Self Link Building

Instead of waiting for others to give you backlinks, you have the option of building your own online link empire. While there are many tools that can help you accomplish this, there are only a few ways that will actually let you do this legitimately without significant repercussions from the search engines. Search engines understand the link building game better than anyone, and the only kind of links that really give your site a boost in the SERPs are links that are hosted on established and relevant sites in your niche. This means that building a link empire by yourself is somewhat difficult because you must have access to a lot of relevant domains. However it can be done by using free web hosting accounts.

Free Web Hosting and Web 2.0 Properties

When I say “Free Web Hosting” I am not referring to the type of web hosting accounts that give you a tiny amount of resources and a shared IP address. These web hosting accounts are practically useless for search engine optimization. Instead, I am referring to sites that will let you create free blogs and min-sites without paying for their hosting services, such as Blogger or Blogspot. With these mini-sites, you can build a backlinking empire within 6 months to a year, by filling each mini-site with relevant and useful content in your niche.

Diversification and SEO

Link building is all about diversification. You need to have your site’s link posted on as many websites as possible, to establish solid web presence. Fortunately, there are hundreds of free blogging sites that you can use to link back to your main site and create a substantial link network for free. These sites are already highly ranked in the search engines, and there a hundreds of them to choose from. You could easily outsource the creation and content creation of these blogs, and within a few months you would have a massive network of blogs that you could use to link to your main websites within a niche.

Conclusion

While the cliche saying is “You get what you pay for” this does not hold true for every concept. In  this case free web hosting could prove to be very beneficial, especially if you have access to hundreds of blogs that are under your control within a particular niche. Imagine having all of this power for free, with only the cost of the content creation being necessary.

In short there are a few reasons why search engines will initially ignore a newly submitted website. These include:

• Time
• Lack of backlinks
• Search engine updates

Time

Time is the enemy of all businesses. In the case of websites this is no different. In most instances, it takes time (sometimes days) for the search engine of choice to index the site. Indexing the site is simply adding the website to the results of a search on a search engine.

Search engines like Google have crawlers that are essentially searching the internet for new websites and web pages. Due to the size of the internet, it often takes awhile for the crawler to find the site and add it to the results.

Lack of Backlinks

Another reason the website might not be indexed immediately is due to a lack of backlinks which are inbound links to a website. The higher the page rank (above six) and the quality of the related links, the better the position on a search engine. Those sites that do not have many or related links may not even be indexed by a search engine as the crawler will see it as an irrelevant website.

Search Engine Updates

The final reason can be attributed to search engine updates. In many instances the search engine is performing scheduled maintenance or upgrading their software which would result in a longer time to index. Often, sites are updated at off-peak hours so be cognizant to the timing of the submission of a site.

Solutions

There are a few ways to speed up the indexing process. For instance, by placing homepage links on social media sites like Twitter, this improves the page rank and quality of backlinks. Also, submitting to link exchanges will provide the same result. Additionally, its good practice to check the homepage’s cache to verify when it was last crawled. Finally, utilizing meta-tags in the website will help the crawler identify the website more quickly.

In most cases, time is the primary cause of slow indexing followed by a lack of backlinks, and then scheduled maintenance. Simply be patient and if the site doesn’t show up in the results after a week, contact the search engine and they should be able to provide adequate reasons.

Forms and style of social media

There are quite a few forms of social media and within those forms there are several technologies involved.  Reviews and opinions, collaboration, communication and multimedia are some of the core styles of social media.  Communication is one of the more popular styles – blogs, micro-blogging, events, and social networking can be listed among this style type.  As the purpose is to “get the word out” about one’s business, the social media style type of choice is communication.

Micro-blogging and Twitter

Micro-blogging is the sending of short text updates, sometimes including a photo or short audio/video clip.  This is an extremely effective way to communicate to a large audience without losing their interest.  It can be used to disseminate news regarding a company, announce the company’s latest products, or even inform the general public of upcoming sales.  By far one of the most popular micro-blogging sites on the web is Twitter.

Signing up with Twitter is an extremely easy process.  The registration requires a full name (a company name would work as well here), a username (this should also reflect the company or business name), a password, and an email address.  Once these are entered, a new Twitter account is created on the fly.  After an account has been created, the next step is to use one of the available “widgets” that can be found at Twitter’s Goodies page.  There is a widget in place that can be used on a web site and the instructions are very easy to follow.

There are quite a few companies on the web that use Twitter and use it very well.  Comcast, Southwest Airlines, and H&R Block are just a few.  Checking out how these companies have used Twitter to inform and excite the public will enable one to figure out the best Twitter “strategy” for their own business.

Events and Eventful

If the business in question is more geared toward events, performers or avenues, a good choice for a social media outlet would be Eventful.  This service allows people and businesses to share information to the public in regards to upcoming events.  Private and public calendars can be created, events can be searched for and tracked and users can even declare which events they would most like to see in their area.

Much like Twitter, the sign up process for Eventful is simple and instantaneous.  Once the account is created, the user can choose from some popular events, favorite performers and event categories.  After all preferences have been filled out, the user is presented with their main screen.  It is here that a new event can be created.  While Eventful doesn’t present a widget that you can quickly use, they do offer a web services API.  An alternative to this is to simply place a link within the business website, pointing to the Eventful calendar created by the business.

