Steps to Building Links

Zenergy Internet Marketing - Internet Advertising
"Steps To Building Links"


In a recent discussion with a client, I explained the importance of link building for search engine optimization, I asked a few peers to share how they build links to their website. Here is a brief overview of what I got back.

In this brief blog, I will explain how I go about building links.

Link building is not easy. And it's not that intuitive until you do it. There are also many different techniques and methods that will have varied results. Below is how I recommend clients start and master link building.

I tell people that there are 4 Levels of Link Building Excellence. And it usually takes 4 years to master it - just like high school:

1st Year. Links You Can Build Yourself That Require Little Time Investment

Before I get into this, I'd like to stress that you should have a really good keyword strategy and make sure you've optimized each page on your site around a different keyword phrase. Any link you're building should be designed to help a specific page rank high in the search engines for a specific keyword.

That said, the first set of links that every business should get are the ones that don't require anyone else's help. There are lots of business directories out there where you can just submit your URL, company name and a description of your business. Some of them require approval. Some of them require a fee. Yahoo's directory, Joe Ant, Aboutus.org are some of the ones you should do right away.

In this class of Level I links, there are also many social media sites where you can simply build links to your site. Most of these no longer pass SEO credit, but they're still good links to get, assuming your target audience visits the site or these sites rank high for your keywords already.

It's arguable that you should hire someone to do (or start) this stuff for you. It's low level work that generates low level returns. Just make sure that you don't hire a firm that will get you 2,000 links for $1,000 dollars. If it's too good to be true, it is.

2nd Year: Links You Build Yourself that Require Effort

Before I get into this level, I'd like to stress that launching a business blog should be done before doing this. Without having a blog on your site with lots of good well optimized content, you don't really have anything to link to.

That said, there are two very common link building techniques that work well that don't require you to be a "thought leader". Yet. These activities require a bit more time investment and a small financial investment. They are article marketing and press release optimization. With both of these methods, you have to create relevant content that will appeal to your market. So, it requires more time than Level I. Also, the process of getting your articles syndicated and your press releases submitted and picked up - takes effort. You might consider hiring a wired pr firm or a strong seo firm (Like Zenergy Internet Marketing) to do some of this stuff for you.

If done correctly, both of these methods can significantly increase the links to your site. Also, if you write your articles and press releases with a keyword strategy in mind, and with links that support your keyword strategy, it can significantly raise your rankings for specific keyword terms. Run your press releases and your articles through press release grader to determine whether they're going to help.

11th Grade: Links You Network For that Require a Significant Time Investment

This part of link building is kind of like sales. Cold calling can be done effectively with persistence. But, networking, getting referrals, giving first, the law of attraction, etc is a better way of getting new clients.

Link building is the same way. If you're more of a cold caller type, and there are lots of potential places you can get a link, you might consider just creating a list of webmasters and asking them for a link.

If you're a natural networking junkie and you're in this for the long haul, I'd recommend being a bit more patient. Apply your persistence and spend your time building relationships.

No matter what route you take, the goal of this level is to make yourself visible among people interested in the same topics as you. This process is a bit self promotional. But, you must promote yourself in a way that you're adding value. You master this level by acting like a resource for people in your industry. How do you do this? It's all about networking and building meaningful relationships. The first step is reading other people's blogs. Then, commenting on them. Then, eventually starting a relationship where you're communicating 1 on 1 with them. I recommend you take the leap from reader to 1:1 with a blogger, by pointing them in the direction of other people's content that might be interesting to them. In the non marketing world, this usually happens through email. In the marketing world, this usually happens through Twitter. If you're techy, this might happen through Delicious. If you use StumbleUpon or Digg, those are great platforms to share things with peers. Even google reader lets you do this kind of networking. But, it can certainly happen through any social networking platform or system that enables 1:1 communication.

From a link building perspective, the ultimate goal of this level is to get invited to write a guest article for other people's blogs or website.

4th year: Links Other People Give You Because You Create Remarkable Content.

This level is like the last month or two in high school when you've already passed mid terms and you've been accepted to the college of your choice. You've done the hard work already. Now, it's time to go to parties and enjoy being the care free big man on campus.

You don't necessarily halt the activities above. But, you spend more of your time just creating remarkable content. (And some link bait.)

At Zenergy, I am in the process of doing seminars and workshops. Writing content to be used for my clients to help them spread their word.
None of this happens overnight, so be patient.

Lessons learned for Internet Advertising.

