While all three of these are important and impact search engine rankings in some way, the last type has the largest by far…which coincidentally, is the hardest links to control.

Basically speaking, the search engines’ concept is as follows: if high-quality sites are linking to yours, then your site must be pretty important and therefore, will be more inclined to show it higher in their results…you in effect receive “link juice” from other sites that link to you.

But it’s not enough to just get a couple of links and then sit still. Search engines like Google look at link patterns to your site as they build over time, not just a one-time snapshot.

So, building the right links in a consistent fashion can payoff tremendously – that much is clear. But how do I go about building strong inbound links without getting myself in trouble? Getting on Google’s blacklist isn’t much fun and hard to recover from.

Continue reading for one of the ways you can build high-quality links to your site naturally and check back again in a week for part II of our quick little link building how-to.

Variety is the spice of life – and links too!

There are all sorts of link farming schemes out there you can buy into – which is probably the first reason you should run away. This practice is known as reciprocal linking – you exchange links with other sites who will turn around and link to you on a mass scale…Google and others are on to this!

The key to successful link building is to cultivate a good mix of links over time.

Having 100 links with the same anchor-text doesn’t look natural to anyone, including search engines. When links come naturally, some may use your business name while others may use some kind of descriptive phrase for the anchor-text…they vary.

If anchor-text is the same for all links pointing to your site, it will be signal to the search engines that your links are being generated artificially, not naturally.

And consider the pages people are linking to and try to mix that up too…don’t have them all going to your homepage. Try to drive links to specific product pages, your blog, your press room, your articles and more. This will help get them ranking as well.

Also, you will want to try and influence the title tag for incoming links if any have one. If you can, you will want variety in the link text and title for links pointing to your site…again, it’s about growing your links in a natural way, not simply slapping a bunch of homogenous links up there and walking away.

Variety in your links is perhaps the most critical component of successful link building. Don’t have them all coming from the same place to the same place and so on.

Check back with us next Monday for part II of our quick little link building guide and even learn how you can easily find out which sites are linking to you.

In the mean time, take the above steps to ensure what links you do acquire don’t get you in any trouble and give you the most bang for your buck.

If it is filled with a lot of hype, the customer could experience buyers’ remorse and have ill-feeling toward you (the seller).

Marketing online is more than just making a quick sale…it’s about building your reputation as much as anything. If your website gets the reputation of having too much hype, people will know and either leave your site quickly or not visit at all.

So how can I create persuasive copy that doesn’t contain too much hype?

Many of these copywriting tips have proven their worth in terms of consistent conversions and sales. Continue reading for 3 quick steps you can use to create persuasive copy without resorting to hype.

Focus on your readers, not your products and services

Be sure your copy is focused on your readers and solving their problems. Focusing on how great your products and services are will only make you seem less than sincere. If someone lands on your site, they either clicked an ad or a link on a search engine results page or some other site. They came to you so you can assume they know what they’re looking for and why.

Therefore, focus on the readers to capture their attention and move them through the buying process.

Draw readers’ attention with a great headline

We’ve discussed before how headlines are one of the most important elements in a landing page or online article. If it doesn’t grab a reader’s attention quickly, they will move off your site quicker than you can blink!

Your headline needs to do two things – it needs to ‘catch’ the readers’ attention and it needs to be relevant to the sales copy. To fulfill both of these conditions of an effective headline, place an ‘emotional trigger’ in the headline to keep people’s interest. Focus on the problem your readers have and the solution your products/services offer rather than resorting to hype.

Quickly make your point and provide a ‘call-to-action’

Without resorting to promotional pitches, quickly tell people what your product can do for them. People are not concerned about your business but their situation, which is why they’re searching online for a solution to their problem.

Therefore, that’s why it’s important to speak about them and their problem rather than your products. And do it quickly and provide instructions on what to do next. Most people’s attention spans are quite short and they won’t spend a lot of time trying to figure out what they should do next.

Additionally, your sentences and paragraphs should be quick and to the point…one, you don’t want to lose readers’ interest by taking forever to get to the point and two, you don’t want to intimidate readers with large chunks of text. Therefore, keep your paragraphs short and to the point (5 lines max.)

