Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Duplicate Content Causes and Some Easy Fixes

September 12, 2014 Beth Devine

Duplicate content is just what it says it is – content that appears in more than one place. When duplicate content occurs on the internet, search engines can’t be relied upon to decide which is the most relevant version to give when someone makes a search.

Search engines will display all the relevant results, but won’t show the duplicate content versions. Google and the other search engines have to choose which version is the original one, or which is the best one.

What does this mean for your website? Your SEO can be compromised. Your duplicate content links are diluted, and your ranking potential for a given keyword is reduced.

Most of the causes for duplicate content are technical and baffle those of us who remain un-techified. The fixes, however, are often less daunting.

Here are the most common duplicate content causes and some easy fixes.

URL Parameters that track data

An SEO-friendly URL won’t have parameters, and if it does, no more than two should be used. Parameters are the part of the URL that provides data for correct retrieval of records.

For example, these two sample links demonstrate different parameters for tracking data:

http://www.example.com/keyword-x/

http://www.example.com/keyword-x/?source=rss

Be sure to tell your programmer to always build your parameters in the same order. See, that’s easy to do!

Link Back to Original Content

Duplicate content that comes from outside your own site can be “scraped,” or used without your consent. This leaves the search engine with another version to rank, making competition in ranking for your original version.

Because search engines aren’t able to effectively filter out original content from the scraped content, website owners should create links to their own sites within their content. This way scraped content will point back to the original content and allow for some potential traffic.

If the links aren’t removed by the scrapers, it could also help search engines to determine the original content if enough links point to your site.

Session IDs

For every website visitor you have, a different session ID is stored in the URL. This is used for ecommerce sites that want to keep track of visitors and make storing items in a shopping cart possible.

A unique ID number is added to the URL for every visitor to your site, and for every page of your site. For example:

http://site.com/product?id=1234567890

http://site.com/product?id=1234567891

http://site.com/product?id=1234567892

The other option is to disable session IDs in your systems settings and instead allow cookies for tracking visitor’s products.

Printer Friendly Pages

If you have a link on your website that reads something like “click here for a printer-friendly version,” you have duplicate content.

Every time a visitor follows this link, a separate document containing duplicate content is loaded, search engines will find these and decide which version to show.

Because you want the version that contains all your additional site information, not just the stripped-down, printable version, you should use a print style sheet.

Since this is a rather un-techie solution, ask your web developer to help you. Or you can go to the WordPress Styling for Print page to see for yourself.

Pick Either WWW or non-WWW

Search engines still can get this wrong when it’s possible to access both versions of your site. Solving this problem means choosing your preferred domain and telling Google which site should be shown in search engine page results – the one with the WWW or the one without it.

Take your pick:

http://www.example.com/example.html

http://example.com/page.html

Get your easy fix to this split-identity issue by following my help in Improve Your WordPress Site’s SEO With a Single URL. Remember, if I can do it, so can you.

Remember to stay consistent when you link within your website and always stick with your preferred domain.

Two More Duplicate Content Solutions

Sometimes you want to have multiple versions of a page available for users, or you simply can’t get rid of it. You can manage this duplicate content in two ways.

1. Adding a Canonical URL Link

Once you’ve chose your preferred domain, you might need to add the rel=”canonical” links to the <head> section of your site. It will look like this:

2. Do a 301 Redirect

Another option for dealing with wrong URLs for content is to redirect them. A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect that’s set up from the duplicate content page and sent to the original content paging, passing the ranking power to the redirected or original page.

See Improve Your WordPress Site’s SEO With a Single URL for instructions.

For the non-techies, this could prove to be confusing, so ask for help.

For a great tool to check for duplicate content, use Google Webmaster Tools. Go to Search Appearance, and then HTML Improvements to see if there’s any concerns you should know about.

Are You Botching Up Your WordPress Site’s SEO?

September 5, 2014 Beth Devine

It’s true that WordPress is one of the best content management systems out there. What’s not true is that when you hit publish on a post, you are now done with your SEO.

There is a lot you can do to optimize your WordPress site for search engines. Chances are, no matter what you are doing, you’re still not doing enough.

Here are 5 SEO actions you don’t want to botch up for your WordPress SEO.

