It has been several months since the first incarnation of the monstrous, blood-thirsty Google Penguin algorithmic update, yet still everyone is talking about it. I suspect this is because many people are still not ranking and banging their heads against the wall trying to figure out how to bring their sites back to pre-Penguin levels.

Before I get into the nitty gritty of my dos and don’ts, I would like to point out that I believe the main reason I am still alive in the SEO game is not necessarily due to my skill or work ethic. In fact, really my own laziness and lack of ambition is probably what has kept my bestest sites afloat. Why? Because we all know that the overly-optimized have suffered greatly. Fortunately for me, about two years ago when I started making more money than I had ever made before doing this internet nerd stuff, I got distracted traveling and having a good time and spent very little time worrying about optimization anymore. Of course, I did work very hard to create quality sites that users would actually find value in in the first place, but I stopped aggressively link building and doing any sort of optimization like that on most sites after I got them ranking to begin with. The ones I did optimize like hell are the ones that tanked, which probably comes as no surprise to most of you.

Anyway, bla bla bla, TL;DR, inb4 eBook. If you’re trying to re-rank a site that was front kicked into oblivion by the last update, I suggest you stop. I am sure it’s possible, however, I doubt it’s worth the time. Don’t drive yourself crazy trying to save an old money maker like you’re emotionally invested in it or something. If you ranked before, you can rank again. If you’ve never ranked before and you’re a total noob (welcome, nice to see you), then I guess your good karma has brought you here.


Post-Penguin Dos

Make Quality Sites

Come at me PETA, cause I plan on beating this dead horse until there is nothing left of it. Please note that what you think is a “quality site” may not necessarily be a quality site. It’s not unlike how mothers of ugly children fail to see the cosmetic issues of their own children for what they are. The design and functionality of your site should be top notch and on par with with the sites currently dominating whatever niche you are trying to infiltrate. Get a second opinion. You may not think this has a lot to do with SEO, but it has everything to do with SEO. Do you want to be searching for effective blog comment targets for the rest of your life? Then you’re going to want to make a website that people take seriously and are actually willing to link other people to.


Engage

Sometimes when I preach about engaging via Facebook, Twitter, etc, I get responses like “well, what am I supposed to post about?” If you can’t figure that out, then, I mean, dang. Listen, the days of automating and spamming the shit out of everything are more or less over. Yes there are still people making some money doing it but they are living on the fringe of the internet marketing community, whereas before it was almost mainstream. In today’s SEO world, you need to freaking innovate. I don’t know what your websites are about, therefore I cannot come up with clever ways to promote them using social media. I will say that Twitter has a very handy search feature. It’s more powerful than many people realize. Use it to your advantage. Giving stuff away is usually pretty effective, too.


Dive into stuff you know and care about

It’s no secret that if you base your business around stuff you actually care about, you will find greater success and probably less grey hairs. In the post-penguin era, freshness is very important. Let me tell you from experience, it is very tedious and soul-sucking to constantly be updating sites about things you have absolutely no interest in but at one time figured you could make some good money off of. When it’s something you care about, you feel compelled to do it and it’s not a chore. Now, that’s not to say you should dedicate your life to building a blog chronicling the sketches you make of your dog…but you get the idea. Just about every interest you could have can be used to create a business, but the level of creativity needed to do so will vary.


Sweet-talk other webmasters

I am a long time fan of this. Anyone that knows me knows that this is bread and butter of my linkbuilding. The problem is, most people that attempt it try to streamline the process by writing some contrived copy+paste email pitch that no one ever pays attention to. Have a little respect for the webmasters you email and actually take the time to get to know the site you’re itching to get a link on and make sure the fact that you’re not just spamming webmasters comes across in your email. There are lots of creative ways to get their attention. Here is one.

Wow, this post is getting really long. Better stop getting cute with graphics.

Don’ts:

1. Don’t over-optimize. This should be obvious by now. Use significant keyword diversity when you build links, and forget about the shitty links. Seriously, just forget about them. Get related links from guest blog posts, related blog rolls, related communities, related anything, and mix up the anchor text. Use generic anchors.

2. Don’t copy your competitors. Sure, it’s a good idea to watch what they’re doing and investigate where their backlinks are coming from, but if you try to actually emulate their business, you are going to be sorely disappointed. Focus on finding your own path to success.