Conclusion

There are dozens upon dozens of more social media applications available that could be used in conjunction with a business web site.  The best way to determine which will work the best for one’s own business is by figuring out exactly what information needs to be presented to the public and which social media venue will get that job done in the best manner.  Check out what other companies and businesses have done with social media and put your business on the social media track.

To-Do List

There are a few steps in creating your SEO strategy.  The first of these is to create your plan.  An effective way to write your plan is with a to-do list.  This to-do list should map out your tasks and the goals you would like to achieve.  Once you’ve accomplished each task or goal, you simply tick it off. A good example of a plan or to-do list would be to first list your main goals.  Then under each goal, list out the tasks you need to complete in order to complete the intended goal.  You may decide that a primary goal is concerning your web site’s search engine placement.  Another good goal is increasing the traffic to your web site.

With your to-do list created, you can fine tune and add additional tasks for each listed goal. Some good examples would be to research which search engines are the top ones utilized and then finding out how their submission guidelines work.  You could also list researching your keywords and phrases as a task, finding the correct places to incorporate your keywords and phrase and then locating a site or program that will enable you to easily track your website. This last task is another crucial part of a good SEO strategy – how to analyze your site.

Analyze

Analyzing sites and programs abound on the internet but one of the better ones to use (and without cost) is Google Webmaster Tools.  It offers sitemap creation, views of the top keywords used to locate your site and where these words positioned you within Google, backlinks (links that are to your site from other sites) and much more.  Google Webmaster Tools will allow you to makes changes to your SEO strategy based on what appears to work well and what doesn’t.  Keeping up with changes, sitemap resubmissions and eventually garnering more backlinks from web sites are all part of ensuring your site sits high in the rankings and a good analyzing tool will make these tasks easier in the long run.

Monitor

Lastly, the best SEO strategy you can implement is constant monitoring.  Again, you can opt to use Google Webmaster Tools for this particular task or one of many other sites and programs available.  It’s a bit of a “lather, rinse, repeat” kind of attitude that needs to be incorporated into your plan.  Doing all the research, the keyword placement, the backlink requests won’t amount to anything if it is only done once.  It needs to be constantly monitored, constantly changed and this simply is no easy task without a good plan in place.  In choosing your analyzing program or site, you will need to keep this in mind.

Final Word

The success of your SEO strategy is deeply tied in with your entire SEO campaign and, as such, is one of the key items that will ensure the success of your site.  In a nutshell, create a good goal plan in the form of a to-do list, give each goal the tasks needed to complete the goal, analyze your site and efforts and vigilantly monitor your SEO campaign.  You will soon see a marked improvement in your web site statistics.

What is Bing?

Bing is a search engine developed by software giant Microsoft.  It is actually a revamped version of Live Search, Windows Live and MSN Search, each of which failed to put a chink in Google’s armor.  Though it gives you all the basics, Bing is being advertised as decision engine, due to the fact that is delivers more details about results than other search engines.  For instance, if you take your mouse and slide it to the right of the results onto the orange circle, a side window will appear giving you a brief description of the website.  That isn’t the only thing that makes Bing stand out as the plethora of features gives this search engine an identity all its own.

Video Previews

One of the most appealing features of Bing involves integrated video previews.  Underneath the “Video” tab, you can enter queries that are specific to video content.  After the results are returned, you can move your mouse over the desired video and get a nice comprehensive preview of what the clip contains.

Enhanced Shopping Options

Another unique feature integrated into the Bing search engine is a tool that makes shopping online much easier.  For example, if you click the “Shopping” tab and then enter “shoes” into the search box, you will get thousands of relevant results featuring the items and prices offered by various online retailers that sell shoes.  If you are specific with your search, you may find that some products qualify for special “Bing Cashbacks” as an added bonus.

Travel Tools

Bing also has features geared toward users who frequently purchase airline tickets online.  If you want to book a flight from Detroit to Las Vegas, the results will come back displaying links to CheapFlights.com as well as other relevant sites.  If you click on the recommended link and go through the Bing Travel interface, you can instantly compare prices against the provided schedule and determine when is the best time to schedule your flight.  This is definitely a great feature internet users can put to use.

Cash-back Program

As we mentioned before, if you search for something on the Shopping tab, you may see that a particular item qualifies for a Bing Cashback, which gives you certain percentage of your money back.  These items are a part of the Bing CashbackpProgram.  After purchasing an eligible item, you receive an email confirmation detailing your cashback savings.  Microsoft claims that you can make up to $2,500 a year with this program and receive your rewards via check, direct deposit or PayPal transfer.  In order to qualify for the Bing Cashback program, you must be at least 18 years old and have a Windows Live account.

Conclusion

Bing is certainly worth checking out and far more usable than Microsoft’s previous attempts.  Though efficient, its search results are still lacking in terms of the quantity and relevant ranking you get from Google.  However, that might all change if Microsoft and Yahoo combine their search expertise, which according to a late July announcement, could be very soon.

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