1. Set Preferred Pages By Choosing a Canonical URL

Look like uber-geek computer talk to you? It’s not as difficult to do as it sounds. When you choose a canonical URL, you’re telling search engines how to find you.

If there’s too many choices, your search rankings will be lower. By telling Google and other search engines how to find you, they won’t end up picking from multiple options of the same page.

Your first step in choosing a canonical URL is to decide if you want it to be http://www.yoursite.com or http://yoursite.com.

Tell WordPress which one you want (See Improve Your WordPress Site’s SEO With a Single URL )
Tell Google through Webmaster Tools
Use a plugin like WordPress SEO by Yoast so your canonical URL is always defined for each site page. With this plugin, “you automatically get canonical link elements for every page type in WordPress.”

2. Create Custom Titles and Descriptions

These titles and descriptions are what people see when they search for your site. Even if your site is ranked lower than other sites, your information on a given SERP can be more authoritative and receive greater response.

These two features provide your potential readers with concise data on each of your pages and posts:

The Meta Title is the headline replacement and displays in bold in the first line.
The Meta Description can be used instead of the first lines of your post to describe what it’s about.

This is a simple task that can be done using the WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin. For each page published, you input the desired title and descriptions, and the rest is done for you.

3. Do Your Categorization and Tagging

Using your categories and tags correctly is a way to increase website traffic, and it can also help visitors stay longer on your site.

Effective tagging lets search engines know what your pages are about, like a street sign tells travelers where to go. Tagging and categories indicate the relevant keywords on your site and should be equally limited and relevant. The “less is more” approach is the way to go.

4. Supply Google With a Sitemap

A sitemap is a file where you can list the web pages of your site to tell Google and other search engines about the organization of your site content. Search engine web crawlers like Googlebot read this file to more intelligently crawl your site. (Webmaster Tools)

So sitemaps are the way Google finds pages on your website. While there’s no guarantee Google will find every last page of your site, you won’t be penalized for creating a sitemap.

Thanks to the coding gods and goddesses, the process of setting up an XML sitemap is as automatic as one click. With either the Google XML Sitemaps or the WordPress SEO by Yoast, you can get your sitemap up and running in seconds.

5. Mark Up Your Site for Google+ Authorship

Or not.

In case you didn’t get the memo, last Thursday Google put the kibosh on its Google+ Authorship program, which let Google rank content based on the authority of who wrote it.

The long game of trying to rank on the gargantuan search engine is never over. There will be new ways to attempt better rankings, better search results, and better clickthrough rates.

But don’t count on Google to make it happen. Don’t count on anything outside of serving up great content that educates and entertains your audience. Give them exactly what they want.

Like Copyblogger suggests, if you want a “wider audience, more subscribers, better conversion to paying customers, fanatically loyal readers, and enviable word of mouth,” there’s one thing you need to do.

Giving your readers what they want means “treat your readers like dogs.” (Treating them like cats can work too.)

Instead of spending hours and hours on SEO, create great content that rewards your readers. Spend your time figuring out what they want and producing that content.

There is no perfect formula for SEO success, but there will always be this last hard and fast rule. Meet your audience’s needs first.

The latest SEO tactics, like the very promising Authorship program, will come and go, but your audience will continue to be there, asking for what they need to know.

SEO Benefits to Embedding Video

August 15, 2014 Beth Devine

Embedding video in your website has many SEO benefits, including the two-for-one benefit. You get two listings for the price of one – one for your website and one for your YouTube (or other hosting) channel.

We already discussed why embedding video is better than uploading on your WordPress site. By embedding videos and using YouTube as the host, you give search engines added content to rank. Since YouTube is a Google product, using YouTube for embedding videos gives your site that much more traffic-building power.

So how do you get the most out of embedding your videos?

Here are 8 tips to help your SEO with embedding video:

1. Name your video title with video keywords.

Google Trends is another way besides Adwords to see what keywords are good for your YouTube videos.

Go to Google Trends and begin a search for something. Then click on “Web Search” in the upper right and select “YouTube Search.” Check out the search queries used as well as the trend over time to see what keyword terms you might wish to try.

2. Describe your video.

Completely fill in the description portion using these same keywords. Use your website URL in the top line of your video description so viewers will see this first when they search.

