Netconcepts

SEO: How Creative Link Building Can Multiply Site Traffic

Patricia Fusco — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:13:09 +0000

The right links are fuel for a retail web site’s search engine rankings. But building the right links is among the most difficult, misunderstood and poorly executed aspects of search engine optimization. There are two kinds of links that retailers should focus on to improve such rankings. Links from an e-retailer’s product page to other relevant product pages within the site—with relevant, as judged by the search engine spider, being the keyword—is one type. But a retailer can’t just put a bunch of links on a site to achieve a higher rank without taking into account whether the links achieve business goals. Such links must make merchandising and business sense, otherwise they will interfere with the shopper’s experience and possibly have a deleterious effect on a retail site. The second kind of link is links coming into a site from external sources, which retailers have a lot less control over. A link from a hunting magazine to an outdoor retail site is a link from an authoritative external site and those kinds of links can boost a retailer’s search rankings. But they are much harder to achieve because they require persuading the outside site to link to the retailer’s site, a mostly manual process. This session will examine criteria for evaluating a link’s value, creative link building strategies, link building dos and don’ts, and how to leverage affiliates and social media content. It will tell attendees how seemingly innocent practices can undermine a search engine optimization program and how best practices in search marketing are likely to change in the near future.

Workshop Presenters:
P.J. Fusco, Senior Consultant, NetConcepts
Mark Kaufman, Associate Vice President, CNet Findability, CNet

Blow Your Mind Link Building Techniques

Stephan Spencer — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:24:29 +0000

Want to learn how to build a database of high-value link acquisition targets? Want to know how to get on the radar of nonprofits, government and university departments and compel them to give you some of that sweet, authoritative link love? Want to learn the most coveted secrets to “buying” the links the engines would never consider a “paid link?” This, along with non-traditional link sources, linking strategies and nofollow PageRank “scuplting” or “siloing” are covered in the session.

Moderator:
Greg Boser, President/CEO, 3 Dog Media

Speakers:
Stephan Spencer, Founder and President, Netconcepts
Jay Young, Owner, Link Fish Media, Inc.

Tuesday, June 3rd - Day 1
10:45am - 12:00pm

Secrets for Getting More & Better Links for Higher Search Rankings

Stephan Spencer — Mon, 19 May 2008 20:42:32 +0000

Keyword-rich contextually relevant text links are like fuel for your web site’s search engine rankings. Without good links, you are relegated to the bottom of the search results heap. Link building is arguably the most difficult; the most misunderstood and poorly executed aspect to SEO. In this session, you will learn criteria for evaluating a link’s value, creative link building strategies, link buying do’s and don’ts, how to approach webmasters, how to leverage your affiliates, how social media can be leveraged to build links, dangerous tactics, and more!

Moderator: Stephan Spencer, Founder & President, Netconcepts

Panelists:
Neil Patel, Chief Technology Officer, Advantage Consulting Services
Seth Besmertnik, CEO, LinkExperts
Rhea Drysdale, Online Marketing Director, Less Everything

Screencast on Advanced SEO Tactics with Stephan Spencer and Rand Fishkin

Stephan Spencer — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:52:30 +0000

Join our founder and president, Stephan Spencer, along with renowned search guru Rand Fishkin, in this archived webinar of an information-packed 131-minutes of advanced SEO tips and tricks. This webinar, for MarketingProfs.com, was called “Advanced Tactics in SEO: Part Art, Part Science”. Ever wonder what the SEO pros know that you don’t? What tools they use every day that you don’t even know exist?

This screencast isn’t about search engine optimization fundamentals. You will learn how to take your search engine optimization skill set to the next level, even if you’re already a savvy search marketer.

Watch Stephan and Rand’s webinar as a streaming Flash video »

Or, alternatively download/watch as a Quicktime (m4v) movie (77 MB).

Google Gadgets and Gadget Ads

Jacqui Jones — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:01:20 +0000

Jacqui Jones, Lead Consultant from Netconcepts, sits down with Jeremy Wood from Google to talk about Google Gadgets and Gadget Ads in this nine minute interview. Jeremy provides some helpful hints and tips for marketers and developers on how to get the most out of Gadgets and Gadget Ads, including tips on how to get your Gadget listed with Google.