Harnessing these 3 steps will go a long way to ensuring your copy is persuasive without the hype that’s so common in many websites and marketing materials. Today’s shoppers are more meticulous than ever…they won’t spend much time on a site that spends all its time talking about itself.

Saying the same thing over and over again may work in politics but when you’re marketing your small business online, it appears fake to prospective customers. Most who come across content like this immediately leave a website as they are seeing right through the angle the site is trying to play…if not consciously realizing it, site visitors will feel something just doesn’t seem right about the site so they leave.

Besides helping build links and SEO rankings, good content builds trust with site visitors. Continue reading for four ways you can build trust with prospective customer with your site’s content.

1.  Do not hype anything

Hype is still a favorite tactic of low-level marketers. We’ve all seen hype time and again – in commercials, on billboards and in magazines. We’ve become accustomed to it. But the Internet is still relatively new and useful for many things – research, business, shopping and more. People have a much lower tolerance for hype in the online world.

Substantiate all claims. Don’t say you’re “#1” or “the best” unless you can back that up through a third-party. Simply claiming you’re the best because you want it to be true isn’t enough…people find unsubstantiated claims very suspicious.

2. Be genuine, like a friend

Great copy that sells generally reads like a conversation between friends. Writing in a conversational tone that helps the reader solve their problem goes a long way toward building trust. Since online shoppers cannot meet the seller in the flesh, they get extremely suspicious and leave if your content is bland and boring.

Also, don’t spend much time telling outlandish stories or make claims that appear too good to be true…be able to backup claims with third-party verification.

3. Don’t use hidden text that’s hard to find

In the infancy of SEO, webmasters used to write content and make it the same color as their background to hide it from readers. The keyword-rich content got the attention of the search engines at first but no real person would spend much time on the site. You can still “hide” content like that but there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it.

It’s okay to employ hidden content to make your page more usable as long as the reader can easily find it with a simple click of a mouse. But hiding content to make it more difficult for readers to find is wrong.

Before using hidden text though, ask yourself is it valuable? If it is, then your visitors need to be able to read it. If not, then it probably shouldn’t go on the site anyway.

4. Include negative reviews

Another powerful way to gain trust in your site’s content is to include negative reviews of your products. Only including positive reviews will only serve to turn people off…you can lose credibility pretty quickly. Negative reviews help because they give the reader a better-rounded picture of what they’re purchasing. They also help readers determine how the positive attributes of your products outweigh the bad.

Courtesy of SearchEngineGuide.com

Your site’s content is where you make your impression on potential customers. Therefore, it needs to build trust if you want site visitors to purchase your products or use your services. Make sure you’re giving your site visitors a good first impression and not simply creating a jumbled mess of keyword optimized content.

You don’t want to give away too much but you do want to draw their interest enough so they will click on that link to learn more or buy.

Creating copy that simultaneously achieves both of those objectives is the needle you need to thread to effectively harness the Internet to grow your small business.

So when you’re writing landing pages for your website, consider the following 5 tips to maximize their value on both ends…that is serve as good search engine fodder on one end and an effective marketing message on the other.

Write attention grabbing, eye-catching headlines

Headlines are the best opportunity you have to really grab your reader’s attention…if it doesn’t, they will most likely leave the page. You will want to include a primary keyword that will grab both your both your reader’s and the search engine’s attention.

Include call-to-action often

Next, you need to include a call-to-action that instructs visitors on what to do next. Generic forms of this are “Click here to learn more” and other quick anecdotes but those have shown to not work as well as more unique calls-to-action like “…start increasing your online presence and find more customers by contacting search engine marketers at SEO Advantage today to learn more.

Read 3 Elements of a Good Call-to-Action to learn more.

Like our example, you should also include a keyword phrase for your link in this call-to-action statement for additional search engine benefits. Include at least 2 calls-to-action for a short landing page and 3-5 for longer ones.

Directly address the customer

In your main copy, address the customer as “you” and “your” rather than saying “we,” “us” and “our.” Let the customer know what your company and its products/services and do for them. This relaxes the customer too…making them feel like they’re talking to a friend.

Directly deliver the message

When you’re writing landing pages and other content for marketing your small business online try to think about your copy as a business tool and not an art form. You’re trying to persuade readers to take action, not feel good about your ability to express yourself.

