Lani Osborn says:

Thank you for this great article look forward to linking with someone soon!

Linda Nagamine says:

Your insight on SEO is so helpful. Your explanation is easy to understand and I don’t need a web master to implement any of your suggestions. THANK YOU !

Kelly Frohnauer says:

Great tip! I have known this for a little while now and have tried to link up with others…it’s harder than you’d think! No one seems to want to take the time to exchange links anymore. Well, if anyone reading this is in the same boat, I would like to exchange links. I sell skin care products and have some information on taking care of your skin. Please contact me via my website: http://www.nfbotanicals.com

We’ll see each other at the top! 🙂

Thanks! Kelly

Tony says:

At the end of the day, as long as you have a good Title Tag and get quality links, you will be fine. There is this myth that seo “changes” over time, which it does, to an extent, but it’s still all about a steady stream of quality links.

Kelly Frohnauer says:

I have a question….
Do the links have to be “visible” on the page or can they be hard-coded into the website name text? What I mean is, should the active link say the actual .com name that it is linking to or can it say just, for example, Entreprenette Gazette and have the actual webpage link embedded in that text?

Lauren Fairbanks says:

@SuzyMac – Sending out mass emails asking for links when your content isn’t at all relevant to the site you want to get a link from is frowned upon. When you’re in the beginning stages of link building, it’s important to target a few sites or companies that are similar in nature to your own, so that you can ask for a link – or another good way to build links is to offer to guest blog on another high ranking blog or company website, and link back to your own website somewhere in the post.

@Kelly – Great website! A perfect option for you would be to reach out to beauty bloggers that have a strong following and offer to write a blog post about beauty tips, or have them review one of your products and link back to your website. You can get creative with link building without sending out generic emails that get no responses. It does take time and persistence, though.

@Tony – SEO does change over time – pretty frequently actually. Google is constantly updating their search algorithm and no one actually knows the exact formula for ranking at the top. What we do know, however, is that high quality links play a very major role. Relevant keywords and phrases, fresh content on a regular basis, and correct meta tags are also very important, but link building is the crux of it.

@Trees Houston – you’re right. If SEO were easy, we’d all be on the first page of Google for our respective keywords. There are many levels of SEO – this tidbit is great for small biz owners who don’t have an SEO or SEM budget, but still want to try a few simple tips themselves. An SEO firm (like ours) uses a combination of strategies, including link building, directory submissions, content generation, ongoing keyword research and implementation, and website tagging. Doing all of the above will get the best results, but if you had to choose one thing to focus on, link building is your best bet.

@Kelly – Great question. Having links in your content, embedded in text, is actually better than just having them in a blogroll somewhere on the website. For instance, mentioning a similar website’s blog post, and linking to it within the content. It’s more organic. Linking a url in text that’s a relevant keyword is the most ideal option. Ex: “[Lotion.com]-(linked) is offering 10% off their next order.” isn’t as good as “[Online beauty store]-linked, Lotion.com, is offering 10% off their next order.”

Denise Duffield-Thomas says:

This is great – SEO can seem so confusing, esp to new entrepreneurs. To my clients who are newbies to business, I just say – start blogging regularly on a topic you enjoy writing about. Worry about that other stuff later.

Now I’ve been blogging for a while, I’ll generally check out google’s free keyword tool, in case there’s a better phrase I can use (there usually is) – it has improved my traffic but the best thing I’ve done is simply a weekly article NO MATTER WHAT.

Suzie Kane says:

I find that user activity is important, too. Like: a low bounce rate, multiple page views, longer time on site, etc. The age of site helps,too, along with solid, unique content.