What is the best way to market your online business with little to no budget? How do you best spend your advertising dollars if your main aim is to get quality traffic for your client/company?
If you own a website and have little or no advertising budget, or if you are a marketing expert looking to get better results for your clients, how do you go about it?
The answer I have might surprise you, but you will be amazed at how effective it can be. Various experts emphasize the importance of social media every year, but a lot of them discredit SEO in the process. Some “experts” are even starting to go as far as saying that SEO is dying, but you need to realize that what they are saying isn’t entirely the truth.
According to data by Hitwise, an authority when it comes to online analytics, search engine traffic keeps on increasing every day, and some fields are even getting as far as a 20% increase in searches in a year, amidst the buzz about social media these days. SEO traffic has also been proven to be more effective than other sources of traffic over the years, and around 80% of visitors that land on your blog through a long tail search keyword are first time visitors.
The above paragraphs are focused on proving one point; SEO Traffic is just as effective as it has always been, and the value that can be gotten from it keeps increasing every day.
The question now is how do you effectively optimize your blog for the search engines? Well, you need links; not just any link, but quality links. I’ll be sharing with you a few tips to help you build quality backlinks below.
1. Submit Short Reports to Document Sharing Sites
You can build quality backlinks to your website by taking an approach focused on submitting short, expert reports to document sharing sites online like Scribd. Writing a quality 3 – 4 pages report only takes around 2-3 hours, and you can use that opportunity to position yourself as an expert in your field. Put your best into the report, format it properly, include quality links back to pages on your website within the report and then submit it to the top document sharing websites online.
For a list of top document sharing sites to submit to, make sure you read this article listing 29 resources.
2. Distribute Your Content as Packaged eBooks Across the Web
Have you written any article on your blog, or for article sites online before? This opportunity might be very effective for you. Look for the best articles you’ve written on your blog, rewrite some of the sections to include deep links to other articles and pages on your blog and then turn those articles into PDF files for distribution across the web.
There are several ways to turn your content into PDF and most Microsoft Office software come with limited PDF converting software these days. If you want something better, you can check out the PDF converter provided by Dopdf.com
Once you have your content packaged as a handy PDF file, the next step is to start distributing it across the web. Share it on forums across the web, share it on ebook distribution sites, get other bloggers to share it with their audience, and do as much as you can to get it on as many websites as possible. That way, Google and other search engines will index your ebook, notice your links and then credit your website for it.
3. Interlink Your Blog Posts by Guest Blogging on Authority Blogs
A lot of us are familiar with guest blogging, and most of us even use it already, but very few of us know how beneficial it can be to our SEO. If you’re hearing about SEO for the first time, make sure you read this article, and this one, to learn more about it.
This process involves looking for the top blogs in your field, contributing quality unique guest posts to them, and interlinking articles on your blog in your bio. Most people only link to their homepage in their guest posts, but linking to internal pages can also be effective.
4. Use Images to Build Backlinks like a Smart Marketer
You might not have heard about this before, but images can also help you gain quality backlinks, from quality sources. Images can be found everywhere around us, and you can easily take pictures of nature around you and use them anyhow you want without being held legally liable. If you have good talent for photography, this will be a good approach for you. All you need to do is take several quality images every day, upload those images to image sharing sites and give people license to use it anyhow they want as long as they credit you by linking back to your website. You can upload your images to Flickr, stock photo sites, and any other creative common sites. If you upload a lot of images every day, you will be able to get some quality backlinks over the months that will end up having impact on your SEO. The best part of this, though, is that those links will keep on increasing even after you’ve stopped uploading images to the internet actively.
5. Smart Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is mostly known as a way to make a lot of money, and probably also as a way to build a giant email list, but one other thing it can be used for is building backlinks, especially to a sales page.
This approach will also be useful for people with a product for sale. Look for ways to get a lot of people to promote your product as an affiliate, and create HTML texts for them to use to link to their affiliate links. The HTML texts can include keywords you plan to rank for, so that when people promote your product as an affiliate and use your default HTML code, not only will it result in income for you, but you will also get quality backlinks that might eventually impact your rankings.
6. Interview Experts to Contribute on a Controversial Subject
A smart tactic you might also want to consider is getting experts in your field to contribute on controversial topics. Your aim will be to make sure the topics are so controversial that they will want to make sure their readers learn more about it, and as a result link back to you in the process.
What you need to do is get a few experts (anything from two to ten experts) to contribute an answer to a controversial question on your blog. You should then publish the answers from the 10 different experts into the same post and send them a link to let them know it has been published. Also make sure you remind them to share it with their audience.
This approach can be overused, and as a result ineffective. What you want is something so controversial and thought-provoking that any expert will want to share, so make sure you invest a lot more time into your questions and how the entire post is phrased. Here’s an example from Think Traffic that you should read to get a better idea.
7. Link Out to Other Blogs on a Regular Basis
This particular approach has double benefits.
A lot of bloggers are so deep into the thought of building backlinks that they have forgotten that linking to other websites can also be as effective. Search engines are very smart, and they know that another trait of an authority website is that it keeps on linking to other websites online. Your links could be to blogs, it could be to research data or surveys and it could be to videos that educate on a subject. Linking out to content from other bloggers will increase your perceived authority in the eyes of the search engines and that of your readers, and you will also end up getting quality links from other blogs in the process.
There are several approaches to building quality links. It could be by linking to other articles that explain some of your points in an article you’ve written, or it could be an article that serves as an ultimate guide on a subject and links to several expert articles written on the subject. A blog that does this well is Copyblogger; an example is this post of theirs on Facebook marketing.
