Blogroll, Footer Links and links in General - #seopodcast 152

Hi, and welcome to the SEO Podcast, Unknown Secrets of Internet Marketing. My name is Chris Burris, owner of your WebStyle. I'm Charles Lewis, Internet Marketing Specialist. Thank you guys for tuning in. You are listening to the most popular SEO podcast on iTunes. This is podcast number 152. Yes. As always, there is a tip from the previous podcast. The tip from the previous podcast. You didn't know this one. You did not contribute to this particular tip. Even with E, the first three important tasks are keywords, keywords, keywords. With all Internet marketing, you really need to be focused on keywords. So that's even true. I wouldn't say more so, certainly not less so, with PPC. Last podcast obviously was about PPC. For those of you out there who don't know, and I have a hard time imagining there are any, PPC stands for pay-per-click. Yes. We also lump it into something we call PFE, pay-for-exposure. We'll throw in remarketing, banner ads, pay-per-click. Yeah, I call it all paid search. Paid search. PFE, paid search. Anytime you're paying to get traffic through the search engines, then, yeah, I call it paid search. But PFE, I like that one too. Remember, we are your friendly local neighborhood top position snatchers, where our mantra is Don't be a douche. Don't be a douche. Your voice sounds so much better than snatcher, my snatchers. If you're in some sort of place that will help you to tweet, you need to tweet right now. Pick up that phone, pause the podcast, pause something, pick it up, go over to your Twitter account, and you will tweet hashtag SEOpodcast152. Make sure you tag us at it, at eWebStyle. We can check it, we can retweet it, we can reply to you, and appreciate you for doing it. And I've got to be honest, there's no tier for this one, we have 7,000 downloads per week. Yes. We have 275 likes on Facebook. I'll just leave that the way it is. Yeah, I'm not sure if it's good or bad. It's better than 10.

And now for our section, the algorithm cataclysm. Um, we don't have any. Uh, and, uh, reviews. So we got a couple good reviews. There are no, um, read it next time. Which just makes me hungry. And we'll read that one next time. And, the, here's two reviews that were actually on the- Are you gonna say cataclysm like that every time? Yeah. It just, you have to. Yeah. Yeah, let's say it like that. There's the precedent has been set. Um, so here's first review. Great SEO info. This is actually only four stars. Uh, Clara Marie. Marie. Clara Marie. Up to date SEO information in a rapidly changing field. I love it. On Stitcher. Uh, thanks. Uh, Clara Marie. Uh, hit us up on- People getting it from Stitcher. Yeah, um, Stitcher, I guess that's mostly on Android or, yeah, I would imagine if you're on an Apple device then you're probably using iTunes. Um, and, uh, Clara, go ahead and send us an email so we can give you a little bit of link love and certainly a ptf is already in order. Punch in the face. Um, here's the next one. This is from Jonathan Roseland. This SEO podcast is the Shiznit Magnifico. Magnifico. Yeah. Here we go. The, I, I, Charles was trying to read this earlier. I was like, no, no, no. We gotta have on-air reaction because this is a really good, uh, review. It is five stars. This SEO podcast is so gangsta, I feel like I should include, it should include instructions for opening a bottle of champagne while in a high-speed chase with the police. Oh, Diddy and Biggie. They drop SEO knowledge bombs like a B-29 over Nagasaki in 1945. I'm not sure what that means. Okay. I have already seen some traffic increase as a, as a result from the podcast, uh, for his blog, Limitless Mindset. Go check that out. I haven't had a chance yet. Limitless Mindset. Okay. The outro song is awesome too. Who is that by? It's by CTC, Circle the Cat. It's

actually a friend of mine who's a cat who plays drums and there's a circle of them and the band is now a straight line. Now a circle, yeah. Um, so I, we've had some people ask about that. I've been getting, a lot of people asking. Yeah. I've been getting, getting back to them. I mean, the, the, the, I mean, this is an SEO podcast. The extra song, it's also intro and extra song is Goldmine. That's the title. So, you know, it's just, it's very apropos. Uh, also, which episodes do you recommend for vanquishing bounce rates? I will be listening to your other podcast, Unknown Secrets of Sevo Analysis. We haven't mentioned that in a while. We actually haven't had a chance to do an analysis in a while. Uh, we will be getting back to that shortly. Uh, way to prevent bounce rates. I'm not sure which one you need to go watch. But overall, you know, you want to, if bounce rate is a problem, um, I think you need to identify first why people are bouncing. You know, because in some instances a bounce can be a good thing. You know, if, um, if, if your sales process isn't long, if people, if that site visit is for them to grab some information real quick and either contact you or fill out a form or something like that, and then leave, then so be it. You want a high bounce rate. But if your site is informational and you need people to read pages of content and, or watch a video, watch a video and take some action and do this and do that, and your bounce rate is high, then you may want to reconsider the path that it takes to get to the content you want to feature and, or your layout. People may just be having a hard time finding what you need them to find and so they're bouncing. Um, in regards to which podcast, all of them, I mean, I, I have no clue which one we address