Online Reputation

Building a strong online presence for your business requires playing both offense and defense. We at Zenergy Internet Marketing boast an array of online reputation management (ORM) tools and services to help you beat the competition by ensuring a strong and positive presence in the search engines.

Our approach can be two a fold punch. We have the capabilities to mobilize a massive effort to promote a positive online presence for your company. Or conversely, we can engage in “damage control” to combat any negative press, blogs, or reviews about your brand which might pop up in search engine queries.

Why is online brand reputation management crucial?

The answer is simple: your brand’s online persona is your first impression to potential leads or clients. And first impressions count a lot in cyberspace. Study after study demonstrates that web surfers have notoriously short attention spans. If you fail to capture someone’s attention – or, worse, if you’re pegged with a negative association off the bat – odds are you won’t get a second chance to make your case.

But what if you operate a top shelf website and/or boast a thriving brick and mortar presence? Surely these all the positive reviews will shine through and combat the negatives engendered by poor search engine reputation management (SERM), right? In theory, it should. But the reality is that your Internet Brand reputation management matters. The statistics on this subject are staggering. An exhaustive 2007 study commissioned by the Ponemon Institute found that over 50% of employers use the web to check out applicants. Another cross-industry study showed that more than 33% of clients will research prospective partners using simple Google and Yahoo searches – and this percentage seems to be on the rise. Furthermore, data shows that Internet first impressions may be extremely sticky. In other words, once your company or brand has been tainted with negative associations via the search engines, your online reputation management strategy may be hobbled, perhaps fatally.

The good news is that you can draw on Zenergy Internet Marketing's experience with all manners of brand reputation management challenges. We deliver competent, honest, time-tested solutions, and we’ll custom tailor our approach to make sure you get the maximum visibility for your efforts. Whether you’re scrambling to squelch quick moving and potentially scandalous online publicity by a rogue blogger or you’re desperately vying for visibility in a competitive search sector, we’ll leverage our strengths to deliver results. Our client roster includes some of the biggest names in a vast array of industries, and yet we also boast a touch that’s subtle and precise enough to score victories for fledgling or niche businesses.

“Okay,” you may be thinking, “that kind of strategy sounds intuitively right. But how does Zenergy Internet Marketing spin damage control? What tactics does Zenergy Internet Marketing employ to resurrect damaged reputations?”

What WE can do for YOU

Think of international online reputation management as architecture. An architect doesn’t simply throw up slabs of material and hope to end up with a solid building that can withstand the elements. They begin by crafting a blueprint – a diagram – that’s based intimately on the needs of the client and the demands of the landscape. Only once that blueprint checks out on paper do they order the concrete mix. Analogously, our online reputation management approach begins with a deep examination of your end goals (financial and otherwise) as well as a survey of the “search engine landscape” on which you’ll be competing. Only then do we design and build (using our aforementioned technology) an approach to make you visible.
Combating Negative Results

Our most potent defensive technique involves ranking positive search engine results to push down the rankings of your negative results. Let’s say, for instance, that a dissatisfied customer has posted a ranting review of your service on a blog, and now this blog comes up on Google’s top 20 results whenever someone searches your company’s name. We have the capability to “blow out” that negative review from Google’s top 20 by creating original positive content and promoting existing positive content about your company to outrank the bad post. Of course, such an approach doesn’t always work – or it may be prohibitively expensive. Fortunately, we have a wide and varied slate of online reputation management strategies, and we can also draw upon our rich experiences with all manner of international online reputation management conundrums.

Pro-actively Promoting Your Brand and Image

With all that being said, you may still be wondering how exactly our online reputation management operation works. Let’s take an example. Say you’re yearning to make a newly-launched web platform for an established “real world” brand visible on the Internet. In that case, we would roll out a full court press to optimize for key terms relating to your business. We could draw upon any number of tools in our toolbox, including: state of the art bid management software to simplify the process of looking at and manipulating your keywords; scalability capabilities to quickly canvas multiple search engines (we’ve achieved nearly 1,000,000 “Top Ten” keyword placements for our clients); blog creation to get your side of the story out there; easy-to-understand and regularly delivered campaign reporting; a host of linking strategies; profile developments; and much more.

But for all our top tier corporate reputation management technology, we pride ourselves most on our customer care. The Internet is still a kind of “wild west,” and the web’s seemingly ever-changing business environment can intimidate even the most adventurous corporate cowboys. That’s why we take the time to explain our strategies and tactics at every point along the way – and why we solicit feedback from our clients so often. No Internet reputation management battle plan can succeed in a vacuum. Indeed, search engine reputation management executed without a clear purpose in mind can actually do more harm than good.