3. Stop complaining. Penguin (and Panda, for that matter) didn’t ruin everything, it just changed everything. Last time I checked, the first page of results is still full of websites, so, plenty of people are still cashing in.

4. Don’t depend entirely on Google for your livelihood. Many people learned this hard lesson recently. The bright side is that they also learned that there are virtually limitless other methods of generating traffic, and Google is really just one of them. The fact of the matter is what works today will not necessarily work tomorrow, and traffic diversity is the key to long-term success.

5. Don’t forget to BUY MY PANDA RECOVERY eBOOK!!!!

lol jk

During a recent Skype conversation, it came to my attention that some folks may not know that you can still leave a link-injected blog comment on many WordPress blogs that have removed the URL field in their comment forms.

One way, of course, is to just use html in the body of the comment. This will work on some sites, but it can also trigger spam filters or cause more scrutinized moderation. The alternative, and the only way to get the “name” field hyperlinked to your site, is simply to register on the site and create a profile.

For instance, let’s say you find a sweet target page on PENISPILLWEBSITE.COM where there are already a few comments, and one of them has their name linked to their website, even though the URL field is missing from the WordPress comment form. Try going to PENISPILLWEBSITE.com/wp-login.php?action=register

If the admin has not disabled registration (which should be the case in the above scenario since there is no URL field in the form yet there are visible names that are hyperlinked), you should be able to register. Just enter a username and email and it will send you a password to the email address you specified. Once you log in, you should be taken to your profile page. If not, just find it in the sidebar and go there. In your profile you can set how your name will be displayed publicly (your anchor text) and your website, which will be the site that is linked to your name when you leave a comment.

There you have it. As with most of my vague, half-ass posts, those of you with cyber-raping tendencies are probably already thinking of ways to automate this concept into something far more powerful and destructive. Godspeed.

PS This post is dedicated to Edmond Major III.

In any complex industry, there will be a lot of differentiation between actors, and how they accomplish or offer what may appear on the surface, to be similar services, goals and products.

SEO is no different. In SEO, we have various hats (black, white, offwhite, grey, blue) which represent the tactics, markets and styles with which SEO has been pursued.

For example;

Rand Fishkin may be very aware of high level Google search changes through conferences and social networking, while unaware of what link building tools thousands of SEOs are using.

Matt Cutts may be on the Google Web Spam team, and yet be unaware of spammy tactics people have been successfully exploiting for over 6 years.

Bob the Affiliate SEO may know of 10 different sources for backlinks, or behaviors in Google Bot which gives him a significant ranking edge, unaware of algorithmic tweaks and changes at Google.

In this sense, SEO has always been asymmetric. Everyone has different knowledge, and there are no standard methods in an industry based primarily around one search engine.

Which makes good sense as search results are a zero sum game. Zero sum games breed intense competition and differentiation.

This lack of consistent information has been the norm for some time, and yet from the earliest days of Google, everyone knew what Larry and Sergey planned with the search algorithm. We knew how PageRank is calculated. We understood the place of linking, and the value of anchor text.

While we didn’t know the equation, we knew enough variables to come up with best practices. Links good. Anchor text great. Keyword in URL, solid.

Then it changed.

Last year, Google released Panda update and recently Penguin update, turning everything we knew about SEO upside down.

Now with Panda, Google is judging our on-page factors, yet we don’t know what the variables are. With Penguin, Google is punishing link optimization, and again we don’t know what the variables are.

Compounding this, Google has hurt the rankings of many innocent sites with these updates, both of which are far from perfect or precise, or if I wanted to be less charitable, completely arbitrary.

So where do we go from here?

I think Rand Fishkin has won. I was already on the inbound marketing bandwagon before Panda hit, and I haven’t consistently checked rank position in almost 2 years.

Before Rand does his victory lap, let’s remember that every success contains the seed of a future defeat.

Inbound marketing is about to get a lot more attention. The people who are coming over from affiliate SEO to mainstream SEO are highly motivated, aggressive and much smarter than the folks typically found posting SEOmoz blog comments.

My guess is that in 12-24 months the whitehat enterprise SEOs will get a run for their money. SEOmoz, Raven Tools, they are all going to be in the cross-hairs of people who are very talented hustlers. Folks who will take all of the energy and millions of dollars they put into link building, and focus that into dominating content, analytics and social media.

Regardless, we should all be happy about the triumph of inbound marketing, because it signals an end to the dependence on Google and obsession with their (now) opaque algorithm.

