Method #2 - Submitting Your Blog Posts to Article Submission Sites

Another easy way to build links to your site is by submitting your blog posts to article submission sites. Article submission sites are a great opportunity to promote your best blog posts. As an author, you submit your posts along with an author information box which contains information about you and a link to your site. These sites take your article and publish it on their site for use by webmasters and bloggers as content on their sites. When other people use your article on their site, they are required to publish it with your author information box completely intact. That translates to a backlink from every site that uses your article in addition to the backlink you get from the article submission site itself. One good article could garner you a multitude of backlinks!

Here is an example of an article that has been submitted to GoArticles.com:

As you can see, the publisher guidelines are very visible at the top to remind those who would like to use this article that they must include the author's information when it is published on their site. Also note the "About the Author" area (this is the author information box) and how it contains a link to the author's site. Every time this article is published on someone's site, James Kobzeff gets a backlink to his site, www.proapod.com. He even gets one from here too since I just published his article.

When you submit your articles to these sites, you want to be sure that they are added to the category that is most closely aligned with your keywords. Virtually all article submission sites have a real estate category and that is where you will want to add your articles. This will ensure that the right publishers find your article and that you get the best quality link possible from the article submission site itself.

It is also important to change your article a bit before submitting it to these sites. You don't want to give these sites the same exact article you have published on your own site. I recommend that you change the article so that it is about 35% different from the post on your site. You may also want to tone down the use of your keywords so that your article appeals to a broader audience and is published by more sites. Try rewriting your article using your farm area as an example so as to keep some of your keywords without overwhelming the article with them.

Lastly, vary the anchor text you use for the link to your site within the author information box. Don't just use "www.yoursite.com "-use your keywords and site title in various combinations to get the best backlink possible. Using your variations of your keywords as your anchor text increases your link's value in the eyes of Google and the other search engines.

Here are 10 article submission sites to get you started:

www.goarticles.com

www.ezinearticles.com

www.articledashboard.com

www.articlesfactory.com

www.articles-hub.com

www.bestezines.com

www.buzzle.com

www.isnare.com

www.articlecity.com

www.articlebiz.com

As you do research into other article submission sites, you may come across services that claim to allow you to submit your article automatically to multiple sites in one click. Like I have mentioned in previous posts, do not pay for services such as these. If they do not offer their services for free, it is most likely a scam.

Remember, the more articles you submit, the more backlinks you will get so try to do this on a regular basis. To start, try submitting one rewritten blog post to the directories listed above each week. Use this backlinking method as a part of a complete link building strategy and you will be on your way to search engine success!

Related Posts:

Backlinks: The Key To Search Engine Success

Basic Backlinking Methods That Get Results: Blog & RSS Feed Directory Submissions

SEO 101: Choosing Your Keywords

Once you have decided what keywords you will be targeting, the next step is to use them throughout your site. Using your keywords correctly is vital to ranking for them in the search engines. Now that you know why you need your keywords on your site, let's talk about how and where you should use your keywords on your site.

#1 - Your Domain Name

To Google and the rest of the search engines, domain names are important elements of websites. The search engines take into consideration the age of your domain name and the length of time for which it is registered. Secondarily, they register whether or not a domain name contains the site's keywords. Not having your keywords in your domain name doesn't severely harm your site's ranking potential by any means but having them in there will give your site additional value. Aim to incorporate your keywords into your domain name in a way that reads naturally. A good example is our client Marc Blasi's real estate blog, www.palmbeachrealestateandloans.com. The primary keywords for his site are "Palm Beach Real Estate" and "Palm Beach Loans". As you can see, he has created a domain name that is not only keyword-rich, but memorable and useful for marketing.

Resource: Video from SEOBook on Domain Names and Search Engine Marketing

#2 - Your Content

Having keywords in your content is how you will attain good keyword density. This is needed on your site to rank for your chosen terms. Your goal is to weave your keywords into your site's content in a way that reads well and does not come off to the search engines as keyword spamming. Follow these three rules to achieve your goal:

• Use your keywords in all of your post titles.
• Use your keywords a minimum of three times within each post.
• Be clever and come up with ways to use keywords in your content without them sticking out like a sore thumb. Example: Say the keyword you are targeting is "Coconut Creek Homes". Use a title like "The Ultimate Guide to Buying Homes in Coconut Creek". Bear in mind that the search engines are smart enough to pick up your keywords even if they are slightly out of order.

Resource: SEM Bootcamp: How Search Engines See Keywords

Next week, I will cover using your keywords in other areas of your site for additional SEO value. Check out The Real Estate Expert Network often for more helpful SEO and blogging tips!

