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6 Tools to Throw your Link Building into Overdrive

March 6, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Anyone whose worked on optimizing websites for the search engines knows about link building and how tedious, repetitive and time-consuming it can be – prospecting, researching, contacting and following-up can certainly drain away your day.

We’d know – we’ve spent a few years working to get sites to the top of the search engines. Building links is a big part of that. But sometimes though, it can literally be considered a “needle in a haystack” trying to find the right, do-follow link that will really move a website.

As the years have gone on, this task has gotten even more complex as search engines like Google continually make changes to their algorithms.

Fortunately though, there are tools available that can expedite these steps and make the daily task of finding good quality links slightly easier. Below are 6 recommended tools for really cranking up your link building efforts. Each tool has its own unique strengths and focus.

1.    Screaming Frog SEO Spider (http://www.screamingfrom.co.uk/seo-spider/)

    Utilizes an often overlooked way of getting links and audits your site and your competitors’ site(s). The desktop tool sees which incoming links to your site are going to 404 error pages and crawls competitor sites to see where they’re linking.

    2.    Majestic SEO (paid) (http://ww.majesticseo.com/)

    Majestic SEO is now considered the premier tool for comprehensive backlink data since Yahoo Site Explorer went offline last year. Many SEO companies use this tool as a ‘behind-the-scenes’ data provider for their own stats.

    3.    Blekko (http://blekko.com)

    Blekko is unique in that it uses backslash functionality to provide SEO-rich data. Basically, you register for free then enter any site’s URL with modifiers like “/SEO,” “/inbound,” or “/outbound” for detailed link information.

    4.    SubmitEaze (http://www.submiteaze.com/)

    Since Google’s Panda update last year, the value of directors and article links for link building is something to be real careful with. SubmitEaze helps you find the qualified directories related to your industry that will benefit your firm.

    5.    Quix (http://www.quixapp.com/)

    Quix is a “bookmarklet” tool that brings many everyday SEO, social, WordPress and webmaster tasks under one umbrella. Literally dozens of commands allow you to research competitor sites, Google and even social sites like Facebook and Twitter.

    6.    ToutApp (http://www.toutapp.com/)

    Although link building through blind e-mails requesting a link to page A in exchange for a link to page B are in the past, there is still a need for link builders to stay in touch and cultivate media and PR contacts. ToutApp helps do this by automating the process and providing detailed tracking.

    We’ve used a few of these tools to help us dramatically improve link building efforts for us and our clients.

    Have you used any of these tools?

    Any other link building tools you’d recommend?

    Let us know in the comments field below!!

    Some other posts you may be interested in

    Outlook for Search – Building High Rankings in 2012

    3 Steps You Should Take Before Linking to another Site

    8 Ways you can safely sell Links on your Website

    Filed Under: SEO Technology, Tip of the Day Tagged With: , , , ,

    5 Ways to Really Speed-Up Your Page Load Times

    October 11, 2011 by Leave a Comment

    It’s been known for quite a while now that one of the factors Google uses to rank websites is page load time. Faster loading pages will generally rank higher than pages that load slowly, provided other factors like content and a crawlable site are the same.

    Fast loading pages aren’t important for just web rankings – if a page is loading slowly or times out, how many will hang around to wait for the page to load?

    Whatever the reason for a slow loading page – antiquated server, extra coding, improperly formatted images – having one (…or several) will certainly cause you to lose visitors and more importantly, customers. To see how important this is to the average web user, check out this page load graphic courtesy of Blue Compass Interactive and our friends at Planet Ocean.


    So how can I speed up my page’s load time? And what’s the recommended page load time for both search engines and web users?

    For the best results, it’s recommended all pages on your website load within three seconds.

    If your pages are taking longer to load, the following 5 tips will help optimize page load time and ensure your rankings (…and customers) will not slip by the way side due to slow loading pages.

    1. Use an image editing program that provides a “Save for Web” setting

    Images are by their very nature pretty big. If your webpage is loading images as-is it can dramatically lower your page load time. A “Save for Web” setting will export your image in a compressed file size. Also, don’t forget to specify the original file size in your HTML code (i.e. 500 pixels x 300 pixels). Not specifying these dimensions means your web browser will have to work harder to display the image, thus increasing page load time dramatically.