bounce rate on. Yeah, we kind of mention it here and there. And just to reiterate what Charles just said, you know, we're, we're one of the few web design and internet marketing companies that will say, we'll spend tons of time on your website and we desperately want them, want your users to not spend time on the site. Cause we'd rather them pick up the phone and give you a call. Typically you would also, we'd rather them fill out a newsletter and, and then maybe peruse and see some more stuff and at least fill a newsletter. So, uh, you know, fill out a form so that they can start, uh, get on your mailing list. Yeah. I was going to add one other thing. Oh, focus on what, um, what it is your CT, CTR, CT, is it clear? No, it's, um, CTA. Brain fight. Yeah. Focus on your CTA, call to action, right? So that's something that can help reduce your bounce rate. If you're, you know, if somebody's continually moving through your site, it's very hard for them to bounce. And so if your initial page that they're landing on has really strong CTA, uh, then, then that'll help a lot. So focus on your CTA and everything else. This is on our Facebook page. I thought it was hilarious. Uh, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry. So go check this out on our page, uh, because I always back up my rage with facts and documented sources. This is from the credible Hulk. Isn't that great? I love that. That is on our Facebook page. You can find us and follow us and how, harass us, hound us. Oh, okay. There was another thing. Hound us. Hound us. Uh, at facebook.com slash. E-web style. Twitter.com slash. E-web style. YouTube.com slash. E-web style. Ooh, that had like a glow to it. That was good. It was good. My head was facing the other way. Also, you can, I didn't know, I didn't know it was like a volume. Um, and you can also

send us an email podcast at e-web style.com. And, uh, doing that little section where we're letting you guys know how to follow us reminds me, we are on the business makers.com homepage. Uh, Russ actually, uh, interviewed Charles and I, and the interview came out great in our opinion. Uh, go check that out. The business makers.com right there on the homepage. Uh, and, and, and I got, you know, here's a little, uh, there's a little motivation to go check out that video. Um, he actually figures out one of our secrets. He did. Yeah, he did. He did. Yeah. Go check out that video. It was a cool interview. We had a great time. We talked about, you know, SEO. We talked about the, uh, my latest Google algo changes. Um, um, SEO rep. Um, um, and, and business makers. They do a great job. A lot of interviews on there. Um, so yeah, check it out. As a matter of fact, I'll go repost the link afterwards, um, Facebook getting tweeted and all that. So you guys can check it out. He's actually, uh, interviewed, uh, Wozniak. He interviewed a lot of people. I went through a site. He, um, he, he, he. The dude from In Pursuit of Happiness. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's a very popular one. All right. Let's get to a little bit of news. We're probably going to exceed our Geno time limit. Most likely. And that's just the way we roll. It's almost the same as popping a top off a champagne bottle, uh, while in a high-speed pursuit of... Gangster. Gangster. Gangster. All right. Uh, LinkedIn password leaks. This, this may have been your blank news. I don't know. Oh, I did read that, but, yeah. Yeah, uh, it's a huge, uh, they found them posted on a, on a hack site. Uh, they weren't posted with usernames, and they already took measures. It's just, you know, one of the things when we're putting together complex websites, some of our clients will ask us, so, uh, how do we make sure