To learn more about how Zenergy Internet Marketing can protect you from internet slander and internet defamation, please contact us through our site or via phone at 707.287.5222

Email Marketing

Trusted Email Marketing

and Online Surveys

EMAIL MARKETING


Email Marketing and Online Survey are the tools you need to help grow your business. They're affordable. They don't take a lot of time to use. And they're effective. In fact, more than 200,000 businesses use Constant Contact® to drive their success because they know using our tools to communicate with their current customers generates more referrals, customer loyalty, and repeat business.

Email Marketing lets you connect and get relevant messages out to people who want to hear from you. Online Survey helps them tell you what they really think about your products, services, and communications—giving you new ideas and feedback to better understand and meet their needs.

The insights you'll get with Online Survey help you focus on how to meet customer needs—and deliver what they want. And with Email Marketing, you can deliver relevant, professional-looking email campaigns that get opened, measured and acted on.

* Create professional email campaigns and online surveys quickly and easily; choose from more than 200 easy-to-use newsletter templates and 40 survey templates.
* Get survey feedback and measure email campaign results in real time with instant tracking and reporting—and uncover revealing trends and patterns.
* Use online polls to keep your website fresh and your visitors coming back.
* Manage your email and survey lists, and reporting—all in one place with your integrated Constant Contact account.
* Create targeted email lists based on survey response, and follow up with relevant email communications.
* Get help every step of the way with our online educational resources and award-winning, free, and unlimited customer support.

Open the lines of communications with your customers or members. Build strong, lasting relationships with them. Do it all with Email Marketing and Online Survey by Constant Contact today!

Pay Per Click Or SEM (Search Engine Marketing)

Problems with the current Pay Per Click Management Industry

PPC management companies need to make a change. There is a very small relationship between amount of advertising spend you invest on a campaign and amount of work needed to run the most efficient and ROI producing search campaign. But if this is widely known, then why on earth are all of the companies charging this way? The answer is an old way of doing business. Spend more - Make More. Ad agencies are used to making commissions. The more a client spends, the more the make.

The Zenergy Internet Marketing difference

Zenergy Internet Marketing has taken a bold step to start the migration of how companies pay for PPC Search Engine Management. We are now offering a "NO" set up fee and no commission based platform. Just A $125 dollar Flat Rate.

The answers are below:
1. Know that we will only spend dollars that make you money, not us
2. We will shave all the fat from your account instantly, instead of keeping it there to get paid.
3. Know that when we suggest you spend more, it’s not for our benefit
4. Rest easy knowing that everything that can be done is being done despite budget size.
5. We are available to you for regular communication
6. Our core competency is Internet Marketing
7. We are transparent
8. We are consultants, not employees. (proactive VS Reactive)

Zenergy Internet Marketing is not a "set it and forget it" Internet Marketing Agency. We are not a volume-driven powerhouse of mediocre results and sub-par service. We are highly skilled and experienced Pay Per Click Professionals. We don't just send you an automated report without an explanation; we work with you to make incremental increases in ROI every month.

Search Engine Optimization

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search Engine Optimization improves a website's placement on search engines like google. Using methods that search engines employ to rank a page, a search engine optimization company can make your website appear on the very first or second page of a search engine's listings for industry relevant keywords.

Good search engine optimization combines processes, features, additions and ongoing changes to a website in order to achieve top rankings in the major search engines. Google, Yahoo!, AOL, MSN, and Ask all look for different ranking criteria. A good Search Engine Optimization firm can make your site friendly to all of these search engines at once.

Why You Need Organic Search Engine Optimization

Search engine traffic has been increasing at an even more rapid rate than Internet usage. According to Jupiter Media Metrix, 80 percent of Internet users start off in search engines before they buy a product or service online. Not appearing in the top listings for your specific keywords can mean the difference between the success or failure of your online business.

How Can Zenergy Internet Marketing Help?