3. Transcribe your video.

By adding a transcription of the video, you’re reinforcing the keywords with additional text. This is especially useful as well for how-to videos, giving users another way to view your explanation.

To do this, go to your video listings on your channel via Video Manager. Click on “Edit” then “Subtitles and CC,” “Add subtitles or CC,” and select a language. You can then choose to upload a file of your text or transcribe and set timings by typing in the text as the video plays. The video automatically pauses while you type.

4. Label your video.

You can add a watermark or other labeling by using Annotations. This is also a great way to add your website URL as a live link.

5. Link to your video from you website.

Don’t forget to add a link from your website to your YouTube video. This is another way for viewers to access your YouTube channel and your other videos, which are in turn all have links to your site.

The more your videos are viewed, the higher they can potentially rank in YouTube searches.

6. Create a video sitemap.

Or not! Video sitemaps are a way to make sure Google (and other search engines) index your video. The good news is when you embed YouTube videos, YouTube does the work for you, giving you much better visibility.

7. Place your video on a product page.

Placing your video in other locations such as a product page will help you to stand out in SERPs and give you a video thumbnail in the search results as well.

The added stickiness (increased time a viewer remains on a webpage) of video viewing is an indicator of page quality, another consideration in your rankings.

8. Don’t forget to share on social media!

It’s important to get inbound links to your video. By sharing your video on social media sites and email blasts, you are encouraging views, giving you increased website traffic.

This careful attention to your videos is good for your SEO because it helps search engines (and humans) to understand what type of content you are sharing. Optimize your website’s embedded video content and get your two-for-one benefit today.

Embedding vs Uploading Video to WordPress

August 7, 2014 Beth Devine

reasons to choose embedding video — This is a derivative of a photo by Filmm, used under CC BY.

When you add media to your WordPress website, your dashboard probably reads “upload new media.” With only a few clicks, you can upload images as well as videos.

But why choose uploading over embedding your videos? What are the benefits of embedding vs uploading video?

Uploading Video and Why It’s Risky

By uploading video in your WordPress dashboard, you are taking up space on your server. If you upload multiple videos, you could potentially take up too much space, and if many users attempt to view your video, your site load times could severely slow down.

Uploading a video uses your server’s bandwidth, and if other people link to or embed your video in their site, your own site will suffer even more from use of your bandwidth.

There is a file size limitation to video uploading. Your WordPress site will have a much more restrictive file size, whereas third-party sites such as YouTube will allow for much larger sizes.

Shared hosting servers (versus dedicated servers) offer an unlimited amount of bandwidth, but that won’t prevent them from suspending your account should you create enough stress on the server from a video being viewed by hundreds of people at once.

Not only does your server suffer (and everyone else who shares it), but your viewers also feel the pain of your uploaded video. They can experience slow loading, unexpected pauses, and refusal to play. Because bandwidth is a shared resource, this can grow even worse when other accounts on the server are also hosting videos.

The one clear benefit of uploading video is the autonomy it allows. You have complete control as a self-hosting platform. As long as your server is functioning, your video will also operate. But that’s pretty much where the benefit ends.

Embedding Video Is the Best Choice

The risks of uploading video clearly outweigh the benefits. Besides the risks involved with uploading video, embedding video is your preferred alternative for another critical reason: SEO.

Third-party servers that are dedicated to hosting your videos offer the added plus of bringing more views to your video and more viewers to your site.

Rather than detract from your SEO, viewing your embedded videos on sites like YouTube and Vimeo can add to your SEO. YouTube is currently ranked number three globally as a top site by Alexa, down recently from number two. Your videos have the benefit of being searched within YouTube as well as on other search engines.

What Are Pingbacks and Trackbacks?

July 18, 2014 Beth Devine

Think of pingbacks and trackbacks as cousins to your comments. Comments originate from visitors who visit your blog and decide to join the discussion. Pingbacks and trackbacks are the distant relatives who link to your site from other websites, sending you a notification when they publish a link from your site that will appear in your comment section.

Pingbacks and trackbacks are even more closely related, but they are definitely not identical twins. Both are forms of communication between websites, but pingbacks are automatic and depending on the WordPress theme, might not display any content, whereas trackbacks are created manually and include a content excerpt.