Related Posts:

SEO 101: Choosing Your Keywords

The Buzz on Blogs and Why Your Real Estate Business Needs One

So we have covered what backlinks are and the reason why you need them. Now it's time to start building some links. Back in the day, link building was a tedious and time-consuming process as the best way to get links was to solicit others in your industry and ask them to place a link on their site to yours. This of course was before blogging was popular so the web wasn't nearly as interactive as it is today. Link building is still the most challenging part of SEO but now there are more effective ways to obtain links to your site. Today, we will explore one of the top methods to get backlinks for your site. But before we get started, there are a couple of things to remember when beginning your link building campaign:

• Pay attention to the PageRank of any site you are trying to get a backlink from. Links from sites with a high PageRank will help you more than links from those with little to no PageRank. Aim to get as many links from sites with a PageRank 5 or better and avoid seeking links from any site with a PageRank of less than 3. Check the PageRank of the sites by running the RankQuest toolbar in your browser. Following this piece of advice will save you time and energy as well as enhance the overall value of your site.

• Avoid paying for backlinks. There are many sites out there trying to make a buck and are charging to give your site a link. More often than not, sites of that nature do not have good PageRank and a link from them would really be worthless to you. Not to mention that Google is catching on to people who purchase backlinks in bulk and penalizing them for it.

Now, let's build some links!

Method #1 - Submitting Your Site to Blog & RSS Feed Directories

Blog & RSS feed directories are like mini search engines. They allow a person to search through blogs and feeds for information on any given topic. Having your blog or feed listed in these directories creates a very valuable backlink for your site.

When submitting to blog directories, you are often required to create an account, describe your site and submit your site's URL. Be sure to use your keywords when they ask for a title or description for your site so you get the best backlink possible. Here are 5 directories you can submit your blog to now-for FREE:

DMOZ-PR 9

ZoomInfo-PR 7

Business Week-PR 7

Web World Index-PR 6

Illumirate-PR 5

RSS feed directories are a little bit different. Here you are not submitting your site's URL. Instead, you are submitting the URL to the feed of your blog's content. For Dev Element clients, you can get your feed URL by clicking on the RSS Subscribe button on your site. This will take you to your actual RSS feed. The URL that appears in the browser for that page is your RSS feed's URL. Simply drop that URL into the appropriate area when asked for it during submission and you are good to go! Here are 5 FREE RSS Feed Directories to check out now:

Globe of Blogs-PR 7

EatonWeb Directory-PR 6

RSS Spider-PR 4

Read A Blog-PR 4

Blogarama-PR 4

Be sure to keep track of all of your submissions. This way you will know who you are listed with and can be sure not to duplicate submissions (directories don't like dups!). Directories do have rules that you need to follow when submitting your site so be sure that you follow them to ensure that you get listed as soon as possible. If at first you don't get accepted or listed, review the reason(s) why you did not make the cut and resubmit. This is especially important with sites that have exceptional PageRank-you want that link!

Recommended Resources on Blog Directories:

20 Essential Blog Directories to Submit Your Blog To by Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal

Submitting to Web Directories to Build Your Link Profile-Video from SEOBook

Role of Directories in Link Building by Eric Enge of SEOMoz

Related Posts:

Backlinks: The Key To Search Engine Success

SEO 101: Choosing Your Keywords

The Buzz on Blogs and Why Your Real Estate Business Needs One

Let's talk briefly about what SEO is exactly.

From Wikipedia:

"Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results for targeted keywords. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS) or the higher it "ranks", the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can also target different kinds of searches, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines. As a marketing strategy for increasing a site's relevance, SEO considers how search algorithms work and what people search for."

I couldn't have said it any better myself J

These days, SEO is required for a website or blog to have any success in the search engines, even if it is only a minimal effort. There are a number of ways to properly SEO your site and we will get into all of those methods in future posts. For now, we will start at the beginning with choosing your keywords. As mentioned in the above definition, the goal of SEO is to get your site to rank in the search engines for targeted keywords.  Keywords are the terms that people use in the search engines to find information on the web. The idea when choosing keywords is to select terms that people are already using to find information related to your product or service. By ranking well in the search engines for particular keywords related to your business, it allows people to find your product or service when they want it, therefore giving you an opportunity to gain a lead or even better, a sale. Now that you know the value of keywords, let's move on to how you go about selecting the best keywords for your site.

The first step is to do some brainstorming. Think to yourself, "If I was looking for information about my product or service, what terms would I use in my search to find what I need?"  Virtually everyone reading this will be involved in the real estate market in some capacity. If you are a real estate agent or broker, chances are you are trying to attract buyers and sellers in your local area. Put yourself in your target audience's shoes-what keyword terms would you use to find out about real estate in your local area? For example: I live in Palm Beach County, Florida. If I was in the market for a home, I would probably search for terms like "Palm Beach Real Estate", "Homes in Palm Beach County", "Real Estate in Palm Beach", etc. Write down as many keyword terms as you can that you think your target audience would use in their search.