Change is the one thing we can all count on, all of the time. With one hand, change gives, and with the other it takes away.

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About The Author: Anand works at CommunitySEO, a moderated web directory.

Connect with the author via: Twitter | Google+

So, since my last post (nearly three months ago, sorry!), there has been even more confusion in the SEO world as the new Google Penguin update has wreaked havoc upon webmasters around the world. Sentiments and general attitudes on SEO message boards are very negative. Some people are even claiming that it is now impossible to rank. Well, until the first 2 pages of Google search results for any given query become either blank or nothing but Google Ads, you had better believe that it is still very possible to rank.

I did not escape this last update completely unscathed. Like many others, I had EMD (exact match domain) sites with little to no anchor text diversity and generic backlinks (social bookmarks, blog comments, etc) that were slapped pretty hard. Fortunately, I don’t rely on those types of web properties to support my business. My sites that actually provide some type of value and regularly get natural backlinks are still doing just fine, many of them better.

I know the goodie-two-shoes people in this industry love talking about “user experience” and “providing value.” Believe me, I am annoyed by this as well. I don’t build quality sites because I like playing by the rules. I build quality sites because they make more money. I save my rebellious nature for linkbuilding.

But, haven’t cheap links been considerably devalued? Possibly even made to harm the rankings of sites? Sure. I’m not going to get into a whole talk about negative SEO. I’m going to talk about muthafuckin off-white hat SEO!

Too many people look at SEO and see only two approaches: A) Play by the book and try to get quality links. B) Break all the rules and XRUMER ALL THE THINGS and get as many links as you possibly can no matter how you get them.

For a long term business plan, A is the better approach of the two, and I think most reasonable people would agree. But that doesn’t mean it’s the BEST approach.

What do I do when it comes to link building? I focus on doing whatever I have to do, however sneakily I need to do it, no matter how many “rules” I have to break in the process, to get those quality links (without breaking the law). No, I’m not going to spell the process out for you. That would be stupid on my part. Even if I did, your mileage is going to vary. What I’m trying to communicate is the simple principles that I have been applying to my business all along: using somewhat devious tactics to get GOOD links that your competitors don’t have the ability to get. THAT is how you rank, sustain your rank, and get natural links as a result of having that rank. And I think attempting any of this without having a quality site in the first place is more or less a waste of time.

Now, good link building doesn’t always have to be sneaky. What it takes to get good links varies A LOT by niche. In some cases, assuming you have a decent site, one of the best ways to build links is to email webmasters and politely ask for them. Imagine that. But a lot of people don’t like putting in that sort of leg work, even though it really can pay off.

As far as specifics, look around this site. I’ve blogged about lots of techniques I use. Not all of them are still effective (maybe not even possible), but it should help you understand the way I approach SEO and maybe you can incorporate those principles into your business.

MOST OF THE SEO INFO OUT THERE IS GARBAGE. You probably already knew that, but I want to reiterate it. I don’t have anything to sell you here. Not that it would be a bad thing if I did, I mean, we’re all here to make money. But that’s not my motivation. My real motivation is having a blog that people read so that other people buy me drinks at conferences and give me access to beta test cool shit and stuff like that. If I was to be another parrot blog just regurgitating the same useless info about keyword density and making useless case studies, people might stop reading.

With a little luck, it will be less than three months before I blog again.

…And now for an entirely speculative post regarding the mysterious and ever changing Google search algorithm.

Take a look at any webmaster forum these days and you will find a whole lot of people hooting and hollering about negative SERP movement. Panda this, panda that, panda hit me with a wiffle ball bat. In the past few months, Google’s tinkering and pandaneering has had a major impact on the current search results and caused some of the most experienced SEO wizards to question their own strategies.

Personally, I have seen a lot of movement as well. Luckily, my lack of focus has left me with a truckload of websites in various niches on which I have used vastly different link building strategies on. So, while some of my winners became losers, some of my losers became winners, and kingofsp lives to blog another day.

Now, the more disciplined forum posters and of course the case-study gurus at places like SEOmoz are having a field day examining data and attempting to uncover the mysteries of this problematic panda. Everyone is looking for the common traits of affected websites to shed light on what factors (whether on page or off) are causing some websites to be slapped into oblivion.

