AboutUs Weblog |
| Link Building in 2011: What To Expect Posted: 11 Jan 2011 11:00 AM PST  If you’re relying on your website to help you gain new customers, you probably know that getting other, reputable sites to link to you is important. It’s a great way for more people to find you, and it also signals to search engines that your website is valued by other people around the Web. That helps your site rise higher in results for searches on your important keywords. The folks at Search Engine Land have some wisdom to offer on link building in 2011. Here’s a sum-up of tips that are particularly helpful to small business owners.
At AboutUs, we’ve seen how useful the social networking sites can be for small business. Following people whose interests and businesses are aligned with yours can encourage them to pay attention to you and your site, and link to you. Added bonus: Following people who offer good information on the social sites can help you learn things you wouldn’t have known otherwise, and help you learn how to use the social sites better, yourself. Julie Joyce points out that, while big companies usually have more clout online – people naturally tend to link to sites they know – smaller companies can rank well, too. Smaller businesses can cultivate a deeper relationship with their customers, and that can give them an advantage online. Ask your loyal customers to post reviews of your company on your Google Places page and at other review sites. These reviews can help push your business up in search results, plus people using these sites will choose the best-liked ones when they’re searching for a particular kind of local business. You can also ask people to “like” your company’s Facebook page, and to follow you on Twitter. Even better if they comment about you on your Facebook page and link to your site in their tweets. These postings and tweets tell search engines that a site is important to real people – and the search engines, believe it or not, are trying to serve real people. * Debra Mastaler reminds us to capture the email addresses of our loyal customers and followers whenever possible. Whenever you send out an email newsletter or othr communication, you can ask people to like you on Facebook, follow you on Twitter, and subscribe to your blog and any other RSS feeds you may have. Getting more of your customers and advocates to show their interest and loyalty in the electronic world will make you look more reputable and valuable to search engines. Don’t forget that sending out regular newsletters is a great way of reminding people that you exist. You can offer discounts, launch a contest, and share company and industry news. Just don’t abuse the privilege of owning people’s email addresses – you don’t want to be labeled as a spammer. * Debra also suggests looking at all the groups on Facebook that are related to your industry or physical location. Find the interesting bloggers in these groups, and see if you can interest them either in linking to you or allowing you to post content on their sites. That’s a great way to get new links from worthwhile sites. * Google isn’t the entire search universe – just a great big chunk of it. When you’re looking for isites you’d like to ask to link to you – or that you might want to link to yourself – remember to check out Bing and Blekko. (FYI, Yahoo’s search engine is powered by Bing.)        |
| Alt Text Helps People and Search Engines Posted: 11 Jan 2011 10:33 AM PST  Search engines are blind when it comes to images, and so are some people. At least 10 percent of Web surfers use assistive technology to help them browse websites. Make sure your images can be seen by everyone. It’s easy when you have the right tools. AboutUs Community Manager, Kristina Weis tells us how in her new article Alt Text Helps People and Search Engines. Learn the ins and outs of making your web images search friendly for readers and engines alike!    |
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