brand is just a logo with a unique identity and nothing else.

So let’s define what exactly a brand is and how we can use it to position ourselves in this crowded marketplace.

I was once talking to a brand expert and she said “Several decades ago, perhaps even centuries ago, if people wanted to buy flowers, they would just buy it from a vendor on the street. People were mostly commodity shoppers.”

Today, the market place is so crowded that almost everybody sells a similar commodity. How do you differentiate one from the other? It could be the exact same product but they could differ in quality and performance. So, now enter brands.

A brand to me is a reputation and also a personality. People buy based on reputation. If two people went to raise capital in the market one was Warren Buffet and the other was XYZ, most people would invest in Warren Buffet because Warren has built a reputation of being a wise businessman with a great track record in building multi-billion dollar companies. And, nobody has any idea who XYZ is. (more…)
Timing and Frequency: Two Keys to Blogging Success
Posted May 21st, 2010 By Mirna Bard in Blogging With | 7 Comments
When you read tips about blogging, it almost always comes down to “content is king.” And there’s certainly truth to that statement. If you don’t have quality, compelling content, you’re never going to have a successful blog. People won’t have any incentive to read it.

However, there’s a flipside to this that rarely gets discussed. That is: Just because you have quality, compelling content doesn’t mean your blog will be successful. In other words, “if you build it” they still might not come.

You have to be able to promote your blog successfully so that readers will know you exist. This can take time, but if you keep putting out great content and promoting it the right way, eventually word will spread about your blog, allowing you to build a base of loyal readers.

Now, when promoting your blog, there are two key things that a lot of people overlook: Timing and frequency.

Timing

Timing has to do with when you publish your post. The blogosphere moves fast, so you need to start promoting your post as soon as it’s published. Think about it: You don’t see old, outdated content on the front page of Digg or ReddIt do you? Of course not. You see content that was published within the past few hours.

Now, that means you have to publish your content at a time of day when you can attract the most readers. This is a subject I’ve discussed at length with other bloggers, and the opinions have been quite varied. Some bloggers pay no attention to when they click “publish” (a dangerous move in my opinion) and others have a specific day and time they feel is ideal for promoting linkbait.

The truth is the best time depends on your location, your audience, and your network, but here are a few general guidelines to consider.
- Where are most of your readers located? If you have a truly worldwide audience, this can be a bit tricky, but most bloggers get at least the majority of their readers from the same region. Knowing where your readers are allows you to figure out the time they’re likeliest to read your content. In the U.S., you can usually get readers’ attention if you publish your content at the beginning of the work day in the middle of the week.
- When can your social media pals help you? Do you have a network of friends that help you promote your content? I do, and my group has specific times that they’re available to do this. With that in mind, I have to try to publish my content within that window of time so I can get help promoting my new posts.
- Is the information time-sensitive? If you’re publishing breaking news or information that is only relevant for a short period of time, then it’s best just to publish it immediately, regardless of what time or day it is.
- Is the weekend or a holiday coming up? Weekend posts have a hard time getting much attention because readers are out doing other things. The same goes for posting on the holidays. Sure, you have less competition from other blogs vying for the reader’s attention, but you also have fewer readers.
Frequency

Now that you have a better idea of what time to publish your posts, let’s move on to discussing how often you should be posting new content. Again, this is a subject a lot of bloggers disagree on, and my opinion is that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all posting frequency. However, there are some rules of thumb that can help you be more successful with your blog.
- Give your best posts a little space—If you’re publishing a piece of linkbait that you want to go viral, you need to give the post a little room to work. In other words, don’t publish another post while you’re still in the middle of promoting this one.
- Create expectations for your readers—Whether you publish new content every day, three times a week, or just once a week, you need to set a schedule and stick with it. If your readers know when to expect new content from you, it’ll be easier to keep them coming back. If you only post haphazardly, you’ll have a hard time building a base of readers.
- Beware of declining frequency over time—Many bloggers wear out over time, and they start posting less and less frequently. Blogger’s burnout is common, but it’s very deadly. You need to keep up the pace so you don’t lose your readers.
So, when do you publish your posts? And how often do you write new content? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

Guest Author: John Smith manages the nursing scrubs website NursingUniforms.net, one stop online shop for branded lab coats, scrub tops and all kind of medical uniforms.