that no one hacks us? And, and my typical response is, Microsoft gets hacked. Yeah. Do you have that budget? No. So we're going to do some really good fundamentals and good principles, and probably if somebody decides that they want the information on yours and they have the skill set, they will get it. Yeah. And you just want to make sure that you've got, you know, your, your, the teeny boppers. Yeah. Cover the, just the hackers out there who don't really know what they're doing and are just kind of out there mucking around and making a mess of things. Um, uh, Apple may ask for an injunction to stop the Galaxy S3. Uh, I, you know, I've got the Galaxy S2. I'm happy with it. I'm certainly considering it, and that could take it out of consideration, since it might not be here in the U.S. Do you know what patent is involved that they're, that they're, that they're willing to prevent it from? The other reason that I include this is, this is a quote, the usual ongoing patent infringements. That's just a, the thing that we've been in court for the last five years is the reason they're threatening to stop it. The usual. Yeah. The usual suspects. Uh, Foxconn workers riot. That's where the, uh, uh, iPads are made and everything. Uh, there were arrests and damages at the, uh, Chenju, uh, facility. You know, uh, I think it, it was, um, John Stewart did a great section on Foxconn. Uh, go check that out. And at the end of it, you know, it's just horribly depressing. They put nets on the first floor outside of the building to catch jumpers. People who, yeah. This is like, this is classic, let's treat the symptom and not the cause. The symptom, people jumping out the window. Yeah. Let's not change the working conditions. Let's just make sure they can't actually kill themselves. Uh, yeah. And at the end of that skid, that segment, he's like, so how much are we saving, you know, for

this? Uh, 20%. Yeah. Our iPads would be 20% more expensive. It's like, wow, I would have thought if you were working people to death, you'd save at least 30 or 40%. Working people to the point of suicide. Yeah. And I got this last one. Uh, E3 2012 is a, is a gaming event. And, uh, I only know the names of four of the top 17 games at that event. So, uh, I'm no longer a gamer. Man, you know, I used to be a gamer. I used to be tough on gamers. I was PS3, you know, uh, most serious. That was my tag and you could find me online all the time. And then, um, one day, you know, we do marketing. Right. I'm always on the computer. And so I've made that decision. Well, if I have time to sit here with the controller, then I probably need to be getting some work done, you know, on my computer. And so ever since I've made that generalization, I've, I've just kind of stopped. Well, and then I lost to my son. I used to be the king at Madden. Madden, all sports games, adventure games, fighting games. I was not losing. Right. And when he finally beat me, repetitively beat me in Madden. Then he beat me in fight night. Then he almost beat me in basketball and live. I said, okay, I'm doing game. That's, that's, you know, this is, this is where you understand, um, professional athletes who retire either at their peak or cause you know, when you get to the point where, for whatever reason, motivation or whatever it is, life, and you can't dedicate the time you used to, and therefore you can't be as good as you used to, you're like, you know what? If I can't, if I'm going to do that, I'm going to do it here. And if I can't do it here, I won't do it. I don't like losing. My, uh, my, uh, not be becoming a non-gamer moment was with, uh, age of

empires. And I, and I just remember it was two days in a row, 16, it was one 16 hour game. And I was like, this, this, that was dumb. Um, you know, I'm not in junior high and I don't have 16 hours to throw away on a game. So, uh, that was the last time that I, I, you know, here and there, and it's just depressing when you get on now. It's like, I don't know how the controllers work. And every now and then I'm like, Hey, Javier, hook me up with some game. And I play it for 20 minutes and I'm like, okay, yeah, I'm done with that. Yeah. All right. So we are now into content. Yeah. So I have, uh, I pulled this article here from, uh, uh, Search Engine Journal. I thought it was a pretty cool article. I wanted to talk today about, um, link building. I mean, especially with all of the Panda updates and the Penguin updates and everything that's really targeting link forms and bad linking strategies and bad linking tactics and things like that. Um, this list that I found talked about 10 types of, uh, unnatural link building tactics. Uh, the cool thing about it was that he also offered, uh, 10 quality alternatives. And so, uh, we'll breeze through those real quick. And, um, and, you know, um, I thought it was pretty informative. I wouldn't bring it to you if I didn't. So the first one, um, he talks about, um, which is a keyword anchor text, keyword anchor text only links. These are, uh, unnatural link building tactics. And so what he's saying is that if you have tons of links coming to your site and they're all keyword heavy links using your, your main target phrase, then, um, that's a little suspect and Google knows it. And, um, you shouldn't do that. I mean, if you have a hundred people linking to your site and they're all linking with your top key phrase, then there's probably spammy. You probably got them