And now for my speculation…

If I were Google

No, that is not an homage to OJ Simpson. I’m just saying, whenever it comes to matters of search engine algorithmic policy, the most logical way to start reverse engineering a search engine is to put yourself in the shoes of the engineer and think about what you would do in order to achieve a level playing field where dastardly marketers like us would have a real hard time gaming the system and user experience would benefit.

So, let’s say I’m Joe Google, and I am tasked with making the Panda update one that will cripple the “SEO industry” (since you know they hate us anyway). I know that if I make an obvious tweak like making all sites with a buttload of profile links become slapped out of the top 1000, it will only be a matter of time before the case study heroes figure that out and the information propagates like a virus across all of the SEO resources. So, what I would want to do is basically confuse the fuck out of everyone.

Website Grouping
Each time Google’s robots discover/index a new website, simply place it into one of several groups. Let’s say groups A-S. Make it so that each group has a similar yet unique set of rules that govern what overall “score” the site gets which will determine how it ranks with other sites.

For instance, let’s say Group C places a special importance on anchor text diversity. Over anchor-text optimization in Group C sites will results in -25 points from the overall quality score. Whereas over anchor-text optimization in sites belonging to Group L might only result in -10 points from the overall quality score.

You use the same basic principles that have already been in play, you just change the value for each item. On-page optimization is of higher importance for sites in Group D than those in Group F. Amount of unique content is hardly as important for Group M sites as it is for Group A, and so on.

Obviously it would be a little bit more complex than that to implement, but you get the general idea. The result is an algorithm that still values and rewards quality websites with a healthy SEO strategy, but it becomes nearly impossible to game. Consequently, a million case studies and a billion moaning and groaning forum posts appear. The only option left for webmasters is to actually create websites with value, which is what Google has yearned for all along.

Back to Reality

I have yet to seduce a Google employee, so this of course is still pure speculation. It’s just an idea I had and felt like bloggin’ about it. Hopefully some of you find it interesting.

Oh, and Google, you’re welcome. My min salary is $750,000/year. I will be telecommuting. Use the contact form if you have any questions. Thank you.

Perhaps you’ve heard of it, perhaps not. Maybe you’ve heard people in the SEO community refer to “ALN” and had no idea what they were talking about. Well, in this post, I’m going to shed a bit of light and offer my thoughts on this particular “link network” after having tinkered with it.

Some time ago, I blogged about the pros and cons of blog networks, and I went into some detail about blog networks in general. Authority Link Network (aka “ALN”) is basically a blog network, but it is unlike any other one I’ve ever used. The main thing that sets ALN apart from the other ones I’ve tried in the past is that along with the paid option you would expect, there is also a “free” option.

Yes, the quotation marks around the word “free” imply that there is a catch. However, it’s a pretty dang neat catch. If you want to get access to ALN without paying, you simply have to add a blog or two of your own to the network. This pretty brilliant system makes it so that fresh, quality blogs are constantly being added to the network. Naturally, there are some guidelines for sites that are submitted to be accepted.

Criteria
- You can only submit sites that are built on the WordPress CMS, version 2.6 or newer. If you are running older versions than 2.6, finding a good blog network is probably the least of your problems.

- The “Hello World” default WordPress post must be removed. No brainer.

- The default blogroll must also be removed. Sorry, I know you like linking to WordPress Planet whenever possible.

- XML-RPC must be enabled. If you don’t know what this is, it doesn’t matter. Just go to the “Writing” section under the “Settings” tab in your WordPress backend area and click the box to enable it.

- The blog can’t exist in a subdomain or a subdirectory. It needs to be on the root of the site.

- You must use any theme OTHER than the default WordPress theme on the site. Don’t be lazy.

- Have multiple categories (every post shouldn’t be posted under “uncategorized”).

- The site MUST be PR1 or higher. PR0 sites are not accepted. Also, if you are submitting a site with a TLD other than any of the following: .com .net .org .info .co .ca .me .us .biz .co.uk .com.au .net.au .ws and .t, it will basically count as only half of a regular submission.

If it seems like they are a bit picky, that’s because they are. The strict guidelines help ensure that the network isn’t clogged up with a bunch of junk sites. There are some other obvious rules (you can’t remove articles/links that have been posted to your sites) and a few not-so obvious rules. You’ll have to read through their FAQ for detailed info.