All Of Our Packages Include:

* Competitive analysis
* Keyword and marketplace research
* Analysis of your written content
* Title tag and meta keyword optimization
* HTML code optimization
* Database rewrites with Spider-friendly site architecture
* Press releases (optional service)
* XML sitemap creation and implementation
* Robots.txt creation and implementation
* Blog Syndications
* Article Syndications
* Enhanced Directory Submissions
* Local Directory Submissions (Google, Yahoo, MSN, and many more)
* Ongoing Consulting Time
* Keyword Ranking Report

Total Track

ReachLocal
WOODLAND HILLS, CA--(Marketwire - April 15, 2008) - ReachLocal, Inc. (http://www.reachlocal.com/) announced today the release of its automated TotalTrack ™ product that gives local businesses a comprehensive view into the effectiveness of their offline and online marketing expenditures in real time. TotalTrack is a powerful extension of ReachLocal's existing patent-pending, reverse-proxy tracking solution that has been measuring and optimizing thousands of Internet search advertising campaigns on Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Superpages.com for local businesses across the United States and Australia.

According to a recent survey by the The Velos Group and Sales Lead Management Association, over 82 percent of small businesses do not track their return on investment for their lead-generating sources. The inability to track ROI for marketing campaigns was listed as the number one concern of the respondents. TotalTrack automates this process by offering advertisers easy-to-use call tracking, including call recording, and web conversion functionality that highlights which offline and online advertising campaigns are offering the best ROI. By consolidating these reports into a single interface, the ReachLocal solution allows advertisers to view and analyze the use of their marketing dollars simply and affordably.

"Local businesses do not have large marketing budgets, so each dollar matters," said Zorik Gordon, ReachLocal's Chief Executive Officer. "In this economic climate they especially need to know if a single lead is costing them one dollar or one hundred dollars. TotalTrack empowers them to make the best choices to achieve the most profitable return on their investment."

TotalTrack launches with existing ReachLocal customers ranging from automobile dealerships tracking banner advertising campaigns to auto repair shops measuring the ROI on their Yellow Page print spend. TotalTrack monitors a marketing campaign's ability to deliver customers over a wide range of offline and online media, including newspapers, broadcast/cable television, Yellow Page directories, direct mail, search engines, banner ads, Internet Yellow Pages and emails without having to employ a team of marketing analysts to do so.

"Technology has finally solved what has always been a time-consuming, inaccurate, or unachievable process of determining which marketing campaign generated which sale," said Michael Kline, ReachLocal's Chief Operating Officer and Chief Product Officer. "Small businesses simply do not have the time or resources to purchase tracking phone numbers and contact a Web site developer to put those tracking phone numbers and tracking code on their Web site. TotalTrack is a dynamic product that frees up advertisers to concentrate on running their business."

Earlier this year, ReachLocal solidified its ongoing relationship with Google by announcing a strategic alliance as an authorized reseller of Google's AdWords™ advertising program. ReachLocal makes available to advertisers 98 percent of the search engine landscape via its strategic alliances with Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Superpages.com and others.

About ReachLocal, Inc.

ReachLocal, Inc. (http://www.reachlocal.com/) is a leading provider of local online marketing solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses. The Company's mission is to become the digital advertising agency of record for these companies, delivering the same broad set of online marketing functions currently only afforded to large corporations on a national basis. ReachLocal pioneered the local search engine marketing industry by bringing together a patent-pending technology with a strong partnership model and a proprietary national sales force. The result is a simple, scalable and affordable platform local businesses need to create, maintain, track and analyze their Internet search advertising campaigns. ReachLocal makes available to advertisers 98 percent of the search engine landscape through strategic alliances with Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Superpages.com and others. Founded in 2004, ReachLocal is a privately held corporation led by Zorik Gordon, its Chief Executive Officer. The company is headquartered in Woodland Hills, California.

The Four Best Human Reviewed Internet Directories

Even after decades of advancement in computer technology, there are some tasks that humans are just superior at doing. One of those things is evaluating the quality of a website. The most dominant search engines are all computer based today because of the vast pace at which content is published online. However, this was not always the case. Back in the 1990's when the Internet was just a small set of interconnected tubes [smile] a number of websites tried using people to review and list websites in a directory and use that directory to power search results. The idea was that humans could do a better job of deciding if a website was good or not and should be included in search results.

In fact, that is still true today. A human can do a much better job than Google of looking at a website and deciding if the content is good and it is a quality website. Computerized search engines have won the search engine battle, because to review all of the websites on the Internet using people would be cost prohibitive and time consuming given the explosion of content on the web. We prefer search engines that are always including new content that was just published and that search nearly all of the web. But human reviewed directories still do a good job of only including good websites, even if they only include a small percentage of the overall Internet. And because of this, the computerized search engines look at the human reviewed directories as a list of websites that are more trustworthy than other websites.