    2. Keep HTML coding to a minimum

    Many webmasters, perhaps you, use WYSIWYG (…what you see is what you get) type HTML editors. These programs though add a lot of unnecessary code to your page and thus, slow page load time down tremendously. Examples of unnecessary coding include “comment” lines and “date stamps” to name a few. One program you can use to compress your coding is the GZip HTML Compression tool.

    3. Consolidate Cascading Stylesheets (CSS) and JavaScript

    These days, every page has at least one cascading stylesheet (CSS), third-party application or JavaScript file to load before the page will function properly. This can slow even the smallest of web pages. Therefore, it’s best to force the browser to fetch as little external information as possible. Consolidate your CSS sheets down to one if possible and embed them at the HEAD of the individual page.

    4. Control how your site content is ‘cached’

    Demarking and controlling how your site’s content is cached by the search engines will dramatically speed up your page load time. How you do this depends on the type of server you’re hosting your site on.

    For an Apache server, you can physically adjust the “Expires” or “Cache control” header attributes. The process for a Windows server is similar and involves manipulation of the HTTP ‘client cache’ element. And if your site is hosted through WordPress, download and install the WP Super Cache plug-in which serves up static HTML pages to the majority of your audience and dramatically boosts page load time.

    5. Reduce the amount of cookies

    Consider downloading and installing a free ad-on like View Cookies for Mozilla Firefox to monitor the amount of cookies being exchanged between you and your site’s visitors. Review these cookies and see which ones you can reduce in size or eliminate altogether. If you can’t recognize the cookie, then you probably don’t need it. The fewer cookies your page has, the faster it will load.

    As we always say, one ranking factor alone won’t determine the success or failure of your site in the search engines. With that said, on-site technical improvements are a sound way to securing long-term rankings. Therefore, if you find your site’s load time is a bit lagging, make sure you pay close attention to the above metrics.

    Filed Under: SEO Technology, Site Architecture Tagged With: , , , , ,

    34 Things You Must Do When Redesigning your Website

    April 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment

    Every so often, it’s a good idea to give your organization’s website a fresh new design. Doing so makes your company look active and dedicated to giving your customers the most advanced products and services.

    But considering the fact many websites contain hundreds, maybe even thousands of pages, it can be a daunting task regardless of how careful you are. Proper planning helps ensure it all goes smoothly…no or very little planning can turn it all into a big nightmare.

    Pages can get mixed up, deleted or otherwise not be available on the new site, which can end up costing your company thousands of dollars.

    To avoid this calamity, you need to consider the following factors before, during and after. Continue reading to learn about all of these considerations you need to keep in mind when redesigning your website.

    Before doing anything though, you need to get some baseline information and backup your old site just in case something goes awry. Load time, conversion rates, search rankings, bounce rates for your top landing pages and a list of important inbound links is information you need to have in-hand before you even get started.

    Once you have all of this, it’s time to start your site re-design. Taking the following 34 steps during this process will ensure it all goes smoothly and you begin reaping the benefit of a new website as quickly as possible.

    Prior to New Site Launch

    1.       Have the old site available to put back online immediately if something goes wrong.

    2.       Retain your existing URL structure if possible so you can minimize impact on search rankings.

    3.       Address methods to eliminate duplicate content to prevent it from occurring in the first place.

    4.       If you’re unable to keep existing URL structures, have a plan on how you will handle switching to the new file structure, including 301 re-directs, updating links, marketing materials and PPC ads.

    5.       Keep a copy of the old site on-hand just in case.

    6.       Use a link checker utility like Xenu to scan your new site and find any broken links.

    7.       Take a moment to review titles and meta descriptions on your new site.

    8.       Before launching, check your new site manually using multiple web browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Chrome). Many differences exist between these browsers.

    9.       Update XML and HTML sitemaps so search engines can easily crawl your new site.

    10.   Verify all web forms and other interactive features are working properly.

    11.   Protect your site from competitors and search engines during development. The best way to accomplish this is to develop the site locally and internally to your firm.

    12.   Review existing RSS feeds

    13.   Verify your new site will work properly with traffic tracking codes like Google AdWords and Google Analytics.

    14.   Develop a plan to add current analytics tracking to your new site before launch.

    During new site launch

    15.   Did you back up your old site? If not, now is your last chance.

    16.   Update your .htaccess and robots.txt files so any 301 redirects will work properly.

    17.   Be sure AdWords and PPC campaign pages are updated and working properly.

    18.   Update payment gateways or other important sites if your server’s IP address changes.

    19.   Test all email address and make sure they’re working properly.

    20.   Remove any temporary no-index tags, robots.txt and be sure any other robot control tags are updated in case you had something blocked off during the development process.

