Monthly Archives: July 2012

// Reeves

The Death of Link Building?

Unnatural links is the next fight for Google as many people noticed with Penguin update in April.

Notifications about unnatural links pointing to your website were first sent out in July 2011 and this was further ramped up in March this year with a peak in the last weeks, causing both panic and relief for webmasters around the world.

This is not something you want to receive:

“We’ve detected that some of your site’s pages may be using techniques that are outside Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

Specifically, look for possibly artificial or unnatural links pointing to your site that could be intended to manipulate PageRank. Examples of unnatural linking could include buying links to pass PageRank or participating in link schemes.

We encourage you to make changes to your site so that it meets our quality guidelines.

Once you’ve made these changes, please submit your site for reconsideration in Google’s search results.

If you find unnatural links to your site that you are unable to control or remove, please provide the details in your reconsideration request.

If you have any questions about how to resolve this issue, please see our Webmaster Help Forum for support.

Sincerely,
Google Search Quality Team”

The reason that you receive this message is most likely that you have bought links in an unnatural way and that you have been doing it in too much volume.

Consequence of this message has usually been a hit on your rankings within 1-4 weeks, most commonly after about 10 days. The penalization is likely to lasts 6+ months and to get back in rankings you would need to send a reconsideration request to Google.

There is however no reason to panic completely, Google has recently sent out many messages with “false alarm” and you may not be in danger as Matt Cutts is stating here. Going forward it will be more clear what kind of danger you are facing in regards to this.

What should I do now?

You still need to get your links to rank but more attention needs to be put in the direction of creating content that people naturally really want to link to.

If you find this too expensive and hard you need to consult a link building expert, such as Nordic Search, to ensure that you are keeping the risk level you want and that your money is put in a direction where it matters, within Google’s guidelines.

Relevance and quality needs to improve, at the same time you can’t be too aggressive with anchor texts and definitely avoid link networks to boost your rankings. Short term, go through your link profile and make sure that obviously bad links are removed.

This is time consuming and many people are expecting the launch of a “link disavow tool” (enabling you to select what links that you don’t want to count) also for Google (not only Bing) to make this process easier.

Stay tuned for further updates about Google’s war against bad links!!

// Dali

How to Use Pinterest

Pinterest has one major power, it drives traffic to your website.

If your business relies on driving high volume traffic, then you should consider joining Pinterest. Actually, anyone who wants to promote a product, service, or a business can benefit from Pinterest.

For all those who are not familiar, Pinterest is a highly visual social network. It is used for “pinning” or sharing visually interesting images. This is how it works:

  1. Users find on the web an image they like. For example, they could like an image you just uploaded to your site.
  2. With the bookmarklet, pinners (users) pin your image. The image is now visible on their Pinterest board.
  3. When others on their pinboard like the image, they have an option to like it or repin it. If they repin the image, it will appear on their own boards.
  4. Once they click on the image, it will take them back to your website.

As you have noticed the process of pinning is rather simple and there are only few new terms for you to get familiar with: pinboards, pins, pin it, pinning, bookmarklet, repining and pinners.

  • A pinboard is is a board to which you give a name. You can have as many boards as you want. For example, if you are in a cake business, you can create boards such as: wedding cakes board, birthday cakes boards, bachelorette cakes and so on.
  • A pin is an image or any other visual content added to Pinterest pinboard.
  • Repin means to re-post a pin.
  • Pinning is a process of sharing images.
  • Pin it button is placed on a website to encourage sharing on Pinterest.
  • Pinner is a person who shares visual content.
  • Bookmarklet is added to your tool bar so you can easily pin others people creative stuff.

Next are four easy steps you can apply already now to improve your presence on Pinterest.

1. Planning

Instead of posting only good articles to your website, plan how you could improve your posts by adding images, infographics, videos, presentations or a cover from your new brochures. Plan in advance what kind of high quality visually impressive content you can upload to your site. Just make sure that the image you upload is relevant to your niche and it accompanies your post. Once ready with your planning, remember to add Pin it button visible to your site for others to share your content.

2. Pinterest Profile

For start you could create a profile that clearly defines who you are. Use keywords in the profile so others can easily find you. Make sure you follow Pinterest terms of service, it is always good to play by the rules.