Resource: Having trouble coming up with keyword ideas? Use the Google Keyword Tool to generate ideas for keywords. Enter any terms you have come up with into the noted area and let Google give you some good ideas. This tool will also show you how often your terms are searched for and how competitive the market is for each keyword.

The next step is to do some homework. Your goal is to determine the 10 best keywords for your site. Why 10? 10 keywords cast a large enough net to get you as much traffic and business as possible. Choose too many keywords and you dilute their effect-choose too few and you may be selling yourself short. When you are researching your keywords, you want to find out which of the terms in your list are the most highly searched. Use the following FREE tools to choose the best terms:

Google Keyword Tool-As mentioned above, this tool will show you how often terms are searched for and how fierce the competition is for each keyword.

SEOBook Keyword Suggestion Tool-This tool will give you the stats not only for the keyword you entered but will also give you related keywords with their stats as well

Keyword Discovery-A good source of keyword stats

Wordtracker-Another great free tool for keyword data

Compare the data you retrieve from these various keyword tools. Try to choose keywords that are popular but keep in mind that the more competitive the term, the harder it will be to rank for it. Once you have chosen your keywords, it is time to implement them on your site. They need to be located in the HTML code on your site in the meta data-contact your webmaster if necessary for clarification. For Dev Element clients, you can change your keywords yourself so email me at njames@develementllc.com for instructions if needed.

In my next post, we will explore some of the many ways that you can optimize your site for the keywords you have chosen. Visit The Real Estate Expert Network often for more great blogging and SEO tips!

Welcome to the first in a series of posts designed to teach you all you need to know about backlinks and link popularity. How this works: each week there will be a new post giving you greater insight into the importance of backlinks along with the resources you need to get started on your own link building campaign.

The Definition of Backlinks

Backlinks are defined as links on other sites throughout the web that link back to your site.

An example: Aaron Wall is considered to be an authority on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and following his advice can help your site rank well in the search engines. Visit seobook.com to learn more about his SEO strategies. The link to seobook.com that I placed in the previous sentence is a backlink to Aaron Wall's site.

Having a number of sites that link to your site creates link popularity. Basically, the more sites that link to your site, the better your site's link popularity. Link popularity is of particular interest to the search engines-it tells the engines whether or not your site is considered by others to be an authority on your particular subject, product, or service.

The Importance of Backlinks

Backlinks are a key component in achieving your desired placement in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). The success of your link building campaign can make or break your site. It really makes the difference when trying to place in the search engines for particular keyword terms. For example: Site A and Site B are in first and second place on the first page of Google for the term "Palm Beach Real Estate". The sites are similar in every way with the exception that Site A has 1,000 other sites linking to it and Site B only has 750. Site A is going to be #1 in Google for that term just because it has better link popularity.

Don't be Site B!

Consider yourself lucky if you are #2 in Google for your keyword terms and are vying for the top spot. If you are just getting started, here are a few simple rules to get you on your way:

• Have Content, Will Travel-Make sure your site has a solid amount of content before beginning to build backlinks. If you have a blog, 30 days worth of content is recommended. If you begin before you have good content, you may be wasting your time.
• Slow and Steady Wins the Race-When you begin your link building campaign, you want to be careful not to obtain too many links too quickly. That can seem spammy to the search engines and won't be nearly as effective as creating backlinks steadily over time. 5 to 10 links per day is a good rule of thumb to follow to achieve solid results.
• Patience Is A Virtue-It can take time for the search engines, especially Google, to register the backlinks you have created. Search engine spiders crawl the entire web and that takes time! You can check your progress in Google by typing "links:www.yourdomainhere.com" into the search field. Check in often to see the fruits of your labor.

Recommended Reading

The following are links to some great material that will give you an overview of link building as well as ideas of how to create links. We will get into the various ways to build links in future posts but these articles will get your brain's link building juices flowing!

Searchengineworkshops.com's 125 (Legitimate) Link Building Strategies-This article provides an overview of ways to create links and will be a useful resource in your link building campaign

The Blogger's Guide To SEO by Aaron and Giovanna Wall-Written by one of the best in the SEO business, Aaron Wall, this guide covers not only link building but all aspects of proper SEO for a blog site

LinkBuildingWiki.com-A great resource that compiles the greatest articles on link building ever written

Check in next week for the next post in this series-Basic Backlinking Methods That Get Results