This is a guest post by Divya Rawat from Inetzeal.com.
The second quarter of 2012 is already well on its way. With Google topping all SEO news charts, one can safely predict that there are going to be dynamic changes in the industry.
Experts are predicting a major shift of focus from just Link Building to brand link building strategies. Viral Content and Social Media are also on the search engines’ radar.
Change is a harbinger of a new world order; this is true for all SEO campaigns. The perception that SEO is all about link building will not stand in good stead, just as it did not previously. All webmasters will have to pull up their socks as the latest updates by the leading search engine Google in its algorithms are going to affect the rankings, drastically.
Instead of chewing off its nails, it would be better for the SEO industry to focus on the tried and tested with a twist! Seven ways to achieve the benchmark could be:
1. Brand Building
This year, experts across the forums are emphasizing on building a brand, using innovate link building strategies. The focus has shifted from anchor text to brand links as the audiences are being more discerning about what they link to. This is possible due to the proliferation of the social media in the day-to-day lives of the browsers. By focusing positively on the website as a brand and encouraging discussions in a variety of forums about the blogs/articles/news on it, you can see some great results.
2. Promote Expertly Written Content
The greatest asset in a webmaster’s domain is the content the website has to offer. Content, in the form of article, blog posts or news, written by experts in the industry (that the website caters to) serves as a quality link for visitors.
Content can be on site or on any other relevant site. It can present different view points, in-depth analysis, or just news to score a high-five with genuine readers. It is imperative that the website hires or outsources the articles or blog posts to experts or great writers from the required field. This will make sure that the information is cross verified and authentic.
Hence, websites promoting informative and useful content attract greater traffic thereby increasing chances of improving the traffic conversion rate.
3. Viral Content Used For Link Baiting
As a part of the content strategy, webmasters can design viral content that is done with the sole purpose of attracting a large number of links within a short span of time.
The best way to do is by threading a discussion on current topic/happenings, news, reviews etc. Like taking a recent example; Google Penguin Update. The relevance of the content is again tied to the authoritativeness of the site. The trustworthiness (for the audience) plays a significant role in the success of viral content.
The rule of thumb, though here is the freshness of the content.
4. The Next Logical Strategy Is That Of Being Visible And Talked About In The Social Media
In a day and age where, popularity has taken significance, being talked positively about across all mediums, boosts the image of the company.
Any website owner would love to be promoted by word of mouth instead of depending upon oiling the PR machinery. This is possible only when the services are impeccable.
The website delivers on its part; be it providing services or selling products. When it does, people are bound to spread the word and the quickest medium is the social networking site, where, if statistics are any indicator, the entire world hangs out!
5. Off-Site Content To Support Onsite Content
Yet another point that has a link to point number 2. The search bots have become cleverer. They also rank a page on the offsite links it attracts. Again the rule here is to encourage guest blogs to link your site’s content.
However ensure that the information that they offer is genuine and the reader has something to take back after reading the blog posts!
6. Niche Directory Links
Linking strategies that involves listing in niche directories is considered a traditional method. The importance of directories cannot be disregarded though, as many people search directories for information about websites rather than keywords. Submit relevant links to those directories that have impeccable reputation; at least as much it’s possible in this virtual world.
7. Infographics
Information works best when it has visual support. If you browse the net, infographics are being rendered in almost all the informative pieces.
Basically, people are open to a visualized concept. An informative article/blog supported by infographics lends a different dimension to the link building exercise. In fact if you browse the big ten blog posts in any niche category you are sure to come across well executed infographics. The infographics serve a dual purpose of not only making it easier to figure in the SERP’s by applying keywords in the image tags, but also make it easier for the reader to process the information at a single glance.
An SEO company need not get stuck at the number seven. They could also opt for link building strategies that involve offering discount coupons, giveaways and freebies via their own or social networking sites.
The trick this year to optimize link building is by thinking out of the box – a necessity of the times!
Top 10 Search Terms:
• link building strategies after penguin
Branded keywords are seem to be the buzz these days. Challenge is too many sites were built around keywords and they haven’t been branded properly from the get go. Info graphics rock 🙂
I think anchor text variation is very important in link building strategies for 2012.You have to come up with round about 10 similar keywords related to your landing page .
These days infographics are going viral but I don’t have any idea on creating high quality infographics, so I am looking for someone who can create really good infographics and hope that it will really help me in link building.
Also don’t forget about “author” tags and the results, that Google shows on the right with authors bios.
P.S. Agree about infographics. A great way to go viral, but takes time to develop a good copy.
Creating infographics on a blog, particularly on an interesting topic and comparison is definitely a good marketing and SEO strategy as it gets shared a lot on social media sites. Regarding the viral content for link baiting, although everybody wants to make one, it is really not that easy to make something that will completely go viral. Often times, it is just a matter of getting lucky.
Thanks Divy….
I really need to try out infographics on my blog too because I have been reading about it for some time now… I really think it will work for me. Thanks for sharing.
You can help push the viral power of content by using content lockers. A post could be accompanied by a more detailed downloadable guide. But the user must click the Plus One button to unlock the download link.
Thanks for the great tips but for me #3 beats the others by a mile. Because when you create a link bait post not only does it attract more attention/visitors, it also gains awareness for your blog whilst increasing it’s authority due to the rise in quality backlinks. When looked at from that perspective shouldn’t 90% of all the posts we do be link bait?
Another thing to mention especially with the latest penguin updates is anchor text diversity. So many webmaster and link builders alike were only ever using 5-10 different variations with very little natural anchor texts. I have had a lot of success recently with damaged sites by using in excess of 100+ different anchor texts for a single link building campaingn.
I am really happy took the time to read this… i was looking into the ScrapeBox as well but abandoned the idea thinking it may be a some sort of blackhat seo trick but being that someone with a website of your ranks recommends it I will definately give it a try now.
I think #4 is the best in post Penguin. Just like word of mouth with a oflline business this is what is being preferred now for online business. Obvioustly the more ppl talking about your business on social media accounts the more likely it is that your website will gain serp’s.