in a bad way. Um, you probably paid for them or something like that. I think so. Yeah. The, the kind of general point is if you've got a hundred links that were created organically, those people aren't going to follow your, your guidelines necessarily. So you may have 20% of them have, uh, you know, have links that use your anchor text because you requested it and they did it. And the others you maybe can't even get ahold of, they are just linking to, you know, eWebStyle and that links to eWebStyle.com. It wouldn't necessarily be whatever SEO, SEO Houston or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Matter of fact, he goes on to say that usually the website or the business name is the anchor text or maybe just the word website is the anchor text. Um, sometimes it's just the URL. Um, and then sometimes it's, it's the, the URL without anchor text, just the name. And so, you know, and Google recognizes that and it's the link that's important. They're really taking away how much, um, um, favor was given to the anchor text. And so, you know, keep that in mind. Um, yeah, the alternative to that is, is mixing it, mixing it up. You know, as you continue to build links, um, you know, have some that do have your, your keyword, have some that just mention your website. Um, and, and, and the only way to really do that is by building them naturally. Um, buying links was number two. Uh, buying links is a big no-no. If you have to pay for it, then it isn't natural by definition. Uh, makes perfect sense. Now, now, here's the question. Should you ever buy a link? Um, I think it depends on the circumstance. Right, it depends on what's your goal. If it's SEO, no. If it's because it's on a good website and could send traffic to your site that would be relevant and could potentially give you a business, absolutely. Yeah, you'd need to admit. Yeah. And just make sure it's a no-follow. That

way Google won't penalize you. Well, and then he got into that, too, about no-follows and follow links later. The alternative to buying links, he says, um, look for sites that would want to link to you. Right, and then, and then reach out to them. Instead of just sending them some spam message, hey, um, this link to me on this page, I have a PR site that, that I can link to you on, which I get those all the time. Right. You know, um, instead, um, compose a personalized email, really quality email, well-thought-out email, um, to the, to the powers that be of this site. And, and, and hopefully you have some sort of, um, link bait on your site that'll make them want to link to you. Um, and then do it that way. The example given was, um, let's say you're a wedding photographer. Um, nope, that's the wrong example. Um, that's the other one. But, um, yeah, okay, if your website has useful information about diabetes, then find websites that have a, um, a list of resources for diabetics. Right? Not maybe. Scum Honor has a website on, on diabetes. Really? Yeah, yeah. And so, you do that and then submit them and list them, and in that way, you're still related, you're not direct competitors, and it's worth them linking back to you. Uh, blog roll and footer links. This is an unnatural link building tactic. And so, he says, uh, footer links aren't that valuable. Um, because they're at the bottom of the page. They're usually the last ones to get indexed, and they really have no value. Same thing with the blog roll. He did say that, um, blog rolls aren't necessarily bad, depending on why you're using them. So, if you're like, if you have a blog roll and you're linking out to sites that are related to your blog content, or there may be other sites that you also happen to manage, or things like that, and you're doing it for the sake of just sending traffic, then

great. But if you're doing it for the sake of, um, trying to build links to help with SEO, then it's probably not going to be that effective. Um, I like number four. Easy to get directory links. Big no-no. Um, if you can get a link easily, remember that others can, too. And so, um, some of the easiest links to get are directories, especially when there's no human moderation. And so, um, yeah, if you can get a link by just simply submitting something, paying for it, and then automatically shows, um, then yes, everybody else can, too. And usually what happens with those sort of directories is you end up in what they call a bad neighborhood. Right. Because you don't know who else is doing that. And so, you have a link coming to your site from the same place that has a link going to some porn site, or some, uh, um, you know, casino site, or online gambling site. Pharmacy site. Yeah. And so, you don't necessarily want to be in that link neighborhood. And so, you know, find a site like, uh, DMOZ or something like that, that, that has a human moderation, where somebody has to look at it, make sure it's relevant, uh, make sure it's in the right category, and then you pay, and then they submit it after a review. And that way, you know, it's a more quality link, it's a better link, and most of the bad stuff is probably phished and, and, and, and not put in the same index. Um, number five was, uh, blog commenting for links. And so, um, if you're on a blog, you probably know how, how popular blog commenting is. Let me take this time to say, I hate, with a passion, spam comments. Yeah. I like four blogs that I manage, and every week I have to log in, well, well, luckily I added Eskimate. Right. I don't know why I was tripping on the first one. Yeah. I was like, why? Because I hadn't added Eskimate. Right. Anyway,