Getting your company listed in a human reviewed directory is sort of like getting into a good college. It doesn't mean you are smart, but it means a human looked at your application and thought you are smart. It is also somewhat expensive and time consuming. But, just like a good college on your resume sends a positive message to potential employers, getting listed in a human reviewed directory sends a positive message to the search engines.

Here are four of the better human reviewed directories, along with a bit of info on how to use them.
Four Directories That Should Include Your Company

1. DMOZ - The name for DMOZ.org comes from directory.mozilla.org, the original name/location of the directory. Because it is all volunteer run, it can take a long time (months, sometimes never) for them to act upon your request to get listed. Only sites that have some history to them and decent content get listed. Here are the instructions for suggesting your website for listing in DMOZ.
2. Yahoo Directory - Like DMOZ, the Yahoo Directory started as a way to use humans to screen websites for quality and use those as part of search results. The good news about Yahoo is that they act pretty fast on your submission (a week). The bad news is that it costs you $299/year. Here is information about listing your website in the Yahoo Directory.
3. Business.com Directory - The Business.com directory is another human reviewed directory. Like Yahoo, they will review your website quickly, but they also charge $199 for the first year and $149 annually after that. Here is information about listing your website in the Business.com directory.
4. ZoomInfo - ZoomInfo is a newer website than the other three. It is also not really a completely human reviewed directory, but it does have a verification method to edit your company listing and it uses trustworthy sources (other than your own website) to build your company profile. Also unlike the other three that really just have a link to your company, ZoomInfo has a full profile on your company, so that page sometimes shows up in search results. The other great news is that it is free. Just got to ZoomInfo, search for your company name, click on the result, and on the page that shows your company name and website, click the edit link. You'll have to create an account and verify through email you work at the company. If your company is not listed, they don't have a great way to get it listed, but you can use this form to make a request.

SEO For Business - The Importance of Meta Data

Every time I start off a Search Engine Optimization campaign with a client we look at the On page structure of the site. As part of this analysis process, one area that we look at is the “meta-data” elements of the site. This concept is often new to the business owners I talk to, so I thought it’d be helpful to provide a simple description of what it is and why it’s important. As is the case with prior articles in this series, if you’re an uber-techie and already gauk at all this stuff, feel free to save a bookmark to this article for the next time a business-type asks you what meta-data is. It will save you 10 minutes of your life that you can’t get back. You’re welcome.

Meta-Data Overview: Meta-data is information about a web page that is not part of the “core” content of the page. It provides useful information regarding the page to various pieces of software (a browser, search engine crawlers, etc.). From a structural perspective, meta-data is stored in a different part of the web page’s HTML code than the usual web content that people see.

There are three primary pieces of meta-data that you should be concerned with.

1. Title: This is without a doubt, the most important piece of meta-data there is. One could further argue that it is the most important part of your web page, period. Why? Two reasons. First, the title is what is recognized to be the one piece of information that describes what the page is about. (Similar to a book title or article title). It shows up at the top of the browser when users are browsing your site. It is the default title your browser and book-marking sites will automatically use when people decide to “save” your site for future use. Second, it is what search engines also use to figure out what the site is about. Compared to everything else on your page, it gets the most “weight” from the search engines. Think of your meta-data title just like you would if you were writing an article for the Wall Street Journal or authoring a book. The title is immensely important.

2. Description: This is an “abstract” or summary of the web page. Most SEO experts will advise you that you should ensure that important words and terms about your site should be crafted into the description somehow. I would agree. Another use of the description is that currently Yahoo! (and possibly other engines) use this provided description, or a part thereof, when your site “matches” on a given search term and it has to show a small summary of your site below the title.


3. Keywords: This element provides a set of key terms or words that describe the web page. Many years ago, when search engines were first introduced, the keywords element was very heavily weighted towards determining the context of a web page. It was a quick way for the search engine to “figure out” what a web page was about (instead of having to scan all the content). But, as time went on, people started abusing this “feature”. They stuffed words into the meta-keywords element that had nothing to do with the web page’s content. (The rationale was that by stuffing “popular” words, they’d draw some traffic). As a result of this abuse, the importance of the meta-keywords element has been greatly diminished. Search engines no longer look at this information as the definitive way to figure out context. However, most SEO experts continue to advise that it is important to use the keywords element because it is still used.

That’s it. Basically, the key is to make sure that you understand what the three most important pieces of meta-data are and ensure that you include them in your web pages.