    After new site launch – catching any mistakes

    21.   Run your spider/link finder once again to catch any broken links you may have missed.

    22.   Test your new site’s load time. Google has claimed load time is now a big ranking factor.

    23.   Make double-sure you put tracking codes/scripts on your new pages

    24.   Check server logs for any 404 or other server errors.

    25.   Look at your Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster accounts to see if the search bots are spotting any errors.

    26.   Update any broken inbound links at the source of the link or through a 301 re-direct.

    27.   Verify PPC ads are still correct.

    28.   Make sure your XML sitemap is up-to-date.

    29.   Compare bounce rates for the new site vs. the old one.

    30.   Monitor how newly indexed (…or re-indexed) pages are ranking.

    31.   Now that your site is live online, test it once again with all web browsers and even a mobile smartphone if you’re able to.

    32.   Manually test all web forms and other interactive scripts.

    33.   Check where your site is in the search results after the search engines have indexed it once again.

    34.   Go to Google and Bing and type “site:yourdomain.com” in the search bar to see if the number of pages indexed has improved over your previous numbers.

    Taking these all important steps helps ensure your site transition goes as smoothly as possible. Also, they help you spot any errors and allow you to make those corrections before any negative consequences arise.

    Double, perhaps even triple check your site to make sure everything is working properly. If not, you’re certain to suffer devastating setbacks in the search engines as well as eroding good will of your site visitors.

    Remember what Thomas Edison once said – “Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.”

    Filed Under: Site Architecture Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

    6 Web Design/SEO Tips your Developer Needs to Know

    July 7, 2010 by Leave a Comment

    Now that we’re halfway through 2010, many website owners are thinking it’s time for a re-design or are in the midst of one right now. If you’re in this position, one of the first things you need to do is be sure you hire a website design firm that knows how to build a site’s infrastructure properly – that is one that’s easily crawlable by the search engine spiders.

    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

    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.

    Filed Under: SEO Technology, Site Architecture, Tip of the Day Tagged With: , , , , , ,

    Google “Caffeine” Goes Completely Live

    June 9, 2010 by Leave a Comment

    We reported a few weeks ago on Google’s big infrastructure change known as “Caffeine” and what it meant for SEOs and webmasters. Caffeine has been in the works for quite a while with few details being released to the public in August for feedback purposes. A pilot version was launched last November.

    Caffeine is a change in the index, or infrastructure of Google. Unlike the “Mayday” update, it’s not changing the algorithm in any way…it’s simply changing how sites are indexed on their servers. Since content on the web is blossoming and getting more complex, Google felt it needed its index to evolve with it so it could return the most relevant, up-to-date results to its searchers.

    In a nutshell, the following are the main things you need to know about Caffeine:

    • It’s NOT a ranking change. You shouldn’t see any major ranking changes from this
    • It DOES change how Google indexes pages – speed, scalability and how deep they can get into a site
    • It should now deliver fresher results
    • Search results should go deeper over time

    Before, the old index consisted of several layers, each of which was updated at different times and frequencies. When refreshing a layer, Google would have to analyze the entire web which caused a delay between when new content was discovered and when it was made available to a searcher.

    With Caffeine, Google will now analyze the Internet in small portions and continuously update the search index on a global basis. As the spider finds new pages or information, it can automatically be added to the index, making it available immediately.

    Caffeine can index pages on an enormous scale – its server takes up over 100 million gigabytes of storage in one database. It adds new information at a rate of hundreds of thousands of gigabytes a day. To compare, you would need 625,000 of the largest I-pods to store that much information.

    As with anything, there is some controversy as to the effects of this. Some comments on different forums discussing the new infrastructure claim Google is making a smart move, staying ahead of the bell curve when it comes to the advancement of websites.

    However, others worry about spam and how this could be a great boon to spammers. Since Google is striving to post the most current results, spammers could take advantage of this by copying other sites’ content. Some have even said this could lead to Google’s demise and only gave them 6 months!!

    Either way, we will stay on top of how Caffeine is working and its effect on websites and web searchers. If it is a bad move on Google’s part, we will certainly witness a decline in their search volume.

    In the mean time, see Google’s spam chief at the recent SMX Advanced conference explaining Caffeine in this video below.

    Filed Under: Forum Watch, SEO Technology Tagged With: , , , ,
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