Archive for Online Marketing
What’s a Backlink and Why Do I Need Them for My Website?
Posted by: | CommentsIf you’re new to the world of website development and online marketing, you may have heard a lot of noise already about backlinks. Everybody always says how important they are, but what’s the real story? What is a backlink and why do you need them for your website in order to be successful?
A backlink, also known as an inbound link or an incoming link to your website, is simply any link from another website, blog or online outlet that leads to one of the pages on your own website. So anytime that you get added to somebody’s links page or blogroll, or anytime somebody references one of your products, services or articles via a clickable link, that counts as a new backlink to your site.
Now, why is it that these are so important? Well, one of the most powerful options at your disposal in order to find new prospects and customers is to be ranked highly in the search engines. That’s not always easy to pull off, particularly when it comes to crowded markets and niches. You’ll find that even with the right keyword selection and on-page SEO, that you still may not be able to crack the top listings.
This is where all of those backlinks come into play. Each backlink that you have leading to your website is like adding a vote or tally to your cause within the search engine’s complicated formulas. Every time that somebody links to you they are basically saying, hey, I vouch for that website, and that increases your value. The more backlinks you have and the better quality that they are, the more this can boost your positioning.
Yes, that means that not all backlinks are worth the same in terms of the push that they can give your own reputation and ranking. Think of it as a politician running for office. Nailing down the head of that big union in your district and getting him to support your cause will be much more valuable comparatively to getting Bob on the street corner to vote for you. Every vote counts, sure, but the backing of a powerful player means even more.
That means the best backlinks you can get for your site are the ones that come from highly reputable sites themselves. Additionally, backlinks that come from related sites as opposed to unrelated sites, and backlinks that are natural as opposed to exchanged, will be worth more as well. So ultimately, while the more links you get the better, certain ones are far more important than others.
The bottom line with backlinks is that quantity and quality incoming links will improve your positioning in the search engines. Your reputation and online presence will grow, and you will be able to find more prospects and convert more of them into customers and repeat clients. For many small websites and businesses, it can be the difference between success and failure, so clearly, backlinks are something that should not be taken lightly.
Do I Really Need to Bookmark My Content Online?
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the most popular forms of online marketing for businesses and websites today is the world of social media, and more specifically, social bookmarking. Social bookmarking can be an extremely valuable tool when used correctly, however like nearly anything else its true merits have been questioned, and not all individuals see the results that they would like to. Here’s a quick primer on understanding social bookmarking and making it work for you.
Social bookmarking is the process of taking your website and its individual pages of content and saving it as a bookmark on various different web 2.0 websites. There are many popular outlets designed specifically for this purpose. These include sites coupled with voting such as Digg, Reddit and Propeller, and more general storing and sharing websites such as Delicious.
There are several different advantages to bookmarking for your overall online success. The first of which is that you’re exposing your content to lots of fresh faces. If you send out compelling content that truly engages people and entices them to take a look, then you’ll drive some serious traffic to your website and watch the list of your prospects and customers grow.
Additionally, the second main benefit to bookmarking your content on social media sites is that you’ll build up your base of incoming links. The more incoming links you have leading to your site and all of its pages, the higher you will rank in the results pages of the search engines. This can provide a great, free boost to your positioning.
Knowing all of this, are there any downsides to social bookmarking, or why do so many fail to succeed with it? The truth is that far too many people simple copy and paste generic content into dozens of websites and hope to see results. This isn’t going to get you very far, as your links will be devalued and nobody will bother having a look for themselves.
If you really want to see results, you have to really invest some time and effort into providing valuable and interesting content. When you post to multiple sites, you have to make those postings unique enough to be considered as such. Additionally, you need to become an active member of the community you’re involved with. If you friend other users, view and comment on their postings and generally participate in the environment, then people will do the same for you.
If you build up a base of followers, your posts will automatically receive a stream of content, and will have a much better chance of catching on fire. And that can be the biggest benefit of them all, having your content go viral. It’s not something you can really try or force to happen, but when it does you can see a ton of benefits.
Social bookmarking has grown quite popular, and it’s here to stay. If you want a quick and easy way to drive traffic to your website and boost your positioning in the search engines, then social bookmarking is a fantastic place to turn. Just remember to actually take the time to do it in the right way in order to see results.
