If you are someone who has been guest blogging for quite a few times, then you already know that you rely on information from various online sources to write a compelling blog post. It’s completely a good thing to research online, but not everything that comes along your way is up-to-date or accurate.

Like with everything else, there are lots of misconceptions surrounding the web, blog, and guest blogging in general. Equally true is the fact that there’s also lot of mind blowing secrets that can not only improve the performance of your blog, but also your daily activities as a guest blogger.

That’s why, we thought it would be amazing to share some of the well-kept secrets, well, just like we’re feeling good, and also help clear some of the confusion you might have about guest blogging:

1. Guest blogging is a “team effort.” Surprised, aren’t you as you were always accustomed to blogging alone.

But in order to make guest blogging work, you require at least couple of people; that means, sometimes you may have to be willing to work with another person, and in some cases, with 2 or 3 other bloggers.

Most websites have a content management system where you login and submit your blog post. The site owner approves the blog post. But the key secret is that guest blogging is a team effort, and not an individual thing, anymore. That means you have to be willing to learn to work in team. In such situation, you might need to have effective communication skills to perform well.

2. You must research as a guest blogger. In other words, you cannot perform well if you aren’t willing to research when it comes to guest blogging. If you’re a beginner, then you might as well start to make a list of niche that you want to write guest blog in. After that, you will have to search for blogs in those niches. Next, you job would be to find out different types of content that attracts more views, reads, and comments. In addition to finding HOT topics, you’ll also need to make sure the content you write are similar in quality and tone to other posts on the site.

3. Keep track of all your guest blog posts. Now that you have got your name out in the blogging sphere and started networking, keep record of your guest posts as they’ll not only become handy expanding your profession, but it will give you a point of reference of your work when required. In addition, an organized record of your guest blog will keep you motivated, and look back to your posts to learn about key details like when certain posts become live and when you need to start promoting them.

4. When it comes to guest blogging, there’s no magic formula. You heard it right as there aren’t any set of tricks and magic pills that will help you create a “perfect” guest blogs or accomplish all of your goals all the time.

Yes, there are certain rules and “must-dos” you cannot break while guest blogging, but they still aren’t magic formula. You cannot just break everything to a formula. Just imagine: if there was a single magic formula for guest blogging, would not everyone use them and make the method, well, horrible and useless? Remember when it comes to guest blogging success, only continuous effort, trial and error, and hard work will help you improve your performance.  Also learning a few social media secrets will help the promotion of your content.

5. First impression is very important when it comes to guest blog posting. A “killer” title that makes a reader stop and read the content is what separates a normal blog post from an excellent blog posts. While submitting your guest blog post, make sure that it has a catchy headline that will make people want to click and read the whole content.

If you look closely, many site owners accept or reject a guest blog post on the basis of the title used in the guest blog post. You might have only single chance to make that great impression. Better make it count!

Well, there you have it. We want to hear from you. What secrets you have up your sleeve regarding guest blog posting. Share them!

Ludwing Hernandez is a social media marketing consultant and entrepreneur. Follow me at www.zinzz.com.

There are many factors to consider when optimizing your website for search engines, and it doesn’t stop with content or backlinks. The way you structure your site is among one of those strategies. Here is my conclusion, based on my own strategy while I was working for small business company from NYC, called Paramold. Site structure is very important to SEO. I would like to share this tips with you.

Why Structure Is Important to SEO

You can pass on rank to deep pages or allocate rank to more popular pages

Deep linking will also increase exposure to other pages

You can ensures visitors see pages on your site and Google indexes them

It prioritizes content

Structure helps visitors find content

Optimizing makes it easier to create sitemaps

As you can see, paying closer attention to the structure of your website gives you more control over user experience as well as SEO.

Silo Structure

The easiest way to structure a site is to use a hierarchy. While smaller sites can get away with fewer tiers, many websites need three or four to remain organized. The hierarchical, or silo, structure is commonly used for a reason, but isn’t one size fits all. Static websites like those introducing your company work well with this method.

Deciding the structure of your hierarchy depends upon your content. While you’ve done keyword research and will want to use those keywords in categories, but it’s the content and themes of your website itself that determines category development. For example, a small jewelry store may separate necklaces, rings, earrings and other accessories into individual categories that become directories on your website. Thus, when JewelryStore.com has a necklace, the URL might be similar to “http://jewelrystore.com/necklaces/24-karat-gold-chain”.

