The market is full of tools that promise the top 10 positions in Google, 1000 backlinks in seconds and so on.

Here is a list of things NOT to do in a link building strategy.

1 . Do not submit your site to more than 50 directories in a month. These should be types of directories where are you are sure that your site will appear.

Submit to more and you will get the sandbox effect on your site – that is pages that are in sandbox drop lots of positions and end up on the bottom of the rankings and stay there for a lot of time. (see here for more)

2. Do not make link exchanges site-wide. Site wide means with the whole site. You will see it doesn’t help you more than a link exchange with a relevant page that is positioning good in SERPS (Search engine result pages).

3. Do not place your link in forum signatures.You will see no difference in SERPS.Why? Its like the site-wide link exchange but more irrelevant.

4. Do not make link exchanges with sites that have more than 100 links on a page (internal links and external links). First of all Google will see that page as spammy.

Another reason is that the PR juice (- the benefit of connecting to pages with a high ranking) be divided into 100 pieces and you will have 1/100 of the “cake”.

5.  Do not use stupid anchors. If you submit your site to a directory articles or somewhere else. Only use the Keywords that you want to optimize.

6 . Don’t use the same anchor more than once on a page. In exchanging links, if an anchor is used on a page more than once to different sites, there will be a problem. What should you do? Add a dash “-“ to the anchor if  you can’t use other keywords. Why? If you search seo or seo – in Google you get same results.

7. Do not make lots of backlinks in a short time without them being completely relevant!! You will get the sandbox effect! (see 1. above)

8. Link exchanges or one way links MUST BE MADE only with relevant content to your site. DONT LOOK for Page Rank.You need higher ranks in SERPS not a bigger PAGE RANK.

9. In exchanging links, use URLS that have keywords in them. This is crucial.

10. Do not create more than one site on the same IP just for exchanging links between them. There’s no value in that.

11. Do not just make link exchanges with the home page of the site. Use internal pages from your site.

Source: How to not start link building for a site – mistakes in seo

Patience is needed in seo

Why does it take time for search engine optimisation work to show any results?

Many companies will try one SEO technique after another in quick succession, simply because they are not aware that it all takes time. Eventually they will end up blaming the techniques, and even the SEO companies they are paying, for being ineffective.

Companies should be aware that any SEO campaign should be run for at least three months before the results become visible in the search engine rankings. And if you’re wondering why, its because links to your website from other sites have a strong influence on your ranking – and more than that, Google and others are placing increasing importance on the value of the links – see my blog on the importance of good links and also the age – how long that link has been connected to you.

So you see? In order to evaluate those factors it would take time – and in addition, since a link from a page with low Google Page Rank takes longer to be found, then it would also take longer for them to have a positive effect on your site’s ranking. As they say, “patience is virtual.”

Source: Duncan Carver “Good things take time”

Getting seen in local search is more important than you may realise

Back in May 2009, David Mihm reported on a survey he conducted on the factors most helpful for ranking well in the Google and Yahoo Local algorithms, as well as techniques to be avoided. Here is a summary of the top nine most helpful factors:

Importance of General Factors

1. Verified Local Business Listing.
   You need to register with the local listings for Google and Yahoo. This places you as a verified local business/ organisation.
2. Off-Page / Off-Listing Criteria
   You need to establish your website’s authority, with Geo links from directory sites, local review sites with listings that have user submitted photos and web-references, and sites in your niche.
3. Customer Reviews
   Find the sites of authority in your niche and location, and getting reviews of your site on them is important, but slightly less influential than getting reviews directly inside Google maps or on yahoo local.
4. Traditional On-Page Criteria
   In highly competitive markets on-page factors become more and more important and should not be ignored. Apart from that, other than the business website being recognized as the authoritative source of info about that business, traditional organic SEO factors on that website don’t have much influence on the local, non-organic, rankings.

Significant Positive Factors

1. Your Local Business Listing Address is in the City of Search
   The importance of having an address inside the search city depends on the type of business you have. A plumber would not have to worry as much as a Chinese take-away.
2. Citations from Major Data Providers
   ‘citation’ or ‘web reference’ is a reference to your business on some other website. It is not necessarily a link  and always contains your business address and/or phone number. Citations and web references from well-known local directories, such as Yell.com or Thomson local etc are equivalent to getting good links in non-local seo. Here is a great list of where to list your business for UK Local Search.
3. Associating Local Business Listing with Correct Categories
   Make sure the category that you’re listed in is correct, and if you can also include your page’s keywords this improves your ranking.
4. General Importance of Claiming a Local Business Listing
   Registering your business in the local listing also involves including extra information about your business, which leads to better targeting and ranking.
5. Your product or service Keywords in the Local Business Listing Title.
   It is important to make your keywords fit naturally; obvious keyword stuffing will end up bringing your ranking down.

You need strong links to good content

To gain a higher ranking in Google and other search engines -  which enables people who search for the keywords you are using to find you -  its very important to  have good content on your website that includes the keywords that you want to optimise. The time to begin thinking about this content and the keywords is during the early planning and design stages. There are many resources on the web to find out more about this, and you will also need to talk about it with your web designer from the start.

When the site is finished and has become live, you need to find reputable directories and sites that relate to your industry. You can ask for your site to be listed in them, and ideally the link on those sites to yours would contain the keywords that your are using. So if you are using web design croydon as a key phrase,  say, you need to make the link that connects to you ‘web design croydon‘  and not ‘www.ripplenet.co.uk’.

Some directories ask for payment, and you need to be discerning about who you pay for, as some are not worth it. The better ones have a high page rank, which you can get an idea of if you use the Google toolbar.