If you don’t want to bother with adding your own sites to the network, there is always the paid option. The cheapest plan (called the “Basic” plan) currently costs $14.95/mo. Considering the quality of the sites on this network versus most of the networks I’ve seen/used, I think that’s an extremely reasonable price.

Click here to get started with ALN.

For those of you who managed to arrive at this blog without any prior knowledge of Drip Feed Blasts (DFB), check out this post about its first incarnation. Otherwise, continue getting your read on.

I was one of the few fortunate enough to invited to alphatest DFB 2.0. Eagerly, I accepted. The enhancements I discovered blew my mind.

In the past, when you thought of DFB, you thought of a user-friendly, convenient and professional Xrumer blasting solution. Somehow, between the span of 1.0 and 2.0, it became so much dang more. Two new major features include:

Social Bookmarking
That’s right. You can now schedule social bookmarking blasts. 100 bookmarks per day, per link unit. I’ll talk more about link units later.

This feature almost made me wet my pants. Never before has it been so easy to give sites/pages a quick bookmarking boost. What’s even better is that DFB 2.0 allows you to input spintax in every type of link blast. That means I can generate UNIQUE bookmarks, time and time again. Holy moly. Titles as well as descriptions can be spun to your heart’s content. Upon viewing my reports, the links were all good. All of them.

Directory Submissions
With the same ease as social bookmarks, you can use DFB 2.0 to schedule directory submission blasts. Yes, you may also use spintax. Due to the nature of most directories, you’re obviously not going to get immediate results like you do with profile links or social bookmarks, but as long as you make your titles and descriptions not look like poo, they will most likely get approved eventually (if not automatically).

And of course, DFB is still the #1 profile link building (xrumer) solution. I wouldn’t leave it to anyone else.

Poor India. First PayPal screws them over, now this. Of course, there are still some worthwhile SEO services offered by the best of the best (Amit aka Red_Virus comes to mind), but for rudimentary SEO work, DFB 2.0 just made everything a whole hell of a lot easier.

How I Use it
Most of the e-mails I get are from novice to intermediate SEOers who are looking for more specificity in how I go about optimizing my sites, particularly in the off-site department. It used to be a long winded, complicated response (which I was often too lazy to provide). Nowadays, it’s somewhat simpler.

First of all, you’re not going to get rich by using DFB alone. Get that delusion right out of your head. However, I will say that it is the ONLY subscription based SEO service that I currently use.

The formula is simple:

1. Good, exclusive backlinks.
2. Support system of DFB backlinks
3. Decent website/niche
4. PROFIT$$$$

Notice the lack of question marks.

Number 1 is of course the more difficult part. That is where your own creativity and social engineering come into play.

Number 2 is only a matter of signing up for DFB.

Number 3 is your problem, bro.

Calendar Scheduling
DFB 2.0 features calendar scheduling as well as regular daily scheduling. Daily scheduling is now referred to as the “loop.” Blasts in the loop will continue running daily. However, if a blast is scheduled on the calendar, it will take priority over the loop. Once the calendar blast(s) is/are completed, the loop will resume.

Oh yeah, link units…

Previously, DFB power users had to manage multiple accounts, which meant logging in and out, multiple usernames + passwords, etc. Those dog days are over. DFB 2.0 incorporates “link units.” A link unit basically serves the same purpose as a separate account on the old system. Each link unit is worth either 1k profile links, 100 social bookmarks, or 150 directory submissions per day. Since there is not an infinite pool of pligg sites or web directories, each social bookmarking blast can only be run 3 times (per URL) and each directory submission blast can be run 4 (per domain).

Also, I would like to add that the new interface is fantastic. Campaign management is about as easy as it gets. I would like to take partial credit for that, as an alphatester. Even though I probably didn’t help that much.

Results
If a service doesn’t provide results, I do not continue using it. That’s pretty elementary. I have been a DFB subscriber for over a year now. I am particularly fond of the new social bookmark system. Every time I schedule a blast a see at least some positive movement for that particular URL within a week or so. Sometimes very significant movement. I typically do two days at a time. Obviously there are a ton of factors and my results are very specific to my own sites, but for whatever reason people always want to hear stuff like that…so there you go.

One last thing: I was not commissioned to write this post/review. I just appreciate a quality SEO service when I find one (which is not often). You are now excused to check out the new DFB for yourself.

A lot of my “real life” friends are engineers. Mostly mechanical engineers, but one is a software engineer. Often times I feel excluded because I am in a room full of engineers and I stand alone as a filthy capitalist. But then one day it hit me: I am an engineer.