If your site is larger, you might use subcategories instead, so your reader would click “Necklaces” and then click “Gold” to view all of those necklaces. Figuring out how categories helps to create your navigation, which should also include a link to the index and “About” and “Contact Us” pages.

This method also helps visitors find relevant information. If someone wants to see all necklaces, removing the page from the URL will bring up those results. Most blog scripts organize posts by date in a similar fashion, quickly allowing your reader to find every post from November 2012 with ease.

Crosslinking

When you’re using the basic hierarchy, or silo, technique, you want to link down the silos. However, you don’t want to crosslink in general. Your pages listing gold necklaces shouldn’t contain links to silver rings or to the rings index at all. This is why crosslinking is better for shops. You can place pages in more than one category, link to similar content, promote top pages or products, show off recent comments or lure customers with links to products similar shoppers bought. Many blogs and stores use crosslinking for these reasons.

Internal Linking

As your content gets lower into the hierarchy, make sure to link it from higher up. This helps to spread linkjuice and expose your readers to relevant content. However, you might want to use the “no-follow” attribute in your links when linking to less popular content. These pages might be useful, but sculpting PageRank in this way helps to prevent dilution of the linkjuice. For example, sitemaps, TOS pages and privacy policies don’t need linkjuice.

Whichever method works best for you, use it consistently.

Citations:

• Photo taken from Flick with CC license. Author: Timothy Greig

Featured images:

•  License: Creative Commons image source

Ben Sawyer is SEO Consultant and a professional blogger. Currently he is working with paramold.com , helping them to increase their rankings and attract more visitors to their small busness website. Here Ben shared with us his advice about website structure and why is it important to SEO.

When you hear words like ‘Penguin’ and ‘Panda’, the first thing that comes to your mind is a cute, cuddly animal that you can’t help but admire. Well unless you’re a part of the online marketing industry of course, in which case both the aforementioned terms take up a whole new meaning – just ask Google about it. It is not merely Android spyware or ‘computer and internet monitoring software’ that is the butt of Google’s little grey cells, the search engine giant has a lot on its platter.

Google’s TNT

Google recently went to war against websites using techniques to augment the search engine rankings artificially. Panda – an algorithmic update courtesy Google, formulated to extricate websites with little content – was the first dynamite that exploded. It was followed by the Penguin explosion, which was designed to “punish” websites that used linking methods to manipulate rankings on the search engine.

The Backlash

Google’s updates weren’t exactly seamless. There were claims by various sites that they were struck down unfairly, which resulted in an online petition against Google’s Penguin. Most of the clamor against Google’s algorithm update was generated by affiliates, which make money on the Web through the creation of sites that are involved in the sale of products on the behalf of another business. Millions of dollars are made through the practice, but there are those who earn a regular working wage through these sites – both of them are under Google’s gun.

Lack of Affiliation

The rating guidelines of Google clearly say that the slim affiliate websites should be given a low rating and hence it’s a no-brainer that it is the affiliate network that is under the cosh. If one were a conspiracy theorist one could say that Google’s affiliate hunt is primarily because of its own self-seeking interests – Google’s recent credit card promotion through affiliates would definitely help one conjure the aforementioned conspiracy theory.

Wiping Off Competition

Google’s credit card search comes with an advert, which is placed at the top of the screen and is prodigiously bigger than any other link. And obviously such a humongous ad would attract a soaring click-through rate. This in turn would ensure that the searchers do not go to other affiliate sites, and instead directly apply for their credit cards.

Strictly from a business viewpoint, Google’s doing the right thing by these promotions. It is a profitable industry, and with the recent updates summoned by Google, it has definitely warded off competition. And this where one questions Google’s rulebook: how can a company take down affiliate websites only to come up with its own affiliate network after ensuring that its competition in that particular realm would be square root of zilch? It’s a wonder it does nothing about Android spy app.

Far-fetched?

Associating as big a name as Google with such feeble competition techniques might be thought of as far-fetched in some quarters but considering affliates’ direct competition with Adwords – Google’s advertising system – is it really that outrageous? Again, it depends on how Google deals with affiliate websites in the future. If the Google rulebook continues to define its own affiliate sites as justifiable, while pull down other affiliates, and still tout that it considers everyone equal in its site – one can’t help but feel that Google’s affiliates are more equal than others.

