Outgoing Links For Better SEO

Outgoing Links - Why Use Them

Outgoing links from pages and posts have become increasingly important for determining a page's rank.  SEO masters know this and use outgoing links to increase their overall page ranking.

Now you maybe thinking to yourself, why do I want to give away backlinks for free by linking out?  It seems to be a contradiction when trying to attract website visitors by then sending them away.  As it turns out, providing links creates what is known as a hub site.  A great example of this is the Drudge Report,where the home page is mostly backlinks to other news sources and stories.  Complete websites are designed around the outgoing links concept.  Yahoo, where the concept of a hub site was

Long Tail Keywords

A “Long Tail Keyword” is a set of keywords grouped together to form a phrase.  The opposite of these long tailed keywords are Head Terms, which are short, phases such as "Weight Lifting" or "Hula Hooping". 

In general, Long Tail Keywords consist of between three to five words and should be relevant to your site or the article being written. The advantage of using a Long Tailed Keyword approach is there isn't as much competition, thus it is easier to rank for.  When coming up with these longer keywords, make sure they are relevant to your website and niche.

Since Long Tail Keywords are highly specific, and draw less traffic, they tend to draw more quality hits to an article or page, which leads in more conversions if products are being sold.

How To Integrate with Google+ and Create a Rich Snippet

Last night I was determined to figure out how to integrate my EndTheTrendNow.com website with Google+.  It took me a little bit to figure out the correct procedure, but in the end I got it.  So to save you loads of time I thought I would share How To Integrate With Google+

History

But before I begin, a little background on what Google Calls Rich Snippets.  Google tries to present users with the most useful and informative search results. The more information a search result snippet can provide, the easier it is for users to decide whether that page is relevant to their search. With Google+ and rich snippets, you can now provide a picture of your Google+ account to go along with an entry.  Now it is still up to Google as to whether the Rich Snippet gets displayed.

Google needs 2 pieces if information to connect a website to a Google+ Account
1. Your Website or Blog must be listed as part of your Google+ Contributor's links and must be public.
2. You must add your Google+ Author account information to the website

Setting Up a Google+ Contributor link

Great SEO Blogs

If you are looking to learn a lot about SEO, nothing will help more than learning from the experts.  Here are some of my favorite SEO Blogs/Websites on the net today.

BlogStorm
Digital Points
iBlogZone
Jim's Blog
Search Engine Land
SEOBook
SEO Desk
SEOMoz
SEOPtimise
Yoast

Cool Google Search Tricks

Google Search Tricks

link: SiteName.com Provides a random list of sites that link to the SiteName.com website.  The search will certainly not bring up all backlinks, but it is a quick way to check to see who is actually linking to you at a high level.

intitle:Keyword site:SiteName.com will return results from a given website where the keyword is in the title.

site:SiteName.com Keyword will return results where the Keyword is on the page, title or anchor text.

Finding Your Google+ Id

Trying to find your Google+ or Google Plus ID might seem like looking for a needle in a haystack until you really know your way around the Google+ interface.  For what ever reason Google hasn't made it abundantly clear where it is or how to find it.

Finding Your Google+ id

1. Log into your Google+ account
2. Click the profile tab on the left
3. Check the Address Bar at the top

Your Google+ id is in the address bar and should look something like my Google+ id https://plus.google.com/u/0/102231285956381340743/posts

The long numeric string "102231285956381340743", yours will be different, is your Google+ id

site:domain.com Google Keyword Trick

There is a little not so known trick that can be used when you want to figure out what Google is indexing for your website based on a set of keywords.

In the Google Search Bar enter "site:Your Domain Name.com" + the keyword or keywords

Example
site:EndTheTrendNow.com "Medicine Ball Workouts"

In the Example above Google would return all the relevant pages for "Medicine Ball Workouts" for the website EndTheTrendNow.com

Overcoming Google's "Not Provided"

Recently I learned via the Warrior's Forum how to semi-overcome the problem with Google Analytic's new "Not Provided" issue.  Now of course this isn't the ultimate fix, but it sure helps tell you where the "Not Provided" traffic is going.

Steps to track "Not Provided"

1. Open Google Analytics and Select the Website in Question
2. Select Traffic Sources --> Sources --> Search --> Organic
3. Add a second dimension by clicking the [second dimension] button
4. Select Traffic Sources --> Landing Page
5. Add the search Not Provided in the search box and click return (this will filter all the other keywords)

You should now see the "Not Provided" with the accompanying landing page.   You still don't have the actual keyword used, but this will at least give you a better understanding of where people are going.

Google Analytics Not Provided

Keywords Be Gone!

Google in it's infinite wisdom decided to block organic keyword information from being displayed aka "Not Provided" in Google Analytics. 

Last year Google began encrypting search queries with SSL - Secure Sockets Layer as the default for users who are logged into their Google products like Gmail, Google Analytics, Google AdWords, Google+...

Google estimated that this would be under 10% of Organic searches.  This has resulted much more keyword data being omitted from displayed in Google Analytics.

Well I can tell you that at least for me it is already at 20% and climbing.  If Google+ grabs hold and people really start using it, that number will grow drastically.

Here is a great video on Google+ that discusses what Google+ is and what it is not.