If you own a website and have little or no advertising budget, or if you are a marketing expert looking to get better results for your clients, how do you go about it?
The answer I have might surprise you, but you will be amazed at how effective it can be. Various experts emphasize the importance of social media every year, but a lot of them discredit SEO in the process. Some “experts” are even starting to go as far as saying that SEO is dying, but you need to realize that what they are saying isn’t entirely the truth.
According to data by Hitwise, an authority when it comes to online analytics, search engine traffic keeps on increasing every day, and some fields are even getting as far as a 20% increase in searches in a year, amidst the buzz about social media these days. SEO traffic has also been proven to be more effective than other sources of traffic over the years, and around 80% of visitors that land on your blog through a long tail search keyword are first time visitors.
The above paragraphs are focused on proving one point; SEO Traffic is just as effective as it has always been, and the value that can be gotten from it keeps increasing every day.
The question now is how do you effectively optimize your blog for the search engines? Well, you need links; not just any link, but quality links. I’ll be sharing with you a few tips to help you build quality backlinks below.
1. Submit Short Reports to Document Sharing Sites
You can build quality backlinks to your website by taking an approach focused on submitting short, expert reports to document sharing sites online like Scribd. Writing a quality 3 – 4 pages report only takes around 2-3 hours, and you can use that opportunity to position yourself as an expert in your field. Put your best into the report, format it properly, include quality links back to pages on your website within the report and then submit it to the top document sharing websites online.
For a list of top document sharing sites to submit to, make sure you read this article listing 29 resources.
2. Distribute Your Content as Packaged eBooks Across the Web
Have you written any article on your blog, or for article sites online before? This opportunity might be very effective for you. Look for the best articles you’ve written on your blog, rewrite some of the sections to include deep links to other articles and pages on your blog and then turn those articles into PDF files for distribution across the web.
There are several ways to turn your content into PDF and most Microsoft Office software come with limited PDF converting software these days. If you want something better, you can check out the PDF converter provided by Dopdf.com
Once you have your content packaged as a handy PDF file, the next step is to start distributing it across the web. Share it on forums across the web, share it on ebook distribution sites, get other bloggers to share it with their audience, and do as much as you can to get it on as many websites as possible. That way, Google and other search engines will index your ebook, notice your links and then credit your website for it.
3. Interlink Your Blog Posts by Guest Blogging on Authority Blogs
A lot of us are familiar with guest blogging, and most of us even use it already, but very few of us know how beneficial it can be to our SEO. If you’re hearing about SEO for the first time, make sure you read this article, and this one, to learn more about it.
This process involves looking for the top blogs in your field, contributing quality unique guest posts to them, and interlinking articles on your blog in your bio. Most people only link to their homepage in their guest posts, but linking to internal pages can also be effective.
4. Use Images to Build Backlinks like a Smart Marketer
You might not have heard about this before, but images can also help you gain quality backlinks, from quality sources. Images can be found everywhere around us, and you can easily take pictures of nature around you and use them anyhow you want without being held legally liable. If you have good talent for photography, this will be a good approach for you. All you need to do is take several quality images every day, upload those images to image sharing sites and give people license to use it anyhow they want as long as they credit you by linking back to your website. You can upload your images to Flickr, stock photo sites, and any other creative common sites. If you upload a lot of images every day, you will be able to get some quality backlinks over the months that will end up having impact on your SEO. The best part of this, though, is that those links will keep on increasing even after you’ve stopped uploading images to the internet actively.
5. Smart Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is mostly known as a way to make a lot of money, and probably also as a way to build a giant email list, but one other thing it can be used for is building backlinks, especially to a sales page.
This approach will also be useful for people with a product for sale. Look for ways to get a lot of people to promote your product as an affiliate, and create HTML texts for them to use to link to their affiliate links. The HTML texts can include keywords you plan to rank for, so that when people promote your product as an affiliate and use your default HTML code, not only will it result in income for you, but you will also get quality backlinks that might eventually impact your rankings.
6. Interview Experts to Contribute on a Controversial Subject
A smart tactic you might also want to consider is getting experts in your field to contribute on controversial topics. Your aim will be to make sure the topics are so controversial that they will want to make sure their readers learn more about it, and as a result link back to you in the process.
What you need to do is get a few experts (anything from two to ten experts) to contribute an answer to a controversial question on your blog. You should then publish the answers from the 10 different experts into the same post and send them a link to let them know it has been published. Also make sure you remind them to share it with their audience.
This approach can be overused, and as a result ineffective. What you want is something so controversial and thought-provoking that any expert will want to share, so make sure you invest a lot more time into your questions and how the entire post is phrased. Here’s an example from Think Traffic that you should read to get a better idea.
7. Link Out to Other Blogs on a Regular Basis
This particular approach has double benefits.
A lot of bloggers are so deep into the thought of building backlinks that they have forgotten that linking to other websites can also be as effective. Search engines are very smart, and they know that another trait of an authority website is that it keeps on linking to other websites online. Your links could be to blogs, it could be to research data or surveys and it could be to videos that educate on a subject. Linking out to content from other bloggers will increase your perceived authority in the eyes of the search engines and that of your readers, and you will also end up getting quality links from other blogs in the process.
There are several approaches to building quality links. It could be by linking to other articles that explain some of your points in an article you’ve written, or it could be an article that serves as an ultimate guide on a subject and links to several expert articles written on the subject. A blog that does this well is Copyblogger; an example is this post of theirs on Facebook marketing.
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