This article was written by Jane Andrew on behalf of cellspyexpert. She provides tips and tricks about android spy and cell phone monitoring software. To find out more android spy, please follow her @janeandrew01.

In June 2011 Google implemented the “rel=author” markup in search results, a method for tying content to the person who created it. Because of many manipulative methods that some people used to improve their rankings, Google has decided they need to establish the real person behind the content (and links) in order to verify that links come from trust-worthy sources.

Great for Google, but what does this do for you? A lot, actually, providing you’re a content author and not a spammer.

Credibility. Everything you wrote, and where you’ve included your authormarkup, is tied to your Google+ profile, so no one else can claim your content. To verify yourself as the author in the eyes of Google, you need a Google+ account, which requires a picture of a real person (instead of company logo or some cartoon picture). It’s wise to fill in as much details as you can: you physical address, phone number, bio…, because people who like what you wrote can learn more about you and contact you more easily. And the more articles you publish, the more social buzz you’ll get, which sends stronger signals to Google about your authority in the field.

Visibility. If you’ve published an article about German Shepherd puppies, and someone else has published a similar article on a website of similar authority, and all other things being equal, Google will give more esteem in their rankings to the article written by the one they recognize as credible content author. Also, people searching for “German Shepherd puppies” see your picture and the author byline next to the article listed in the results, and tend to attribute more credibility to the content written by a real person when compared to what they perceive as anonymous content – which, naturally, leads to higher click through rate. How to implement “rel=author” markup First you need to set up a Google+ profile with your photo and other details. The next step is to verify your email address on Google+ – not your gmail address, but the one with the same domain as your blog, ex. myname@mysite.com.

Google will send an email to that address, and you should click on the link inside the email. In your Google+ profile, under “Edit profile” where you have filled your contact and other info, find “Contributor to”, and enter a link to the content on your website. You can link either to the bio page if your blog has one, or directly to a post you wrote. Final step is to tell Google that the owner of the domain and the profile on Google+ are the same person. In the bio page on your site link back to your Google profile including the “rel=author” markup. It will look like this: Google. The rel=author is the important part here.

To check if you have done it right, use this tool – just paste the URLs of some of your posts in the box. You should know that it takes time before your picture starts showing in the search results, sometimes even a couple of weeks, so be patient. Guest posting It’s good to have your own website linked to your Google profile, but it’s even better to claim all of your content out there, so when you guest post on other blogs, along with your text and bio, send the website owner the proper HTML, the same as above (which contains the “rel=author”), and ad that website to your “Contributor to” links on Google+.

Conclusion

Benefits of claiming your authorship on Google are numerous: it will prevent someone from stealing your content, enhance your authority in Google’s eyes, and provide you with more visits to your blog. So, even though it may seem a bit confusing to set it up, give it a go, it’s the future of ranking in search results.

As a SEO expert, Jeff knows how every detail such is Google+ is important for online business. Curently, he is also associated with http://www.serijskiubojica.hr as their consultant for search engine optimization and social media marketing.

Image Source: Reuters India

 Today internet workers protested outside Google Mumbai. Google’s recent algorithm change (called Penguin) has created widespread unemployment in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.  The Penguin update effected low quality SEO/link building services, much of  which was being outsourced by the US.   It is estimated that 80% of the worlds link building was carried out in India, many of the top SEO firms in the UK and Europe outsourcing work here.   They are now having to change the way they work and find new solutions, many not having the knowledge themselves.

One US Digital Marketing agency stated:

“90% of our business was outsourced to India, we assumed they had the knowledge to keep Google happy but we were wrong”

One Indian ‘SEO Expert’, Steve Patel,  used to work 15 hour per day ‘spinning’ content and uploading it to a large network of sites for US/UK clients. His youngest son, Ashwad (6yrs), had also been taught how to link build.  ”Ashwad was getting very good on programmes like Xrummer, but now his future is in jeopardy”

Matt Cutts (head of Google webspam team) is expected to address the angry crowds tomorrow via video link from Google HQ.  He is expected to offer them support and ask them to watch some of his Webmaster Tools videos on how to link build the Google way.

“If you see a funny picture post it on your blog…you can get a lot of links very quickly”

Google’s new privacy policy has just come into effect, and caused quite a bit of fuss in the process. Online privacy has become a hot topic lately, so it was inevitable that any changes Google made to how it treats user data would come under the microscope.