Keep content closely written

Whether your landing page is short (500 words or less) or longer, keep the context of the page tightly knit. Meaning, don’t get sidetracked by including extraneous facts and benefits of your products or services. There’s much debate amongst copywriters on an effective length for a landing page but no matter which one you choose, keep the subject matter within certain parameters.

Accomplishing both SEO and marketing goals through your landing pages and other content will maximize the value of your site for both you and your customers. Not only will search engines reward you for compelling, keyword-rich content, those who find you will be reassured that your products/services can address their needs.

Before you start the redesign and all throughout the process, it’s important you make your SEO strategy a top priority. First, you don’t want to lose the rankings and traffic you’ve built up to now but you also will not want to miss the more targeted visitors you will get when your new and improved site is up and running.

Ignoring the following 6 steps when redesigning your site will put your online position in peril. So if you’re looking for quality web design services, be sure they understand the following before hiring them.

1.  Keep content/keyword rich pages near the top of your site’s hierarchy

Search engines are quite meticulous when seeing how pages within your site are linked together. They use this form of internal link popularity to determine a particular page’s place within your site’s hierarchy. Pages linked from every other page are given more weight than one’s linked from only a few.

In light of this fact, you should be sure your content and keyword-rich pages are placed high within this hierarchy. If a particular page was bringing in a lot of traffic before, don’t bury it too deep within the site.

2. Categorize content by niche markets and avoid duplicate content

Online searchers generally ask questions when initially looking for solutions to their problems or answers to their questions. Therefore, the more ways you can categorize your information for these different issues – or target markets – the better.

Categorize all of your top-level pages to reflect this fact and make it clear your products and services can address their problem. And be sure – regardless of how someone finds a certain bit of information on your site, be sure they end up at the same URL to avoid any duplicate content issues. For example, if a specific product can be listed as both a product and a service, place the same URL in both categories so regardless of how someone views it, they will end up at the same place.

Courtesy of cool-photos.com

3. Stay on top of URLs if transitioning to a new content management system (CMS)

If you’re going to use a new content management system for your site to help better administer it, be sure you place 301 redirects for any URL you have to change. Since search engines will take some time to index new URLs, you want to be sure you maintain your position in the search engines and current traffic levels.

If you must, you should re-direct your top-level pages at minimum. Doing so will quickly pass the link popularity of the old URLs to the new ones – and prevent prior visitors from seeing a 404 error/not found message when they come back.

4. Code links with a navigation menu in a search friendly manner

It’s important you code all links within your navigation menus in a search friendly manner so they can be crawled and pass on those benefits to your rankings position. Many graphic designers don’t realize this – some Flash graphics and DHTML menus are invisible to the search engines, causing them to not receive the internal link popularity they should receive.

Therefore, make sure all navigation menu elements are coded with CSS that is visible to search engines. Avoid drop-down box links as the main form of navigation and ensure all content can be reached through their own dedicated links.

5. Be sure your new CMS system allows you to customize HTML elements

While automation may seem nice for HTML elements like titles, meta tags, headers, URLs and alt attributes for headers, it’s imperative your new CMS system allows you to customize these. There should ideally be no limit to the number of characters for each of these elements but do remember, the search engines have limits you should stay within.

6. Avoid session IDs and other tracking links

Tracking visitors on our websites gives us insight into what works and what doesn’t. For ranking purposes though, this can be a double-edges sword. It’s best to avoid these types of internal elements but if you must, be sure the clean URL is the only one given to the search engines. If not, the search engines will duplicate the same page over many URLs, splitting your link popularity.

If your new CMS system has tracking elements inherit within it, be sure you use a canonical link element to maintain one URL for every page of content.

Sharing these “secrets” with your potential developer may make them feel you’re usurping their knowledge and authority but heck, it’s your money, so be sure whoever your hire has all of the know-how to make your site work. Many professional graphic designers are not SEO experts per se.

They may create some very nice looking websites and marketing materials but it won’t matter too much if it can’t be found.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse for the authorities so it’s important we’re all on guard so we don’t find ourselves in any trouble.

Privacy bill could mean increased disclosure requirements, privacy protections

One idea floating around Congress that’s seeing traction is an Internet consumer privacy bill being proposed by Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA), chair of the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology & the Internet.