The Difference Between Pingbacks and Trackbacks

Pingbacks and trackbacks can be an effective tool to discover when and where your site is being mentioned and linked. It can also be used to determine if the site you’re being linked to is spam.

Here’s where the main difference between the two comes into play. They use very different communication technologies (pingbacks use XML-RPC and trackbacks use HTTP POST, in case you were dying to know), with pingbacks using an automatic verification process that makes it much harder for someone to fish for links for their spam site.

How to Use Pingbacks and Trackbacks

Trackbacks and pingbacks can be a great way to discover if your content is stolen. When you receive either of these in your comment section, always check its source before approving it.

When visiting the pingback or trackback source, check to see if their content is relevant to your niche, or if it’s a spam blog trying to steal traffic. If it’s a spammy site, don’t approve the link. No kidding, right?

To create your own pingback, all you need to do is link to another blog in your own blog post. Your pingback will appear in their comment section (as long as they’ve enabled pingbacks), allowing their readers to click through and read your post.

This is good for generating traffic, joining the conversation within a community, and earning the attention from a blogger who might in turn link to you.

Creating a trackback is possible for any site that offers a trackback URL in its post. This will usually be found near the comment section. It’s not necessary to create one when two WordPress sites are involved, because pingbacks will automatically generate.

How to Eliminate Pingbacks and Trackbacks

Besides not approving them, you can disable pingbacks and trackbacks from ever happening in your comments section.

In some cases, when you’ve been receiving too much pingback spam, or you’re concerned your site is being linked to spammy sites and your SEO will suffer, you can simply turn this option off.

Go to your WordPress Settings, then find Discussion, and at the top uncheck “Allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks).”

Linking to your own posts within your blog posts will create self-pings in your comment sections. These are called internal links and are good SEO practices, and can be a good way for readers to keep track of your other related posts.

But if you don’t wish to see them in your comments, you can paste a bit of code by following these “no self-ping” directions.

Fortunately, your comment’s cousins do not all have to be invited to your blog. This is your party after all.

Tell Your Story on Pinterest

January 8, 2014 Beth Devine

Social media is the place to be if you want to be heard. When you share information and tell your story in images, you are communicating in the format that speaks the loudest.

According to a Searchmetrics ranking study, Pinterest pins play a role in SEO ranking. Seven out of the top eight SEO website ranking factors are social media related, with Pinterest coming in at number seven.

Sharing on Pinterest is getting easier as updates are made to accommodate certain pin types and the Pinterest audience continues to grow. Getting your pins repinned is a way to spread the word and communicate your unique brand on social media.

Here are eight ways to get your story heard on Pinterest, the social curation site for the inner magpie in all of us.

8 Pin Ideas to Tell Your Story on Pinterest

1. Slideshare Presentations

Slideshare is a popular place for searching for interesting content. It’s easy pin button gets your presentations pinned, with viewing only a click away, taking users to the Slideshare site.

An attention-grabbing first-page image captures the pin. Fill your Slideshare story with more entertaining and educational images, such as this pin for the SES Singapore 2013, a Slideshare presentation comparing teenage sex to content marketing.

2. Videos

YouTube and Vimeo videos allow you to easily pin and then watch directly from Pinterest. Pinterest pins for videos captures both the still image and the potential for deeper engagement with film viewing.

Vimeo pins for Nokia’s N8 mobile phone short film competition showcases its phone’s capabilities while reaching a broad audience. Check out a winner in Daniel, the story of a boy who fought WWII with his foresight.

3. Memes

The best memes include both a visual and simple text that makes a statement or represents an idea. Your boards can embody your brand’s spirit and values based on the memes you pin.

Web Savvy Marketers’ Cats With Blog Appeal board features various cat memes created for our blogs and other fabulous felines for your entertainment.

4. Articles

Pinterest recently updated its site to include an article format. Now when you pin a favorite article – a great way to save to read later – your pin showcases the article headline, a short descriptive blurb, and its site origin.

If you want to enable your articles for the new look, learn how to apply for “rich pins.” Get a feel for the updated article pin while learning How Humans Created Cats.

5. DIY

How-to pins continue to be popular, and Lowe’s has capitalized on the idea. Their Build It! board displays a wide range of do-it-yourself ideas and is a wonderful resource that invites the user to come and play.