on the one that didn't have Eskimate on it, every week I was logging in and removing, like, 200 spam comments. Yeah. And, you know, and they're well thought out. Some of them will get you. Right. Because it's probably three sentences long, and now I think they've included something that automatically inputs the title of the post. Right. In there. Yeah. Yeah. And so, because I'm glancing at the comments to see if they've actually read my content before I approve it. Right. Let's call it, with the same thing like on Google Ads, keyword. Yeah, yeah. It's a DKI. DKI for spam comments. Wow. Yeah. And so, yeah, don't do that. Now, what you do want to do, because the links, the comments I love to get is from people who have read the content, and their comment actually contributes to the comment. By the way, this is the origin of don't be a douche. Exactly. Exactly. And so, and Matt, that's what he went in to say, that, you know, commenting can be a good strategy, but find blogs or other sites that allow comments that are relative to your industry. Actually, take a few moments, read the article, and if you're going to comment, make your comment, you know, trustworthy. Make sure it contributes to what they're offering, and then put your link in, and people will gladly approve it. Generic resource pages and link exchanges. Yeah, if you're still doing this, if that's part of your strategy, then you probably got banded with Farmer and Panda a long time ago. Number seven, spending content to submit to article directories. Yeah, Panda got you too. So, yeah, if you're still taking content and spending it and trying to place it on several different sites to generate links, why don't you take that same time and effort and write a decent article. Yeah. Come up with some good content. Again, put it on your site, and then blast it out there. Facebook it, tweet it, post it, stumble it, dig it, read it, and then generate traffic

that way. You have much more value. Matter of fact, he goes on to talking about social bookmarking. That's like number 10. And so, do that then with your own good content instead of taking the time to spin it because it's not effective anymore. Setting up social profiles for links. This is number eight. I like this one because we know people who do it. We get clients who come in and they set up social profiles, but they don't use them. And they even have services like KnowEm, which will go out and set up a profile for you on hundreds of different social sites. Any social sites that you link back to your site, but it won't work if you're not being social. You know, the only way a link from a social profile back to your site has any value is if that social profile is actually engaged and being used and generating content and being retweeted and being liked and being followed. If you just have a social profile with a link to your site and you're not using it, then nothing's going to happen with it. Always going after follow links and not necessarily no follow links. He went on to say that it's a bit surprising that there are many SEOs who still have been trained to accept nothing but follow links. Having a do follow link is like having keyword-based anchor text. It's probably a signal that there's something fishy with your link profile. Yeah, Google, you know, while they say no follow links don't necessarily pass link juice, I think that link is still indexed. Google still knows it's there. So they have a ratio of follow to no follow links to your website. Yeah, so probably want to, you know, take off some of the pressure in regards to whether that link is followed or no follow. Just generate the link. Yeah. You know, if you get the link, then there's some value there. And like I said earlier, number 10 was a book, social bookmarking submissions. So, you know,

you don't want to submit to a whole bunch of social bookmarks, a whole bunch of delicious and all these sorts of accounts just to have it. You know, what you want to do is create good content, maybe something that's link worthy, something that's maybe entertaining, something that's valuable, something that a lot of people are looking for at the moment. Post it on your site and then submit it to the social bookmarks, as he puts, that are most popular and fit your industry the best. You know, take the time to build that network and submit a variety of links, including your own. So don't just spam, well, not spam, but don't just submit yours constantly over and over again. Submit other ones that are kind of related, that maybe have other links to your site from those. And that way you kind of submit a whole network of links and not just spamming yours. So that was it, 10 types of unnatural link building tactics and 10 quality alternatives. I thought it was a good post. I'll post it on Facebook so you can check it out. Who was the author of that one? This one was by Corey North. Corey North. Cool. Good job, Corey. We'll make sure to link to that article. Do you have any blank stare news? Well, I had the LinkedIn deal and then I thought about Zucker and how they can't seem to get it together. I almost feel sorry for Facebook. Well, I ain't going to say that. I say almost. Almost. Almost. I'm a couple billion away from feeling sorry for him. Yeah. I mean, it just sucks that, you know, to start off so high and to not only go down, but to like sharp curve now. Yeah. You know, this isn't gradual decrease. This is like rollercoaster ride. The brakes are going out. Yeah. So, yeah. Get it together. Hopefully. Well, it's a good thing he doesn't care about money. Yeah. Well, cool. You have been listening to the most popular SEO podcast on iTunes. Do

go out and check out thebusinessmakers.com if you're listening to this podcast and we're not on the first page. We will be in the archive. That was just a great, we had a great time doing that interview. So, go check that out. Actually, there's a comment at the bottom from my dad. I sent it over to my dad, so he's watched it and put a comment. That's kind of cool. And you can follow us, facebook.com slash ewhipstyle. Twitter.com slash ewhipstyle. YouTube.com slash ewhipstyle. Podcast at e-whipstyle.com. This is the end of podcast number 152. Until the next podcast, my name's Chris Burris. So, bye-bye for now. A brow high. Head in my.