If you look closely enough, you’ll see that Google’s new policy is actually very unGoogle.

What’s the new policy? 

On the face of it, the policy is innocuous enough. Google says they are merely amalgamating their 60 or so individual privacy policies (one for each product) into one simplified, streamlined policy that covers all of their properties: from the search engine to YouTube via Gmail and AdWords.

However, this amalgamation also means that they can now trade data between these products in a way they’ve previously been unable to. Most controversially, they can now feed more data into the AdWords and AdSense packages that comprise 97% of Google’s revenue.

Why is it UnGoogle?

Although to a certain extent the trade off between data and free services has always been made clear, the new privacy policy is actually very opaque.

On the eve of the policy coming into effect, French regulators CNIL, on behalf of the EU, declared the policy to be “unlawful” as well as calling it unfair. The reason being that the policy doesn’t go into enough detail about what data the company will collect on its users, and how that will be shared amongst its various products.

And although users are given the option of opting out of data tracking (see below), this is arguably not made sufficiently clear, or instructions on how to do so given sufficient prominence.

The EU statement also pointed out that given the lack of information in the policy on what data will be collected and how, Google’s actual practices come into question. By not providing enough information, we are left to only guess at what goes on behind the scenes, which may involve further contravention of European data protection legislation.

Given that Google has managed to climb its way to official Web Overlord status without too many eyelids being batted thanks to a benign reputation, this shadiness over data protection and privacy is alarming. The company’s famed motto – “don’t be evil” is looking a little smudged these days; as is its reputation for being a champion of openness and transparency online – key to the brand’s success.

This blurring of privacy lines could be incredibly damaging for Google. Following the announcement of the new policy, and in the wake of numerous anti-trust suits brought against the company in both Europe and America over privacy issues related to Google’s data collection for its Street View service, Microsoft have launched a hard hitting ad campaign openly criticising Google on privacy issues in a bid to win users over to Bing.

What can you do about it?

You can opt out of data tracking. From your Google account, go to www.google.com/history and hit ‘pause’. If your only option is ‘turn on web history’ you’re already in the clear.

However, unlike the new privacy policy, this doesn’t cover you for every Google product. You may also wish to switch off viewing history in YouTube  and opt out of personalised adverts .

It should be noted that these are strictly opt out and only apparent to those determined to look for them.

What do you think? Is Google’s new policy UnGoogle? Is it time to switch to Bing?

This is a guest post by Nick Lewis. Nick specialises in copywriting and SEO for Brighton digital agency Bozboz

If you are planning to promote your blog seriously then guest blogging is an option you can ill afford to lose.  Wondering what it is?

Guest blogging means occasionally writing for other blogs to expand your presence and gain new audience.  Relatively successful bloggers are always interested in publishing blog posts from guest bloggers primarily because

• It brings in a totally new perspective
• It brings quality content without much effort
• They can focus on their blog marketing instead of having to worry about continuously generating new content

But what benefit do you get for guest blogging?  Shouldn’t you be instead focusing on your own blog and generating content for it as much as possible?  Of course you should generate content for your own blog before you start guest blogging (there is a bleak chance of getting to guest blog if there is no quality content on your own blog), but the benefit of guest blogging is so overwhelming that people are practically building careers out of it.

Whenever you publish a guest blog post on another blog your resource box also appears along with the post.  This resource box contains valuable information regarding what you do, what is your website link and how to subscribe to your RSS feed.  Sometimes they also publish your photograph.  It can be a complete paragraph or a couple of sentences but it is enough information to give an idea of what your website or blog is all about to the readers of that blog.

Guest blogging also generates high-quality back links to your blog, great for affiliate SEO.  Most blog publishers go for guest blogging merely for this reason.

So as a blogger or a website publisher you get the following benefits out of guest blogging:

• Quality back links: Google and other search engines give lots of prominence to page rank and you can improve your page rank by gathering lots of back links.  As mentioned above whenever your blog post is published on another blog it is accompanied by your resource box containing a brief profile, a link to your website or blog, and the link to your RSS feed. If done routinely guest blogging can get you scores of quality back links, increasing your search engine rankings consequently.
• Branding: On the Internet it is all about your presence and brand recognition.  By guest blogging you make more and more people aware of your presence as an individual and as an entrepreneur.  Guest blogging also gives you a chance to establish yourself as an expert and an authority and this further strengthens your brand.
• Increased traffic: Of course your guest blog posts can generate you a ton of extra traffic because the blogs publishing your blog posts themselves enjoy lots of traffic.  Even a single guest blog post on an A-list blog can send thousands of visitors your way.
• New subscribers: Again, as mentioned above your resource box can also carry a link to your RSS feed and this can increase your subscriber numbers.