Your DIY board can include a host of projects that indirectly relate to your product, as well as ideas that capture your brand’s message.

6. Product Pins

Like the new article pins, product pins also include pricing, availability, and where to buy – all updated every day. Etsy models the product pins well. Their products are well integrated into Pinterest, including their own DIY board to celebrate their artists’ craftiness.

Follow the application for rich pins to get yours.

7. Infographics

For a great way to summarize data on a specific topic, share infographics on your Pinterest boards. Not only will it supply hours worth of data in one place, it’s visually appealing.

An effective infographic is easy to read and follow. Best of all, it includes valuable information that tells a story. This social media superhero infographic is a story that’s changing, and like all stories, will need to be revised to stay current.

8. Repurpose Content

Pinterest is perfect for repurposing content from your blog posts, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn posts. Be creative in how you share your story across the social media platforms. Don’t simply repost everything in identical format.

Think about the big picture you are trying to present when you choose your pins and boards. Follow that theme and tell your story so that it’s interesting, entertaining, and informative.

Pinterest Pins Get Tagged

With the recent purchase of VisualGraph, an image-recognition startup, Pinterest will acquire a system for tagging the photos posted to its site. Automatically detecting image contents could help Pinterest target ads based on the pins of users, as well as improving a user’s search for a particular item.

This means finding you on Pinterest will get easier. Make your story known with a little Pinterest help.

Are Social Media Signals Helping Your Search Engine Ranking?

November 13, 2013 Beth Devine

Why Use Social Media to Improve Search Engine Ranking?

When building a website, search engine ranking is an ever-changing horizon of influencing factors. Just when you think you figured it out, the view has changed and new elements have been added.

In a Social is the New SEO Hangout with Joshua Berg, Google+ SEO and SMO expert, and Mark Traphagen, Director of Digital Outreach for Virante Inc., we learn that Google is looking for social media signals.

When Google is ranking content, it looks for social media signals like how your content is shared, liked, +1ed, and commented on. Your authority on the Web has grown to include how well your content is doing in social channels.

But don’t panic. Old-school page ranking hasn’t gone away entirely. Keywords and link building, for example, are still important. It’s when you over-optimize your website with keyword stuffing and keyword repetition that will bring the wrath of Google upon it.

Ask “Does It Sound Right?”

Instead, do what Berg calls “natural writing,” or writing in a normal conversational language, varying your keywords and keyword phrases, using a “reasonable amount of mix and match throughout your pages.”

Write to create interesting, helpful content that users will want to share. This is where the social media signals come into play.

Google+ Exists for the Data

Google’s effort to improve search results means having a broader understanding of users’ experience and intent. Search and social media are no longer separate.

This is why, according to Traphagen, they created Google+. In order to better understand what you are discussing, sharing, and liking, they needed a social channel they had access to.

In terms of which social platforms will send strong social media signals, Berg says “Google+ will give you a much bigger advantage.”

Traphagen backs that up with a story of a user who noticed that a website’s higher ranking appeared to be directly related to Facebook shares. Matt Cutts, who heads Google’s Webspam team, responded affirmatively that this in no way caused a higher ranking.

Berg explains that this is partly due to no-follow tags in other social media platforms, whereas Google+ was created to have all follow links in everything. The overall effect of social media signals, Berg assures us, does include a diverse range from the different platforms, so don’t put your eggs all in one basket.

What is the Special Power of Google+?

Traphagen explained one of the special powers of Google+ is your profile. He says Google+ profiles are treated like a website. It provides Google with signals on who’s engaging with you and what website’s are linking to your Google+ profile.

He increased his own search rankings by linking back to his Google+ profile in the online articles he writes. The re-shares and other engagement from his content increases his profile authority, which in turn increases his search rankings.

A simple tip Traphagen shares is to include relevant keywords in your Google+ profile. Berg mentions including these keywords and natural-sounding phrases under the Google+ links section as well.

Take Your Authority to the Next Level

By combining well-written, interesting content with social media signals of engagement, you will be using a multi-faceted approach to a real online marketing practice.

Good content and good connections means better search engine results. It’s a horizon filled with possibilities.

