Your Search Engine Optimisation Expert – Sheldon Nesdale

If you’ve been researching Search Engine Optimisation for any length of time you will know that one of the biggest factors that determines the ranking of your website in Google is back-links.

So what about the “link exchange proposals” you get by email every week or every day?

Should you take them up on their kind offer?

Are these messages from real people or from clever SPAM-bots?

I would seriously consider a Link Exchange Proposal if it met the following 8 criteria.

8 Criteria For Accepting a Link Exchange Proposal

1. Did they follow up their a proposal with a phonecall? (This would indicate they are humans rather than just clever spambots, and heck, it would be flattering)
2. Is their website related enough to yours to be useful to your visitors?
3. Is their website dissimilar enough to yours so your not giving any potential business away?
4. Is their content related enough to yours to make sense that your link is on their page?
5. Is it a NZ website? (do you really need a low value link back from a random offshore website? Probably not)
6. Has the webpage on which your link is to be featured got PageRank? (don’t even bother checking unless all the other criteria are met)
7. Did they assure you at the bottom of their email that their message is not spam? (If so, it is spam)
8. Did they mention at the bottom of their email that if you don’t want link exchange proposals like this in the future, all you have to do is fill in a form, or email them back? (If so, it is spam)

If you can answer “YES!” to the first 6, and “NO!” to the last 2, then sure, go ahead and exchange links.  Otherwise, mark the email as SPAM and get on with your day.

Need more help to improve the SEO of your website?

1. Either buy the Search Engine Optimisation ebook which has more information about linking strategy and 14 more SEO techniques
2. Hire me to generate a detailed report specific to your website that tells you exactly what changes to make (and the order in which you should make them)
3. Generate more traffic to your website with Search Engine Advertising with Google Adwords

Most people don’t bother putting some thought into naming the images they upload to their websites.

That is precisely why you should.

By default, images have got automatically generated names like “img001.jpg” or “1234567.jpg”.

And most web developers will name your template images with names such as “header.jpg” and “footer.jpg”, rather than take the opportunity to insert some keywords such as “search-engine-optimisation-header.jpg” and “search-engine-optimisation-footer.jpg”.

If you take care to name your images with meaningful names, you will be improving the Search Engine Friendliness of your website.

For example, search Google Images for “pimped out bus“.  My copy of this image is #1 on this planet, just because I named the image “pimped-out-bus.jpg”.

(And that’s without specifying a “title” or “alt” tag, or writing a caption)

It’s that easy.

Need more help to improve the SEO of your website?

1. Either buy the Search Engine Optimisation ebook which has more information about SEO-friendly-images and 14 more SEO techniques
2. Hire me to generate a detailed report specific to your website that tells you exactly what changes to make (and the order in which you should make them)
3. Generate more traffic to your website with Search Engine Advertising with Google Adwords

I must admit, I was a little nervous when I did my Google Advertising Professional Exam today.

It had been 2 years since I first passed the exam and I was worried that a lot has changed since.

What I’ve done to prepare for the Adwords Exam:

1. I have spent several hours over the last few weeks preparing by reviewing the lessons at the Google Adwords Learning Centre
2. I’ve carefully managed $30,000 of Google Ads expenditure over the last 2 years, for 12 different brands
3. I’ve treated every dollar spent like my own, careful not to waste a cent

The results are calculated immediately after the 90 minute exam is complete. My score: 88.18%. I’m pretty happy with that.

Enough about me, what does this mean for you?

It means that you can trust me with your Adwords campaigns.

So come on, let’s work together to generate a steady stream of customers to your website.  Let’s talk: email me, or phone me on (07) 575 8799 (Tauranga, NZ)

What are Back Links?

A back link (or “inbound link”) is any hyperlink coming back to your website.

From the Google Search Engine’s point of view, each backlink scores a point for your website.  In effect it is saying “this website is worth a visit, go and check it out!”.  After-all, the internet is built on hyperlinks.

The more significant the website that is linking to you, the more those points are worth.  For example if you manage to get a hyperlink from the home page of NZHerald.co.nz or TradeMe.co.nz to your website, in effect it is saying “hey listen up, we don’t make this decision lightly, you must check this website out, these guys are awesome!”.

So you can see that a single backlink from a high profile website is worth hundreds of backlinks from websites that no-one has ever heard of.

If you are interested in Search Engine Optimisation (or possess the new technology called an “email account”) you have probably come across email messages from Indian based companies who offer to generate back links for you.  Don’t be tempted to take them up on their offer.  You will get thousands of back links of such poor quality that they mean nothing to Google at all.

Are some back links better than others?

Oh yes.  Here are the 2 biggest factors in determining the quality of a back link:

1. Does the backlink to your website come from a webpage with a high PageRank? (PageRank is the system that Google uses to score every webpage between 0 and 10)
2. Is the content of that webpage is related to what you do? (eg if you’re a doctor and your link is on a carpenters website you get very few points, but if its on a popular medical website you get lots!)

So, how do you get high quality back links?

Start with listing your website on every New Zealand web directory you can find. Start with www.Finda.co.nz.

Don’t bother with the ones that ask for payment.  Stick with the free ones.

Then start searching for blogs, forums and community discussion boards where issues and ideas that are related to your products and services are talked about, and add your thoughts to the conversation.  For example, here’s how to generate a backlink from a blog:

How to add a backlink to your website from a blog

1. Your Name. Put your most important keywords here.  Not your brand name. Eg I put “Sheldon (Search Engine Optimisation Expert)”.  Most people just put “Bob”, that’s a waste.
2. Your Website Address. Either put the url for your home page, or to another landing page like your blog
3. Your Comment. Write something useful here. “Great post! Interesting article!” reeks of SPAM, and risks being deleted.  Read the article carefully and think of a way you can contribute by adding your ideas or framing things in a different way, or asking the author a question.

If you have the discipline to do that 5 times a week, you will get the satisfaction of watching your website climb the Search Engine rankings.

Try it today, by adding your comment below.

 

Need more help to improve the SEO of your website?

1. Either buy the Search Engine Optimisation ebook which has more information about back-links and 14 more SEO techniques
2. Hire me to generate a detailed report specific to your website that tells you exactly what changes to make (and the order in which you should make them)
3. Generate more traffic to your website with Search Engine Advertising with Google Adwords