Screencast on Website Metrics with Stephan Spencer and Avinash Kaushik

Stephan Spencer — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:00:13 +0000

Join our founder and president, Stephan Spencer, along with renowned analytics expert Avinash Kaushik, in this archived webinar of an information-packed 101-minutes of website analytic tips and tricks. This webinar, for Lorman Education Teleconferences, was called “Website Metrics and ROI: Getting the Most out of Your Online Marketing Spend.”

Watch Stephan and Avinash’s webinar as a streaming Flash video »

Or, alternatively download/watch as a Quicktime (m4v) movie (77 MB).

SEO Report Card: Juvieshop.com

Jeff Muendel — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 18:55:57 +0000

The site focuses on hip, modern and stylish adolescent clothes for tweens (ages 7-12). Juvieshop.com is just over one-year-old and the site has built a PageRank of 3 for its homepage. Its theme is wholesome and the site is pleasant to the eye.

Jeff Muendel, Search Analyst for Netconcepts, covers a hip site that is targeted toward a specific age group in this website audit.

Jeff writes his recommendations based on his review of benchmarking, their Flash-rich home page, PageRank, title tags, and URLs. One of the most useful tips that Jeff provides is with regards to building links.

Inbound Links and PageRank
PageRank for the home page of the site is 3, which is low. This is easily explained by the number of inbound links the site has. Google sees exactly one link from an external site. Yahoo sees 909 links coming in, which is below average for an ecommerce site. Why the difference between the search engines? Yahoo! and Google are different technologies that simply “see” a different number of links. In actuality, the “real” number of links is most likely either number, and those numbers should be thought of as benchmarks or estimates. Regardless, a link-building program is in order here. PageRank is built primarily on the number of quality, inbound links to a given site. The higher the PageRank, the more likely it is that pages in a site will come up in Google and other search engines for a given query. High-quality directory submissions, like DMOZ (Dmoz.org), are definitely in order, which can help boost PageRank (and therefore search results) of a linked-to site. Remember, directory submissions (the act of submitting one’s site to directories) are an important part of an overall link building strategy. Juvie also has a blog, which can also attract inbound links, but it has not been updated in roughly two months. Fresh content is imperative for attracting traffic and potential links.

In this way, Jeff relays that targeted keyword themes and great on-page SEO aren’t the only elements necessary to ensuring a site’s SEO benefit — directory submissions, blogging, and fresh content are “imperative” to increasing inbound links over time and garnering good PageRank.

Video: SEO Update

Stephan Spencer — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 21:20:50 +0000

In September 2007, Spencer revisited the SEO progress of Discountflies.com, and reports his findings in the video tutorial below.

This video tutorial requires Flash Player version 8 or above.

Click the link below to launch the tutorial.

Video SEO Tutorial with Stephan Spencer.

Video: SEO Website Update

Stephan Spencer — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 17:11:54 +0000

In September 2007, Spencer revisited the SEO progress of Balancedlifeproducts.com which he reviewed in this initial “SEO Report Card” and reports his findings in the video tutorial below.

Click the link below to launch the tutorial.
Video Tutorial with Stephan Spencer

This video tutorial requires Flash Player version 8 or above.

Desperately Seeking Links: Baiting, Buying, and Socializing for Links

Stephan Spencer — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 06:00:22 +0000

Keyword rich contextually relevant text links are like fuel for your website’s search engine rankings. Without good links, you are relegated to the bottom of the search results heap. Link building is arguably the most difficult, the most misunderstood and poorly executed aspect to SEO. Learn: criteria for evaluating a link’s value, creative link building strategies, link buying do’s and don’t’s, how to approach webmasters, how to leverage your affiliates, how social media can be leveraged to build links, dangerous tactics, and more!

Learning Points:

Link building efforts that went horribly awry and how to avoid repeating their mistakes
Concrete action steps to boost your site’s importance in the eyes of the search
engines
Demystify link building, debunking myths, presenting real opportunities, providing tools, sharing real world experiences

Moderator:
Stephan Spencer, Founder and President, Netconcepts

Panelists:
Eric Ward, Founder, The Ward Group
Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Online Marketing
Seth Besmertnik, CEO & Co-Founder, LinkExperts