Mark-up Your Website With Rich Snippets for Better SEO

October 9, 2013 Beth Devine

When you hear about mark-up for a website and you instantly think “code,” you’re only partly right. Maybe even mostly right. Because this whole rich snippet mark-up process means helping search engines to understand the content in your HTML, while still keeping it user-friendly for us humans.

This extra bit of text that appears under search results is a very good thing for search engine ranking and your website SEO.

There’s hope, however, for anyone who dreads HTML code like it’s a giant, eight-legged arachnid. If you want a rich snippet mark-up for better search results without the hassle of code, read on.

WordPress Plugins for Simple Rich Snippet Mark-up

Google has adopted the schema.org method of mark-up for websites, which is a structured data standard of microdata for search engines to make sense of . For example, if you write a review, and you mark-up your website with schema, you’re teaching the search engines not only about the item you reviewed, but also that it was you specifically that reviewed it.

If you have a website or blog that could benefit from mark-up for a person, product, event, organization, movie, book, or review, then an easy way to do this is with Schema-creator.org.

This site helps you create a schema, or code. Then you take this schema code and copy and paste it to your site. Super simple, right? But what if your content doesn’t fall into any of those categories?

If you have an in-depth article then you’re in luck, because a new WordPress plugin was created to qualify your content for Google’s new In-Depth Article search results feature. (To learn more about this, check out Google’s Webmaster Tools on In-depth Articles.) By using the new In-Depth Articles Generator, your site will be automatically marked-up with metadata to better present your in-depth content as a potential candidate for this new rating.

If you’re still looking for options, there are two other WordPress plugins, All in One Schema.org Rich Snippets and Schema Creator by Raven. Both are limited in the item types you can choose from, but they are by far the quickest and easiest way, and there’s no eight-legged code spiders to worry about.

Rich Snippet Mark-up for Newbies

Finally, and perhaps the simplest way to mark-up your site with rich snippets is with Yoast’s WordPress SEO. For every post and page you generate, it gives you the option of creating a rich snippet. Although it doesn’t use microdata like schema.org, the word is – so far – that Google will continue to accept other forms for rich snippet mark-up.

For ranking purposes in search engine results, decide which way you will mark-up your website and gain some SEO advantage. This isn’t mark-up magic. It’s real and it’s going to affect your website.

Code spiders, on the other hand, aren’t real. In case you were worried.

Building Links to Your Website With People Skills: 5 Simple Ideas

October 2, 2013 Beth Devine

Building links for better SEO is like building relationships with people. Remember, websites don’t offer links. It’s the people who decide what to publish who give you links to your site.

Use your people skills when building links to your website with these 5 simple ideas.

1. Network with other experts.

Find the experts in your industry through networking and see if you can interview them. This will attract readers and build your credibility. Attend events or host your own event to create link-building opportunities.

Try Followerwonk to find other people through searching Twitter bios or comparing competitor accounts to find new users to follow or target. Interview an expert you meet online, or a prominent blogger in your field.

2. Volunteer and sponsor in your community.

One of the best ways to build links is by reaching out and helping others. The traditional notion of “giving is receiving” works the same way with building links. Often your efforts will be rewarded with link back if sponsors or volunteers are listed on the website.

Local event sponsorships are typically affordable, and they will give more direct exposure than a larger, more costly event.

Think out of the box and garner a press mention for your ingenuity. The sky’s the limit with what you can do to interface and help out. Just being at the event as a volunteer is a form of networking.

Consider speaking at local high school and colleges where industry professionals are generally sought as career opportunity contact for an industry. A student organization that’s related to your field is another setting where your efforts in building relationships could develop into something even beyond a link.

3. Join an organization or club.

By joining the local Chamber of Commerce and the Better Business Bureau, your membership will develop a link back to you. Submit your website to relevant government sites in your city and state. Don’t forget asking your library as well!

These high-quality links generate traffic and authority, telling Google you’re a trustworthy source.

4. Social media and relationship building.

Building links through social media is another way to syndicate your blog posts with the right people. You can use Followerwonk or Klout for Twitter, or use Muck Rack for finding journalists.

Search boards or pins on Pinterest to find relevant people, and on LinkedIn you can filter out by adding a specific geographic location in your search. Twitterfeed will feed your blog content to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn automatically.

