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April 8, 2010
 

Link Building, Blogrolls and All That Jazz

Link

Regular readers of my ramblings will know that as a rule I don't do SEO but today's hot subject on my desk is that of link building.

For my personal blog I really don't care if someone ranks higher than me in a particular topic but if I were a business that would be a very different matter.  It's important that people can find you easily by searching for what you do... Yes, people still use traditional search!

Put me in your blogroll

Why would you?  If I asked you, would you do it then?  If I scratch your back, will you scratch mine?

There are many ways of getting your site linked but I'm not too keen on the practice of begging so I'm wondering if there are any less spammy alternatives.  Wait a second... If I'm having to ask you to put me in your blogroll it kinda defeats the object, doesn't it?  Surely, if you want to list me you'll do it without me asking...  Or maybe you won't...  Perhaps you need a little nudge or a reminder and it's not necessarily spammy of me to do so.

What's the best way?

If I were to do it, I would personally have a little icon or image labelled "Add me to your blog roll" or similar on my blog that links through to a page of options for doing so... Seems like a bit of an effort so I probably won't.  That's my way.  It's organic... That's how I roll...  Probably not the best way to drive those rankings up, though so I'm asking you what is.  How do (if) you do it?

Filed under  //   Category: Social media   blogroll   google   link building   links   ranking   search   seo   social media   strategy  

Comments [0]

February 8, 2010
 

SEO Is Dead!

Oooh, that's a controversial title, isn't it?  I suppose I'd better substantiate this wild claim...

What is SEO?

From Wikipedia: "Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web sitefrom search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion. Typically, the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence."

Surely search is still important?

It is.  Saying "SEO is dead" is a bit of an overstatement really.  It's still important as people still use search engines but it's not as important as it used to be because the realtime web and and viral propagation are taking over.  This means that when you do search for something on Google (or whatever) the realtime search results will come up before those with high page ranks.  Also, which is better: A search engine listing or a recommendation from a friend or trusted source?

So what is more important than SEO?

Anyone that regularly reads my my posts will probably already know that my answer for this question is social media!  I've said it before and I'll say it again, this does not mean banging your press releases out over Twitter and leaving it at that.  It's much more than that.  You've got to engage and above all else, you have to listen!  Only with real engagement will you be able to build a community of evangelists.  You need to build a relationship with your target demographic.  Engagement leads to trust, trust leads to evangelism, evangelism leads to virality, virality leads to WIN.

So should we forget about SEO?

Definitely not.  You still need it because there are always those special deep searches for finding out the stuff that not a lot of people know.  Also there are always niche applications where you may not easily build a community (although I'm yet to find one).  There is also the added bonus that someone might find you via Google and enter your community via the back door.

The back door

So SEO isn't dead, it's just that since building the extension, what was your front door has now become your back door.  Social media is the new front door!

Filed under  //   Category: Social media   marketing   search   seo   social media   techforce   twitter   viral   virality   web  

Comments [0]

June 29, 2009
 

Twitter - It Didn't Work For Hitler And It Won't Work For You

Noresults

I am excluded from Twitter search.  Search for anything I've posted and it won't show.  I have contacted Twitter Support via their support application several times and every time, without fail I have been bounced straight to "Twitter Rules" area of their support forum and the support ticket has been closed.  Because they haven't actually communicated with me in any way I have had to read the Twitter Rules and draw my own conclusions.  Interesting that the TOS on the main Twitter website makes no reference to these so called Twitter Rules at all...

I churn follow.  Following a lot of people, some of whom follow back and some don't.  I then manually go through and keep the interesting stuff.  Some people don't like this technique because spammers also do this.  Although they are generally 100% automated and obviously only keep those who follow back.  For me I've actually found this technique really valuable and have made contacts that I would not have made otherwise.  According to the Twitter Rules, this spammer like behavior should be punished so I'm guessing this is why I don't show up in Twitter search.  The fact that I don't actually spam or have anything to sell whatsoever is neither here nor there.  I look like a spammer from a distance so I must be punished...

Based on this logic, the following must also apply:

  • We must kill anyone with a beard and rucksack, for they look like terrorists
  • Arrest anyone wearing a stripey jumper because they are obviously a burglar
  • Punish people wearing hooded tops and/or baseball caps because they will steal your Grannie's handbag
  • Come down hard on anyone with a violin case because there might be a machine gun in it
  • We must bomb the crap out of any country that may have weapons we don't think they should have
I could go on...

Come on Twitter, this is just a little ridiculous...

It didn't work for Hitler and it won't work for you.

There are many people in a similar position to myself.  Sort it out and actually do some work to fight real spammers.  You know that really isn't Britney Spears, right?

Filed under  //   @LStacey   Category: Social media   hitler   nazi   prison   punishment   search   social media   spam   twitter  

Comments [5]