Rep. Boucher’s bill is more of a privacy bill for consumers. Its main target is online advertisers who target consumers through behavioral advertising. Many online advertisers – including Facebook with their new ‘like’ features – examine behavior patterns online to target advertising to relevant parties, which in turn increases conversions.

Behavioral technology tracks a user’s searches, how long the stay on a page and even the sites they visit. Data is then taken by advertisers to establish behavior patterns and online demographics.

Web advertisers fear this bill will require web users to opt-in, causing them to lose an important tool in how they target potential customers. However, Rep. Boucher says he supports an opt-out option where web users can choose whether they want their information shared or not.

“If I were [a publisher or advertiser], I would want Internet users to have a sense that their experience is more secure, that they know what information is collected about them, and they be given much more control. They will be more trusting of electronic commerce. . . .it’s good for business,” says the representative from Virginia.

Whatever happens, there will certainly be increased regulation like new disclosure requirements and legal forms indicating how a site tracks data and uses it.

Financial Reform Bill grants new powers to FTC

Tucked inside the financial reform bill passed by the House last November was a provision expanding the Federal Trade Commission’s powers to allow them to impose civil penalties on companies engaging in “unfair” or “deceptive” trade practices.

Since the mid-1970’s, the agency had to hear public testimony and a congressional review had to occur before any penalties could be imposed on the business. With this new power, the agency will basically decide for itself with no public scrutiny what constitutes unfair advertising practices.

Ad industry groups fear this could lead to the FTC acting as an “unelected legislature,” basically giving it free rein over regulating Internet commerce.

The financial reform bill is currently being debated between the two chambers. The House passed its version late last year and the Senate this past April. Both chambers are reconciling their differences, which will need to pass. President Obama has indicated he will sign the bill when it arrives on his desk.

This bill seems more dangerous than Rep. Boucher’s privacy bill since it directly expands an agency’s enforcement authority.

Appointees to the FTC are chosen by the President so vesting this much authority in a centralized executive authority could be dangerous from a checks and balances perspective.

Boucher’s privacy bill is understandable in a big way but it will certainly add new requirements for webmasters and SEO marketers. The combination of the two could be a double whammy for any of us marketing our businesses online.

Stay tuned…

However, as an online marketer, your chief concern will be the “like” button. If you haven’t done so already, you should at least include this function on your homepage and other important areas of your site.

As we mentioned when announcing these changes, the “like” button has the potential to radically change how data is connected online. With this new feature, users will be able to share sites with their friends whether they’re on Facebook or not. Simply clicking the button will connect their online identity with the page they’re viewing. It will also create a data record that advertisers and people in the user’s social network will be able to access.

When you place a “like” button on your website, you’re basically connecting your website to the social network. Different from Google’s algorithmic approach that’s completely impersonal, Facebook’s new model makes exploring the web a more “personalized experience.”

There are two ways you can add a “like” button from Facebook to your site:

1. I-frame code method

Can be generated on the Facebook developer site…content within the I-frame is hosted by Facebook so the social network will be able to tell if the person is logged in or not. If the user is logged in, they will be able to see which of their friends have “liked” the page.

If they are not logged in, they will be prompted to login or join Facebook.

2. JavaScript version also available

Like the I-frame code, the JavaScript version is also available on the Facebook developer site. It’s much like the other method except that it allows you to see profile pictures of your friends who “like” the same page more easily. Users can also comment on the links they like. Their “like” and personalized comment will be added to their status update.

Regardless of which way you ultimately choose, adding a “like” button to your website will make it easier for customers, friends and fans to connect with you and share your services online.  This reason alone makes adding a “like” button to your web pages a top priority.

We figure phrases with strong demand give us good enough insight into what our prospects are trying to find, learn, do or purchase.

But a lot of the time, customers don’t even know what they need to find when they begin searching. They will type some distant phrase into Google and see what comes up, perhaps hoping they will find more descriptive language about what they’re looking for.

Anyone who has searched for things online can understand this after a couple moments of reflection. How many times have you searched for something then found another term that better describes what you were looking for? A lot it’s safe to say.

With that in mind, think about some keywords you may see in your research tool that may not have much demand. Step away from all the research tools for a moment and think about what you would search for if you had no knowledge of what you offer – all you know is that you have a problem that somehow needs addressing.