For more opportunities for link-building, look into Digg, which measures stories with “diggs” of approval (or buries it in disapproval) or Delicious.com, a great link-saving and link-discovering tool.

Blogdash is an excellent way to build relationships with other bloggers, as well as promote your product or service.

5. Create and curate with links.

When you give attribution, links back, and credit to someone else’s work, you are contributing to the sharing economy. Beyond just sharing the content, we are sharing our endorsements as well as our audiences.

Sometimes, this kind of content curation can smile back at you with another share, linking back to your efforts, as it did here:

Big Thanks to @KaCeeAngels for her awesome content curation with a blog piece I did a few weeks ago. http://t.co/Sb35HMw5

— Kaboomis Copy (@KaboomisCopy) February 8, 2013

Bonus Tip:

Know where you’re being linked.

Part of building links is knowing where you are being linked. Set a Google alert for your company name to receive alerts for whenever it’s mentioned online. This way you can also tell if your name doesn’t have a link. This might be an opportunity to request that one be added.

If you’re still hungry for more ways to build links, this post by Jon Cooper lists some wildly creative link-building ideas. One of my favorite is the billboard hoax submitted by Kane Jamison, proving you can have fun and still build links.

5 Easy Ways to Build Links to Your Blog (With the Help of Dr. Seuss)

September 27, 2013 Beth Devine

When you build links to your blog, it requires a dose of common sense, rather like that of a Dr. Seuss chant: “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can build yourself any link that you choose.”

That sort of chant. Fortunately, you’re not on your own. And you can know what they know. And you are the one who’ll decide where to go.

There goes the chant again. It’s so simple, and it works.

Have a go with these 5 easy ways to build links to your blog, content marketing’s best friend.

1. Create everlasting content with an evergreen post

Consistently writing a quality blog not only creates content that will drive traffic to your website. It’s a steady way to organically generate inbound links as people naturally want to link to your valuable posts.

One evergreen blog post – one that is sustainable for years, like the tree of the same name – could mean years of people linking to its still relevant content. A blog post that retains its value over time can include how-to posts, definition posts (a beginner’s guide to something), top lists, or opinionated posts.

When you determine which posts fit into this category (through Google analytics, for example), try option #5 to further the reach and link-building potential of these posts.

2. Make an RSS Feed for your blog

Be sure to set up an RSS feed for your blog so people can easily syndicate your blog posts, which allows for more potential attribution links back to your website. If you’re unsure what your RSS feed is, try Google’s RSS Subscription Extension in the Chrome browser.

Consider syndicating your blog with other sites. Syndication is where you let certain sites that use content with proper attribution to publish your posts, giving you inbound links and free publicity.

Try this excellent Google syndication tip for more ideas on syndicating your awesome blog and building links.

3. Tell a story

When you rock your readers with a story, they are more likely to want to share it with others, spreading the love of your link. Sparking emotion with a story is a way to communicate your message and be remembered.

Dr. Seuss not only chants an uncomplicated story line, he can teach you the elements to a story merely by following along. The Dr. Seuss Hat Map for sketching out your idea won’t let you down either.

4. Great content ideas

Write a book review, take a survey, do a case study, broadcast a webinar, or create free tools or templates to share.

Offer any of these as free information to boost your traffic and build links when people link to it and share it with others. It’s always a good thing when you give away information that increases your authority and trustworthiness.

In addition, the author of the book or the subject of the study will often be glad to include a link to your work.

5. Repurpose old content

Use your old blog posts to create new content that will generate more links for the same, original post.

It’s hard to continually come up with a new ideas and write awesome content, so try to repurpose it by making it into a PDF that you can then post onto Scribd or Docstoc. Take a how-to post and submit it to eHow. If you haven’t already, upload your videos to YouTube and Vimeo for a wider audience and link appeal.

If you’re willing to delve deeper into link-building strategies, check out Jon Cooper’s comprehensive list of link building strategies. You’ll never be bored again, and your link-building will keep you busy pretty much forever.

If you just want to have some fun in Seussville.com, then take a break and find some chants of your own. Maybe a link-building idea will be born. Do let me know!

Thanks to Laura Candler for her terrific Dr. Seuss Hat Map!