When I first heard about “social engineering” it was in the context of phishing passwords on MySpace. Not very glamorous. However, it recently occurred to me that a lot of my SEO efforts can actually be classified as social engineering. More specifically, methods such as this or this. Those are just two examples of methods I use that I have detailed on this site. It really only scratches the surface as far as what you can do when you really put your mind to acquiring links by thinking outside of the box. Especially if you don’t mind being a little sneaky about it.

Am I saying that I go around creating fake online personalities and use them to gain access to websites that I will somehow exploit? No. I’m also not saying that I don’t!

The same software engineer I mentioned earlier recently explained to me that a lot of cases you hear about in the media relating to big companies having their security compromised are actually due to social engineering. It is more likely that someone somehow found a vulnerability on the inside (such as a clueless secretary with too much access) than a white van full of hackers in black jumpsuits plugging mysterious boxes into the back of the building.

You are always going to have competitors that are buying rankings. They will buy directory submissions, social bookmarks, regular old paid links, all that good stuff. Stuff that most of us do. By applying and creating social engineering link building methods (and succeeding) in addition to those standard methods, your competition doesn’t have a chance. Unless they evolve to that level, they simply have no access to the type of valuable links that are available. Then they go and make excuses to their clients (probably something about domain age or page loading speeds).

Perhaps you’re hoping I’m going to get a little bit more specific? Well, I think that would sort of defeat the purpose of what I’m saying here. This is a public blog, after all. I’m talking about using that big old brain of yours to come up with social engineering methods to acquire links that no one else can get. Just focus on whatever website it might be that you want to get a backlink on, and figure it out. Granted, some feats would be dang near impossible. If you can get a footer link on Google’s home page, then I will assume blackmail or something highly illegal was involved. But there are vulnerabilities everywhere. Don’t get discouraged, get excited.

In conclusion: Knowing how to use automated/paid links properly is still a very powerful weapon in your arsenal. However, without getting those few precious authority links that the other, inferior SEOs cannot access, it’s going to be a long and unexciting ride trying to make a buck, if you’re playing in anything remotely competitive.

Of course, you could always create incredible original content and optimize user experience to the point where people just can’t help but link to your site…but who has the time for that?

Like most of my ideas for posts, this one came from a thread on Wickedfire. My response there was short, but don’t worry, I have reserved my unnecessarily detailed and long-winded response for my blog!

First off, I know there are still some of you that don’t understand the value of Wikipedia links. I’m not even going to try to convince you otherwise. You’re better off just changing your mind right now and going with it. Yes, they will bear the “nofollow” attribute. If you don’t believe in the power of nofollow links (especially from an authority page), then you may return to digital point and go about your business.

Also, let’s not forget that in many cases, a well-placed Wikipedia place will result in targeted referral traffic.

Okay, so here are the simplified steps:

1) Find a recent, relevant news publication. I prefer interviews, because you can include a quote from the interview in the Wikipedia page you’re targeting.

2) Post this story on your site. A re-written copy will have a better chance of success, but I’ve also had links to stories I just copy + pasted stick for months and months (with no end in sight).

3) Do not put any ads/affiliate links on this page.

4) Place your link using proper formatting as a reference. If you don’t know how to properly format a Wikipedia link, see their documentation on this subject.

5) Do not do this repeatedly from the same IP within a short period of time.

After the dust has settled (perhaps a month or so), you may want to get a little ballsy and put ads/affiliate links on the page. Or, if you want to be more conservative about it, just enjoy the visitors you receive and the SE credibility of having sticky inbound links from Wikipedia.

Yes, Wikipedia does have editors. Some of them take more pleasure than others in being hall monitors and looking for links to delete. Also, pages related to certain high-competition niches are monitored a bit closer than others, since they are frequent spam targets. Try to find creative ways to fly under the radar. There are currently nearly 76 million Wikipedia pages indexed on Google, so, they can’t find everything. And even if they do, if you have followed the steps above, your link has the best chance of not being cock-blocked.

Oh, and one more tip…internal linking on Wikipedia is obviously very important and powerful. It’s also a lot easier to get away with dropping a link to another Wikipedia page than it is to an external site. So, if you don’t have any luck getting a link to stick on the high-profile page you’re originally targeting, you might want to consider dropping the link on a related but less desirable/less monitored page. That should be easier to stick, and once it does, you can work on building backlinks to the page from other, more authoritative Wikipedia pages to enhance the power of your link.