What terms would you use?

Take these, and integrate them into your copy along with others. While you don’t want to target too many keyword phrases in your copy, many phrases you can target will simply be add-ons to ones that are more in demand. Therefore, Google will pick up the main one along with the extended version – not diluting keyword impact for ranking purposes.

Remember, it’s not all about pleasing the hungry Google bots that love keyword rich content that’s unique and relevant. Success largely depends on gaining a deep understanding of who your customers are down to the most basic levels.

Now Google has confirmed the “Mayday” update with Matt Cutts saying at Google I/O that “this is an algorithmic change in Google, looking for higher quality sites to surface for long tail queries. It went through vigorous testing and isn’t going to be rolled back.”

Each year, Google changes its algorithm anywhere from 350 to 500 times (2009) which is why many veteran SEOs recommend you not get too focused on specific ranking factors, which puts you at the mercy of these types of tweaks.

Every so often though, Google makes a big enough change in their algorithm that it gets noticed by people who usually don’t spend much time thinking about it.

In regard to the Mayday change, Vanessa Fox at Search Engine Land prodded Cutts for more on the specifics of their change. He stated that it was a rankings change, not a crawling or indexing one. This seems to imply that sites seeing less traffic are still getting their pages indexed but are not ranking as high as they were before. Google’s changes seem to only be affecting “long-tail” traffic which generally comes from longer searches that few people do. But when you add them all up, it could be a lot.

The algorithm change also seems to be affecting very large sites with “item” pages, like an ecommerce site. These pages generally don’t have many links to them and buried deep within a site. They also may not have substantial amounts of unique content on them.

These observations and admissions regarding the Mayday update confirm one thing for sure – it’s certainly beneficial to create unique product descriptions for items you sell on your site (B2C companies). Simply using a manufacturer’s generic description could be causing you to lose rankings for your product pages.

What can I do if I have pages affected by the Mayday update?

Creating compelling content and attracting links to these pages can be difficult. The best we can suggest is to isolate the pages/keyword phrases you’re experiencing a drop in. Do a search using those phrases and see what sites are ranking on page 1 and see what they do. Don’t copy them verbatim but get an idea of what they may be doing that you’re not, or vice versa.

Getting people to your site is only half the battle – you need to keep them there and guide them to the ultimate destination – making a call, purchasing a product…whatever metric you use for success.

Many great websites offering great products experience difficulty mainly because their copy isn’t designed to motivate customer’s to act. Of course I’m talking about that part of your copy that’s intended to close the sale – or the final step in the inbound marketing funnel.

In the end, your headline is the make or break part of any sales page. If the headline doesn’t entice someone to go further, then it won’t really matter what you’re offering and how good it is. While it doesn’t make the sale on its own, it certainly plays a pivotal part in setting someone up for the sale.

Here are three tips you can use to make a great headline.

1. Identify the problem you’re solving and who your target market is

The more you target your market, the more effective your copy can be. It usually doesn’t take long to identify your market in broad terms but narrowing it down allows you to address their specific problem, creating a relationship between you (or your copy) and the potential customer…the more you relate to a customer, the better your chances of closing the sale.

2. Include words your target market feels comfortable with

Once you have identified your target market and their problem, you’re in a better position to write your headline in a way that speaks to them. This is vital…you want them to feel you’re writing directly to them and that you’re not simply regurgitating a generic message that’s applicable to everyone but resonates with no one. Everyone likes to feel loved and that it’s about them.

3. Tell them how you can solve their problem and include benefits

Often times, your headline will focus on how your product solves the target market’s particular problem. Initially, people are interested in benefits, not features. Seeing what your product does for them will maintain their interest to continue reading and ultimately buy your product in many instances.

One more important thing to remember – many sites often use their headlines to make outrageous claims about their product. It’s okay to pump yourself up this way provided the claim sounds believable and is verifiable.

Web copywriting isn’t simply writing some copy that has targeted keywords sprinkled throughout it…mastering the art of persuasion with your writing is the ultimate challenge, and ultimate satisfaction of copywriting. Think of your ‘sales’ pages as being like the salesman in a store that’s speaking face-to-face with prospective customers.