How to find blogs for guest blogging

In most of the cases you must already be aware of blogs that would like to publish your guest blog posts. In case you have no clue you can use the following methods to find good candidates:

• Search engines: Suppose you write on technology and you would like to write guest blog posts on the same topic.  You can search on Google (or any of your favorite search engines) something like “top technology blogs” and visit them one by one to know more about them.
• Social networking with writers and blog publishers: It is advised that you continuously network with other blog publishers in your niche. This is because most of the guest blog posting opportunities are exchanged between people who already know each other.  If you don’t know many people in your field than perhaps it is right time to start networking and interacting with people.  If all of a sudden one-day you pop out and start approaching people for guest blogging assignments they might, politely or bluntly, turn your request down.  Make as many friends as possible.

How to make sure your guest blog posts are published?

It is very simple.  Every blog publisher looking for guest blog posts wants quality stuff to publish. Be genuine and unique and don’t try to do a “quick job”.  Remember that if you are writing for a highly-traffic blog it is going to get you traffic for a long time so sometimes writing one single blog post properly is worth writing 10 proper blog posts for your own blog. While preparing your guest blog posts make sure:

You create a compelling title: A compelling title is very important because it can draw lots of traffic from social networking and social bookmarking websites.  Your title also encourages the blog publisher you are approaching to give due attention to your proposal.  Make it catchy and relevant.  Provide a solution in a highly interesting manner.

Do proper research: Your claims in your guest blog posts must be backed with thorough research.

Keep in mind the audience: Pay close attention to the sort of audience that visits a blog   you are publishing your guest blog posts on. It shouldn’t seem that you are going on a tangent. Even if you’re introducing a new idea some way or the other it should be relevant to the inherent theme of the blog.

• Keep it relevant: Is what you are writing really useful?  Is it going to add value to the blog where it is published?  Does it solve people’s problem?  If you keep it relevant it will be extremely hard for the blog publisher to reject your guest blog posting proposal.
• Make a genuine and original: This goes without saying that your guest blog posts must be completely original and genuine and no idea must be taken from other “sources”.  Even if you’re referring to some data the source must always be mentioned.  Use your intrinsic style because that is what that blogger is looking for — a fresh voice and a fresh perspective.
• Respond to comments: Responding to comments shows the bloggers who would be interested in publishing your guest blog posts that you are really interested in the topic and like to communicate with the community.  It also gives you a chance to express yourself and discuss ideas that were perhaps left untouched in the actual blog post.

The process of approaching other bloggers for guest blog posts

Some sense of familiarity is a must.  Start interacting with the blog publishers on whose blogs you would like to publish your guest blog posts.  Even if you are not familiar to them you can contact them by e-mail and send a proposal.  It may include the title of your guest blog post with a small synopsis.  Don’t forget that not everyone likes affiliates, but if you can show you are building a brand opposed to a thin affiliate website, your chances will be much better.

Don’t worry if the blogger doesn’t get back immediately.  Because they run a successful blog they are constantly bombarded with messages and guest blog posting requests.  It may happen that they never reply.  Don’t give up.  You can write to them again, or contact them  using Twitter on Facebook; just make sure you don’t spam them or harass them with a litany of messages.

This is your ultimate guide to guest blogging success.  Stick to it and see your traffic, and your business, skyrocketing.

Trawling through competitor’s links is extremely time consuming, but worth while if done properly.  Do not blindly chase all the same links from the sites in the top positions, this can end up causing you more problems.

Good link analysis software will give you tonnes of link data which can sometimes be overwhelming to someone new to link building.  The secret is to sieve through the data quickly finding quality low hanging fruit.  By quality I mean finding the authority links within the link profile that are easliy obtainable.  Some links are not worth obtaining, like low quality directory links.  The #1 site my have the authority and trust to get away with some spammy links, but these same links could cause you to incurr a penalty.

Another problem with chasing competitor links is when you discover paid links.  Just because they are ranking and have some paid links, it doesn’t mean you should buy these link too.  [Read more...]