Okay. That’s all. More beer now.

The reason I’m posting this is because I’m tired of explaining this to people in my every day life that come to me with similar stories. From this point on, I can just link them to this article.

Okay, for those of you that make a living selling SEO services to businesses, I apologize. If it’s any consolation, the odds of you pitching a business owner who has read this blog post will be slim to none!

Recently, I was chatting with a middle-aged DUI attorney in a hot tub up in Mammoth. As we all know, hot tubs are where all the most important networking happens. Naturally, we got to talking about our respective lines of work. As it turned out, he was about as interested in the world of SEO as I was in the details of how to get out of a DUI. An enthusiastic, drunken conversation followed.

Real quick, for those of you wondering, his advice to anyone that gets pulled over while intoxicated is to refuse the breathalyzer, refuse the field sobriety test, and let them take you to the station and blood test you. This may be common knowledge to some of you, but it was golden info to me! Basically following that procedure makes it infinitely easier for your attorney to get you out of the dang thing. Not that I think any of you are irresponsible enough to drink and drive…I digress.

He Spends a Shitload on SEO with Minimal Results

Like many other business owners, he figured this was just the nature of the SEO beast. I’m sure his SEO company reinforced this notion whenever he voiced any concern.

So, here is what I told Bob:

Bob, if your SEO company has the skill set to rank you or anyone for competitive attorney-related keywords, then why are they spending so much time and energy looking for people like you willing to pay them to do it, even though they can’t guarantee results? Fundamentally, doesn’t make much sense. If you can efficiently rank semi-competitive terms on the Googlez, you can make more money than the monthly fee you would charge an attorney.

Bob’s response: ahhhhhhh.

To be fair, there is a lot of money to be made in selling SEO services. After all, it is a seller’s market. It is also very scalable. But that doesn’t mean it is going to benefit business owners in a significant way. So, what can business owners do?

Business Owners are Best Suited to SEO Themselves

Like I told Bob, and like most of you know, it’s all about inbound links. Sure there are dozens of other important factors, but nothing can touch the significance of quality inbound links. For you business owners that may be confused, inbound links = links to your website on other websites. No time to get into the reason and rhyme behind it. Just accept it.

Let’s say you hire me to improve your company’s ranking for “nail polish remover.” What am I gonna do? I’m going to outsource generic link-building all over the place and charge you a huge premium for it. Will your rankings improve? Probably a bit. Will you experience the sort of results I led you to dream about when I was pitching my service? Probably not. The reason for this is that the links I will be acquiring for you will be cheap, weak links that anyone with a lot of time or $ on their hands can gather in large quantities. But these types of links generally won’t create big, sustainable ranking improvements.

I Can Has Good Links?

Yes, most likely, you can has. Especially if you’ve been in your current business for a while. Why? Because chances are, you’ve already made valuable contacts and have opportunities to get links that no one else could grab. Think about the other companies you routinely do business with. How many of them have established websites? How is your relationship with them? Would they be willing to link to your site with the anchor text “nail polish remover?”

These links are infinitely more valuable. In most cases they are from very relevant, often aged sites with minimal outbound links. And they definitely aren’t linking to random skin care, get rich quick, or get a bigger dick sites.

Sure, if you have a really good SEO company, they will work with you to attempt to get these links, but most won’t. And even the ones that do are most likely going to charge you an arm and a leg to do it.

My advice if you’re hellbent on enlisting outside SEO services: go ahead and hire whichever SEO company has the shiniest graphics on their site, and let them do the supplemental link building, ALONG with shaking down your friends and colleagues with websites to give you those precious exclusive links.

Quick SEO Checklist for Business Owners:

• •Get those dang links.
• •Optimize your site title with whatever term you’re trying to rank for. In other words, the title of the home page in the top of your browser should be “nail polish remover.” Not “home”!
• •The text used to link to your site, aka “anchor text”, is important. You want it to be a healthy combination of the term you’re trying to rank for and variatons of that term. For example, “nail polish remover”, “buy nail polish remover”, “ethyl acetate”, etc.
• •Send me 60% of quarterly profits.

Oh, by the way, Bob, here is the whole concept of this post put into action: Los Angeles criminal defense lawyer. Heh!