You can log in to Pinterest with your email address or by using Facebook and or Twitter profiles. This is great feature because users pinning your stuff can also share it on Facebook and or Twitter. Here is what you could have in your description:

  • Upload an image / logo
  • Write who you are and what your company does (an elevator speech could work here)
  • Add a description of your boards
  • Have a call to action, such as: Follow me!
  • Add your website address

3. Pinboards

Create pinboards that compliment your business and are closely related to your topic. You can have as many boards as you want, but start with five. Also you can create few boards which do not need to be industry or business related. Rather, they will tell a bit more about your company personality, values, what your company stands for and so on. These kinds of boards are also very engaging on an emotional level which means you can attract more pinners and promote your business even more. Check the most popular and most shared images on Pinterest and monitor your competitors. Find out how you can use this information to improve your boards and or pinning.

4. How to drive engagement

Observe what is popular in your niche and how other companies are engaging their Pinterest followers. That will give you an idea what kind of next step to make. You can also:

  • Ask people to like your pin in your post
  • Ask people to comment on your pin
  • Ask questions and let people answer to your board
  • Make an interesting contest
  • Run offers
  • Follow others on Pinterest and like, pin, repin or comment on their content

Have in mind that Pinterest is not about self promotion only. Actually that is the list what Pinterest is all about. To see positive results on Pinterest, pin other peoples stuff, upload shareable images on your website and let others pin your content on their boards.

After a while you would want to follow your traffic. Google Analytics is a free tool which can help you follow how much traffic you receive from Pinterest and what type of images are of most interest to your pinners. Another handy tool is Curalate which can provide you with a lot of info: who is pinning, liking or commenting your image.

PS: Do not forget to add pin it button to every page. Upload eye-catching images and remember: if you are using pin it button from your pages, every pin will include a link back to the source. Happy pinning and follow Nordic Search on Pinterest.

Article by: Daliborka Krstic

// Dali

4 Ways to Spy Your Competitors via Social Sites

Social media is a valuable resource for a business not only to connect with fans but also to keep track of competitors.

Your competitors might be using new tactics to promote a new product, service or they might be trying to enter a new market. By knowing what they are up to and why others refer back to them when talking about your industry, you will have a great competitive edge.

However, if you have not yet figure out who are your at least top ten competitors, it will be difficult to spy on them. First, pull out some of your keywords you are saving for link building purposes or select top keyword phrases from your SEO folder and write them down in Google search, one-by-one. Then, ten URLs that shows up in SERP with your keyword are you potential competitors. To narrow down your competition geographically, repeat the step except this time add in search a name of a country or a city of your interest. Copy the top ten URLs in excel. You want to write down your competitors URLs / keywords and make few notes for future references. Now you are good to go and spy on your competitors.

There are more than hundred different kind of tools and ways which you can effectively apply for spying on your competitors. Here are four simple yet effective tools to help you extract already today some important information about your competitors.

  1. Website

Look around the website. What social media sites the website is using? How many shares there are? Based on the number of shares you can easily find out if the company is of interest to visitors, what kind of content is popular. Also you can identify what social sites visitors prefer to use for spreading the news.

Observe how often your competitor is posting articles, check if they offer some incentives, promotions and where are they sending visitors to engage with: Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin or Pinterest.

If you notice that they have an email sign-up form, join the list and receive their newsletter. Find out in what way they are using email to attract the target audience.

  1. Facebook

Most if not all of the competition is already on Facebook. Select your competitor and open up their Facebook fan page. Observe not only the numbers, but also what kind of value they continuously offer to their fans and why their fans come back over and over again to their page. Quantity is good as long as the quality follows up. You are looking for the following information:

  • What kind of updates they are posting: questions, funny images, or how-to tips?
  • How often they update their posts / day/time?
  • How many likes/shares/comments/post?

Another way to learn more what others are saying about your competitor is Facebook highlights. Right below custom tabs, you will notice a word highlights button. Click the button and select post by others. Now you can view what others are posting about company, what are their concerns, what are they commenting on, asking or complaining.

Similarly, you can observe other social networks such as Twitter, Pinterest or Linkedin.

  1. Google Alerts

Google Alerts is a simple yet nifty and easy to use tool, great for spying on your competitors. All you need to do is set up keyword searches or phrases for your competitors and choose the way you would like to receive updates, by email or RSS feed. Based on your main keyword selection in your niche or a keyword phrase you can receive alerts as often as you choose to receive and as many as many as you prefer. Every time when your competitor post a new article you will receive alert.

  1. Social Mention

Social mention is a social media search tool that allows you to easily track what people are saying about you or anyone else online, including your competitors. By writing a keyword which can be just anything from a company name to a new product name, social mention pulls out the information from across the web. In few seconds it will present you how is your keyword used in numerous places online especially social media. With social mention you can receive free daily email alerts.

All the information you gather can help you improve your social media strategy, give you a glimpse of what is coming next in terms of trends, it can help you decide what not to do and it can also give you a small edge over your competition.

Article by Daliborka Krstic